Remove the star, highest win differential?

[Djoker]

The answer may well be 2009 Lebron because he was an incredible floor raiser but come on now that isn't a 25-win team without him.

Shout out to 1970 Kareem who I don't think anyone mentioned yet.

[falcolombardi]

The answer may well be 2009 Lebron because he was an incredible floor raiser but come on now that isn't a 25-win team without him.

Shout out to 1970 Kareem who I don't think anyone mentioned yet.

Since they won 19 in 2011 you may be right

How many wins do you think they get ? Cause everythingh from how they played in lebron-less minutes to how they played after losing lebron points to a near or -sub- 25 win total. Not more, less

I find it unlikely they do much better than mid to high 20's

[One_and_Done]

The answer may well be 2009 Lebron because he was an incredible floor raiser but come on now that isn't a 25-win team without him.

Shout out to 1970 Kareem who I don't think anyone mentioned yet.

I mentioned Kareem.

[OhayoKD]

The answer may well be 2009 Lebron because he was an incredible floor raiser but come on now that isn't a 25-win team without him.

Shout out to 1970 Kareem who I don't think anyone mentioned yet.

Since they won 19 in 2011 you may be right

How many wins do you think they get ? Cause everythingh from how they played in lebron-less minutes to how they played after losing lebron points to a near or -sub- 25 win total. Not more, less

I find it unlikely they do much better than mid to high 20's

They played at 15-win pace when they weren't tanking fwiw. The data points to them being sub-20

[f4p]

Oh, and a shout to '02 Steve Francis, whose Rockets went an appalling 2-23 without him (26-31 with). A +30 WOWY sample for Mr. Franchise.

I think that was less about Francis and more about blatant tanking to try and get Ming. Biggest misleading win-loss stat ever.

Absolutely not tanking. At one point early on, the rockets SF (rice) and PF (Taylor) were already out for the season, the center was out and then Francis missed about 18 games I think and went on a 15 game losing streak. That was the bulk of the devastating record without Francis. Then he came back and the rockets obviously played to win or they wouldnt have played Francis most of the rest of the season with plantar fascitis and almost won half of them. We got two because we got lucky in the lottery from like 5th place.

[One_and_Done]

Oh, and a shout to '02 Steve Francis, whose Rockets went an appalling 2-23 without him (26-31 with). A +30 WOWY sample for Mr. Franchise.

I think that was less about Francis and more about blatant tanking to try and get Ming. Biggest misleading win-loss stat ever.

Absolutely not tanking. At one point early on, the rockets SF (rice) and PF (Taylor) were already out for the season, the center was out and then Francis missed about 18 games I think and went on a 15 game losing streak. That was the bulk of the devastating record without Francis. Then he came back and the rockets obviously played to win or they wouldnt have played Francis most of the rest of the season with plantar fascitis and almost won half of them. We got two because we got lucky in the lottery from like 5th place.

At the time there was considerable speculation the Rockets were tanking. They closed the season 3-15 after a 25-39 start. In particular, the last 3 games of that stretch the Rockets gave 40+ minutes to guys like Oscar Torres and Tierre Brown, to guarantee losses including to cellar dwellers Denver and Vancouver. If they had won those last 2 or 3 games they go from the 5th worst record to the 7th worst, which is a big difference odds wise.

Some of it was terrible coaching too though. They just let Francis and Mobley jack inefficient shots galore on that team, so when one of them was injured they had no idea what to do in offense. They had no replacement players who could create offense.

Looking at the entirety of Francis career, nothing else suggests a huge floor lift from him, meaning this season was probably a combination of anomalous factors (e.g. no replacements, tanking, random variables, etc).