How the Rockets can Help Loosen Defensive Coverages on Kevin Durant

Much has been made about the Houston Rockets' roster construction and/or lack of depth up and down the roster. Houston has been relatively top heavy all season.

It always all starts with Kevin Durant. Teams have been making it a point to take Durant out of the game by blitzing and trapping him on a nightly basis.

And it usually works, for one reason or another. Usually, it's actually a multitude of reasons. One of which pertains to Durant himself.

Durant is a great scorer. Even at age 37, he's still averaging 26 points, while flirting with 50/40/90 splits. To be exact, Durant is shooting 51.8 percent from the field, 41.1 percent from outside range and 87.8 percent from the foul line.

And he just passed Michael Jordan in all-time scoring, even though he doesn't view himself in the same tier as Jordan. But for as great of a scorer that he is, he's equally as bad at passing out of double teams.

Well, not literally, but it's a major weakness of his. Teams can send multiple defenders his way without any semblance of fear of him making them pay for it.

But it's not all on Durant. The Rockets have had a bad habit of missing easy looks. Open looks, even.

As a collective. When they make shots, they make teams pay. It can all be so simple. Sometimes.

Durant spoke to Rockets sideline reporter Vanessa Richardson of Space City Home Network and explained how the Rockets can loosen up defensive coverages on him and Alperen Sengun. following Houston's 119-109 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.

"I looked up and I think it was about five or six of us that had double digit shot attempts. When you see that, that's just a matter of us moving the ball and everybody being aggressive."

Durant continued.

"It loosens up the defense on me and Alpy, to be honest. Teams are going to triple, double. So if everybody else can be aggressive to score and make plays and knock down shots, our lives will be easier."

Jabari Smith Jr. plays a key part in this. He's been one of the Rockets' more reliable players in crunch time. However, he's not been the most consistent, either. Especially on the road, where he's averaged 14.8 points and 33.6 percent from deep.

Reed Sheppard has also been fairly streaky for the Rockets. Prior to Friday's victory over Memphis, Sheppard had gone 5-of-24 from deep in Houston's two previous losses to the Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves.

Sheppard also had a three-game stretch earlier this month, in which he went 5-of-24 from outside against the San Antonio Spurs, Toronto Raptors and Denver Nuggets. And we don't even have to delve into Tari Eason's struggles, of late, because those have been well-chronicled, although there have been positive signs on that front, of late.

Houston can help Durant and Sengun, in this regard.