Kevin Durant's Rockets tenure has begun in the worst possible way

As the Houston Rockets have started the season 0-2, dropping disappointing games to both the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Detroit Pistons, the team's flaws in the absence of starting point guard Fred VanVleet have been on full display.

The team has largely seemed incapable of finding a genuine offensive flow, and, as a result, Kevin Durant's impact through the first two games have been limited: the worst-case scenario for a team depending upon its new star scorer to elevate them into championship contention.

Obviously, if the team hopes to be a serious contender in this stacked Western Conference, they must clean up their play. Moreover, if they wish to maximize Durant, the team must shake the old habits that have haunted them over the past couple of seasons.

Two losses is no reason to panic, but it is a reason to seriously reflect

In the 124-125 double-OT loss to the Thunder, the Rockets had nothing, at least on the surface, to be ashamed about. They took the reigning champions down to the wire in their own stadium, and Durant put up 23 points to complement Alperen Sengun's monstrous 39-point performance.

Yet, throughout the course of the night, the team looked scattered on offense, commiting bad turnovers and struggling to contain Oklahoma City on defense.

Against the Pistons, moreover, these same struggles continued. While they limited their turnover numbers compared to the first game, physical play and poor spacing prevented them from getting any sort of offensive flow going, and, although Durant shot highly efficiently from the field, his 37-point performance was not enough to overcome the team's other issues on offense.

When Durant came to Houston, the hope was that their limitations in the halfcourt last season would virtually disappear with his presence. However, so far, it appears as though these limitations have now intensified with VanVleet out, leaving Durant to get his shots up in the absence of any cohesion from the rest of the team.

If this is what the new-look Rockets are, this is, frankly, not a championship-contending team.

In fairness, it will take Durant, and the other players on the roster, time to get acclimated to the new state of affairs. That was always expected.

Yet, not many expected it to look quite as rough as it has through their first two games, and the team must shake off these issues quickly if they hope to earn a high playoff seed yet again.

They will get the chance to rebound when they play the Brooklyn Nets on Monday.