It’s done, it’s over. People getting excited over Christian Wood is like the time we got excited over Hasheem Thabeet. Who turns down $50 mil/year and decides stay with the team? The answer to our problems would have been if Harden could play off the ball more, but he’s proven he can’t. THE ONLY way to salvage this is to trade Westbrook for Paul George, who is the only other superstar aside from KD and Steph who don’t need to be ball dominant to be successful and can play alongside Harden.
I’m excited about Wood regardless. Brother is only 25, and was averaging 19 & 9 across his last 20 games, on 55/38/77 shooting. 6’10, a lob threat, can hit the 3, can get boards, and developed the ability to put the ball down and drive to draw a foul or get a dunk/layup.
I still kinda believe that Harden was never offered the 50m to begin with. Still sucks that the FO lies so much but at least it doesn't mean that Harden is out for sure.
We brought him in out of college; but he came into the league with issues and maturity problem. Now he has developed into the player many of us hoped he would. I know I was begging the Rockets to draft him. Was disappointed we didn’t.....then happy we picked him up.......ticked off we couldn’t find a spot for him.......... Now happy he is back.
it might just be me but idgaf what he did for those 4 teams. All that matters is what he’ll do for his next team.
Yes, put up 29 ppg his last season with OKC (2018-2019) on almost 40% from 3 and is probably the best 1B option in the league. He’s a game changer.
Get traded like he did with the others. Nobody is a journeyman and suddenly makes it, especially that early in their career.
Sometimes, albeit rarely, players can struggle and flop around and boom they flip a switch. The numbers don’t lie, what Wood did last season was impressive, he got more and more mins as the season went on, and before Covid stopped the season, he was a 20/10 with a TS% of around 63+% which is very impressive. Maybe he does well here, maybe he doesn’t, but he’s got some real potential to do very well here.
you must be a joy to be around during the holidays. I personally don’t see him as some messiah or franchise saving player. I see him as: -the official ending to small ball -the front office actually addressing a glaring weakness to last year’s team -a sign that we’re doing something at the beginning of free agency rather than wait til the end for bargain bin shopping it’s a win regardless of magnitude.
Right, but I’m looking at it more in the lens of what we’re about to lose and don't accept that this is as a win. The only reason we got rid of Capela was because of Westbrook and tbh, we shouldn’t have picked up WB in the first place. Capela would have been huge for us given his size and you’re right, we’re showing that we accept you can’t win with small ball, but still, we’re about to lose 2 players (possibly in the top 40 to ever play) and that’s a major setback.
I think the list is longer than that...Jimmy Butler for example would work great next to Harden, but otherwise I mostly agree. You also didn't even address the fact that Harden might not even be here next year. That's a much bigger worry. But if Harden does stay, and Wood turns out to be Capela 2.0 who can shoot 3s and dribble/create for himself, this is definitely a team with a (small) chance of winning the championship. You don't have to be the best team to win it all, look at Toronto, they got lucky and every team they played got injured. If the rockets somehow manage to keep Harden and Westbrook, and Wood is as good as we hope he is, the rockets are definitely in the mix.
