First of all, they have a championship coach. Also, their GM made a franchise changing move by trading for Haliburton because he is a legit franchise player when healthy. Second, they have an actual legit offensive superstar in Hali, even though he's had a down year in the regular season (because of injuries) but he's showed up in the playoffs hitting crazy shots. You need a legit offensive superstar in today's league to get anywhere, we still do not have that and might never will (rip our rebuild). Third, their front office has traded/drafted a bunch of complimentary pieces to put around that superstar. What are we doing in HOU? Our best player is Sengun or Amen, our pieces fit terribly around those guys. Stone refuses to admit the problems we have on the team, in the press conference he just keeps saying we'll run it back, "don't expect any changes". So, in the end we're stuck with watching this horrible offense flame out in the playoffs. We NEED a guy like Booker on this team to score points in bunches but somehow Stone has lost interest in chasing for him?? Now we're trying to get Giannis (great player but horrible fit) or KD (old ass). Also, I want to add that Pacers have an easier time because they're literally in the East. We're stuck in the West forever so we have to deal with a more competitive conference.