The Houston Rockets might be changing up their isolation offense

The Houston Rockets might look a bit different next season as they look to improve upon two straight defeats to the Golden State Warriors. Will the changed offense help the team?

The Houston Rockets are looking to make some big changes this year following a disappointing loss in the playoffs to the Warriors last month. While some of the potential changes/anger from players seems to be a bit overblown, there is some level of turmoil with the team at the moment.

One of the potential moves to fix this is changing from an isolation-heavy offense into a more ball-movement based one. The isolation offense certainly worked with Chris Paul and James Harden running these last couple of years, but with CP3 aging, there likely needs to be changes as he can no longer beat his man on that end of the court.

Kelly Iko had a great report about this whole situation on The Athletic, so be sure to check it out here. Here’s the quote from the story that talked about the offensive changes:

“The report cited Paul’s frustration with the offense and a push for more ball movement and off-ball actions…Per team sources, those complaints have been heard and management has discussed a system that involves less isolation basketball and more ball movement heading into next season. Speeding the game up and looking for easier baskets was also brought up in conversations, per a team source.”

Once again, be sure to check out the full article, as there are a ton of things to talk about in it and it was a great piece by Iko.

Controversy

The biggest Rockets headlines recently have been about the disagreements between the two stars, James Harden and Chris Paul. While big media outlets are practically making this out to be the end of the team, I think a change in the offense could be what the Rockets need to make the players happy.

James Harden had the best playmaking season of his career as a part of a faster-paced D’Antoni offense in 2016-17. He led the league in assists that year and arguably got robbed of yet another MVP award. A true second ball-handler was missing in that season, causing the team to implode a bit against the Spurs in the playoffs.

With CP3 in tow now, though, that issue might get solved. He’s getting older, yes, but he is still an effective playmaker and should be for the rest of his career. He might not light up the scoreboard, but he will still be extremely valuable to the team in a ball-movement based offense.

It should be an interesting offseason for the Rockets as they look to take advantage of a league not run by the Warriors next year. What other moves do we have in store?