No - the Rockets lost because they weren't good enough. They played the Lakers without Doncic and with Reeves out for a big part of the series and they still lost. The Rockets last year were just not a good team. It isn't like the Rockets ran into the best team in the playoffs and the seeding hurt them -- it isn't like they had terrible luck, they lost KD but the Lakers were without Doncic and Reeves was out a lot of the series too. The Rockets lacked talent -- they basically have no one that is an offensive engine that can break people down and run an offense. They lacked shooting and they lacked consistent scoring outside of KD. Defensively they really were not all that special either. The Rockets rely on rebounds and defense --- they aren't good enough defensively to make up for the lack of offensive talent, and their rebounding is in part because they cannot space the floor or shoot well. It is a very flawed team with a lot of second level talent, but lacks first level talent and doesn't fit well and depends too much on players that are old and injury prone. Effort and grit and defense can win you games in the regular season but it doesn't in the playoffs.
This- It was the inevitable outcome of a number of decisions made over the last 5-6 years. Anyone that objectively watched the Rockets last season could tell that short of a miracle - the Rockets were not getting out of round one. I am not even sure the Rockets beat the Lakers in that series with Doncic out - WITH a healthy KD. You reap what you sow -- and the Rockets front office for years did not address the cracks and acted as if their young players would magically overcome poor player development, flaws in their respective games and talent issues -- to become a team like OKC or SA.... and when the veil was pulled off in the playoffs, a lot of fans were angry and felt that they had been deceived.
I don't know how people are optimistic about next season in comparison to the rest of the West. The 3-6 range seems to be our absolute ceiling as we currently stand. We could easily be a play in team or worse. KD played a ton of games and minutes and who knows if he can do that again. FVV is still recovering and Adams is coming off an ankle surgery as well. Our offense and zone defense were both badly exposed in the playoffs. The best hope we have is Amen or Reed taking a leap, but I don't think many are counting on that. Even if we had a good showing in the playoffs it means little when the roster construction has major weaknesses and the coaching is lacking. The Rockets made the WCF in 14-15 with 56 wins and we all thought it was uphill from there. We went 41-41 the next season with no major injuries. We're much more like that team than any of the contenders in the West.
"Embarrassed" is an emotion, and is not neutral. I'm fine using a neutral approach like this, but don't act like you are neutral when you posted the above paragraph littered with emotion. I'm guessing the Rockets are either in the Top 6 or below 8th. Very, very slim odds the Rockets finish 7th or 8th. I've not seen win total projections. I've seen Rockets as 7th best odds to win the West. The Rockets likely have a higher floor than ceiling.
The Lakers are a weird team now. I'm sort of intrigued. They paid a pretty penny for their franchise center, and gave Luka shooters. However, this isn't like the Mavs with 3&D wings. They are a really small team outside of Kessler and Ayton. Who is starting at 3? Are they going to start Grimes and Sando? I'm not sure I see the vision, but it's interesting. If it doesn't work out, they are screwed because they don't have any tradeable picks for seven years.
And we all know we were missing our PG for the entire season and didn't replace him so I understand there is some context behind a whole aesthetically ugly & miserable season. It would be a bit different if we had generally good health luck and still were this abysmal. You are way too dramatic about our situation when the new NBA has moved towards parity. OKC tied themselves to 3 young max core members... SGA is a no brainer... Jalen Williams had a soft tissue hamstring issue for the entirety of the 2025 regular and post season... and Chet was a big negative against their chief WC rival. Spurs are about to get more expensive with Fox's max kicking in, plus Wemby's max kicks the season after next, not too mention Wemby's injury issues. I don't see OKC/Spurs being this GSW like juggernaut yet.
Our free agency season begins when we hear about FVV and Tari. I hope Stone is working the phones right now to have both traded.
The year before was ugly as well. You have to play ball on both sides of the court. We are doubling down on dumb.
Man I watched the last 3 rounds of the playoffs that the Rockets were not participating in At no point did the thought go through my head " wow look at all the parity, the can't beat the Lakers without Luka crew is right up there with the Spurs Knicks Thunders" In fact, the level of basketball played that I observed made me think the Rockets were even further behind than I had previously thought. And worse to watch. But other than that it was a great playoffs, for real,!
Should of taken the extension Stone offered him. Instead he wanted to go party it up in Miami and then lost out on a lot of money.
And we didn't have a competent point guard the entire season. Now we'll have Fred and Smart and Thornton. Maybe you don't think as highly of them as I do, but if you can't see that it's going to be a massive upgrade, then I don't know what to tell you.
Fixed it for you - We got destroyed; We got obliterated; We got annihilated. So yeah, I think embarrassed is quite factual.
This is spot on. The only thing I would add is that our one, unique skill--which we were by far better than anyone else (in part because no other NBA team is so inept at shooting/running an offense) is offensive rebounding. But the moment Steven Adams couldn't play, we became league-average on the boards. If Adams is out there at full strength and Amen/Sengun/KD/Jabari get the second/third/fourth-best rebounder trying to block them out, we can make noise on the glass. We still can't convert, but at least there is something to build on. By the way, learning all this wasn't a strategy. It was an accident caused by being a subpar, below-average NBA offense.
I'm not sure whats more insane to me. Thinking that (current) Kevin Durant is a good NBA player....or thinking that our biggest issue last year was the lack of an undersized, micromanaging, inefficient point guard. I'm not exactly "Team JB" but running it back with KD and FVV sounds absolutely bonkers. If FVV had been healthy we likely wouldve underperformed still and people wouldve blamed something else.
