Houston Rockets Daily Rocket Science: Same old, same old

If you’re a serious Houston Rockets fan, you’re probably getting tired of hearing the same things from pretty much every concerned writer, amateur or professional: What on earth are the Rockets going to do to save this seemingly lost season?

It feels like I’m redundant in these Rocket Science articles, but the Rox aren’t giving me any other options. They absolutely refuse to be either good or bad. They have been about as average as could be this entire season. Just when things look like they’re going south for good, the team resurrects itself and plays great for a few games. Similarly, just when fans are tempted to get their hopes up, the team forgets how to play basketball and loses to subpar teams like the Denver Nuggets or the Portland Trail Blazers. It’s getting pretty old if you ask me.

Houston Rockets news and notes from around the web

Sometimes, it feels good to blow off some steam. With the season going how it is, it gets tough to report the same old mediocrity all the time. I’m thinking Brian K. Patterson of House of Houston must be really tired of it after reading his article, Houston Rockets: The Current State Of The Team. It reads like a rant and he makes some great points about the many issues with Houston’s play so far this season. Hopefully, appropriate trades will take place to fix the current state of the Rockets.

These guys have to understand that if you’re going to have success at this level, a commitment to defense is necessary.

Harden must lead these guys and convince them that it’s necessary, just like last season or else this team will rack up the individual accolades but not the most important one — an NBA championship.

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The Space City Scoop staff has been continuing a series on potential trades that Daryl Morey could make to bring his team back to relevancy. Most recently, staff writer Curt Low put in his two cents on what the Rockets should do: trade for Al Horford. It’s no secret that much is left to be desired from the many power forwards on Houston’s roster; an upgrade is long past due.  Though Horford has been playing the center position lately for the Atlanta Hawks, his 6’10” frame is better suited for the four. Take a look at Low’s convincing segment:  Countdown to trade deadline: Should Houston Rockets Trade for Al Horford?

"For the Rockets Horford improves the defense. Horford paired together with Howard helps out rebounding and controlling points in the paint. Horford is an elite rim protector who is averaging 1.4 blocks per game this year. Also Horford is an excellent finisher around the rim shooting 72.6% from zero to three feet from the basket. Horford allows the Rockets to go small at times for different match-ups."

To make the Rockets’ struggles worse, they take on the on-pace-to-be-the-greatest-team-ever Golden State Warriors tonight on the road. As if that weren’t enough, the recently fired Kevin McHale will reportedly be joining the TNT crew as a guest analyst. I have no idea what McHale’s thoughts and opinions are concerning the Houston Rockets, but I imagine he’s not too pleased with the way things were handled earlier this season. Max Croes of The Dream Shake covered the story and drew some NBA-to-NFL parallels that are interesting to say the least: Kevin McHale Joins Shaq & Barkley Tomorrow Night.

"An experienced NBA hand, McHale hasn’t provided any serious insight on his firing. The Celtic great has opted to lay low as the Rockets continue to struggle and the only signals from his camp   from McHale’s wife, Lynn, aimed at   and the Rockets organization. She has since deleted her Twitter account. were a cathartic series of Tweets James Harden"

How the rest of this rocky season will go is a mystery to be sure, but something has to change if Houston wants to be able to look back fondly on the 2015-2016 campaign. The next 10 days will be a wild ride, seeing how Morey has held his cards close to his chest. With the team continuing to tread lukewarm waters, we can only hope the GM does something to set this team up for success.

Send our Editor any Rockets-related article/video/tweet/gram/vine that we may have missed via Twitter direct message to @TTOTambz.

Next: Counting Down to the Trade Deadline

Next: Join the Space City Scoop Writing Team

With the trade deadline around the corner, make sure you visit Space City Scoop on a daily basis for our trade series. Each day, SCS will feature an article on who the Rockets should trade for or what it would take to part ways with the players currently on the roster. Finally, we’ll assess the Rockets and each team in the Association in terms of what their needs are, if they should be buyers or sellers, and also speculate on who would be the ideal trade target.