In the past few years, the Houston Rockets have been among the biggest favorites to win the NBA championship, but they failed to reach the finals. Two seasons ago, the Rockets lost the Western Conference finals to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors in seven games. Last year, the Warriors stopped them in the second round in six games.
Tilman Fertitta believes the time is now for the Rockets to finally lift the Larry O’Brien trophy, especially after the addition of superstar point guard Russell Westbrook. Westbrook joined this summer from the Oklahoma City Thunder in a deal that saw Chris Paul going the other way. Westbrook and James Harden reunited after playing together with the Thunder, and that move certainly raised Houston’s chances in 2019-20.
Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta knows Houston's title window is shrinking https://t.co/8YuihcAy5d pic.twitter.com/P0IOJkmK8h
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) September 12, 2019
The Rockets re-signed guard Eric Gordon while Clint Capela also stayed with the team, and it seems that Houston is stronger than in the previous years.
“I think we put ourselves in the position that if we don’t win it in the next three or four years, we probably aren’t going to win one in the next 10 years,” Fertitta told Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes.
“This is the time. I just re-signed Eric Gordon who is 30 and I’ve got Russell [Westbrook] and James [Harden] and Eric and Clint Capela for the next four years. P.J. [Tucker] is 34 and our two stars are 30. So this is their window. Let’s seize the opportunity.”
There are some concerns regarding Westbrook’s leadership in Oklahoma and how he’ll cope with the fact that he has to share those duties with Harden. However, Fertitta is not worried and is sure two of them will work just fine.
“No, because I can remember watching Russell Westbrook against us a couple of times last year and I saw how he ran up and down that court and how his athleticism was so superior,” he said. “And I think it’s one of the things that we were a little short on.”
