Houston, do we have a problem on offense?

Nekias Duncan and Steve Jones Jr. discuss the issues with the Houston Rockets and if they can turn around their offense before the playoffs. Check out the full conversation on “The Dunker Spot” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

But since January 1st, Steve, the Houston Rockets, 13 and 10, which is fine, but very much off the pace that they were earlier in the year.

23rd in offensive rating, per Cleaning the Glass, since January 1st.

They are 29th in half-court offense.

They have a 90.4 offensive rating in the half court, since the calendar turned this year, Steve.

And we are not super far removed from doing a Houston Rockets breakdown with their offense and talking about some of the tempo things, how they’re dealing with physicality, the overall shooting talent.

Like, how does Reed Shepherd factor into this?

Like, does he clo- is he closing lineups?

Are they finding enough answers defensively so he can add the juice offensively and things?

Houston is very good.

I think there is real, like, Western Conference finals potential here if they especially if they end up in, like, the two-seven or the three-six side of the bracket.

But they have to solve their offense to a degree.

They have to be a better team in the half court.

You need better tempo.

You need better pace.

You need a little bit more variety in your half-court offense.

You need a better version of Operation Goon.

In tight moments, you need a better answer Raum- for Alen Thompson if teams are gonna put more bigs on him.

So, like, I’m just wondering, like, what are the Houston Rockets going to look like?

And not gonna hang here because we are still gathering information, but in light of, like, all of the, the Caney Twitter stuff, like, there’s also just an element of, like, hey, what is the general vibe of Houston right now heading into the break?

So I’m gonna be keeping an eye on that, too.

But more importantly, it’s more, can they get this offense in order?

‘Cause, like, 29th in half-court offense for 23 games, that’s just not going to get it done.

Like, that is just screaming first-round exit if this is what the offense is going to be.

So I My eye is on Minnesota and Houston, but I am really curious about what Houston’s gonna look like.

Is that fair?

Did you just rehash, did you just rehash the Houston breakdown that we did?

Hey, look, a week ago, we already clicked that in.

We are we already talked about it.

Yeah.

They have to fix that either way.

They’re, they’re still the four seed in the Western Conference.

They’re a game behind Denver for third.

I think they just have to figure out how to execute consistently offensively.

If they do that, they could rise.

They could be the three seed.

You could be setting yourself up for a Houston, Minnesota first-round series, where you’re just gonna be mad at whoever loses.

So I would be careful with that.

I mean, I think the thing for me is these teams It’s the Western Conference, right?

These teams have massive, massive positives.

They have flaws that can be exploited and will be exploited about these team- with- against these teams that they are facing.

Houston, do we have a problem on offense?

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