Houston Rockets
After deciding to make big moves during the offseason by signing veteran stars Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks, there were many expecting this season to be an absolute failure. However, the opposite has happened for the Rockets. They've been improved and are on a playoff pace. At 8-6, good enough for 8th in the Western Conference standings, Houston has hope that they can make some sort of postseason splash this year.
However, I'd say to hold off a bit on that. I'm extremely concerned about their below-average offense. Even though they are tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the No. 1 defense in the league, I'm not sure how sustainable that's going to be over the course of the season. And if that drops a bit, and if their offense doesn't begin to click, we're going to see the Rockets freefall down the standings.
The Rockets have emerged as a good story in the Western Conference this season but if there's one area where I did believe they would improve heading into this season, it was on the offensive end of the floor. So far that hasn't been enough of the case. I'm afraid that could end up being their kryptonite moving forward.