The Rockets win % sits at .246(8 who do we appreciate?!) and they've only ever had 2 seasons worse than this since the franchise began in 1967. Season #16 - 1982-83 Houston Rockets with a 14-68 record .171 win % and drafted Ralph Sampson #1. Season #1 - 1967-68 San Diago Rockets with a 15-67 record .183 win % and drafted Elvin Hayes #1. Season #54 - 2021-22 Houston Rockets with a (16-49 current) record .246 win % and drafted... * The next worst season is... Season #3 - 1969-70 San Diego Rockets with a 27-55 record .329 win % and drafted Rudy Tomjanovich #2. Season #11 - 1977-78 Houston Rockets with a 27 - 55 record .329 win % traded #4 for Moses Malone. Season #35 - 2001-02 Houston Rockets with a 28-54 record .341 win % and drafted Yao Ming #1. Let's keep going for fun? Season #17 - 1983-84 Houston Rockets with a 29-53 record .354 win % and drafted Hakeem Olajuwon #1. There's a few in the 30ish win range too, with uninspiring draft notes but then you look and notice how this franchise has really had it pretty good. Being ok is better than being bad and we've seen the top of the mountain too. We've had HOFers. Superstars. Wins on wins. And the 7 seasons out of 54 where they were truly bad have had stunningly magnificent draft results. 18 seasons below .500. 5 seasons at .500. 23 mehs and 31 seasons above .500. 14 50+ win seasons. 7 seasons above .66 win %. Our franchise record 65 win season is the 22nd best season ever played by any team. 2 chips, 2 misses that hurt so bad it hurts. Yao/McGrady/Paul may have us at 4 parades if only for miserably timed injuries. Alas, 2 chips is 2 chips. *Evan Mobley #1? That's what history would suggest this franchise does at #1. Cade tho... It's also fair to note the win % since Harden messed around and kept us floating around .500 (11-10) is .132 (5-38) which is something like a 10 or 11 win season over 82 games. Which would be one of the 5 worst seasons ever played by any team... I offer this humble examination of Rockets draft history to you dear Rockets fan. Discuss? *taptap* Is thing on?
Just want to point out that when the Rockets drafted Sampson #1 and Olajuwon #1 the following year, at the time the worst team in each conference did a coin flip to determine who would have the #1 pick. The Rockets won the coin flip in consecutive years, producing the Twin Towers and freaking out league management. Needless to say, the coin flip, which had been in existence for some years, was done away with. As an aside, being an ardent fan of the UH Cougars, I first become interested in the San Diego Rockets when they drafted Elvin Hayes with that first pick, as you point out, OP. He went on to become Rookie of the Year, of course, with a truly amazing season. I was astonished when the team moved to Houston, already having the perfect moniker and Mr. Hayes. Elvin wasn't with the team long after the move, but the Rockets live on, currently on life support. ;-)
Sorry but I have to disagree with this part. I want to either be great or terrible. Imagine if we had to miss the playoffs this year and at the same time we didn't have the excitement of the possibility of getting Cade. That's just a lose-lose. You can either look forward to competing or look forward to a draft pick. The in between is just no man's land. I wouldn't want to go to a restaurant who's best offer is that the hot food is hot and the cold food is cold.
This season it all depends on the ping pong balls. (Hate to burst a good thread (I love the research and those are all Rockets GOATs) but the odds are just stacked against a good story this time thanks to pick protections, lottery rule changes, and new ownership.) For now, I'll just burn incense to the Adam Silver.
Yeah, we've been historically bad for 40-45 games now. BAD, as in losing at a pace only 1 or 2 other teams have in the history of the league.
Well that's the thing that stuck out to me. I do appreciate any well researched thread though so congrats on that. On the main point of the thread though, my thoughts go back to the ship of theseus idea I floated in the Tad Brown thread. Yeah it's good that the organization doesn't have a prolonged history of sucking. But what does this current Rockets have in common with those Rockets? Pretty much just the name and the city (and Bill Worell). Most of the people that were responsible for that history are gone without so much as a smooth transition. Sure we're technically still the same team but the success is driven by people and the people are different.
I guess I would argue success in the NBA is player driven more than executive driven. Unless that executive drives it into the ground? **** idk I just thought it was interesting and I'm desperate for something with substance. Remember that time Victor Oladipo was a Houston Rocket?
if we don’t get a top 4 pick this year all I’m gonna say is that heartbreak like that is how people turn into the Joker
thats the hope. I still need to see more of mobley, I like Cade and Green. But by any account they say there are 4-5 possible stars and so if we just keep our 52 percent and get in the top 4. We're looking at a solid rookie, KPJ, Wood, Tate, KMJ to build on the future. I don't count wall/EG for much, at the same time given we have our pick the next year and are such a young team, it looks like we'll have another year sucking and hope we can rid of them, but wouldn't include our pick assets as whats the point outside of money savings, hopefully the owner doesn't keep that up like he did when we were in contention. June 15 will be a monumentally nervous wreck of a day while espn eggs it on with Rachel whatever her name is doing the dumbest interviews and perspectives while we wait till that final moment. If it works, we'll have some young excitement net year
