Agree. I think it would have sent a serious message to the team if ownership would have made a move that would have provided us with a fighter’s chance of making the play-in tournament. The experience for the young players on this ream would have been invaluable. I wrote this post out of frustration that zero was done as usual by Stone and am against tanking. My point was that if he doesn’t make a move for a shooter or big then we might as well have tanked and at least got a top four pick (again).
It's not worth it to intentionally tank when you don't own your own pick. The rockets 2024 pick is top 4 protected. So, if they had the worst record there's still a 48% chance the pick stays with OKC. But, I think signing some vets and instilling a hard-nosed culture was part of the reason Ime agreed to sign. He could have just waited for the other positions to open up otherwise. That said, if we didn't land a coach like Ime, I would have been ok with going young and renting the cap space to snag picks. But, I don't think we would have been the worst team in the league again so why not go for it.
I'd love to have a shooter that good. He's supposed to be a great shot creator and rapid fire passer as well. I know he's not big, but it sounds like he has good defensive instincts from these comments..... "On defense he is already an advanced defender who reads the game well and has a nose for the ball." "His block rate has regressed a bit (but 0.8 in 27.8 minutes is still good for a player of his physical prototype) while his steal rate remains in the top 1% of the game." "On the defensive end specifically, he has been ridiculous at the point of attack and has racked up a ton of steals this season. Sheppard has a clear role in the NBA as a 3-and-D lead guard with some playmaking ability. He’s made a name for himself as being able to make smart rotations and playing quality on-ball defense that doesn't always see the stat sheet." "He's averaging 2.5 steals per game. His instincts are off the charts and he competes hard at the point of attack, relying on textbook footwork and an insatiable appetite for stops to offset his limitations as an athlete. Sheppard knows how to operate within a team context and he is going to generate turnovers."
I was being sarcastic about tanking. Frustrated that we did zippo which I heard did not make Udoka happy. Wasn’t wanting a superstar, just an adaquate big so we could compete against the likes of Minnesota. 38 year old Green is not the answer and shouldn’t be playing over 20 minutes a game at this point in his career. Can’t believe suckwads Reggie Bullock and Jock Landale are still on this team.
Cultural and organizational change takes multiple seasons of work. We are on track to win at least 15 more games than last year. Steven Adams is being brought in because Jabari and Alperen struggle with consistent "physicality," the word that Udoka brings up repeatedly with those two. Be patient.
At the very least that puts to bed all the BS on who runs this team. So all of y'all trying to give all the credit to Ime for the supposed roster moves are just plain wrong. As for Minny they are a bad matchup and will be a bad matchup all year. We aren't contenders so why you think we wanna get guys to specifically match up with the no 1 team in the entire league makes me scratch my head. How many games do we even have vs Minny? You really wanna lose assets for 2 games? Lmao. Next year Rox will have Landale+Bullock's salary and mid level. Add Steven Adams and the top 10 pick that should be more than enough for a deep playoff run.
It is Top 4 protected meaning if Rockets fall into the Top 4 they get to keep the pick... OKC only gets it when the pick goes 5-30......so OKC has the absolute advantage but it is not 100%.
By not making a move at the deadline, Stone conceded the season and we are no longer play-in contenders. The difference between getting a Holmgren or Miller or other top 4 talent vs handing over the pick to OKC is enormous. If we decided to scrap this season (which is what we just did), then my point is that we should have done what it takes to play for next year and painfully tanked to get another top 4 pick.
Have no idea why we brought Udoka over if we aren’t going to give him the tools to win. Tired of losing as well. Always an excuse with this team….always a 3 year plan that never gets fully executed. Next year we’ll have the same squad but a year older. Our talent like Green and Smith are good but not exceptional. This year we’ll end up about 10 games under .500. Next year we’ll make a leap with another year under these guys belt to being around .500. That’s nice, but we are years and years away from contending.
Lol you are right and I would need an offseason to just sulk over this. I guess koolaid drinkers do live longer, because they live in a world of happiness and make believe.
we are on track to win 10-15 more games because we brought in 60+ million dollars in FA vets . We won’t be able to do that next offseason . compare the situations . 08-09 contenders 09-10 , 10-11 , 11-12 rebuild . 12-13 playoffs 19-20 contenders 20-21 , 21-22, 22-23 … 23-24 ??? Probably not play in . keep in mind that Morey was not allowed to tank . He couldn’t get much trade value for tmac or yao because of their injury histories . For our 3 rebuilding years our record was .500 , the best young talent we could get was 14th pick . stone has been allowed to tear things down completely, he had a superstar James harden to deal and basically shed salary and got picks . Even with broke knee tmac , Morey was able to get Kevin Martin … the player that OKC traded harden for (plus a pick) the results right now after 3 years of tanking , frankly getting lucky that we got as high a draft pick as we did , and being able to clear max cap space for a vet infusion …. Has been underwhelming. our 21 draft , 2 of the 4 are off the team and we got nothing for them . Sengun has promise but there are questions about defense and ultimate ceiling . Green has been wildly inconsistent and is reliant on streak shooting and getting to the line . Defensively I don’t even wanna begin with him . Stone has had time and opportunity to load up , and he better give us SIGNIFICANT results soon . You and I could have done the job of designing a bad team and waiting 3 years to have cap space .
I'm sure you would have enjoyed another tanking season. I've had more fun watching this season than the last 3 combined, because at least we are competitive and rarely get blown out. Even if we decided to tank again heading into the year, it's a toss up as to whether we'd be worse than Detroit, Washington, Portland, San Antonio, Charlotte. Those are all trash rosters. We could have scrapped the season and still ended up with a 63% chance of losing the pick to OKC at best. Imagine if we tanked and still gave OKC the 5th overall pick? Cause that was the most likely possibility. We would have lost a bunch of games and had ZERO to show for it. Instead, we are a couple games out of the play-in. Our young players get experience knowing how to win.
This is the 2015 Astros. Gotta take some steps to learn how to win before actually winning... and you don't do that by replicating the 2010s Kings.
Did you think we were going to contend this season? You need a top 5 player to realistically contend......
I love the kid but he gets a lot of those steals being out of position. He has great hands and gets a lot of help steals. Everyone thought he would be a multi year player same with Dillingham but they both might be the first players drafted. I would definitely be happy as hell if we got either of them
