The Houston Rockets weren’t exactly shy about their stated goal of beating the Golden State Warriors this season. Perhaps the Rockets would have achieved that goal in the Western Conference Finals had Chris Paul not gotten hurt, but unfortunately for the fine folks in Houston, they fell short and started their summers a little earlier than anyone would have hoped.
Still, the fact that the Rockets were so open about wanting to take down Golden State and came up short at the hands of the Warriors means this season ended on as sour of a note as you can imagine. Based on comments that general manager Daryl Morey made on ESPN, though, it doesn’t appear he’s going to be undeterred by how the year came to an end.
Morey appeared on ESPN on Tuesday and was asked about his obsession with beating Golden State. In his eyes, being obsessed with taking down the Warriors should be every team’s No. 1 priority.
Rockets' GM Daryl Morey doesn't understand the teams that aren't obsessed with beating the Warriors. pic.twitter.com/L13j5R5Zv9
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 6, 2018
“I’d say 10,” Morey said when asked about the level to which he’s still obsessed with beating Golden State. “I don’t understand the teams that aren’t obsessed with beating them. To win the championship, you have to beat the Warriors. Every team should be figuring out how to beat the Warriors.”
Morey also pointed out that while the league has a number of great teams that they’d need to beat to win a championship, “The Warriors are on to winning three of the last four titles.”
Houston is a team that’s considered to be in the hunt for LeBron James or Paul George in free agency. It remains to be seen if they can add a player of that level — partly because it would take some serious roster reconstruction for salary cap purposes — but Morey made it obvious that his primary goal is still trying to put together a team that can take down Golden State.
