What stands out to me is that the competition will be tough if the Rockets plan on star-hunting. If a star becomes available, other teams like OKC, the Knicks, and Utah will be in a better position than the Rockets to make the trade.
I'm having a hard time thinking of a star becoming available that's even an upgrade for OKC at this point. Like sure you can replace giddey/dort with a better "star" but there's probably not offensive touches for that guy to be maximized with Shai/Chet/Jalen W already in place
I’m not sure anyone will be able to beat OKC for a while, but we should have a very high pick in this upcoming draft. That should carry a lot of weight IF we decide to trade it (not that I’m advocating for that).
It is a good thing that developing Amen and Cam coincides with winning. I expect plenty of winning over the next 5-10 years.
There's a range here. There's a difference between trying to win and going all in. Going all in is the Suns trading all their assets to get KD and Beal. The rockets are absolutely trying to win, that's the reason they signed all the vets in the offseason. But, there's no guarantee you are successful just because you're trying to win. The rockets effectively have no reason to tank since they don't own their own picks. But, they have to develop along the way because they have young players unless they want to trade away those young players and picks (go all in).
I laugh when I read Stone will be star hunting in the offseason. What star is available? And if they are available, why would they choose Houston? Even if it’s a trade, we all know stars choose where they want to go. If anything he should have made some minor moves at the deadline to shore up some weaknesses so that the Rockets could at least be competitive in making the playin, which would make the team more attractive for “said” star. By punting the season away and already talking about “next year” is not going to make a star choose a team that’s at the bottom of the league again for 4 years in a row.
Stone is elite at making promises, then he comes up with a Daniel Theis or 70% healthy Adams and calls it a success. Masquerading FVV and Dillon as ultimate All Star signings.
Because making the play-in would mean that we had a strong young core to build around. The success of the team this year is directly correlated to the growth from the young core (Green, Smith, and Sengun). The star that the front-office is hunting for was supposed to come from the recent drafts. If Stone had hit on those picks, we’d be at least a play-in team and going into the offseason confident in those players to build around as a foundation. Instead, we’re in no man’s land… a below average team with a lot of questions about how talented those players are. You can’t roll out the same roster next year and expect improvement. They’re in the position of having to make drastic changes to recover from draft mistakes. Now the Rockets have to explore trading off pieces of the young core to find this “star” that they didn’t get from the past 3 drafts.
We do have a pretty nice sell here. Good players a star would want to surround themselves with if they wanted to be the sole alpha. However in a competitive bid to trade for a star, yeah we cannot compete from a draft capital perspective. The Westbrook trade being the disaster that continues to deliver. Free agency is where the Rockets should be at their most competitive. The issue is Stone has built this roster and “war chest” to trade for a star… at a point where the competition in terms of war chests is too high. Stone and Fertitta just need to continue the path and be willing to pass on big names that aren’t really that good. The name James Harden might be one we hear about more and more as the season comes to a close.
