RELATED: Rockets on the wrong side of history are only three games
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Houston Rockets had their season fall off a cliff after firing coach Kevin McHale. The team is currently 38-41 despite the high expectations placed on them after a run to the Western Conference Finals last season and the high level of talent on the team. They also make the second-least amount of two-pointers and despite attempting the second-most amount of threes, the Rockets only make 34.4 percent of them —- that's good for 22n in the league.
According to ESPN's Marc Stein and Calvin Watkins, essentially everybody involved in this debacle and disgrace of a season — most notably general manager Daryl Morey and interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff — will be under review at the end of it. From ESPN:
The Houston Rockets are planning a comprehensive evaluation of all facets of the organization at the end of this highly disappointing season that will put general manager Daryl Morey and interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff under the microscope, according to league sources.
Sources told ESPN that the Rockets believe every aspect of the organization — coaching staff, front office and, of course, their roster — must be subject to a thorough review in the wake of Houston's slide to a 38-41 outfit that's at serious risk to miss the playoffs after damaging losses this week to Dallas and Phoenix.
...
Significant roster changes are likewise expected, with free agent-to-be Dwight Howard widely anticipated to move elsewhere and little certain beyond the Rockets' presumed intention to reload around star guard James Harden.
Sources say Morey, whose contract runs through the 2017-18 season, ?also faces some uncertainty in the wake of the Rockets' struggles. Morey's ever-bold approach to roster assembly won deserved kudos for bringing Harden (October 2012) and Howard (July 2013) to Houston in quick succession, but team chemistry has been a rising concern this season given the well-chronicled deterioration of the Harden-Howard relationship and the failed offseason gamble on guard Ty Lawson.
When Bickerstaff took over it wasn't just because of the 4-7 record the Rockets were sitting at, but because the players weren't responding to McHale anymore. There are clearly issues here if the players can't respond to a coach that got them to over 50 wins and a WCF appearance the year before.
