 I'd call him a maverick, but in his small Port of Texas that's not necessarily seen as a good thing. For better or worse, it is undeniable that Daryl Maury changed the landscape of the NBA and how the game of basketball is played at all levels. While the concept of this modernization is certainly subjective, there is something honorable about challenging the status quo. Known by many to be one of the founding fathers of analytics and a revolutionary of small ball tactics, you'd figure those credentials would earn Maury championship accolades. The truth is, it never did. The Rockets never even made the finals once during his tenure, but that is not the headline of this story. It's about a man who wanted to play poker, but only if you were willing to go all in every hand until there were no more chips left to bet. The story starts on April 3rd, 2006, when Maury was hired to be the Rockets' assistant general manager after three campaigns with the Celtics. Almost exactly one year later, he ascends to the general manager position and oversees the head coaching transition from Jeff Van Gundy to Rick Adelman. The early years included a historic 22-game winning streak, capped off with a 31-point performance by Rafer, skipped to Milo Austin against the mighty Purple and Gold. At the time, it was the NBA's second longest regular season winning streak ever. A year later, Houston gets its first playoff series victory since 1997, only to lose to those same Lakers with McGrady and Yao Meng sidelined due to injury. June 23rd, 2011, The Rockets select Kansas forward Marcus Morris with the 14th pick in the draft. Minutes later, the Pacers would take a guy named Kauai Leonard from San Diego State. Soon thereafter, Linsanity invades the 713 on a three-year, $25.1 million deal. While this certainly made headlines worldwide, little did we know that it would pale in comparison to what he had planned next, the James Harden trade, and then the coup, only to have the Revolution halting in its tracks by a young, fire-wielding point guard out of Weber State. Summer 2014, The Exodus. After reshuffling the deck multiple times, The Rockets pull off the decade's original 3-1, knocking the vaunted Lob City Clippers from the playoffs in seven games, an achievement which prompts a domino effect, setting the stage for the beginning of the Golden State Warriors dynasty. Despite taking the team to the Western Conference Finals, head coach Kevin McHale is relieved of his duties after a 4-7 start to the following season. In due time, the Dwight Howard era comes to a disappointing close, and the transformation to the pace and space small-ball era begins. To say it got off to a rocky beginning would be an understatement. As illustrated by the critically acclaimed film Rounders, poker legend Doyle Brunson once said, the key to no limit is to put a man to a decision for all of his chips. And on June 28, 2017, Daryl Maury did just that. Trading almost half of the team's active roster in exchange for the Robin to pair with James Harden's Batman, point guard Chris Paul. While rumblings of discontent between the two superstars reverberated throughout the Rockets locker room and eventually leaking into the media, it was nothing more than a whiff of smoke. But if the NBA has taught us anything, where there's smoke, there's fire. And when Chris Paul pulled up lame in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, the House of Cards collapsed in theatrical, historical fashion. Maury doubled down on his experiment, going to the ATM for a cash advance to extend Chris Paul and get back into the game despite the looming interest bill due at the end of the project. Maury wins, executive of the year. Harden is the league's MVP. To conquer the Golden State Empire, Maury even reaches up his sleeve to play a joker. The result was all too familiar. At this point, the NBA had transitioned from the formation of the big three to the Superteam Era and now the Age of Duos. With Golden State vulnerable, Maury makes a do or die bet on formulating what he believes to be the most efficient championship-winning strategy. Pairing two MVPs whose chemistry together is somehow even better than their individual play on the court. The blockbuster transaction leads to the formation of Maury Ball, a radical, analytics-infused X's and O's Hail Mary, which entails featuring a six-foot-six-inch human playing center. However, drawing to the nuts doesn't mean you have a made hand. And when it fails, sometimes you're left with nothing more than two kings facing aces. Whether you think his experiment worked or not is ultimately up to you. But let this trip down memory lane remind us that Maury's outside-the-box strategy was the first of its kind. One which nearly two-and-a-half out of every three franchises in the league would kill to have the opportunity to implement themselves. Seeing how close they got to eternal glory over a 15-plus-year span, and just because he doesn't have a ring to validate this experiment, doesn't mean it wasn't worth it. Now in Philadelphia, the setting is different, but the questions remain the same. Like his martyred predecessor, will Maury blow up the establishment to implement his style of play? Or does he sell everything in the store to compliment his two in-house superstars like he's done so many times before? The answers to both of these questions have defined his legacy to this point. But not the future. That timeline begins now.