What's been the biggest reason for Rockets surprising start?

QFT
Great post.

 

NOT having JB as coach.

 

It's a multitude of things, but the upgrade from JB to MDA is astronomic.

 

Agreed and fixed

 

Team unity. The team is playing like a team, and when that happens you can play way above any one players individual talents. The grizz have done it for years, the rockets did it with Battier/Tmac and Yao.

 

It's always everything when you make a good list like this, but I think Bev is the biggest on roster improvement. I'm loving the way he plays as much as I like his Frosh/Soph years with the team. He looks like he never got injured.

 

yup..him playing with the 2nd unit increases his value tremendously..EG is off the chain. He's playing like that 2nd star

 

You consider hitting 4.8 3PTs per game over the last 9 games to be "off the chain"? Oh good, me too.

 

Having Harden become officially the playmaker was also another big move for this team, since Harden has changed his mentality now to playing a more all-around game. His defense has improved noticeable, albeit still with some lapsse but not a liability like it was before.

In fact, one thing Harden has excelled at this season is finding the hot man, which I think is a very overlooked aspect of the D'Antoni offense. Whenever somebody makes a shot, especially a 3 point shot, Harden would look to get him the ball next possession. Beverley and Ariza were clear cases in point this game against Dallas. They both started off quiet, but when they hit a 3, Harden immediately looked for them again the next possession, which led to them going on a small 3 point shooting streak.

 

My pet hate with dwert was he chased blocks overzealously and would miss most of them, leading to off. rebs and 2nd chance pts.

If I had a grievance with this current team it'd be ryno... We all knew he wouldn't be much of a defender and rebounder, but he's not scoring enough / making as many threes as I'd have thought, especially considering his preseason / early season form.

 

I couldn't vote on this since I don't consider the Rockets start surprising. I said from the start of the season that this team was a 55+ win team that would challenge for the 2nd seed going into the play-offs and the Southwest Division Crown. As long as Harden, Ryan and Gordon stay healthy I have no reason to doubt that.