Golden State of Mind: Did the Rockets lose the off-season arms race with the Warriors?

Did the Rockets lose the off-season arms race with the Warriors?

While the Golden State Warriors are even stronger after signing DeMarcus Cousins, their biggest threat has been diminished. It’s painful to watch....on paper, this summer has been ugly for the Rockets. A team that was a step away from glory last year has taken one in the opposite direction. — Matt Ellentuck, SB Nation

The Golden State Warriors have a singular focus: raising a third straight banner, their fourth in the past five seasons. The Houston Rockets’ “obsession” is to keep that from happening. Honestly, I can see why. Three out of the last four Houston seasons have ended with the thudding sound of the Warriors golden boots connecting on their asses, dropkicking them unceremoniously out of the playoffs.

What makes the Rockets such a fun punching bag is their bizarre inclination to provoke the greatest team of all time, both overtly and subliminally.

Every year, more blasphemy pours out of the heart of Houston: Dubs “ain’t that good”, Stephen Curry wasn’t the real MVP in 2015, and my personal favorite, “The Rockets would have overthrown the Warriors if Chris Paul were healthy in the playoffs”.

Hey, it’s a free country. If they’d rather take their annual postseason eliminations with bitterness as opposed to a quiet dignity, that’s their prerogative. However, regardless of how emotional it makes them, the fact remains: they will take these L’s.

Still, they did win 65 games, were the #1 seed, and forced the champs to seven games last year (did they raise a banner for that accomplishment?). Yet, much like Icarus flying too close to the sun, the Rockets should be more terrified than excited that they came so close to defeating the champs. The last two franchises that came close to extinguishing the light of the Warriors’ greatness are now footnotes in GSoM’s Path of Destruction.

(R.I.P to OKC’s and Cleveland’s respective dynasty hopes). With that in mind, I was quite curious as to what the Rockets were going to do in the offseason. A team built on defensive versatility and outside shooting needed to add some more pieces to complete the dream of their GM Daryl Morey, and coach Mike D’Antoni.

Unfortunately for Houston fans and Dubs’ haters, the Rockets’ seem to have misfired on their chance to close the gap between themselves and the champs. Let’s take a quick look at what transpired.

The Rockets’ bewildering summer

• 
  
  
  • Houston watched 3-and-D specialist Trevor Ariza and his backup Luc Mbah a Moute skip town to pursue cash-laden obscurity on other teams. Remember when the Rockets fan base was super high on these guys impact? (read the comments from this cross blogination with “The Dream Shake” if you dare lol). It’s funny, because I don’t remember much “3” from these guys when Houston missed 27 straight threes in Game 7 in Texas. Still, they definitely were irritants defensively, and they were a major part of the Rockets’ versatility all season.

• 
  
  
  • Resigned the diminutive, aging, injury-prone, flop artist Chris Paul to a 4 yr/$160 mil contract nearing the back end of his career.
  • Resigned promising young center Clint Capela, the only NBA player delusional enough vocalize the lie that the Rockets are superior to Golden State, to a 5 yr/$90 mil contract.

• 
  
  
  • Added Michael Carter-Williams and James Ennis. Yawn.
  • Signed the faded superstar, the Olympic hero, the man with the strongest dad-body in the game, the HOODIED LEGEND, Carmelo Anthony to the veteran minimum, liberating him from OKC. Kevin Durant knows all too well the pain of begging for shots alongside Russell Westbrook, so we should all be celebrating Anthony’s new move.

• 
  
  
  • Watched their famed defensive guru, Jeff Bzdelik, retire at the age of 65. Odd timing that this announcement came a few weeks after Melo jumped on board? If you didn’t know, the pair had a supremely contentious relationship back when Bzdelik was head coach of the Denver Nuggets during Melo’s rookie campaign.

• 
  
  
  • Traded Ryan Anderson’s Fat Contract for Marquese Chriss and Brandon Knight. You may remember Anderson as Steph Curry’s personal welcome mat in the Western Conference Finals.

Anyways, D’Antoni believes in pushing his starters minutes to high levels, which makes for Listerine strip-thin rotations. Those six or seven man rotations are led entirely by a backcourt featuring Paul, and a husky MVP 2-guard with sleepy defense and a reputation for collapsing in big games (James Harden). Except now, they have major defensive holes, and signed the volume-chucking Anthony, who didn’t even make Sports Illustrated’s top 100 player’s list.

As my buddy @DupartDavid told me, maybe the FIBA basketball legend of “Olympic Melo” could be unleashed if the Rockets petitioned the league to allow Anthony to play in a hoodie, with a red, white, and blue basketball. Outside of that, I’m not sure what he’s going to do against the Warriors.

“Run it back”? The only thing the Rockets are good at running is their mouths. And CP3 better not run anything back too hard unless he wants to become the official “Icy Hot” spokesman. But...I digress.

Sorry Houston: We don’t believe

So, to sum it all up, the back-to-back champs just handed the Rockets another L, this one in the off-season. The Rockets made lateral moves at best, and have regressed at worst. Meanwhile, the Warriors have made the season more interesting at worst, and created a new Olympic team at best.

https://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2...-2018-chris-paul-jeff-bdzelik-carmelo-anthony

 

Had to repost this on the Rockets board...