the highlights I saw of the young guys towards the end of the season ALMOST convinced me to watch a game
We didn't have the lottery back then. We won the coin flip two years in a row (and caused the lottery to be created). Sampson was billed the Player of the Century coming out of college. His rookie season was a bit of a disappointment because he couldn't carry the team to be competitive. We were still one of the worst teams. But that was actually planned. The next draft featured Olajuwon and Jordon. No matter how the coin landed, we would have a generational player to team with Ralph.
I'm factoring in another impact rookie, Green developing on defense, and the addition or a star via trade or cap space... They have obvious flaws at rim protection and backcourt defense outside of kpj... a couple guys can fix that...
The worst stretch was after Yao and before Harden when we had the 14th pick like three years in a row. Just good enough to miss the lottery and bad enough to miss the playoffs. Nothing is worse than the mediocrity treadmill. Sitting here arguing about Dmo vs Tjones and Brooks vs Lowry. Whether or not Kevin Martin is a foundational piece…ugh… I love the tank and because I get to watch Green, Sengun and Jaygup and the draft intrigue is awesome. Watching a young team getting built >>>> watching .500 team going nowhere.
This is pretty much my belief. The worsterest periods are the ones where you're not really good enough to really contend and are stuck with some pick around 14 or later. And there were quite a few of those. The 82-83 and 83-84 Rockets were horrible, but at least we got something out of them. Long before I started watching the Rockets, but those San Diego Rockets and early 70's Houston Rockets teams were about as mediocre as it gets and that went on for years.
defending our "worst in the association" with aplomb. take a bow Mr Fertitta. these are the dog days of the R.E.S.E.T. aka R.U.D.
i agree post yao era much worse than this. we have no expectations and have luckily wandered into some young talent. next season tho i will start to expect some more results.
These two years have been the worst for me as a Rockets fan of almost 30 years. Not because of all the losing or the players, but because of the poor leadership (Silas, Stone, Fertitta). The Astros had sound leadership and a rebuild plan, but I do not trust any uppers of the Rockets. Makes no sense that Wood, Gordon, and Wall are still on this team. Just terrible coaching, management, and ownership.
Not even close to bad years for me, mainly because we got rid of the diva Harden and got rewarded with some pretty damn impressive rookies... The Rockets never properly rebuilt the team during the Francis and Yao era because we had a trash owner.. Mediocre year after mediocre year after mediocre year... I've enjoyed watching the young guys develop and grow into playing like all stars at times.... I never felt as confident with Francis or Yao like I feel with Green and Sengun.. I feel like the future is bright and although it sucks to lose every night I know its part of the bigger picture, I want to see these guys go from rookies to stars and maybe even more... I've enjoyed this season, we can look forward to the draft and drafting a future star that will get us back to championship contention instead of Harden choking in the 2nd round...
I actually didn't feel that bad about last year and this year. To me the worst is when I feel like there's no hope for the season or the future. Last season we were able to keep our top pick from OKC and got a ton of picks back from Brooklyn. As much as I enjoyed watching that hustle team with Kevin Martin, deep down I knew they were going nowhere. It was crushing to see them lose because they didn't have enough talent and then didn't have the draft picks to draft an expected star. Outside of that time we seemed to either have a star, someone we hoped would become a star, or had high enough draft picks where we thought we could draft a star.
Those two Rockets teams are the reason we have a draft lottery today .... That was a totally different era where players stayed in college 4 years before being drafted into the NBA. They were closer to a finished product than the "One and Done". Today One and Done is more common than a guy staying the full 4 and these guys are not highly developed basketball players, they are just prospects and projections. Now, not only do you have to draft the right player, you have to develop them too.
It'd be interesting to see how many of the people are actually from Houston on this website. I'd bet most of the people who are saying the past 2 years weren't bad aren't actually from or have ties to the city.
The draft is a bigger crapshoot today than it was back then because players get drafted hoping they will continue to improve. If a guy is in college 3-4 yrs you pretty much know what you are getting when you pick the guy.
It's like gleefully choosing between being waterboarded or being drawn and quartered. Neither option is anything near fun, but one actually leads to terrifying and prolonged death.
I'd guess most people from Houston have transitioned to caring more about the 'Stros, the only show in town still worth watching. Nobody is denying the last few years haven't been awful, but that they've been better than aimless years like 2011 where we had no hope for the future, as well as expectations for the present.
High…1986 we play the Celtics in the finals Low… 1987 cocaine takes our starting backcourt & injuries take down one of the twin towers. Ralph is traded for Sleepy Floyd and Joe B Carrel. The organization starts saying that Akeem is not trying hard any more. Dream trade rumors are everywhere. 1987-89 where the lowest.
