Houston Rockets Daily Rocket Science: Failure to launch

There was a time when the 2015-2016 season was expected to be one of greatness for the Houston Rockets.

Aaaaand that time is gone. There were mistakes made all through the course of the season, from bad drafting decisions to rotation issues as recent as their last game. Now, with three games left on the schedule, there’s a good percentage that the Houston Rockets will miss their chance to play postseason basketball.

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Firstly, we’ll address many of the mistakes that the Rockets have made over the course of the season. Space City Scoop’s Andre Cantalogo provided a sad, beautifully written piece on the seven deadly sins that Houston committed over the course of the season that led them to be at the point of potentially blowing it all up. It perfectly sums up the mood of this season and accurately addresses all the problems that took place to pull the Rockets down.

And while H-Town played with the same mentality and won last season, this time around the Rockets died by the three.

The Texan team is knocking down 34.5% of their three-point shots whereas last season they scored 34.8% of their treys.

It’s true the percentages are close but when ranking the percentages of the 30 teams of the league, Clutch City actually fell 8 spots from the 2014-2015 season to the 2015-2016 season. While the team ranked 14th last year in 3-point percentage this year the plummeted to rank 22nd.

So, what will be done before the start of next season to prevent a repeat of this campaign. Well, probably a lot. Like many other writers at Space City Scoop, I’m of the belief that the Rockets will blow up what they have going now and start fresh. To back up that point, Bleacher Report’s Alec Nathan reported that Houston’s front office will evaluate Daryl Morey and decide whether or not to bring him back as General Manager next season. For a guy who started the season thinking he had put together a 60-win team, he can’t be happy with how things have went.

Morey made a splash in October 2012 when he dealt Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin and a slew of draft pick considerations to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for James Harden—who subsequently helped push Houston into a higher tier in the Western Conference.

And while the Rockets did experience success by snapping a three-year postseason drought after acquiring Harden, the team has dropped off a cliff this year, as chemistry concerns have plagued it without strong roster balance.

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Where has all this turmoil placed the Houston Rockets in the latest (and last) 2016 NBA Power Rankings? It’s cringe-worthy: 17. Josh Martin of Bleacher Report ranked the Rockets at 17. I’d love to say they deserve to be placed higher, but I bleakly admit that his decision wasn’t all that bold.

The Rockets still have a puncher’s chance of sneaking into the final spot. They’ll close the campaign against the Lakers, Timberwolves and Kings—all of whom should be beatable.

Then again, the same was true of Phoenix, and Houston’s Swiss cheese defense was helpless as the Suns torched the Rockets for 124 points.

The Rockets take on Kobe Bryant of Los Angeles Lakers for his final game in Houston today. Every game is a must-win from here on out if Houston even wants a chance at the postseason. We all know how unpredictable the Rockets are, so prepare to sit at the edge of your seats for another few days.

Send our Editor any Rockets-related article/video/tweet/gram/vine that we may have missed via Twitter direct message to @TTOTambz.

Next: Kobe Bryant's Greatest Games Versus Houston Rockets

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