Let’s go back and revisit the Rockets’ rebuild from 2011-2014 and compare to the 2020-Current one. In 2011, the Rockets were coming off a difficult season and the last one of Yao’s career who went down to an injury after 5 games. With T-Mac gone the year prior, this marked the end of the Yao-T-Mac era. The Rockets had to rebuild. The 2011-2012 team was a hodge-podge of players. Rockets drafted Marcus Morris and Parsons. The team had plenty of vets with playoff experience including Dalembert, Camby, Kevin Martin, and Dragic. There were a couple leftover good Rockets players like Lowry, Scola, Courtney Lee. The 2012-2013 season came with a splash. The Rockets traded for Harden and flanked him with experienced players that have had playoff games under their belt. Rockets signed guys like Jeremy Lin, Francisco, and Delfino to form an experienced Rocket core. Harden already had a couple of WCF’s experience as well. In the 2013-2014 season, Rockets traded for Dwight and brought in some vets including Aaron Brooks. The Rockets core was 2nd year guard Pat Bev, Terrance Jones, Harden, and Dwight and the upcoming years they kept bringing in vets like Ariza, Terry etc in their bid to build a championship team. The 20-21 Post Harden Rockets were in transition with leftovers from the glorious Harden years (Gordon, House) and a mix of vets and young players such as Tate, Martin and Wood. The vets were mainly inexperienced in terms of winning and playoffs before the team acquired more seasoned vets towards the end of the season (Augustin, Olynk, Bradley) although for salary cap reasons. The 21-22 Rockets rebuild movement got younger and more inexperienced unlike the post Yao/TMAC rebuild. At least 11 players that rotated in and out of the roster had 2 or less years of experience flanked by vets Theis and Gordon and Schroeder later. The 22-23 Roster got even younger with the dumping of a few vets for a slew of rookies to play alongside Green and KPJ with Gordon as the sole vet with playoff and winning experience. Take the Suns Rebuild starting with the Booker era in 15-16. That team was mostly inexperienced but had Tyson Chandler and Bledsoe on it. The following years they added guys like Barbosa and Dudley, who likely helped Booker in his growth with mentorship and technical knowledge. Their roster always had savvy veterans with playoff experience to help the development and growth of the young players along the way. Fast forward to 18-19. They drafted Ayton and Bridges but added Ariza and Jamal Crawford. They would build on this core group in a trade for Cam Johnson in 2019, added Payne, and later CP3. The rebuild philosophy of the rockets reportedly are to play hard and compete. But asking a team of mostly young players with little to no NBA experience and no winning experience at this level seems antithetical to the team’s mission. Unlike the post YAO/TMAC rebuild, which Morey opted for a quick reconstruction with the acquisition of stars and vets mixed in with a prudent draft selections, the post harden rebuild expects the same level of intensity and competitiveness without the experience, savvy, and mentorship that the Harden teams had. No one can expect this roster to win games; but if Stone’s philosophy is to build a winning culture and compete then why is the roster so inexperienced? What can one expect with such a young crop without guidance or tutelage from other vets especially ones that have won in this league? The roster this year may set them up (tank) to possibly have another 20 win type season on their way to the lottery and a chance at Wemb. And with about 61 mil in cap space maybe Stone will make moves to solidify this lineup just as Suns and the Harden teams did? Maybe they acquire vets such as Myles Turner, Cam Johnson or Dillon Brooks to flank the young core of Green, Smith, and possibly Wemb? Very interesting to see what the Rockets do this summer.
The Rockets lucked into harden otherwise a roster of Lin, parsons, Marcus Morris and Asik would have been the worst team in the nba. A scrub like lin, stiff like Asik and etc was never going to be good. Harden single handedly saved the franchise after Morey finally convinced Les to go to tank mode after a few years of finishing 9 th seed. The post yao rebuild was a mess
Getting Lin and Asik was a legit tank move. Also you acting like Tyson Chandler, Dudley, Ariza did anything for Booker or that team is hilarious. The Suns were Rockets level bad from 2015 until pandemic season. It was just DBook putting up every shot he got. Suns became good because their prospects finally grew up and finally signed a veteran. The Rockets will have max FA space to bring in after this year's draft. Hopefully we can look go win some games next season.
You completely missed the point and dismissing my piece. Not sure why you have to be condescending and dismissive. Have you ever played on a team? Or how about worked on a team in any capacity? If you have you would know and understand the value of experience and savvy that younger inexperienced people don’t have. players are the same. Was every coach in the NBA a great player? No. Its not about physical talent its about teaching and guidance and mentorship and leadership. These foundations make great teams great. Dudley has been credited with a lot of mentorship and off court leadership and positive influence on team mates by the way.
It wasn’t just Harden. Morey drafted other parts like Beverly and Jones combined with Dwight that made the Rockets win. Its about finding combinations that work. Not saying those teams were great at all. But your assessment saying one man made those teams win is flawed. Yes he was a great player that made other players better but its a synergy of parts. Ja morant isn’t the Grizzlies. Its always about team. Otherwise one guy can play against 5. Besides my point wasn’t even about Lin and those guys. I was simply talking about the value of playoff experience leadership and vet technical knowledge that helped rebuilding teams like the harden teams.
smh lol. I wrote it. Haven’t seen an in depth analysis out there so I wrote it and in that color to change up monotony.
that wasn’t a rebuild post-Yao/T-Mac…Rockets were still trying hard to compete this post-Harden rebuild, we are about to be the worst team in the league for the 3rd straight year…I am not sure that has ever been done we have some young talent, but they need a lot of work
Without harden as the main ingredient those teams had no chance. He built around harden because harden was the ingredient that made it work. That’s my point. He lucked into a legit young superstar coming to his own. You can buy all the side ingredients you like but if you’re main ingredient is off or not good the meal will suck
I disagree. But guess depends on what your definition of rebuild is. As I laid out, Morey got rid of most of the guys from the 11-12 team. Harden signaled a changing of the guard and reconstruction period. Morey had some guys like Delfino in as fillers and continued to draft guys like Beverly jones and capella to go with his big signings. The core group at the time was Beverly harden jones dwight then he kept adding vets like ariza and other experienced guys until he scrapped this core for CP3.
Interesting tho. What do u think is happening? Stone keeps saying to the media that the Rockets are trying to compete and build a winning culture. But is this possible with the blind leading the blind without vet guidance and mentorship? His actions don’t fit what he’s saying. Do you think Rockets are tanking on purpose? To me it seems like it just watching the games and examining how this roster was constructed.
Agree with the overall sentiment. If the coaching is say 'average'; if the entire roster is young. a) few can learn from each other because everyone is at the beginning. b) there's people who still need to try to 'prove themselves' and get that first bag. You might still have this with 5> yrs in league older but less so.
I think they’re not putting much emphasis on competing and just rolling with the likely results if the young guys were playing really well and the Rockets had a better season than expected, I think they’d roll with that outcome too, but they know it’s highly unlikely
I just think it’s interesting tho. There seems to be 3 schools of thought. Morey: rapid reconstruction with big splash trades, vet acquisitions, and smart draft picks (although he kept trading picks away in latter years) James Jones (Suns) slower rebuild. Timely and smart Draft combined with vets to help growth and development. Then add key vets to compliment young core once they become more experienced. Stone: Draft good players for several consecutive years looking for studs and good core. construct young inexperienced but talented team with little to no vet leadership. rely on coaching and management to set the tone for winning culture and habits.
I think it's fairly obvious that the Rockets are following a similar path to the Suns in that they bottomed out and got a few high draft picks and then added free agents. The Rockets haven't hit that final stage of the rebuild yet because they haven't and don't have the cap space to afford a big name / max contract player until the end of John Wall's contract which expires at seasons end. They've already made the statement that they intend to make a big acquisition either in FA or trade in the coming offseason .... I think we forget that the Suns last .500+ season was 2013-14 going 48-34 and they didn't achieve that again until they added CP3 in 2020/21 going from 34 to 51 wins. They had 6 consecutive seasons of sub .500 teams and 5 consecutive failing to win 30 .... and going back one additional year 25 wins in 2012/13 their win totals from 2012 thru last season: 25-48-29-23-24-21-19-34-51-64. Draft picks over that span 2012 - 13 2013 - 5 - 30 2014 - 14 - 18 - 27 2015 - 13 2016 - 4 - 13 - 28 2017 - 4 2018 - 1 - 16 2019 - 6 2020 - 10 2021 - 29 They drafted ONE player who was selected to an allstar game during that span which included 4 picks in the top 5 and 16 first round picks in total. I think it's safe to say that they went thru a prolonged rebuild and that the Rockets don't have that luxury since they owe three years' worth of picks to OKC after this coming draft. Hopefully the cap space along with the picks in this draft pull them out of the gutter ....
But unlike the Suns as I wrote, the Rockets aren’t acquiring any free agents. They’re not adding vets to the lineup that can bring winning habits, mentorship, and technical knowledge to these young players. As I mentioned specifically, Suns always surrounded their young core with vets that have had winning experiences and I don’t think it’s coincidence. Chandler, Barbosa, Ariza and Dudley were at the tail end of their careers and didn’t necessarily fit the timelines of the young core but were brought in for a few seasons I believe to help develop the young core, which makes sense. The rockets have not done this and instead got younger every year with no vet leadership and if they’re expecting a KPJ to train or develop these guys they’re delusional lol. EG is the only vet on this team with winning experience. The value of experience should not be taken lightly.
But you’re right. It did take them a long time since they kept missing with their draft picks (Chriss and Josh Jackson etc) They hit gold in 2018 with Ayton and Bridges which jump started their lineup and began their core which u see today. And Rockets may see misses in the draft depending on how Green and Smith turn out and whomever they bring in here in 23. We may not see the Rockets be any good until 4 years or more. So all of our yelling and frustration at Silas or Stone or the players makes little sense if you think about it considering how long and difficult rebuilds take.
