After a 55 Win Season, Daryl Morey Faces the Toughest Task of His Career

On Thursday, the Houston Rockets suffered one of the most confounding home losses in NBA playoff elimination game history. Two days after they held a two-point lead with 35 seconds remaining in a classic Game 5, the 39-point drubbing against a Kawhi Leonard-less San Antonio Spurs in Game 6 was inexplicable.

That said, Houston's season was a rousing success, even if it might not feel like it right now. The Rockets won 55 games and finished second in offensive rating, third in net rating, and launched more threes (3,306) than any team in NBA history. From James Harden's MVP-caliber campaign to Eric Gordon's Sixth Man-deserving revival, they were breezy and enjoyable, purveyors of a playing style that thrilled audiences and humbled the shrewdest defensive tacticians.

And now that it's over, general manager Daryl Morey has a several pivotal decisions to make that will determine whether this season was a building block toward bigger things.

Morey's play this year was to accentuate Harden's strengths by surrounding him with as many three-point shooters and diving bigs as possible, which obviously wasn't a bad idea. This propelled the Rockets into a top-3 seed after they barely made the playoffs in 2016. But the leap from "very good" to "great" is never easy, especially for a team that has no obvious trade chips and limited cap flexibility this summer.

Houston wants to raise another banner, and Morey's been open about the desire to pair the 27-year-old Harden with at least one more All-Star before his prime runs out.

Check out some more VICE Sports video:

Gordon, Ryan Anderson, Trevor Ariza, Clint Capela, Lou Williams, and Patrick Beverley are all great complementary players, but none are capable of co-piloting this franchise with Harden. Any one of them can be had in a trade. Harden stands alone as untouchable. Before the Western Conference Semifinals, Houston's offseason outlook probably looked something like this: Bring the aforementioned role players back—maintaining the fundamental pieces of a 55-win team isn't a horrible strategy—and tweak a few rusty spots around the margin.

Nene is their only unrestricted free agent, and without Bird Rights, it's more likely than not he'll be somewhere else next season. If the Rockets desperately want to retain him, they can clear as much as $10 million to do so. Nene was a game-changing force off Houston's bench, and he may command more than that from another team. We'll see.

One loss normally doesn't, or shouldn't, dictate an organization's direction or state of mind, but it's possible Morey heads into the summer feeling more needs to be done. It's possible Game 6 has left that much of a bitter taste. Houston's first-round pick (28th overall) belongs to the Los Angeles Lakers thanks to the Williams trade, and there aren't too many young players on the roster who'll improve enough by next season to get them past the Golden State Warriors.

Sure, they can hope someone like Rudy Gay, C.J. Miles, or Justin Holiday falls in their lap using cap space or the mid-level exception, but that's probably not enough for any of those guys. If that's not realistic, Morey can make aggressive stabs in free agency, and the two most obvious contracts he'll first look to shed in order to do so are Ariza and Williams.

These aren't no-brainers, though. Both are on bargain (albeit expiring) deals, and both make the Rockets a better team—particularly Ariza, whose two-way versatility is irreplaceable. Additionally, dumping both doesn't clear enough room to afford a max contract. It gets them close, but not quite there.

Assuming they renounce all their free agents (including Nene) and waive their non-guaranteed deals, Houston would be a few million short of $30 million after an Ariza/Williams dump. (Teams with space will line up around the block to take those guys on for nothing, even if it's early in the process.)

The whole point in getting rid of them is to add a star. If they can't, then the logic in doing so evaporates. Trading Ryan Anderson would be a little harder. He's owed $19.5 million next year, $20.4 million in 2019, and $21.2 million in 2020. (Random: Kelly Olynyk would be a nice replacement, but he's likely too expensive.)

Anderson played over 2,100 minutes this season and is only 29 years old, with arguably the deepest range for a true stretch four in the entire league. It's a highly-coveted skill, but the contract is a steep commitment.

If they can move Anderson's contract without taking on any salary (maybe the Brooklyn Nets would be interested?), then offload Williams, Morey would be cooking with grease. He could offer Blake Griffin, Gordon Hayward, or Paul Millsap a max deal—all of which would be long shots to say "yes".

It's a humongous gamble, and none of those guys are necessarily an upgrade over Anderson and Williams within the context of a Harden-led, Mike D'Antoni-coached squad. This brings us back to square one: stand pat, sustain continuity, and enter the 2017-18 season with slightly better versions of Sam Dekker and Clint Capela. Perhaps Montrezl Harrell will be ready to make the world forget about Nene? It's technically possible!

But the downside that comes with patience doesn't change. Harden will be 28 next season, with two more years on his deal before he can opt out of a $32.7 million player option. He's about the same age as Golden State's four All-Stars, so waiting them out isn't an option. The clock is ticking.

Good news may come in 2018, when Ariza and Williams naturally slide off the books and—assuming no long-term deals are agreed upon this summer—Morey will have max space to court the likes of Paul George, Isaiah Thomas, DeMarcus Cousins, and…that's about it. Again, it's unlikely any of those stars A) move the needle vs. Golden State, and/or B) are willing to sign in Houston.

This brings up the "Break in case of emergency" fire axe alternative that will probably never be seriously considered: Trade Harden. It's hard to even dignify this path with a logical explanation, but if next year plays out exactly like this one did, there's the slenderest of chances Morey pulls the trigger, watches the boulder roll back down the hill, and reloads with multiple first-round picks and blue-chip prospects.

(It's a virtual certainty that 73-year-old Rockets owner Leslie Alexander would not be down with this plan.)

It's assumed that acquiring a top-10 player in his prime is the hardest thing any team ever has to do. That's not a false statement. But even more difficult is hoarding two or three. And in a league where cap constraints put on by the new CBA make building a super team almost impossible, catching juggernauts like the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors—who were mostly constructed before the rules changed—may be the toughest task of Morey's career.