Before the season started, I had five major questions about the 2019-2020 Rockets.
So now that we've hit the halfway point, I thought I'd take a look at how the Rockets have answered those questions.
Can the James Harden/Russell Westbrook partnership work?
Westbrook seems to have found his footing with the Rockets. In six January games, the 2017 MVP is averaging 30 points while shooting 51 percent from the field and he's added a dimension to the Rockets offense that it hasn't had in a long time.
The Rockets play at the NBA's second-fastest pace with 104 possessions per 48 minutes. That number jumps to 107.82 when Westbrook is on the floor and it drops to 102.36 when he's on the bench.
Though he's taking a lot fewer, Westbrook's three-point shooting has plummeted to below 24 percent and teams are able to clog the paint, but he's attacking the basket more and setting up his teammates.
More important, over the last 23 games, the Rockets are +5.2 points per 100 possessions when Harden is off the floor after posting a -7.7 net rating for the first 19 games of the season, and Westbrook deserves credit for that.
It's safe the say the partnership is working, but will it work as good or better than the Harden/Chris Paul duo? That's still TBD.
Will #HongKongGate ever blow over?
It hasn't blown over, but it's not getting talked about the way it was in the aftermath of Daryl Morey's tweet in support of Hong Kong's freedom movement, though you can see the affects inside Toyota Center.
Signs promoting Chinese companies have been covered up and electronic advertisements are gone.
The Rockets remain a non-entity in China, with Tencent, the NBA's Chinese broadcast partner, leaving the team off its schedule, and while this is no longer the case today, at the start of the season, reporters were referring to the Rockets as "the red team" in game stories.
Will Tilman Fertitta allow Morey to add payroll?
It's still too early to say. So far, the Rockets haven't added anything to the payroll since the start of the season and in fact have subtracted salaries from their bottom line.
Ryan Anderson's non-guaranteed contract was quickly jettisoned, allowing them to convert Chris Clemons' two-day deal into a standard NBA contract, while Gary Clark was waived right before his salary became guaranteed for the remainder of the season.
As it stands now, the Rockets remain projected to finish the season under the luxury tax threshold, but we will learn a lot more over the next three weeks when the trade deadline passes and buyout season begins.
Can they defend at a high level?
The Rockets remain 17th in defense at the halfway point of this season, which is where they finished last season, but they are actually allowing a point less per 100 possessions.
The team remains a bottom third defensive rebounding unit, though it has improved from 29th in the league to 20th. The problem for the Rockets at the defensive end has simply been a lack of consistency.
Here is the Rockets defensive rating by month and where that number ranks:
October: 117.2 (29th)
November: 106.1 (10th)
December: 110 (18th)
January: 109.5 (12th)
One area where the Rockets must improve is their transition defense. The Rockets are allowing the second most fastbreak points in the NBA at 15.8 points per game, last season they were 15th, surrendering 13.8 fastbreak points.
Is Mike D'Antoni's job safe?
With more than half the season in the books Mike D'Antoni remains the Rockets head coach, though that always feels tenuous, especially with the struggles the team is currently going through.
Unlike Kevin McHale four years ago, D'Antoni still has the support of the players in the Rockets locker room, but that might not matter.
Having the support of the owner is what's most important and when you consider Fertitta played hard ball when it came to an extension for the two-time coach of the year, it's hard to say D'Antoni has it.
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