I’m all for the rebuild. I unless it’s a star star player 24yrs or younger, i’m not trading ****. I want to draft talent not trade for them mostly. The unknown excites me
Retool if you can acquire someone like michael porter jr to add to the team. Otherwise rebuild and continue to acquire draft picks/young player. Keep wall and gordon if the cost of trading them requires attaching draft picks.
Full measure for me. Retool is a cop out, not asking for a “Process”. Asking to use this season to further stock assets by trading coveted veterans, begin the rebuild around Wood and the intriguing youth on the team. Use the picks to build a core of young players who get the hell after it and add veterans with cap space later. Maybe not even next season but this could be a devastating team by 2022-23 if they commit to rebuilding now. If not that soon, they are pretty well set up to keep taking shots at it for 6-7 more years. I refuse to believe we couldn’t get a few good core pieces in that time with that many assets.
Tanking completely only works if you have an insanely stellar front office. You can be good at managing a roster and cap, but not a good judge of talent. It is way too big of a risk Unless you get Jerry West or Presti here, no way it is worth the risk. Hinkie, another Morey disciple did an alright job with Philly. In the end it netted them one legitimate star after years of tanking. Even he is a bit fragile, it is not like he is generational talent. A player like Embiid can be had via trade or FA if you build a desirable winning environment. Even if you get the right guy by tanking, he can leave as soon as he reaches super star level for nothing,
Presti didn't win tanking either.......it is different than 25 years ago when most players were mature 22 year old coming out of college, now they are 19, and it is like Moneyball. "I have seen you stand in the room with their parents and say, when I say I know, I know"........"and you don't......you don't...." Too many guys are just ok, very very FEW are even all stars now.....number 1 picks are busts, Anthony Bennet for example.....number 2 picks are questionable....the Ball kids.... There are basically NO MORE GUARANTEES.....hell even Zion is still questionable at this point. The DRAFT is ....IMHO, the more risky venture......get picks, raid teams that are in perpetual rebuild mode for players and build a championship team. DD
Wood is not 20 yrs old. He good, but he’s not even in his prime. Lebron has 2 years max till he retires/ineffective. We need to rebuild since we don’t have an Uber Star on the team. We need to look ahead towards a championship and creating a dysnasry. Who is beating Durant, Harden, and Kyrie in the East in the next two-3 years. Our championship window has sailed over a year ago. We got a new coach who needs to groom some youngens to his style. Culture building takes time. Do it right. No gimmick offenses. San Antonio has a small market team that emphasized defense. I am seeing us go that route. Silas ain’t about getting names he’s all about whose gonna put in the effort as a team.
Maledon 19 Bazley 20 Dort 21 SGA 22 Wood 25 Wall 30 Dipo 28 House 28 Nwaba 28 Ego PJ They are really not that far behind. One year rental CP3 did quite a 'number' on their development. I think you could get better talent than SGA. Those 28 year olds want to make the Playoffs but development comes second. Guys like Tate and Sterling Brown are in between, already 25. Playing 36 year old PJ 31 minutes isn't the way to go. Someone tell Silas to develop properly, moving away from results. You got to start Mason Jones and Kevin Porter now, those are the future.
There are two paths to rebuilding in this league that work. The first is tanking. It has gotten more difficult this year with the revised lottery rules, and is highly dependant on landing the first overall pick in a year a generational talent is coming into the league. For smaller markets, this is usually the only way out (see the Cavs with Lebron, OKC, etc.). The only other model that has worked has been assembling a very good cast of young role players that are good enough to have some success, but not enough to go to the finals or even the second round of the playoffs. The Clippers accomplished this pre-leonard, we did this before Dwight, etc. This can accelerate a rebuild because it makes you an attractive destination for disgruntled superstars who are increasingly picking where they want to go via trade or free agency. The Rockets have have set themselves up nicely for such a situation, and with their collection of picks could make a deal for a very good player should he want to come here.
Did Philly and Boston fail, though? Both teams have consistently been top 4 squads in the East. Philly came one crazy Kawhi shot from a Finals appearance and sits atop the East right now. Just because they haven't won a ring yet doesn't mean those squads won't. They still have a lot of young talent and are playing damn good basketball. I agree, though, that going full tank is not necessarily the best strategy. It works in some cases, but in others it just leads to an endless cycle of poor 20 and 30 sin teams. There's a fine line between the Boston rebuilds and the Minnesota rebuilds, and if you're not careful, you could be terrible for 10-15 years.
I've flip flopped like crazy on this since the Harden trade. Given Dipo and Tucker's expiring contracts, they probably want to lean one way or the other by the trade deadline, or they run the risk of losing valuable assets for nothing. I do think a full tank mode rebuild right now is hard, though, because of Wall and Gordon's contracts and the emergence of Wood as a potential star. Even after they're off the books, though, you have to deal with the fact that you don't have your own picks in 2024 or 2026. So you better hope Brooklyn is terrible by then or else you'll have a bad team with no draft picks those two years. For those reasons, I lean toward a retool, but one that emphasizes getting younger and maximizing value. As soon as they can get out from under Wall and Gordon's contracts, they should do it. Move Tucker at the deadline. If they want to bring back Dipo, do it, but don't break the bank and sign him to a deal that will become an albatross 1-2 years later. Also, whether they tank or not, they'll likely have at least five first round picks in the next two drafts. Don't pull a Morey and trade them for veteran role players. Use them. Package them for higher picks if you can and try to add another young star or two while still staying competitive.
Theres been reform since then the top 3 worst teams have the same chance to get no 1 and in the worst case dont end up with a top 5 pick. You cant game the system when there is a large no of chance involved IMO. If the season ended today Wiz would only have 14% chance at no 1 and 50% of missing top 4 lulz. If you do the Hinkie system and then get a top 8 pick or something I think that GM gets fired. http://www.tankathon.com/ The best teams for the lotto right now are just honestly bad teams like Wiz, good teams who got decimated by injury like GSW or mid tier bad teams hoping to get lucky like Orl and Chi. In either of these scenarios you dont really lose anything if you miss top 4. Pretending to bad just to go for that 50-50 is like going into debt to gamble at the casino IMO, yeah you can win big but you can lose big too. Some people say scared money make no money but remember the house always wins in the end. In our case tanking is bad cuz we are too good to be bad and we dont even own our pick unless its top 4 which RN is 4.8%. Next year maybe a good time to tank if the team falls apart but this year only fools or the ignorant still want to tank.
I would trade everyone but Wood for draft choices. Wall is going to be here because the contract is terrible but they should be collect picks for everyone else.
Tilman can’t do a 5-year plan, or 3-year plans for that matter with predominantly rookies. Not his M.O. I predicted 10-8 in first 18 games (think we end up 9-9). The following 14 games I think we (Rockets) go 11-3. Bringing our record to 20-12. A team that wants to tank is probably too good for that and finds their way into the playoffs. Keepers Eric Gordon: (let him start at SG....play out more of his contract....TF .probably can’t afford better in free agency. House: weird, quirky; but helps the team when on the court in unseen variables. Prime grade contract as backup or starter. Or trade him......can upgrade through free agency, makes no never mind to me. Mason Jones Tate Wood Kevin Porter Try to retain Wall or Oladipo........need a facilitator/ scorer with some consistency to attract free agents. As far as replacing them through free agency, Kyle Lowry is the only one that moves the needle for me. Summary The core foundation is set, just add a few vet free agents mixed in with a few rookies getting on the job training. Rockets will have a good mix of tolerable salaries invested in players under 30 years of age while building for the future in the rooks. Perfect blend.
"Culture" is the new "process" and i want to kill both. Rebuild or reload? Just take it day by day. Today is Saturday right? We only get one Saturday a week. we're going to have to make it the best Saturday in that week and just get better.
I'll be disappointed if Tucker and Oladipo are still here after the trade deadline. We're stuck with Wall for at least a couple more years, but if we're able to move Tucker for a good 2nd (since we lost our 2023 2nd) and get a 1st for Oladipo, then we should do so.
IMO if a team has a ‘puncher’s chance’ then it should go for ‘it’. With one solid addition + health PARTICULARLY with the specter of the pandemmie thingy hanging over every team’s heads I believe this group could surprise. Including surprising you and me! PARADE.
Looking at where OKC and Miami is.... we don't need to "tank". We can start bottoming out this season and still got a #10 pick optimistically. It makes no sense to wait until the offseason to start bottoming out if that's where we are going. Talent is still concentrated higher in the draft.
