Eric Gordon not expecting any rebuild in 2020 from Rockets - Rockets Wire

In line with recent comments from owner Tilman Fertitta, Houston Rockets guard Eric Gordon isn’t expecting any major changes in the organization’s direction heading into the 2020-21 season.

Now entering his fifth season with the Rockets, Gordon is still searching for his first NBA title, along with All-Star team mates Russell Westbrook and James Harden. But they might not be as far away as some think.

Over Gordon’s tenure, Houston is the only Western Conference team to have won at least one playoff series in each year. Of the four teams they lost to (Spurs in 2016-17, Warriors in 2017-18 and 2018-19, and Lakers in 2019-20), two eventually won the NBA championship; three won the West; and the other won 61 games in that regular season. None of those best-of-seven series were sweeps, and three went at least six games.

As a result, Gordon’s intent is to keep plugging away. In a new appearance on The Ashley Nevel Show, the 31-year-old explained why he isn’t expecting any major changes this offseason. Among his comments:

We’ve always been a team that’s had high expectations. Since I’ve been here, I’ve seen it for the last four years. You can’t forget, every team that we lost to, they ended up winning the championship.

For us, we definitely need to find ways to get over that hump. The chemistry could be better. … For us, we made a lot of change last year. We went small ball halfway through the season. … In the playoffs, it’s all about matchups.

We’ve just got to be able to rally around the same group of guys, and build on more chemistry, and try to get better. Try to utilize everybody to play at their best. I think that’s going to make us better, in the long haul. I don’t think they’re going to rebuild this team. This team is good. I don’t care what a lot of people say, it doesn’t matter. Injuries and whatnot, we’ve seen it all here. We still win 50+ games, and we’re still going to be right there in the playoffs.

Gordon was Houston’s No. 3 scorer in the 2020-21 regular season, averaging 14.4 points in 28.2 minutes per game. He’s also under contract with the Rockets for at least three more seasons moving forward.

Last week, Fertitta mentioned Gordon specifically as among the reasons that the Rockets would not be “blowing it up” in 2020. His comments:

Any time you have players like that — Eric, P.J. [Tucker], James, and Russell, there’s no reason to blow up your roster.

This is still our window, the next couple years. James and Russell are in their early 30s. We’re not blowing up anything. We plan on contending. I’ve always said that you want to set yourself up to be one of the top four teams in your conference, and then it takes a little bit of luck to win. We’re going to set ourselves up again to make a move to be one of the top four teams. We’re going to do whatever we have to do to win, I can promise that to my fans, and compete for the NBA championship this year.

The likely course for Gordon and the Rockets appears to be trying to build on their No. 4 finish in the West during 2019-20, and perhaps seeing further growth in the second year of the Harden-Westbrook partnership and the first year of a new coaching regime. Any talks about more drastic changes will likely be tabled until at least the 2021 offseason.

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