Rockets fans are forced to recall most heartbreaking season in unfortunate rankings

The 2017-18 Houston Rockets did not win the NBA championship. A new article suggests they're the best team to ever fall short of that goal.

Warning: This piece may cause emotional distress. It was painful to write. Recalling the juggernaut that was the 2017-18 Rockets is an emotionally tumultous experience. They came so close, but so far.

The Ringer's Michael Pena says no team has fallen short quite as powerfully.

2017-18 Rockets earn unfortunate distinction

It's hard to argue with Pena.

"They won 65 games and finished first in net rating, first in offensive rating, and—most notably, considering the long-standing reputations held by their head coach and best player—seventh in defensive rating"

- Michael Pena, The Ringer

First in Net Rating. First in Offensive Rating. What happened?

If you don't know, it's a surprise to find you here. Chris Paul's torn hamstring cost the Rockets everything.

Didn't it?

Rockets could have won it all in 2017-18

Here's one indisputable fact: The Rockets were the best regular season team in the NBA in 2017-18.

How could that be argued? The Rockets won 65 games. They were a marvel of modern basketball engineering. The offense revolved around the twin engines of James Harden and Chris Paul. Defensively, the Rockets featured a platoon of elite defensive wings who's switchability still shapes the way defense is played in the NBA today.

The Rockets had an identity. Harden, Mike D'Antoni and Darryl Morey were all philosophically aligned. They wanted to play the numbers game. The Rockets fired a record volume of threes with brutal efficiency, and it worked.

Unfortunately, it collapsed without Paul. The Rockets relied on being able to basically spam pick-and-rolls with two vastly different pick-and-roll ball-handlers. Harden's attack became predictable in the Western Conference Finals, and the Warriors won.

Surely, it would have went different without Paul:

Right?

Rockets had a real chance to win it all

The Rockets likely would have beaten the Warriors.

They had them on the ropes. Houston was specifically designed to beat this iteration of the Warriors. The plan was being executed before Paul suffered his injury.

The Finals are a different story.

Bet against prime LeBron James at your own peril. That's who the Rockets would have played in the Finals. Whether they'd have emerged victorious is anyone's guess.

We'll never know. Still, it's fair to say the Rockets had every opportunity to usurp James and his Cavaliers. The Rockets were the best team in the league that year, and they could have beaten anyone:

Unfortunately, "could have" are the two words that will forever define them.