I shudder at the last sentence..make us happy. I'd be damned if my life happiness is depending on a record in the NBA. To each one his own but I would be relatively glad if the Rockets had a better winning record for sure. Good lord, I guess, I am lucky that I am only a moderate fan.
Agreed. Hopefully we don’t blow our wad in free agency and trades in the off-season. Wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to improve on the margins and compete for a play in for next season.
I wonder if in the future, there will come a team that doesn't have a top 5 player, but instead has 5 or 6 top 30 players that wins it all?
No. Just no. If we still “need” to tank for a super small chance of acquiring a young talent in the draft who might or might not be an NBA player (see Anthony Bennett, Darko, etc.) in 5 years then that means Stone and the coaches have failed miserably with selection and development of Jalen, Jabari, Sengun, and our 2023 top pick. If we still have to go back to the well after next season then Stone should be fired because he sucks at drafting high in the draft and has wasted 3 top 5 picks. Jalen and Jabari should be ready to compete after this season. Really they should start showing promise for next season after the all star break. If we see what we should see by May then job #1 is seeking out through trade and free agency players that make Jalen and Jabari better and more efficient.
Yeah but the problem is when you land #2 and have Henderson starting, Lonzo playing backup at a premium price missing a year and a half of ball. Gambling on free agency/trade before this draft further complicates our roster crunch if it doesn't play out exactly right. That's kind of why I'm in the "waive Gordon" boat now. Just get rid of his contract and don't take any deadweight back. We don't need more picks. We need 1 or 2, a free agent that bookends either pick and hopefully a shrewd trade or MLE type signing at the 3.
Well, Tank Command ought to be pretty pleased about now. I mean, we are now on a pace for 23 wins. That might get us a #1 or #2
I don't think I'm watching anything you haven't seen. There are lots of teams who made noise in the playoffs early, could be any one of them. I think you probably think we don't have a comparable ceiling or best player as those teams, so in the end we're going to subjectively disagree about that. No point getting into endless comparisons only to end up there. Suffice to say, I have a much more favorable view of our roster than most.
I'm kinda between you two on where I think they are in terms of current talent and again in expectations for next season ..... I'm not expecting miracles but I do expect significant improvement from within. The bigger jump really depends upon what they do with their cap space. If they get that right, they could be anywhere from 42-52 wins when you combine the outside additions with internal growth. Punt on those outside additions or blow it and maybe you are a 35 win team which would be a disappointment to me .... anything short of .500 is a disappointment next year.
Agreed with you up until your expectations, you've got way higher expectations than I do. For me the disappointment would be another sub 25 win season, I'd be pretty pleased with something in the low/mid 30s. I think it would take a miracle for the rockets to get to .500 or higher.
To be clear, I'm talking about next year and it's really contingent upon what they acquire from FA / trade. Nothing and it's 35 wins, hit it out of the park and it's possible they are a 50 win team. This year, my expectations are much lower .... I'd prefer they didn't win 25.
I always put the end of the bottoming out part of the rebuild around the OKC trade, pretty sure you have too. Where we differ is what is an acceptable outcome for the end of next season or the year after our bottoming out phase is over. I wouldn't put a 35 win season in the disappointment column unless we really went for it and blew our cap space and some trade assets. There's just not a great FA class this coming offseason, so I feel like our best shot at improving (outside of player development) is through a trade. I'd rather keep as much of our powder dry and improve on the margins (sign some veteran role players and rely on player development) if there's no big fish out there via trade or FA. Depending on the season, 35 wins might give you a shot at the play-in tournament.
Imagine if Jalen makes the same type of first to second half jump like his rookie year. That would propel him to stardom if his baseline is 22 on 54%ts 4 apg compared to whatever atrocious numbers he put up in the first half of last season. But obviously I'm not expecting that. It is a possibility but it's also setting myself up for failure if he makes a similar type of mid season jump.
OKC and Memphis are the first 2 that come to mind. If you consider Memphis early. It would be nice if we popped early, but I'm skeptical as I'm guessing that you are too.
