Goodbye Defense, Hello Melo - 2019 Houston Rockets Window Closes

Following the success of the 2017-18 NBA regular season, and disappointment of once again losing to Golden State in the postseason, the Houston Rockets underwent several changes heading into next season. Carmelo Anthony’s time as a Houston Rocket was short-lived. He was waived after just 10 games. The Rockets were struggling to regain the form that had helped them become the league’s most dominant team the year prior, the drop-off on the defensive end of the floor was clear and wasn’t being helped by a lack of lineup consistency that stemmed from injuries. James Harden decided to put the team on his back. On December 13th he put up 50 points along with a triple-double, helping Houston defeat LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. He would score at least 30 points in each of the Rockets next 32 games. He averaged 36.4 points per game in December. To begin 2019, he put on a forceful display against Golden State, sending a message to the defending Champions, refusing to let his team lose. He averaged 43.6 points per game during the month of January. James Harden’s dominant performances during the regular season helped earn Houston the 4th seed in the West where they met the 5th seeded Utah Jazz in the opening round. After comfortably outing them in 5 games they once again came up against the team that had eliminated them from the postseason 3 of the last 4 years, the Golden State Warriors. Despite Golden State’s injury problems and locker-room dysfunction, the Rockets were still not able to overcome them, losing the series in six games. In 2019, the Western Conference of the NBA that had been dominated by the Golden State Warriors for the previous 5 years was suddenly anybody’s for the taking following Kevin Durant’s decision to sign with the Brooklyn Nets and a hand injury that sidelined Steph Curry for the entirety of the upcoming season.