In 2014–15 the team posted its best record (56–26) since the Olajuwon era and advanced to the Western Conference finals, where Houston lost to the Golden State Warriors. The team signed star centre Dwight Howard in the following off-season, and the Rockets bettered the previous season’s record and again advanced to the playoffs. One result of the team’s idiosyncratic approach to development was the Rockets’ earning a playoff berth in 2012–13 with the youngest roster in the NBA, including the outstanding shooting guard James Harden. McGrady was traded away in 2010 Yao retired in 2011, after having missed much of the previous two seasons with injuries and the Rockets began a rebuilding process.ĭuring its rebuilding, the team was notable for its reliance on advanced statistical analyses (similar to sabermetrics in baseball) in its player acquisitions. Each one of the aging trio had left the team by 2001, and the Rockets of the early 21st century, led by superstars Tracy McGrady and 7-foot 6-inch (2.29-metre) Yao Ming from China, followed the trend of consistent regular-season respectability followed by playoff underachievement. The team added Charles Barkley in 1996, but the presence of three of the NBA’s 50 greatest players of all time (Olajuwon, Drexler, and Barkley) was not enough to propel Houston past the Western Conference finals. Houston won back-to-back NBA titles in the 1993––95 seasons behind inspired play from Olajuwon and key contributions from guard Sam Cassell, forward Robert Horry, and (for the 1994–95 season) forward Clyde Drexler (yet another former University of Houston star). Tomjanovich took over head coaching duties midway through the 1991–92 season, ushering in the most successful period in franchise history. The Rockets continued to qualify for the postseason throughout the 1980s, but they failed to advance past the second round of the playoffs for the rest of the decade. Olajuwon teamed with another towering post player, Ralph Sampson (both were over 7 feet tall), to lead the Rockets to another NBA finals appearance in 1986, in which they were again defeated by the Celtics. In 1984 the Rockets drafted Hakeem Olajuwon, another future Hall of Fame centre (and another University of Houston alumnus), who quickly became the face of the franchise. Malone left the team in 1982, and the Rockets fell to the lower echelon of the NBA in his absence. The Rockets surpassed this feat during the 1980–81 season when-after finishing the regular season with an unimpressive record of 40 wins and 42 losses-Houston amassed three consecutive playoff series upsets en route to a berth in the NBA finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics. Houston traded for elite centre Moses Malone two games into the 1976–77 season, and that year the Rockets posted the first winning season in franchise history and advanced to the conference finals. The early Rockets teams were led by a pair of future Hall of Famers- Elvin Hayes, who had starred for the University of Houston, and diminutive Calvin Murphy-as well as by Rudy Tomjanovich, who would later coach the Rockets for 12 seasons. The team was founded as the San Diego Rockets in 1967 and moved to Houston in 1971 after four losing seasons. The Rockets have won two National Basketball Association (NBA) championships (19) and four Western Conference titles. Houston Rockets, American professional basketball team based in Houston.
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