While the Spurs series didn't end the way we wanted it to, it's easy to lack perspective and miss the bigger picture. It's time we take a step back and appreciate what the Rockets were able to accomplish this season. Regardless of the finish, this season was absolutely a resounding success. Recall where we were at the end of last year's postseason after getting beat down by Golden State. The franchise was in turmoil. We knew the incompetent Bickerstaff was gone. Many were calling for Morey's head. Dwight was surely on his way out. Les decided to intervene and hire Mike D'Antoni which was almost universally ridiculed around the league and here on the forum. In reality, what we created was one of the best GM/coach partnerships in sports. The great synergy between what D'Antoni likes to do and Morey likes to do couldn't have been more obvious. Morey did some serious work in the offseason, bringing in multiple shooters (Anderson and Gordon) and adding one of the best low cost players in the league in Nene. The result was nothing short of spectacular. Harden flourished as the lead PG of the team, putting up historic, MVP level production and led the league in assists and points created. The Rockets once again crushed their own previous record of threes attempted and made, and produced the 10th most efficient offense in NBA history -- with just a single all-star! More importantly, the Rockets surpassed everyone's pre-season expectations, earning the 3rd best record in the entire league, which would've been the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. Think about that for a second. How absurd is that? This season was supposed to be a total restart with a new coaching staff and Dwight leaving. This was just Phase 1 folks. We were not supposed to be this good this early. What really resonated with me this season was the team's resilience all season. They never lost 3 games in a row until the very end of the regular season. Their record on 2nd games of back-to-backs was stupid good. You know what I really enjoyed? The fear we put into our opponents. No one wanted to face us because we were such a b**** to guard. There are literally just two teams in the entire league that have the coaching and player discipline, talent, and intelligence to stop us, and unfortunately we had to play one of them in the 2nd round. Despite the Warriors and Spurs' superior talent advantage over us, we even gave those teams a scare. And that fear isn't going to change folks. Morey (likely to win executive of the year) is only going to continue to improve the roster, and it's only going to get harder and harder to stop us. If we can get that 2nd star for Harden and ease that workload, we're going to be in the WCF annually at the minimum. Check out these two games -- my favorite games of the year. If we can already screw with the top tier teams in the league with a single all-star and an incomplete roster, what's going to happen when Morey fills in every need? Don't let the events of the past 72 hours prevent you from seeing the larger picture. The future is exceptionally bright in Houston.
