Which Rockets team was your favorite? (sans championship years)

The year before the first championship.

And the 22 win streak one

 

80-81: Went to the Finals for the first time. Moses leading the aging Calvin and RudyT with a bunch of mediocre but scrappy players.

85-86: Twin Towers beating the mighty Lakers in 5 games. So much promise of a dynasty coming.

07-08: 22 streak with two injury prone stars.

08-09: The scrappiest team I've witnessed, despite the TMac nightmare.

 

07-08 most definitely: Francis return, Adelman first year with the defense of JVG, 3 rookies already looking very good with Scola, AB & Landry, the 22 winning streak, Yao, Deke taking over, street ball Skip-2-my-Lou, Hayes, Battier, hustle Harris and the overall passing and mentality.

08-09 is a close second, but I just hate the way the Lakers series went, mostly because of that Fisher elbow and will never forgive Doug Collins, the league nor our players for just letting that punk b**** get away with it. Kobe getting away with a lot and Artest getting tossed in two games was a total rig job! We owned them and the refs just took over. T-mac pulling a Maxwell also made that year a b**** in hindsight, we had a championship team that year!

 

04 05 brought soooo much excitement. If sura and Howard could only stay healthy that season. I really felt that team was finals ready.

 

The ****ty sub .500 team with Franchise and Cat in the backcourt.

 

08-09 team was so loveable, they played with so much heart and imo would've won the title had Yao and Mutombo not gotten hurt.

 

Easily this for people our age

/thread

 

I think it was 90-91 where they had to bust ass to make the playoffs down the stretch of the season, and they won a bunch of games in a row to do so. All heart. Max was on that team and played with a huge chip on his shoulder.

1986 was so fun. That's when I really fell in love with the Rockets..as a kid.

Enjoyed the white boy power squad with Yao and Tracy. That was fun, too. I still can't believe they blew that series to the Mavs.

 

There are two teams for me.

The 04-05 team was the first team I watched so of course that team has a special place in my heart. The magic of Tracy McGrady's first year and Yao was only just entering his prime then add in all those hard nose veterans like Bobby Sura and Jon Barry and fun players like David Wesley and Juwan Howard. I loved it when they adopted the roll the dice whenever they hit a three. I'm still pissed off at that Dallas series. Nevertheless, the future looked so bright for the Rockets after that season.

And of course, the 08-09 team. What real Rockets fan didn't love that team? Getting Artest in that offseason was when I really thought we could be a contender. Loved what Artest brought to that team, a toughness that was lacking. Yao was amazing that season and we had plenty of surprises that season with the emergence of Brooks, Lowry and Von Wafer. And who doesn't love a team with Battier, Scola and Carl Freaking Landry?!

If Yao AND Dikimbe didn't go down in the playoffs, I have no doubt we would have gone all the way that season. The Lakers bigs could not stop Yao and neither would have Denver's. And we all know how Yao dominated Howard every match up. And this is all without McGrady too. We had it all in the 08-09 team.

 

2007-2008 Houston Rockets were the for me the most lethal, talent and chemistry wise. If I'm not mistaken, we were already in the middle of 10 or 12 straight wins when Yao went down, then went on to stretch it out 22 games. Point is, had Yao not gone down, that team probably would have gone very deep in the Playoffs. Both Yao and T-mac were at their peak before going down, then had a supporting cast of Scola, Landry, Yao, Brooks, Rafer, Bobby Jackson and Chuck Hayes. Not to menton a hell of a coach in Rick Adelman. HAD YAO NOT GONE DOWN, that team would have been our best bet to get to the Finals.

 

Sorry for all the typos in that post. Girlfriend didn't let me get much sleep..

 

I dont know why but i always get nostalgic when i think about the 96 team. I think hakeem got hurt during the regular season and between horry, cassel, and elie there was so much heart

 

TMac got hurt too. Missed the Portland series. Imagine that team with a healthy TMac, a dominant Yao, Mutumbo, AB, Scola, Lowry, Artest, Landry, coach Adelman--dang!

 

/\ Oh, and forgot about Battier!!

 

Portland would not have won a single game.

 

With TMac? History tells us we would have lost the series

My vote goes to the 08-09 team. Im too young to have experienced most the years posted here.

 

2009 22 won streak team had skill and heart.

 

The 08-09 team also had Von Wafer (instant offense), Chuck Wagon (instant D), Brent Barry (bench decoration), et. al. The team not only had awesome talent but that group was a class act. They had great chemistry. Prior to that year Artest was for example a problem child...a year with Houston, and he was settled down after that. Just a great team. Also I like the '05-06 team. The '06 and '07 teams were just TMac, Yao and a bunch of scrubs.

 

any rockets team with tmac