First round: ’15 Harden vs. ’05 McGrady / ’93 Olajuwon vs. ’01 Francis / ’18 Harden vs. ’89 Olajuwon / ’82 Malone vs. ’74 Tomjanovich / ’19 Harden vs. ’13 Harden / ’17 Harden vs. ’14 Harden / ’94 Olajuwon vs. ’16 Harden / ’79 Malone vs. ’81 Malone
Over their 53 years in existence, the Rockets are among the NBA’s most successful franchises by nearly any metric.
Houston ranks in the league’s all-time Top 10 in wins and winning percentage by franchise. They’ve won the NBA Finals on multiple occasions (1994, 1995) and the Western Conference four different times, along with seven division titles and 33 total playoff appearances.
Individual greatness has largely driven their team success. The Rockets have had three players win MVP in a Houston uniform (Moses Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon, James Harden), and they’ve had 62 total All-Star selections. They have six retired numbers, with Olajuwon and Malone joined by Calvin Murphy, Rudy Tomjanovich, Clyde Drexler, and Yao Ming.
All are among the 12 Hall of Famers to have played for the Rockets, and recent stars such as Harden, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, and Dwight Howard will further add to that list in the years ahead. But of all those NBA legends, who has had the greatest individual season of all? Rockets Wire aims to answer that question, with your help.
Methodology: In an effort to be as neutral as possible, the 16 seedings are ranked by Win Shares, as listed on Basketball Reference. These Win Shares are based on statistics during each regular season, rather than the playoffs. However, if you’d like to add playoff performance in that year to your criteria, that’s absolutely your prerogative! The suspended 2019-20 season is not included, as we hope it resumes at some point.
Without further delay, let the balloting begin. First-round voting will continue until Wednesday night. Vote early and often!
First round: 2014-15 James Harden vs. 2004-05 Tracy McGrady
No. 1 seed: 2014-15 James Harden: 27.4 points (44.0% FG, 37.5% 3-pointers), 7.0 assists, 5.7 rebounds, 1.9 steals per game
Harden’s 2014-15 season is perhaps best remembered for how he picked up the slack for issues around him. Co-star Dwight Howard missed 41 games in the regular season, and starters Pat Beverley and Donatas Motiejunas each had their seasons end early due to injury. Veteran castoffs like Pablo Prigioni and Jason Terry were thrust into key roles.
Nonetheless, largely due to Harden’s leadership, the often shorthanded Rockets still went 56-26 in the regular season and earned the No. 2 seed in the West. They won Houston’s first division title in 21 years, and then advanced in the playoffs to the franchise’s first Western Conference Finals in 18 years. Harden posted 4.2 defensive win shares that year, which remains the most of his career, and his 61.8% true shooting percentage is the second-highest of Harden’s eight seasons in Houston.
After the 2014-15 season concluded, “The Beard” was voted by fellow NBA players as the league’s MVP.
No. 16 seed: 2004-05 Tracy McGrady: 25.7 points (43.1% FG, 32.6% 3-pointers), 6.2 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 1.7 steals per game
Considering that back and knee issues limited McGrady’s prime, it probably isn’t a surprise that McGrady’s best year in Houston was his first one. McGrady’s 78 games played were by far the most of any of his six seasons played in Houston, and his scoring average and efficiency marks were at or near the top of his Houston tenure, too.
Led by McGrady, the Rockets improved by six games (45-37 to 51-31) in the Western Conference standings and moved up from the No. 7 seed to No. 5. They lost in seven games in the first round to rival Dallas.
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