With the NBA season officially being one month in, let’s analyze how the Houston Rockets’ season has played out so far.

One month of the NBA season has officially passed for the Houston Rockets, who currently sit at 12-4 and atop the Western Conference. Being that Houston has such a good record, the first month of the season has been full of positives. However, not everything has been rosy for the Rockets, who have dealt with injuries and poor shooting during this start.

Truth be told, we haven’t seen the Rockets at their best or even at full capacity due to the various injuries, especially the one to Chris Paul. With Paul returning to the lineup against the Phoenix Suns, the Rockets have had just two games to see how the James Harden-Paul pairing works.

There has only been one game in which the team was fully healthy, which was the opening night win over the Golden State Warriors. Since then, at least one key member of the rotation has been out every game, so the Rockets still have room to improve.

Offensively, the Rockets have been humming along, posting the second highest offensive rating in the league. Houston is also second in effective field goal percentage (55) and true shooting percentage (59.6). Interestingly enough, the Rockets are just ninth in pace this season after being in the top five last season. However, considering the fact that Houston started the season around league average in pace, they have been improving in recent weeks.

The area where the Rockets can improve offensively is their shooting. After a hot shooting performance against the Suns, the Rockets now sit at 34.9 percent shooting on 3-pointers as a team, which is still just 23rd in the league. Players such as Eric Gordon and Trevor Ariza are especially struggling with their shot, with both players shooting lower than their career average.

However, with Chris Paul now returning to the lineup, there will be an all-time great point guard on the floor at all times, which will lead to countless quality looks for shooters spacing the floor.

Another key aspect of Paul’s return is the bench unit offense. Because Mike D’Antoni will stagger Harden and Paul’s minutes, one of them will always be on the floor. This will (in all likelihood) eliminate any offensive stagnation or droughts when the bench unit is in. Per Cleaning The Glass, the Rockets score 14.5 points per 100 possessions more with Harden on the floor this season, highlighting the team’s need for Paul.

With players such as P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute coming off the bench, the offense can be prone to bog down and struggle. However, now that Paul is back, he will be running the bench units most of the time, which will lead to better looks for the supporting players.

Turning our attention to defense, the Rockets have improved significantly but there is still room to grow. After posting the 18th ranked defense last season, the Rockets currently sit at 12th in the league, and have been in the top 10 for a significant portion of the season so far.

In fact, during their six-game win streak, the Rockets had the fifth-best defense in the league, which is a recipe for success when combined with their elite offense.

Players like Tucker and Mbah a Moute are making the biggest impact on that end of the floor, while players such as Gordon and Ryan Anderson have slimmed down and improved defensively. Mbah a Moute (defensive box plus-minus of 1.4) and Tucker (1.7) have joined Trevor Ariza (0.5) to give the Rockets multiple quality defenders on the wing. Plus, as Paul returns and gets back to full health, Houston’s defense will only improve.

There have already been countless examples of the value Tucker and Mbah a Moute provide on the defensive end, from switching effectively to rotating over for double-teams. Below are just a few examples of how versatile the two are on the defensive end.

In both plays above, Tucker uses timely rotation and quick hands to cause two turnovers on Joel Embiid, both of which were key in the Rockets’ comeback win.

In the below examples, Mbah a Moute shows the same capabilities as he strips Frank Kaminsky clean after switching onto him, and then pokes his hand in to cause the turnover on Chandler Parsons:

The two wings will only continue to provide tremendous value on the defensive end, which will serve the Rockets well down the stretch of the season as they have hopes of being a top-10 defensive team.

Overall, the first month of the season has been incredibly positive for Houston. They’ve withstood numerous injuries and poor shooting to get out to the best record in the conference. Now with Paul returning, the minutes load and burden should decrease for players such as Harden and Gordon, which will serve them best during the course of a long regular season.

The Rockets are just now getting healthy and integrated, which should strike fear in opposing teams on a nightly basis.