18. Houston Rockets (4-5)
Last week: 13
The good news is that James Harden has made his return to the Houston Rockets lineup, and the team has won two games in a row. The bad news is that this team still looks nothing like they looked last season, when they were one win away from the NBA Finals.
But it’s still early in the season and there’s certainly a lot that can change between now and the playoffs. Still, something feels off with this group. And maybe is has more to do than just the losses on defense that they suffered.
The team is still in pursuit of Jimmy Butler and maybe they believe that acquiring him would cure all. I have no idea if it will or won’t, but at this point they need to do whatever they feel would give them a good shot at making it back to the Conference Finals.