In last year’s NBA Playoffs, the Houston Rockets were one game away from winning the Western Conference, defeating the defending NBA Champions the Golden State Warriors and facing Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2018 NBA Finals. Unfortunately, future Hall Of Famer Chris Paul had a hamstring injury during the series and the Rockets were unable to outscore a healthy Warriors roster. This abruptly ended what was James Harden’s MVP season. During the offseason, the Rockets lost their defensive identity by losing Trevor Ariza to a $15 million dollar contract with the Phoenix Suns & Luc Mbah a Moute to a $4.3 million dollar deal to the Los Angeles Clippers. These moves were to clear space for Unrestricted Free Agent Lebron James to possibly come to Houston. However, due to the Los Angeles Lakers having more Cap Space, Lebron moved to LA and the Rockets settled for future Hall Of Famer Carmelo Anthony. Only after the Atlanta Hawks bought out his contract and waived him to Houston on a Veteran’s Minimum 1yr contract. Preseason shootaround videos showed offensive potential with Carmelo conditioning with the team. Unfortunately, these videos didn’t show Anthony’s lack of defense or the conditioning his body needed to compete in the current NBA climate and pace of play. Fast forward to the 2018-2019 NBA Season, after only playing 10 games with the Rockets, Carmelo Anthony was released from the roster. Since Carmelo’s exit, the Rockets are currently 11-14 on a 3 game losing streak and appear to have lost the fire and passion of last season. In my opinion, losing Ariza & Mbah a Moute this summer eliminated Houston’s chances to defeat Golden State in the Western Conference. With Lebron James now in LA, the current Rockets roster will most likely not even be able to stop the Los Angeles Lakers from returning to the NBA Playoffs after 5 years. With the chances of the Houston Rockets winning a Championship looking slim, Head Coach Mike D’Antoni will most likely be fired after this season & GM Daryl Morey will have to destroy this current roster and rebuild his franchise around James Harden & an aging Chris Paul due to both superstars receiving Max Contracts during the offseason.