Rockets’ best chance may have come and gone
The Rockets say they know what they need to do, and in the interests of NBA parity and intrigue you kind of hope they’re right.
“I know that we’re going to rise to the occasion,” owner Tilman Fertitta said Friday night after his team’s season ended, again, with defeat at the hands of the Warriors. “Our time is going to come.”
Rockets fans hope he’s right while also being justified in wondering whether Houston’s best run already has come and gone.
The Western Conference semifinals offered perhaps the best opportunity for the Warriors to be beaten in the postseason since the Cavaliers did it in the 2016 NBA Finals. Once Kevin Durant went down with a calf strain in Game 5, the door was opened for James Harden, Chris Paul and company to seize the initiative. Except, they didn’t — at least not well enough to get the Rockets over the line.
So what next?
“I know what we need to do,” Harden said. “I know exactly what we need to do. We’ll figure it out this summer.”
When pressed for specifics, Harden declined to offer any, which will make many wonder if Houston is all out of ideas in its long and fruitless crusade to take down Golden State.
For the past 12 months, the ongoing narrative coming out of the Rockets’ organization was that they wanted a second crack at the Warriors, having felt shortchanged when Paul went down injured in the sixth of the conference finals’ seven epic games in 2018.
Yet whatever motivation they drew from the chance for redemption, the Warriors apparently took just as much from hearing it vocalized.
“For years now, but definitely this year, we’ve listened to them all year talk about they’re waiting to beat us,” Draymond Green said. “I got to (give) them some credit, though. It takes a lot of — I don’t know if I can use the word I want to use … it takes a lot of heart.”
Houston undoubtedly has heart and played the Warriors tough in this season. Right now, the Rockets probably are the second-best squad in the entire league. It still wasn’t enough.
The Warriors are likely to look different quite soon, with Durant assumed to be headed for the Knicks, yet as Game 6 showed, Steve Kerr’s men are more than capable of winning without him.
Houston doesn’t have a whole lot of wiggle room with which to shake things up. Paul is now coming into the highest earning part of his contract, and he and Harden are on long-term max deals. Putting a new look to the team would not only require highly aggressive trade moves but financially imaginative ones.
In truth, Houston’s shortcomings might have had more to do with mentality than pure talent.
What the Rockets missed in this series wasn’t necessarily another great shooter to alleviate the burden on Harden or a bigger, better big man than Clint Capela.
It wasn’t a finer defender than PJ Tucker or a more versatile contributor than Eric Gordon. They were both excellent.
What was lacking was the mental edge. The Golden State players and staff knew they were capable of getting the job done, and the Rockets merely hoped they were.
It is hard to beat anyone without unshakable confidence. Trying to do it against the best team of modern times is that much tougher.
“We got to go (back) to the drawing board,” Paul said.
Just like a year ago, the Rockets head into an empty summer looking for answers. Yet the most nagging, worrying thought for them is this: Are they destined to become this generation’s NBA nearly-men?