Daily Rocket Science: Reflecting and Looking Ahead

To accurately predict and plan for the future, it’s important to understand and reflect on the past. Today’s Daily Rocket Science will be comparing the state of the team right now to what things were like just one year ago.

Rahat Huq of Red94 posted a long piece that looks at how far the Houston Rockets have fallen from grace over the past year. It was widely assumed that last year would be the beginning of a beautiful new age for Red Nation, but those dreams were shattered to pieces over the course of the 2015-2016 season.

"With the discussion right now surrounding Dwight Howard, and his impending decision, I’m reminded that this time last year, the question wasn’t whether or not we would want Howard back for this upcoming season, but whether we could stomach the latter years on his inevitable extension after his decline. But the decline has happened already, with almost all reasonable observers in unanimous agreement that a divorce would do well for both sides. Who would have ever foreseen that this was how the Dwight Howard saga would end!"

Had Ty Lawson not been a disaster this might not have been true, but the Rockets have not boasted a high level point guard since the days of Steve Francis. Space City Scoop’s Coty Davis wrote on what it would look like for Houston to chase after Rajon Rondo. The prospect makes me nervous after seeing his tenure in Dallas go up in flames, but the idea is intriguing.

In an era dominated by several scoring point guards, Rondo is one of a few pass-first floor generals remaining.

Rondo is one of the best distributors in the league. His vision and creativity are similar to that of Steve Nash. So in an offense that is now run by Mike D’antoni, he may be the ideal point guard for the Rockets.

However, unlike like Nash, Rondo has always been a relentless rebounder for his size. At 6’3 186 pounds, he has ranked near the top of rebounding point guards in each of the last two seasons.

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A year ago, the Rockets were proud owners of a first round draft pick heading into the summer. They ended up drafting Sam Dekker, who has yet to play significant minutes due to back issues. This year, because of the aforementioned Ty Lawson experiment, Houston does not have a first round pick. It is widely believed that any significant additions to the roster would have to come through free agency, but Daryl Morey says otherwise, according to Kurt Helin of NBC Sports.

Deep draft-we R still talking about ~50 players w/legit chance 2make impact in NBA-highest since I joined HOU-reminds me of deep 2005 draft

— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) June 18, 2016

The upcoming season will be massively important to the future of the Houston Rockets because it will be telling as to which of the past two seasons was the fluke. It could be that the stars just happened to have aligned last year for the Rockets to go as deep as they did in the playoffs, or it could be that this season was a prime example of Murphy’s Law. Whatever the case, immediate improvement is necessary.

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

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To accurately predict and plan for the future, it’s important to understand and reflect on the past. Today’s Daily Rocket Science will be comparing the state of the team right now to what things were like just one year ago.

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