Rockets clinched their 7th straight winning season

Can you imagine being the suns who were like the mavs in big long winning seasons over time, but unlike the mavs the suns and nuggs haven't even caught a whiff of the finals.
The mavs obv won one, and barring DWade's heroics would have two. Thanks DWade!!
I love winning, but ill take the progression to the finals, and a championship. Harden is about to show the world the finals last year were an anomaly!!!! Go Rockets!! Congrats Morey on the magic that he did with nothing but injuries.

 

Wow this is what we've come to.. first asking if a win streak is better, now asking if being a franchise that wins regular season games but never wins a championship is better than winning.. WTF

 

Championship. You'll always remember that run in your heart.. the confetti dropping.. the emotions.. the parade downtown.. I would take that over meaningless regular "success"

When I look at the Suns, Nuggets, Jazz.. I don't say "wow,they've done such a great job. A lot of playoff appearances.. a lot of 50 win season"

I say

"Damn, I feel bad for their fans.. to never have won a championship"

 

That's not really a fair question because it's based on the assumption that the playoff runs will not get you a championship and that having no playoff run will guarantee a championship. In reality even if you tank for 10 years, you still don't have a guarantee to a champion ship, but only a higher % through good picks.

A fairer question would be relevant for the decade and have 50% chance of getting a championship or be irrelevant for the decade for a 90% chance of getting a championship.

I'd take the 50% because it's just that much more exciting and thrilling every year.

 

But watching your team lose in the playoffs year after year can hurt too.. and then when that superstar team you had falls apart you're left saying "what was that all for?"

 

Without looking it up: San Antonio, Lakers and Utah (maybe?)

 

Take it from a long suffering Royals fan. Losing never gets fun.

 

Under Morey we went from contender to mediocre and back to the threshold of being a contender -- under anyone else, and almost every other franchise would have gone contender to dregs and probably still be stuck in the dregs.

 

I disagree - The Rockets have had a plan all along. They've consistently come out ahead in trades; essentially improving the assets (according to Morey). A lot of players took offense to being called "Assets", and now every player on the team but Chandler & Smith are GONE!!! The Rockets have stayed competitive, while their cap room flexibility has improved drastically.

Mediocrity is a team that doesn't do anything to improve. Yao and McGrady were injury prone with Max contracts, that isn't mediocre, it's tough luck. The Rockets have been pro-active. The Rockets didn't sit it out and let the team implode, wishing upon a star to get the #1 pick.... That is mediocre.

Let's not forget that Kevin Martin would have been awesome next to a Healthy Yao Ming. He wasn't supposed to be the star, but after Yao retired, he fell into the role. Rockets even tried to trade him before last season started.

 

Lakers Spurs Nuggets

 

That "mediocrity" would have gotten the Rockets in the play offs almost every year if they were in the Eastern Conference.

It's not the Rockets' fault that the West is a powerhouse and that to make the play offs they have to be substantially better than 2/3 of the NBA. Dallas' 19th best record in the NBA would have them tied with the Bucks for 8th in the East. Instead they're in the 10th seed and 2.5 games back.

Just to have a winning record in the West, Houston has to put out an above average product. And to get in the play offs, it has to be even better.

Teams with 50 or more wins at this point in the season...

Miami, San Antonio, OKC, Denver, Clipper and Memphis. (East 1, West 5).

Think about that as you consider the future of this young and inexperienced team that already has 42 wins with 8 games to go.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Rockets clinched 18th winning season since 92-93. Only Spurs with more (20) in that span, though Jazz should get 19th, Lakers 18th soon.</p>&mdash; Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/319676577019490304" data-datetime="2013-04-04T05:03:29+00:00">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Says the WNBA

 

Personally, I'd say better given their record but also the fact that they have a future Hall of Fame coach smart enough to integrate the quality players New York never knew how to develop into his system. The Jazz used to be similar, although give credit to the new guy he manage to get the team on their feet a lot faster then you'd expect.

 

Always take the championship.

It's almost 20 years since the Rockets won it twice.

Feels like 40.