Are the Houston Rockets a contender?

The Golden State Warriors are getting a vast majority of the love in the NBA’s West. Despite currently holding the third seed, the Houston Rockets are like the middle child of the conference, overlooked and virtually unseen even with ample success.

While pundits around the country are acknowledging the depth of the group including the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, Memphis Grizzlies, Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Clippers and Rockets, Golden State is the prohibitive favorite thanks to the Splash Bros. of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. The Thunder are constantly talked about because of their dynamic duo in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, while the Spurs obviously get plenty of respect.

At 38-18, Houston is 3.5 games behind the Memphis Grizzlies in the Southwest Division. The Rockets are likely battling for a top wild-card seed and have plenty of teams closing in from behind, with the Blazers, Clippers and Mavericks all within 1.5 games of them.

The Rockets are the one team not only is getting dismissed by Charles Barkley and others, but most of the time completely overlooked. It seems people have seen enough of Houston and made the call that it is simply a nice playoff team, nothing more. So why is a team so loaded with talent waved off with a quick wave of the hand?

Dwight Howard is likely the reason many don’t believe in the Rockets. Even though Howard is a terrific player, legions of reporters have painted him as a questionable teammate with little drive to win. Whether that characterization is fair or not, it is something Howard has been branded with.

James Harden is a true MVP candidate, but with his complete lack of awareness defensively, even he is a liability in some places. Harden is averaging 27.2 points, 6.8 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game, going into Monday evening. Harden is fantastic, a high-volume scorer capable of 50 points any given night.

The other issue the Rockets are confronted with is a perceived lack of depth. Can Houston compete with a team like Memphis, which can present Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph and Mike Conley Jr.? How about Portland’s quartet of Damian Lillard, LaMarcus Aldridge, Robin Lopez and Wesley Matthews? Even the Warriors are deeper with Westbrook, Durant, Enes Kanter and Serge Ibaka.

Behind Harden and Howard, Houston employs Trevor Ariza, Josh Smith and Corey Brewer. It doesn’t appear a group good enough to make its way to the NBA Finals.

Ultimately, the notion of Houston being a faux contender is fact. The Rockets don’t have the ability to match up across the board with the elite teams in the West. Houston can beat any team a couple of times in a series, but winning four of seven is going to be a pipe dream until a third banana is added.