If you like numbers, you probably look at daily box scores, see the Houston Rockets stats, become impressed with James Harden’s scoring or Russell Westbrooks’s triple doubles, and think that they are playing amazing basketball. I challenge anyone who thinks the Rockets are playing good basketball to tune in to about 30 minutes of them playing and you will see the worst version of basketball that you have ever seen in your life. The way the Rockets play basketball makes AAU basketball look like the greatest show of fundamentals on earth. A common possession starts with James Harden taking many dribbles, rocking a player to sleep, then taking a contested three or driving into traffic. The way they are playing basketball is one of the hardest things to watch in the history of basketball. Instead of making the right play, they take a ridiculous amount of threes; instead of passing to the open man, they take wide open mid range jumpshots that other teams basically dare them to take but avoid like the plague. I once thought James Harden averaging 36 points a game was one of the most historic things in NBA history, but after a few games of 2-13 or 3-14 from three it is easy to see why he had so many points last year. It is very easy to see how James averages 36 points a game. He literally gets to the free throw line a ridiculous amount of times a game so he ends up averaging a nice scoring average on some of the worst shooting nights you have ever seen. Literally, this guy shoots more than most players you have ever seen, shooting around 40 shots a game. If his numbers where efficient he would easily average around 50 a game with the amount of times he shoots. The unwillingness to shoot mid range jumpshots, or make them literally, takes away about ten points a game for this guy. The fact that Mike D’Antoni still has a job or keeps getting jobs is one of the most mysterious things in the NBA. His so called offensive genius has no rhyme or rhythm and it’s an analytic approach to basketball. Sometime the numbers aren’t the only thing that determines wins and losses. The analytic people will always think that crunching numbers will get them championships. Instead, it has lead to a three-point-shooting, hard-to-watch-foul-shot-reliant team that ruins the beauty of basketball. I would hate to advocate for a person to lose there job, but watching the Rockets play shows they need a change.