With the league so incredibly top heavy and concentrated into 2 super powers, what's the point of it all? I wonder how many more fans would've been there at tip off if this whole series didn't feel like a play-in to a slaughter. If every team but the Cavs and Warriors put their players into a pool and the entire league redrafted all the players in the league, it would still be next to impossible to create a team that could compete with Golden State. Even if you had unlimited salary cap availability and were able to acquire any and as many FAs as you want, I don't know if you could put pieces together that would be cohesive enough to beat the Warriors. Realistically, the only hope a fan of any NBA franchise has, over the next 5 or so years, is for the Warriors to become complacent, riddled with injuries or for KD and Curry to decide to part ways. Cleveland fans can have hope that all the pieces fall into place perfectly over a 7 game series since they have Lebron. But, that's about it. Either we need to start building for 2022-2023 season, or we need to realize that this is likely close to as good as we are going to get. There is no one that the Rox can realistically trade Harden for that would make the team any better than they are now. There are not very many examples of NBA teams trading away a superstar and then being better for it within the next 5 years. It sucks! But, I feel like the most we can realistically hope for is for the Rockets to be an entertaining team to follow over the course of the season as we wait for the inevitable ending of each season at the hands of either the Warriors or the San Antonio Fighting Popoviches. There is no FA we can sign or player we can trade for that would make us a contender. Even if the Rox pulled off a miracle and somehow were able to land both Hayward and Paul George, I don't think the Rockets would beat the Warriors. There are moves we could make that could possibly make us a 55-60 win team. But, I don't see us getting back to the finals any time soon. We are stuck with Harden, a player that 27 other teams wish they had the opportunity to build around. It's time to accept the fact that having a mentally weak superstar is better than having no superstar at all. At least he's fun as hell to watch when he's not melting down in pressure situations in the playoffs.
Boycott the NBA. Make ESPN and TNT go bankrupt for their Houston Hatred. Cut your cables and stream the Rockets games until they want to meet us halfway in the middle. Or at least until League Pass stops sucking. I gave them my money for the season last year...never again.
I had a good time this season. I dig nfl and mlb but they just arent as great. Even though nba parity sucks, basketball is such a beautiful sport. Our emotions will calm down and we will be thirsting for rockets by halloween. Who knows, maybe we make some exciting offseason moves?
