Daryl Morey: Warriors ‘one of the best teams ever,' but Rockets…

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So far this offseason, the Rockets traded for Chris Paul, signed P.J. Tucker in free agency and re-signed Nene.

"We're obviously opportunistic. We really like our eight that we have right now," GM Daryl Morey said at Tucker's introductory press conference on Thursday. "And Coach (Mike D'Antoni) doesn't play much more than that anyway usually ... if there are opportunities we will pursue them. But we really feel like we have a group that we can go to war with right now."

The eight -- Paul, Harden, Trevor Ariza, Ryan Anderson, Clint Capela, Eric Gordon, Tucker and Nene.

"I'd put that group up against anyone in the league," Morey declared.

[SHILLER: D'Antoni's take on Rockets adding CP3: 'As you chase Golden State...']

Morey is one of the best executives in basketball and isn't going to back down from a challenge.

Right after the Warriors won the title, Morey told ESPN's Zach Lowe that the Warriors are not unbeatable.

He also realizes how special Golden State is.

"They're one of the best teams ever," Morey said on Thursday. "So we obviously felt like we needed to close that gap; we feel like we have closed the gap. They're the ones with two rings in the last three years so you gotta give them respect and say, 'Hey, they're gonna be the favorites going in.'

"But we really feel like this is a group that can compete with them."

The Warriors beat the Rockets in five games in the 2015 Western Conference Finals, and in five games in the opening round of the 2016 playoffs.

Golden State won 10 of 11 meetings over the last three regular seasons combined.

When the 2017-18 schedule comes out in August, I will be circling the three or four matchups between these two teams...

Drew Shiller is the co-host of Warriors Outsiders and a Web Producer at NBC Sports Bay Area. Follow him on Twitter @DrewShiller

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