OAKLAND, Calif. -- Following a season where the Houston Rockets fell below expectations, team owner Leslie Alexander told ESPN he will take a more active role this offseason.
“I think I will change a little bit,” Alexander said after the Rockets' practice Friday in preparation for Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round series against Golden State. “More scrutiny and what they’re doing. I was thinking about doing it anyway but after this season, definitely.”
After giving general manager Daryl Morey a vote of confidence earlier this week in an interview with Fox 26 TV in Houston, Alexander said Morey will assist in the evaluation process to improve a team that crashed from 56 wins last season to 41 this season.
This season, Alexander fired coach Kevin McHale after 11 games and the Rockets clinched the last playoff spot on the final day of the regular season.
“We definitely thought we would have a much better team,” Alexander said. “We didn’t play well for the first half and we let a lot of games go by and also James (Harden) won a lot of games. It takes its toll on somebody.”
Alexander said he will evaluate the status of interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff once the season ends but praised the coach by saying, “he’s got a winning record (37-34) which is good from where he started with.”
