Back in July, after the Spurs landed LaMarcus Aldridge, there was a lot of hype surrounding the team. Several pundits proclaimed the Spurs the team to beat, and at one point, Vegas odds even had the Spurs as the overall favorites to win the NBA championship.
Fast forward several months, and expectations have understandably tempered. Most experts now rank the Warriors and Cavaliers ahead of the Spurs, and understandably so, because these two teams after all made the Finals last season. But the Rockets?!
It started in August, when Ethan Strauss and Amin Elhassan ranked their top 5 teams in the NBA, and both of them picked Houston against San Antonio. Justifiably,
this sentiment was widely ridiculed across SpursTalk, and we all thought that would be the end of it.
But rather than going away quietly, this idea that the Rockets are better than the Spurs seems to have caught on among the national media. First,
Zach Lowe came out with an article proclaiming Houston as the biggest threat to Golden State in the West.
Next, Rob Mahoney went out and ranked the Rockets ahead of the Spurs in his Southwest Division preview for Sports Illustrated.
This is not to say the Rockets won't be a good team next season. They have an additional year of playing experience under their belt, and they just added Ty Lawson to a team that already made the WCF last season. No doubt they will be one of the top contenders in the West.
But better than the Spurs? People forget, the Spurs were the best team in the NBA last season post-all star break, running roughshod through the NBA and emerging as the most credible threat to the Warriors in the West. And that team just added LaMarcus Aldridge and David West.
I'm not saying the Rockets won't be good. They definitely will be. But to say they're better than the Spurs? That is just ridiculous.
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