Season's Pretty Much Over - Thoughts moving forward?

Makes perfect sense. Awesome veteran floor leader, great locker room guy, and most of all, enhances our image around the league!

 

To me Jabari's best NBA comparison is Rachard Lewis. Bari has better rebounding but weaker handles; over time we can hope for him to develop a more rounded offensive game and 20-ppg scoring. He's ideally the 3rd best player on a contender.

 

Apparently all the people on this board who speculate about the nature of his injury and whether it’s worse than we think.

 

Efficient scorer, unselfish with the basketball, hustles on defense, high IQ player, great decision maker...he's really got everything we need

 

According to his mom on Twitter his leg is broken and they are not going to rush him back this year. He's out until next season.

 

He's only 22. He might have lied to his mom.

 

Overall the Rockets are slightly above where I expected them to be. I had estimated 33-36 wins and that is about where they will end up.

The Rockets have had the 2nd, 3rd and 4th pick the last three seasons. They appear to have chosen poorly with the 2nd pick, they took the no brainer right pick with the 3rd pick and the early returns on the 4th pick are strong as well. They also made very smart picks with Sengun, Eason and Whitmore.

When you pick in the top 5 picks for 3 straight years, you really hope to get a franchise player, which is the most important building block. Unfortuantely, the Rockets do not appear to have a guaranteed franchise player on their roster. There is still some chance for Sengun or Thompson. It doesn't really change how the Rockets build their team going forward, but it does limit the upside.

Right now the Rockets have a number of very good young players, but they all have questions.

Jabari Smith does not look on path to be a star, but he does appear to be on track to be a very important piece.

Sengun is the best player on the Rockets, and while he has received some criticism of late, he has had a very good year and appears capable of being at least a #2 scorer on an elite team. He is so smart, and he is constantly improving and has played out of position this year. I expect his shooting to improve this off season and him to play a lot more 4 with Adams and Smith around him.

Tari Eason looks like a high-end 6th man if he can stay healthy.

Amen Thompson and Whitmore have serious warts - but they have strengths that make their upside really high.

As for the veterans, they are overpaid - but they largely have done what is expected of them. Brooks is physically limited but plays hard - and Fred is the same. Both brought some legitimacy to the organization. I would rather move Brooks this off season and bring in someone that can play the 5 and stretch the floor or at least shut down the paint.

It is easy to look in hindsight, but had the Rockets drafted Mobley or Barnes, the rebuild would be a lot farther along. Still - at this point, I would keep Green and see how he responds to an off season training with the best players and see if he can take a leap. The talent is there for sure.

The biggest issue for the Rockets is that OKC is ahead of them in just about any measure. They are better on the floor and they have way more assets. Even San Antonio has the major building block that the Rockets lack, and they will have cap space, a few existing good players and draft picks to improve.

The only way for the Rockets to catch OKC and SA, is to be really clever in who they draft and how they use their assets. Can or will Stone do that? Hard to know, but this 2024 Nets pick is huge. The Rockets need to keep it and draft very well.

 

I do not disagree, I just thunk the Rockets would play their best at the end of the season instead of the beginning.......

 

I actually agree with everything you are saying in terms of him making the right pass out of double teams consistently. When they immediately trap him, he does the right thing. He hasn't been converting as well in single coverage lately though, That's what I am talking about. It seems like as teams have gotten more familiar with how to guard him, he hasn't done as well finishing. I am not quite sure why, but he rarely takes the face up shot anymore that was so effective for him. I am a big Sengun guy, we have talked about this before. I just haven't seen him be as dominant or assertive offensively. The jury is still out on his being a centerpiece.

 

I think a lot of people in here have answered the way I would have but want to add a couple quick thoughts

-Not sure why people think building around Sengun is some irreversible decision. I absolutely think it's the right move, but even if we turn out wrong and Sengun doesn't grow like we want then that team we built is likely a good shooting team that would still be fine. And if it's about the contract, I don't see any world where he's not a positive trade value even with a big extension unless there's a catastrophic injury. The Ringer recently did an NBA trade values column and had Sengun at 28. That's ahead of Brandon Miller, Ja Morant, Zion, KAT, Ingram, Sabonis, Jaylen Brown, Cade Cunningham, and Evan Mobley. There's plenty on this forum who weirdly don't value him but the league would. I absolutely would not trade him, just saying that the option will be there.

-Jalen Green has been very bad and I think is holding this team back. If there are any offers of positive value on the table for him this off-season, either a future 1st or a good shooter roleplayer, I'd absolutely take it. If not, I'd still take his team option for next year and have him get one more season shot at it off the bench with limited minutes. Reduce that to 0 minutes if he continues to shoot sub-30% from 3 and he can just be used as salary matching next deadline to get another role player in here. If that trade isn't available then we move on after next season. Important thing really is to stop starting him and giving him starting minutes.

-We should definitely be looking to use our non tax-payer MLE to bring in a 3 point shooting wing. Some potential names that will be free agents- Buddy Hield, Grayson Allen, Caleb Martin, Isaac Okoro, Malik Beasley, Alec Burks, Gary Trent Jr, Patrick Williams.

-I also think we prioritize shooting with the Brooklyn draft pick, I like Cody Williams if we're picking 2-5 range or Reed Sheppard if its 5-10 range. If those guys are gone or if we somehow get to keep our original pick and the Brooklyn pick (or if someone will somehow trade us a pick in the 11-20 range for Green), I like the idea of bringing in a back up 5 for the future like Clingan too.

 

reported.

 

I love how all the plans revolve around "trade Jalen for <insert unrealistic nonsense here>" haha, if he's a bust, he's bust for everybody else too, you aint gettin **** for him. I still think it's too early to say whether we can build around any of our guys, we just know we can't build around Jalen. Sengun shows promise, the other youngsters do too. As of now, nobody screams "dominant star player teams struggle to shut down" at all to me. Teams shut all of our guys down regularly.

 

Reed Sheppard is going to cause a lot of fights in organizations.

A chubby 6'3" guard that has mediocre athleticism - but can just flat out SHOOT..... like the best shooting prospect in at least a decade. He is shooting over 50% on 3's as a freshman in the SEC. He is over 50% on 2's as well and shoots over 45% from just about every spot on the floor. Lots of steals because he has shocking quick hands and dexterity.

He is someone that teams will struggle to find a way to get him on the floor - but once he gets on the floor, he is a difference maker and hits shots 5 foot behind the line with ease.

 

that is disturbing.

if they beat last year's win total with an improving D i'd sit a lot more comfortably.

 

I’d like to keep Amen/Cam/Sengun/Tari out of trade talks

I’d like to draft a stud prospect with the 24’ Brooklyn pick

I’d like to sign a really good free agent and/or trade for a star.

 

I think he's likely a bit of a high floor/low ceiling guy, but I'd love him on a team that desperately needs shooting. I don't know how he'll defend against NBA bodies but even if it's more like a prime Seth Curry bit role where he's getting more like 20-25 minutes a game and we have to cover defense, I still like him here.

I think he'll be a bit better than that though, he plays good defense in college and has shown good decision making skills. If Amen is our point guard of the future I think Sheppard could be a perfect SG next to him, specially since on defense Amen can guard wings

 

Believe it or not, some folks around here know his worth