NBA Playoffs 2017: 5 things we learned from the Spurs beating the Rockets
By Connor Learn
1. The Rockets may be stuck in basketball purgatory
The ultimate goal for any NBA franchise is to win a championship. All 30 teams are building towards that elusive goal. It is a rare accomplishment for teams; only one team finishes that goal each season. And while that one team reaches the pinnacle, the rest are let down at the end of their season. The Rockets are one of those teams: they played a year of exciting basketball where they achieved 55 wins and made it deep into the second round before falling. What’s more for Houston, is that this year’s result may be about as good as it gets for them.
The Rockets achieved more than most thought they were capable of given their offense-heavy personnel. Assistant coach Jeff Bzdelik should receive praise for coordinating the team’s defense and every member of their organization should be proud of the season they had. Deft personnel moves helped spur success. Bringing in Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon proved to be the right moves to help the team get to this level. Nene Hilario was brought in and had a rebirth of sorts as the Rockets’ backup center. Lou Williams has fit in well in Houston so far as well.
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General Manager Daryl Morey won’t have much flexibility to improve his team this summer. The Rockets have the luxury of about $12 million in cap room headed into the summer but may have to spend the bulk of that to re-sign Hilario. Their first round pick is due to the Lakers and most tradable assets are gone. Most of their core is approaching 30; there won’t be tons of internal improvement from this squad next season. Add in the fact that they generally had good injury luck this season and it just becomes hard to see the Rockets getting better next year. This team, as currently constructed, found its ceiling during this series.