The Houston Rockets, as they have undergone their rebuild, have built out an incredibly promising young core, and, with their addition of superstar Kevin Durant, they appear poised to pull off the rare feat of contending while maintaining a set of ascending young players under long-term contracts.
ESPN's recent future power rankings confirm this fact, ranking the Rockets second, but one rival organization, the Oklahoma City Thunder, might just have too much draft capital for Houston to compete with them on an organizational level.
Despite how positive the Rockets' outlook might be for years to come, it appears as though, barring catastrophe, the Thunder will be more well-poised: an extremely frustrating proposition for any team in the Western Conference.