Houston Rockets Daily Rocket Science: Stick a fork in it?

The lack of success from Morey’s analytical strategies has fans wondering whether it should be continued or not.

The Houston Rockets have been under the general management of Daryl Morey since 2007, making it past the first round of the playoffs just twice in that span, and only once in the James Harden era. The lack of results that fans had in their mind has some of them questioning Morey’s methods.

I’d like to add as a disclaimer that I, as a basketball enthusiast, do not agree with the majority of what will be featured in today’s Daily Rocket Science. I’m a Morey supporter and a Harden supporter. Everyone was on the same page when they thought the Rockets would be a 60-win team this season, but unmet expectations due to a lot of unrelated issues have turned the Rockets into victims of unwarranted criticism.

That being said, let’s take a look at some criticism that Houston is faced with going into the offseason.

Houston Rockets news and notes from around the web

I’ll admit–I didn’t come up with the title for this DRS myself. Instead, it’s from the title of an article by Huffington Post’s Vince Vega that details why he thinks the Rockets need to stick a fork in Morey’s analytical approach to building a basketball team.

"As is the case with most corporate suits, the Dilbert Rules apply. The team fluked to the Western Conference Finals in 2015, more off of a Clippers collapse than Rockets brilliance. In fact, it was Coach McHale’s tough decision to go to his bench and feature journeyman, Josh Smith, that led to the victory. In the following round, with no luck to guide them, the Rockets were mauled by the Golden State Warriors."

The next article (or in this case, a video) that we’ll look at is one from NBA.com where The Starters discuss future plans for the Rockets and why the team failed to accomplish its goals this season.

"On paper, I think the blueprint for this team is right. You’ve got a dominant guard, James Harden. You’ve got a dominant big–somewhat–in Dwight Howard…and then dotted around the perimeter you’ve got guys who can shoot…this is how a team is supposed to be built, but it just didn’t work."

More from Space City Scoop

If all the criticism (some of it may be deserved, I suppose) that the current Rockets are getting weren’t enough, former Rocket Yao Ming has been facing his own fair share of problems overseas. The Hall of Famer has been leading the charge to convince China’s government to privatize the CBA and model it after the popular and profitable NBA, but to no avail. As Adam Minter of BloombergView reports, it speaks to the amount of “difficulty of reform in China.”

"The CBA’s business structure also hampers competition. Unlike the NBA, where teams retain most of the sponsorship money they earn, CBA franchises must turn over all of their revenues to the league front office. Predictably, the system has been a commercial disaster. Last season, only of the CBA’s 20 teams made a profit. one"

Hopefully, things will have changed a lot in Houston by the time next year’s playoffs roll around, and hopefully the public’s opinion of the organization will have improved as well. As a die-hard Houston fan, it’s just no fun seeing your favorite team get bashed all the time.

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

Next: Why the Houston Rockets Should Hire Jeff Van Gundy

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