A Lack Of Height Led To Houston Rockets’ Defeat To The Knicks

In 2012, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey conducted an “Ask me Anything” on Reddit. When Morey was asked about the rise of small ball in the NBA, he noted that since there are more small players than big players, a team that wants to use its five most talented players will end up using more “small ball.”

But, height is arguably a gift in and of itself. And the Rockets this season have suffered from a critical height deficiency which has kept them down in the dregs of the Western Conference.

A casual fan may ask how a team that possesses Dwight Howard could suffer from a height deficiency. While Howard has been one of Houston’s few bright spots this season, he is just one man. Furthermore, he has only played in nine of Houston’s 14 games this season. The Rockets are determined not to have Howard play both games of a back-to-back set, but that policy has already kept Howard out of four games (he also missed Houston’s first game due to a suspension).

With Howard missing games, and with 7-footer Donatas Motiejunas out until December, Houston’s big man depth is abysmal. For big men, the Rockets have just Clint Capela, Terrence Jones, and rookie Montrezl Harrell. Even rookie Sam Dekker, who spotted some minutes as a power forward during the preseason, is out with a back injury for at least three months. Jones also missed five games with an eye injury.

This lack of size has absolutely killed the Rockets. In Houston’s embarrassing loss to the Brooklyn Nets, the Nets prevailed because they grabbed 20 offensive rebounds. In Saturday’s loss to the New York Knicks, Houston lost when Clint Capela fouled out with five minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Rockets were forced to run Jones and Harrell together, which let Kristaps Porzingis dominate the glass as New York closed out the game.

The Rockets cannot rebound, and they are also having difficulty getting into the paint thanks to the big man difficulties. Harrell and Capela have little offensive abilities beyond the catch and dunk, and Jones has always been inconsistent. When Lawson or Harden try to drive into the rim, they are stopped by defenses which chase them aggressively and gamble that they can leave those big men alone for a few seconds. While this sometimes leads to an alley-oop for Capela and Harrell, the gamble by and large has paid off for opposing teams.

Perhaps this problem will be mitigated by the return of Motiejunas and the fact that Houston may start playing Howard in back-to-backs. But, even with those two, Houston is still one of the smallest teams. Motiejunas will do a lot to jump start the Rockets, as his post offense can give Houston another option. However, Rockets fans cannot expect him to single-handedly turn this team around.

Furthermore, Houston’s rebounding issues go beyond their big men. Preventing the offensive rebound is a team effort, not just the responsibility of the big men. Harden, Ariza, and the rest of the perimeter players have not boxed out their own players, which lets them run to the rim and get the offensive put back. Langston Galloway, a 6’2” point guard for the Knicks, had two offensive rebounds by getting past Harden.

The Rockets have a long list of issues, but every single one of them comes down to effort. The lack of big men is one of their biggest structural weaknesses throughout this season, but it has been amplified by a Rockets team that has acted like it could just show up and compete for a championship.

The Astros rallied after that and they did make the World Series that year. But right now, it’s time for the Chronicle to start preparing to draw another gravestone for the Houston Rockets. And they will not need to take this one back.

Houston fans just need to look at the facts and understand just how terrible this team is right now. A 5-9 record is incredibly disappointing. Even the record does not do justice to illustrate how bad the Rockets are right now.

The Houston Rockets are not just losing close games. If they were, then perhaps improved execution and luck would be enough to turn things around. Instead, Houston has been absolutely blown out in most of their losses. There was the absolutely humiliating loss against Dallas, when Dallas led 50-25 in the second quarter. There was getting blown out by the Nuggets, the Heat, the Warriors, and so on and so on. Time and time again, the Rockets have lost by embarrassing margins.

And when you look at every single NBA team, the Houston Rockets have the fifth-worst point differential in the NBA. Even the Los Angeles Lakers have a better point differential.

Of course, one might ask why point differential matters. What difference does it make whether the Rockets lost by five or 25? A loss is a loss.

In fact, point differential can be more important than a win-loss record in determining the best teams in the league. While good teams can certainly win close games, winning a close game is often just a matter of luck. That last heave taken in the final seconds will either go in or not, but if a good team can force a worse team to take tougher shots over the course of a NBA game, the better team will almost certainly win.

Furthermore, point differential is not the only stat which shows how bad the Rockets are right now. Another critical stat is that Houston is a bottom six team on both the offensive and defensive end, as measured by offensive and defensive rating.

The defensive turnaround in particular is absolutely shocking. In the 2014-15 season, Dwight Howard played just 10 of Houston’s first 22 games, and ultimately missed 41 games over that season. But, despite Howard’s absence, the Rockets still finished with the eighth-best defense in the league.

How have the Rockets fallen from eighth to a bottom five team? It’s almost entirely due to a much weaker perimeter defense, and much of that blame has to go to Harden. Harden spent the entire summer of 2014 being mocked for his terrible playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers as well as his horrible defense. He tried harder on defense in response, and became a good enough defender on route to finishing second in the MVP ballot.

This past summer, Harden spent far too much time messing around and doing whatever he was doing with the Karadashians. He failed to continue further work on his game, which has brought back his old defensive habits and embarrassing moments like these.

The Rockets have more to fix than some little mistakes. There are fundamental, structural weaknesses of a team that has shown it is not that good this season. While Houston may still be able to turn this around, to fix these structural flaws in the middle of a season is a tall order. Rockets fans should not expect such a thing to happen.

[Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images Sport]