One season after making the conference finals, the Houston Rockets might not even see the playoffs in 2016. They started the season by firing their coach Kevin McHale and it was only followed by drama and drama and more drama all season long.
Now, Houston sees themselves on the outside looking in with a couple games to go and trailing the eighth seeded Utah Jazz. If the Rockets lose to the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday afternoon, you can essentially eliminate them from playoff contention.
With their lack of success this season, as compared to 2014-15, everyone is looking for someone to blame. While fans want to blame Dwight Howard or even James Harden, it appears the organization has their eyes on two others in general manager Daryl Morey and interim head coach J.B. Bicerstaff.
Following from Marc Stein and Calvin Watkins of ESPN.
The Houston Rockets are planning a comprehensive evaluation of all facets of the organization at the end of this highly disappointing season that will put general manager Daryl Morey and interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff under the microscope, according to league sources.
Sources told ESPN that the Rockets believe every aspect of the organization — coaching staff, front office and, of course, their roster — must be subject to a thorough review in the wake of Houston’s slide to a 38-41 outfit that’s at serious risk to miss the playoffs after damaging losses this week to Dallas and Phoenix.
Houston won 56 games and reached the Western Conference finals last season.
Rockets owner Leslie Alexander has publicly acknowledged that Bickerstaff — who replaced Kevin McHale in an interim role just 11 games into this season — would have to be assessed at season’s end.
Its unlikely Morey leaves the team this summer but the chances Bickerstaff joins Dwight Howard as a free agent talent this summer is very high and extremely likele. Under Bickerstaff, the Rockets haven’t performed any better and some would say at times, they have been worse than what they were under McHale.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens if the Rockets get eliminated from playoff contention.
