Houston, say hello to James Harden’s team. This season, with Dwight Howard gone to Atlanta and Mike D’Antoni appointed as coach, the Houston Rockets will opt for a run and gun style.
The team hopes that this type of game will better fit Harden. The new scheme they hope will allow him to better utilize his talents to lead the Rockets back to the postseason and improve on last year performance, when they lost 4-1 in the first round to the eventual conference champion Golden State Warriors.
D’Antoni hopes to have a better tenure with the Rockets than he did with the Lakers, where he had a record of 67 wins and 87 defeats over the course of almost two full seasons (2012-13 and 2013-14).
Due to D’Antoni’s offensive philosophy, Houston decided to target players with great shooting range such as former Pelicans Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon.
With Harden becoming the Rockets full-time point guard, it will now be up to him to find Trevor Ariza, Gordon and Anderson to take advantage of their great perimeter shooting. In short, as Harden goes, so will the team. Now that Howard is gone and no other star to share the spotlight with, is time for “The Beard” to prove that he can be Houston’s featured player.
Even though Howard did not leave up to the expectations during his years with the Rockets, they will undoubtedly miss his rebounding. His big frame provided a great presence in the paint that allowed them to defend the interior game and get rebounds to limit second-chance shots.
The Rockets hope their quick and explosive attack will help them overcome their defensive shortcomings and win enough games to make the postseason. They hope to not only return to the playoffs, but to build a project that will allow them in the short term to compete with the best in the conference and eventually have another opportunity to fight for a place in the finals.
For the time being they will be probably be good enough to win around 45 games and earn the fifth or sixth seed in the west, however don’t expect them to make it past the conference semifinals.
