Daily Rocket Science: Diagnosis and Prescription

Mar 14, 2016; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets guard James Harden (13) dribbles the ball during the second quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 14, 2016; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets guard James Harden (13) dribbles the ball during the second quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

There were many problems with the Houston Rockets this past season, and the accuracy of the diagnosis is of upmost importance to assure the correct prescription is filled.

This management for the Houston Rockets have a wide-open offseason in front of them, and the decisions made this summer could cure or harm the team. To properly understand what moves to make and what players to pursue, the decision makers must first understand the extent and specifics of the problems they’re trying to solve.

Houston Rockets news and notes from around the web

Rahat Huq of Red94 has been trying for a couple of weeks to accurately diagnose what went wrong this year in Houston, and has provided some clarity amongst the confusion. In part 7 of his current series, he wonders what caused the Rockets’ offense to improve despite not having a specific “scheme.”

"From my point of understanding, for our purposes here, my hypothesis was false: while the Rockets did smoke some of the league’s worst teams, as everyone does, they didn’t inflate their numbers just by beating up on bad teams.  Their performance was pretty scattered across the spectrum."

Joshua Cornelissen of HoopsHabit.com tried his hand at diagnostics, spreading the blame for the Rockets’ disappointing season out, including everyone from management to players to West coast rappers. I can’t say I agree with this assessment, but I can’t say Cornelissen didn’t do his homework.

"Pictures of Harden napping on a couch next to Kanye West or hitting up the beach scene with his new girl circulated the Internet. No pictures of Harden “hitting the weight room with  ” or “at Starbucks reading ‘Defense for Beginners’” surfaced. Players trying to date the Hollywood scene are going to be distracted. Harden went for the pinnacle of distracting offseasons, and it showed. K.J. McDaniels"

More from Space City Scoop

Houston’s management has surely been performing their own diagnostic tests, trying to figure out how exactly to get this team back on the right track. According, Ethan Rothstein of The Dream Shake, this offseason will be the Rockets’ most important summer in over a decade.

The Rockets were not good last year. Just because they managed to make the playoffs doesn’t discount the reality that they were 41-41 and were one of the most dysfunctional, unpleasant teams on the court in the league. Most NBA watchers would have chosen Timberwolves games, a far worse team but in a different head space, over watching Harden and Howard.

This is not a matter of “how good will the Rockets be next season?” question. This is now a much more fearsome proposition: “Will the Rockets be good next season?”

Let’s hope that, after all the trades, signings, and hirings have taken place, that the Houston Rockets will have filled the right prescription and can get back to playing good, healthy basketball next season.

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

Next: End of Year Player Reviews: Clint Capela

Space City Scoop is always looking to add new talent to our writing team. Currently we’re looking for individuals with a specialized focus. The first area of focus is perfect for someone who is constantly surfing the web for breaking news on injuries, trades, insider info, etc. This individual would select the top news items and provide timely quick hits to keep SCS readers in the loop.

The other area of focus is someone who possesses a strong social media background who likes to interact with Clutch City Fans. This person would promote SCS team content on Facebook and Twitter while also making sure to promote the best content coming from H-Town fans. If you have this capability and are interested then check out this link and fill out an application.