Can the Rockets fire their way to the Title?

The 2014/15 Season really showed the credentials of the Houston Rockets as genuine title contenders. In an extremely competitive South West Division, they came out as division winners with a 56-26 regular season record.  They brushed aside the Dallas Mavericks in the first round, and made an incredible comeback in the second round of the playoffs against the LA Clippers, who were just a quarter away from making the Western Conference Finals. They met their match against the eventual Champions, The Golden State Warriors who just swatted the Rockets aside with a 4-1 series win.

The Rockets were led by star guard, James Harden. The  former sixth man of the year with Thunder, has been the main man for Houston since he joined in 2012/13. He really took the lead for an injury plagued Rockets side (they had the most injuries in the season and most cumulative days with injured players), single handedly leading them to victory, especially when Dwight Howard was out injured. He would post career bests in Points, Assists, Blocks, Rebounds, Steals per game. However, alone he could not carry them past the Warriors, as the NBA’s best team made little work out of the Rockets.

For the 2015/16 season, the Rockets have allowed Josh Smith to leave for the Clippers given his erratic performances last season. He was not really able to provide the offensive punch from the bench. They added two talented forwards in Sam Dekker and Montrezl Harrell. So far in the preseason games, they have provided some good play off the bench given their tender age, and the match when either of them have been inserted in the starting line up, they have shown they can handle the pressure.

The other addition is the signing of Marcus Thorton from the Phoenix, a player that’s really been with several teams but has overall been a good player off the bench. The other major addition is the trade with Denver Nuggets, to acquire Ty Lawson, with a 2016 Draft Pick, Cash , Nick Johnson, Joey Dorsey, Kostas Papanikolaou and Pablo Prigioni  are going to Lawson’s former team, Denever Nuggets. The Point Guard, had one fine season last year and might provide some much needed creative spark to a Houston side that primarily has been reliant on Harden for making plays, as they already possess a strong offense.

Overall the Rockets have had a fairly successful preseason with a 3-4 record with a game left against the Spurs, before they begin their Regular season. However, the biggest challenge, compared to last season is to maintain the fitness of their stars, for a team that had the most injuries in terms of man-days last season.

Also maybe Kevin McHale could really try to control Howard’s temper as he loves to get into fights that would result in technical and flagrant fouls and might end up suspended for some games for the Rockets, the way he progresses. Additionally, as long as the team steps up, Harden can concentrate on his play, improving his accuracy in games as there were a few games, where the pressure of being the sole leader meant his personal performances, specially his shooting accuracy dropped in the match.

Overall, the Rockets’ additions have been made to lessen the burden on James Harden, adding more depth and bench productivity to the team. This would no doubt mean the team has the capability of making it deep into the playoffs and who knows, the first finals appearance in two decades.