Whom bears more responsibility for the Rockets poor play to start the season?

What I'm worried about is that it was Harden (not the team) who overachieved. He is now falling back down on earth. I hope this is not the case.

Those guys played very little. They played a combined 1709 minutes over the whole season, which is an average of 5.2 minutes per game per player. And with the exception of Cisco, none of them were respected veterans. Yes, they hustle. But they weren't the guys who would change the culture of the team.

Fair enough. I can buy this. losing DMo and Smith might have significant impact. Ariza is Ariza. He is a streaking shooter. Sometimes he's hot, sometimes he's not.

This just doesn't make sense. Coaching is not like playing. You don't have hot streaks or slumps. You don't just lose focus like that unless there's something going on off court. In fact, McHale has proven to be able to hold up even with a personal tragedy like the death of his daughter.

 

There is blame for everyone.

BUT, I mostly blame McHale AND his assistants for FAILING to deploy a real offense to take advantage of a Lawson/Harden backcourt. This failure has lead to all of the problems. And when the Rockets fail offensively, they get down on themselves/pout/low energy and that affects their defense. Everything is connected.

Harden playing great, 1 on 1, and helping the team win (LAC, OKC) just MASKS the real issue. Rockets are winning in spite of themselves by Harden's greatness.

Rockets can't take it to the next level without a REAL offensive system. The kind of jump the Warriors made from going from Mark Jackson to Steve Kerr and with the addition's of Kerr's assistants Gentry and Adams. DO NOT overlook how important Kerr's assistants are!

This season James Harden looks a step slower and less explosive for some reason. And teams have figured out how to defend him. Probably watching GSW WCF tapes.

Lawson is wasted as a "spot up shooter" playing the Bev role in a Harden 1 on 5 offense. This is the problem.