It's not that serious but it is an outlandish idea. Like I said, every other year a rumor goes around that the draft is weak. It's rarely ever true. Drafts not containing several All Stars are rare. Two shots in the top 4 means you are on the hook to acquire a perennial All Star. In the weakest draft before the draft has been held, two top 4 picks should net you more than Coby White in a trade. It doesn't matter who's available or not yet drafted, no matter our opinion of them. You're trading the picks any way, so the correct analysis is: who would be available in trade for those two picks? The answer is: a lot. You can pick up Lauri Markannen EASY and if you don't like him, flip him to a contender for someone with similar value. You can potentially pick up Mikal Bridges, Dejounte Murray, Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler, Paul George. For players you can flip to other teams you can get 2 or more of Robert Williams, DeAndre Ayton, Jerami Grant, Deni Avdija, Jaden Ivey, Cam Johnson, Dayron Sharpe, Nic Claxton, Brogdon, Jonathan Isaac, Jalen Suggs, Wendell Carter Jr. I'm spitballing here who knows what else is available. You can ADD one or two picks to those two picks and target absolute superstars that MIGHT on their teams soon like Joel Embiid, Trae Young, Donovan Mitchell, Giannis, Luka. Again you don't have to like these guys, you can flip them somewhere else for something great or several future picks to buy yourself time. Hell, the Bulls should give you Coby White AND their best player for two top 4 picks and you can get serious value flipping that other player. Once you consider 3-way deals, the possibilities are endless. You get the best asset(s) you can find. It would be crazy to say "I have a hole at PG so f*ck it, let me be lazy and just get a very solid PG". In a worst case scenario, you trade the two picks for two or three picks in the future with no protections and that becomes a MAJOR trade asset. There are many teams desperate for 2 top 4 picks. Honestly even though I feel we're flooded with young players, it still makes more sense to draft 2 players and develop them then trade one or both of them in the future. Bring them up in the G League and only give them minutes towards the end of the season when all our young guys have 2-4 years of experience already then in summer 1 or year 2 you talk about keeping/trading them. Do you know how good we'd be if just one of those guys pans out? We'd have an embarrassment of riches and overtake any young team. What are we going to do with Coby White who's had 1 good season out of 5 in his career?? The Bulls GM will send you their top 2 players right now for those two picks, that should be an indication of what else you can get on the market. You're always on Jalen for being inconsistent and only performing in patches within 3 years. How come you have 0 doubt about Coby White being worth two top 4 picks? If all we got for 2 top 4 picks is Coby White just because we happened to want an upgrade at PG, it's a total catastrophe. Coby White is just a guy who can shoot and pass. He's winning the MIP because he was insanely inconsistent and regressed for two consecutive years before this one. He was putting up 15 and 5 in his second season and 3 years later he's putting up 19 and 5 on better efficiency. Amen and Jalen are going to eat his lunch and keep this guy glued to the bench and in 2 years when you have to negotiate his contract you're going to be wondering why the heck we paid 2 top 4 picks for a backup guard. Can you name anyone who traded 2 top 4 picks and got a lesser player than the new and improved Coby White? Even if they were two top 7 picks, it has never happened. Suffice to say, it's highly advisable to reconsider the trade value of 2 top 4 picks in a weak draft. Notice I'm repeatedly even accepting with you that it's a weak draft (which we don't know), and still it's worth more than just Coby White.
If you really think the Rockets can easily get Lauri Markannen for those two picks...that's nuts. The Jazz don't entertain that trade. At all. No you aren't getting future picks either. It's a bad draft and I think the Rockets end up picking twice instead of trading because no one would offer anything of any real value to them for those picks. I understand that there is nuance and that there probably is a good player or even a few in there somewhere. I'm telling you it doesn't matter because no one is trading anything real for a couple of projects like Topic and Risacher. The most you'll get is yeah....Coby White or an aging Mikal Bridges. I wouldn't do Mikal at this point, he's too old. You're not sniffing Markannen. Hell...if someone offered those two picks for Jalen Green or Jabari Smith Jr I'd turn it down immediately. The only player I'd consider trading it for is Tari Eason. You really need to understand this drafts projection and your overall view of it is "well there's probably a star or two in there so I think that it's worth someone like Lauri Markannen". Which is just incorrect. I mean you're "technically" not wrong save for the fact that it is so all over the place who that guy is that no one would risk it. It was different last year with the twins/Scoot/Miller or Jabari/Paolo/Chet. The reality in your scenario is that the Rockets would just pick twice and cross their fingers that the players pan out. That's it. That's what would happen. I can't overstate this enough. No one is trading anything worth a **** for the players available in this draft and just because there's a hypothetical future where one or two of them becomes an All Star doesn't change that.
Any real Rockets fan should want Alpi to win. I don't think it is likely, I think they will give it to Maxey.
Glad to see the young bull on that short list of MIP Rockets are going to be even better next season with his and Eason/Adams return Dream workout summer program on deck (or should be) His FT/post game should be fine tuned by opening game Just need the bball gods to keep the major injury bug away
I think people saying Coby White have a good point, but it's not "Most Surprising Improvement Award." Absolutely he deserves credit for the jump he made seemingly out of nowhere, but Sengun and Maxey both radically altered the outcome of their team's seasons because of their individual improvement.
If you regressed prior to the improvement, it also makes the jump much less valuable imo. There is no set definition but in my understanding it should be the biggest/hardest jump in your natural trajectory. you might expect a jump from Sengun but his improvement isn’t less valuable than for example if green made similar improvement just because you expected Sengun to improve but thought green wouldn’t improve much. I think maxey has a case because he has an improvement with a higher base, which is harder. It is between maxey and Sengun for me and I’d give it to Sengun.
As much as I want Sengun to get this award, I’m shocked how good Coby White is this year, after many years of looking like a complete bust.
tyrese maxey is signed to klutch sports just like dejounte murray. any chance they have to win any award they will get the nod
