Ben DuBose

But it was at the same time very sobering that on nights when you knew the Rockets were dialed in, they simply weren't good enough.

That's at least how it felt to me.

And I think that's especially the case because deep down entering this season, at least after they lost Fred Van Vliet to the torn ACL in September, we've all had a very similar fear.

that underlying sense of dread, what's going to happen with the half-court offense when you really need to score against Dowden opponents.

And it dates back to last season because that's what held the Rockets back.

They were very good to even great defensively, but they were mediocre on offense at best and worse than that in the half court.

Now, in the offseason, you did add Kevin Durant.

But then once you subtract the floor general and Fred, some of those fears are going to start to creep back in.

You don't have a point guard, a floor general to get you organized.

And then you look at the coaching.

Ymir Djokovic, it's proven he's an elite defensive coach.

I think that's safe to say, but offensively, at least to this point, it's a little more of a mixed bag.

And then last week, we also got the bad news that Steven Adams, he's out for the year with his severely sprained ankle, which did end up requiring surgery.

We've talked a lot on this show about how important Steven is as a floor raiser on defense, but he also helps really steady your offense with how elite he is at offensive rebounds and giving you second, third, even fourth opportunities.

So relative to the formula that we thought this team had when this roster was put together last offseason, when you brought back most of the rotation aside from Dylan Brooks and Jalen Green, well, now if you take out both Fred and Steven and DFS is still a partial participant, it's a pretty big hit to the formula.

And then if you end up losing to the two top teams in the West in much the same way by not generating enough offense...

It's unsettling.

I get it.

And so you flash forward to this week when we're a couple of days from the trade deadline.

And in theory, it's exciting.