The Houston Rockets dropped their 11th straight game in blowout fashion on Sunday night to the Phoenix Suns, 115-89. The Rockets were expected to be a bad team this year, but losing this many consecutive games is always alarming. Even rebuilding teams get occasional victories. This is around the time drastic changes are implemented, either by the front office or the coaching staff.

“That's a coach question,” said guard Eric Gordon when asked if Houston was using the right combinations in lineups.

Stephen Silas, who has three years remaining on his contract, said he may consider changing the starting lineup after Sunday night's loss. The Rockets are currently one of the worst first-quarter teams in basketball and it's partly due to the fact that they start one of the worst lineups in the NBA.

It starts with the offense, which is scoring a dreadful 81.9 points per 100 possessions. The Rockets have some of the worst floor spacing in basketball, partly because they start two traditional big men. The majority of the NBA has switched over to a traditional big man and a spacing forward. However, Houston is having to adapt partly because they like the look of a traditional big man next to Christian Wood. On most good teams in the NBA, Wood is playing exclusively center so he can screen and dive with a spaced floor on offense.

The Rockets are also bizarrely choosing to let their second (Eric Gordon) and third (Alperen Sengun) best players come off the bench. When the Rockets were starting James Harden and Chris Paul/Russell Westbrook, they had the versatility to let Gordon come off their bench. However, he is simply too good to be a sixth man for a team that is lottery-bound. Gordon is averaging 13.1 points per game on 62.0% true shooting and his minutes are somehow down from the year before.

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The decision to sit John Wall made it pretty clear that the Rockets have elected to prioritize the development of Kevin Porter Jr. and Jalen Green over winning games. However, it may not be the worst idea in the world to have someone like Green find his rhythm against bench units to shake things up.

While there may be an argument for Green to start over Gordon, there exists none for Daniel Theis to continue starting over Alperen Sengun. Sengun is clearly the best passer on Houston's team, the offense often flows through him when he's in the game, and perhaps most importantly, he's just a better basketball player than Theis. Theis hasn't been good enough defensively to justify playing over Sengun. In fact, the Rockets are defending 6.7 points per 100 possessions when he's on the bench.

Something has to give for Houston. Either they choose to start their best guard and take the pressure off of Jalen Green or they quit pretending like starting Daniel Theis and Christian Wood together was ever a good idea. As unconventional as it seems to start Sengun next to Wood, those lineups have still been better than the alternative.