The Rockets have been a title contender or a dark horse for a good portion of these years. Why are you measuring success by playoff series victories? Also why are you writing a history that discounts 2 CHAMPIONSHIPS because he was a new owner? We've had: Olajuwon years Francis years Tmac/Yao years Scola/Martin years Harden years I'm not particularly happy with the hire either but Harden will be the most talented player Dantoni has had since Nash. Also last year at this time we were all expecting a chip after the Lawson signing. Let's see what he does next year and judge him based on that. I have a really really hard time believing next years Rockets will be worse than this years squad but we'll see.
To your first point, no the Rockets have not been contenders or dark horses most of the last 19 years. In 8 of those seasons, they were in the lottery. In 3 of those seasons, they were the 8th seed. In one other, they were the 7th seed. That's 12 out of 19 seasons right off the bat where they were in no way a threat to do anything in the postseason, especially given how most of those years they didn't even qualify. As for the remaining 7, they were the 5th seed 5 times(twice with home court advantage), the 4th seed once, and the 2nd seed once. I would argue that Pippen-led 1999 team was not a contender or dark horse. Neither was the 2008 team which had lost Yao for the season due to a foot injury. That leaves the 2005 T-Mac/Yao Rockets who lost in the first round after going up 2-0 in Dallas, the 2007 T-Mac/Yao Rockets who dropped Game 7 in the first round on their home floor to Utah, the 2009 Yao/Artest Rockets who might've won it all had it not been for Yao and Deke getting hurt in the playoffs, the 2014 Harden/Howard Rockets who p-ssed away a first round series against the Blazers, and the 2015 Harden/Howard Rockets who did make it to the WCF before getting smoked by the Warriors. 5 years out of 19 where they were dark horses or contenders. Not really that impressive IMO. Especially given how these teams were constantly having to be rebuilt. That 2007-09 stretch is probably the longest sustained period where the Rockets were a threat to go deep in the playoffs(at least until Yao went down). Now to your second point. I'm not discounting the championships. What I'm doing is pointing out how the current Rockets owner played virtually no role in assembling those title teams. Basically the Drexler trade is the only contribution he made. Everyone else in that core(Dream, OT, Herrera, Sam, Kenny, Mad Max, Elie, Horry) was here already.
