The Houston Rockets came into last season with huge expectations. They were coming off a year where they were the second seed in the West and just added superstar forward Kevin Durant to address their scoring issues.
Instead, the Rockets had a very weird regular season, as they looked like serious contenders at the beginning, then faltered towards the middle and end. They earned the five seed in the West, drawing the injury-ravaged Lakers in the first round, but a knee injury for Durant doomed their chances and they lost in six games.
Houston had obvious flaws throughout the year that were expected to be addressed this summer. One of them was guard depth and they went out and signed Marcus Smart and drafted Bruce Thornton. There is one weakness though that they have not addressed.
The Rockets still do not have enough shooting
Shooting has plagued Houston for the last couple seasons and they have not fully addressed the issue. Reed Sheppard and Durant are their only true perimeter threats and for a roster that has two high usage stars in Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun, two very poor jump shooters, that is just not enough spacing.
The Rockets’ offense just felt very clunky and disorganized last year and while Smart and the return of Fred VanVleet will give this team some much needed floor general skills, the spacing is still set to be subpar. They also signed Bogdan Bogdanovic, who has historically been a good shooter, but is coming off a down season and is 33-years old, so it would be unwise to expect big things right out the gate.
While Houston was a solid shooting team in the regular season, they completely faltered in the playoffs, where the margins are tighter, and spacing is not as easy to come by. LA was able to expose that by clogging the paint and all driving lanes, which led to the Rockets shooting 30 percent from three-point range.
Durant may have helped with that issue, but even then, he was their only perimeter threat, and in matchups with the Lakers, he struggled with the double and triple teams they threw at him. Having more perimeter outlets would have helped offset that issue and the Rockets still do not have enough in that area.
The top of the West is set to be tough once again and Houston has not done enough to address their weakness on the perimeter. There is still time in the offseason to make moves, so we’ll see what this roster looks like come training camp, but they need to do something fast.
