I WISH we had the rights to Josh Jackson. He was one of my FA targets this offseason as well as in past trade proposals.
Forever enemies is right. Dumping young talented players on great contracts like Wood, Tate and Porter is plain stupid IMO. The very reason for FRP is to acquire these kind of players.
Right, but only after we have acquired that #1 guy. Until then, the focus should be solely stocking up assets to land that #1 guy as quickly as possible. You don't splurge your assets on the supporting cast with no star, that is what's plain stupid, IMO. That being said, Porter isn't worth any kind of pick right now so no need to worry about us trading him, we just got him for literally nothing he has no value lol
Finding that #1 is subjective. And Rockets have accumulated more than enough FRP to target that #1 without squandering valuable resources like Wood, Tate or even the "useless" Porter. Also Rockets did not "splurge" to acquire these assets at all. Even if you stretched the definition of "splurge" to ridiculous extremes, these young players are the exact opposite of splurging. Rockets can and should trade Oladipo, Tucker, EGo and Wall before they even THINK about trading their young rebuild pieces, even if they are not your mythical #1.
Well, Wall and Ego have no value, PJ is worth a couple of 2nds at this point, and Dipo a very late heavily protected 1st and expiring if we're lucky. We don't have many great assets, the BKN picks are too uncertain, our upcoming picks are either late or well protected, Wood is the only guy we have who could probably get us a pick in the top 10.
If the goal is just a top 10 pick then you will have squandered an All Star caliber player on a gamble, a roll of the die. Top 10 lottery picks aspire to be All Star caliber. Thinking Rockets are going to use all their resources to acquire a top 10 pick to draft the next James Harden, Lebron James or Kevin Durant, literally a once in a generation player, is unsound.
Thinking we'll get one with late picks and baiting Dipo/Tucker is unsounder Wood also gets in the way of us getting top picks in 22/23 when we have our own picks.
This article should be retitled to players that need to be traded. That Wall has fewer assists since Harden left is mind blowing. Wall has become even more selfish of a player and it has NOTHING to do with Harden.
You are seriously kidding yourself if you believe Rockets are drafting another Harden. Historically great players do NOT come around every other draft. There is only ONE James Harden. In the entire history of the NBA. THIS is the reason why players like this should NEVER be traded in their prime. NEVER EVER.
So you agree you were wrong, one player can indeed make a team. Now we're getting places, enemy. I don't think we can draft a Harden genetic duplicate, China probably has a couple but they ain't letting us have one @tinman But if we get a top 4 pick this year (and possibly the next 2 years, the duration of Woods contract) our odds of drafting or trading for a superstar - although far from guaranteed - increase significantly
How am I wrong? Even as generationally great Harden was, he still could not win a ring by himself. Having quality teammates matter. You are willing to burn every asset and risk the entire franchise for a player in school you have zero clue about.
I'd rather us burn our assets to maximize our opportunity to land top picks (or superstars by trades) then to burn them out on bums like AG thinking they will suddenly make our awful team legit. Superstar 1st, then build the team around them. You can't build the team around Bamba/AG/Wood/Tate/KPJ or whatever your imagining. That's a treadmill team Hey, we disagree, it's all good I don't want to go back and forth for 5 years like Tinman and 2 LOFS. We both want the rockets to succeed! Have a good week brother enemy man.
We both want the best for Rockets, agreed. But I believe Rockets can rebuild the team using multiple ways to acquire talent. You can still build a solid core of role players or secondary options WHILE building thru the draft. I stay away from all or nothing scenarios. You enjoy your week as well.
I had a good back and forth with Rosolian about this. I think the Rockets will get calls on Wood at the deadline. It's unlikely an offer makes sense, but he at only 14 mil a season, in many ways is more valuable than a superstar. He's putting up 85% of the production for a 1/3rd the price. That makes his market very large. I don't have a preference because I want the best long term result, which is still really wide open. I don't think it would be a debate if we had Wood on a 5/70 contract, but the benefit we have from Wood expires in less than 3 years and we are doomed with Wall's contract those years. It's almost impossible to win a championship when paying a player 25 million more than what they are worth. I think trading Wood now would be similar to Hinkie trading MCW after he won ROY. HInkie knew he wasn't getting a title in 4 years, so he took what he thought at the time was 80 cents on the dollar to have future assets and continue to tank. That may not be the course the Rockets decide to take, but if tanking is the route they choose, that is something to consider. Christian Wood can help you win a ring at 35 million a year, but you're more likely to win a ring with Wood at 14 million. Also, maybe Wood's ankles are a fluke so far, but if he rolls it again, he might get the buyer beware label. The anti tank approach is continue to root against Miami and and try to package their pick and Portland's for a high lottery. Then use more assets to get a superstar, but you still have John Wall bringing the team down. No matter how many scenarios we imagine, John Wall ruins any chance of being serious competitors for the next few years.
I just don't see this happening with the Rockets. We haven't built the core of the team through the draft since the 90s. Yao is the only superstar since then who played the career out w this franchise after being drafted. We ended the chain of star players since Steve Francis with an expiring Oladipo. That's not a great start to this new-look Rockets team. We also don't develop talent well, nor do we retain them well. The only advantage we have had since Hakeem has been trades.
Sounds like the last time we built through the draft we won a title, and the last top 7 pick we had we drafted an iconic treasure DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT!
#Preach Likelihood of picking a Ralph, a Yao or a Francis is far greater than drafting another Olajuwon. Generational talents like Dream or Beard are insanely difficult to find let alone develop into historically great players. Almost as hard as winning a championship. Almost. The Rockets THREE greatest players were acquired THREE completely different ways. Moses Malone was picked in 3rd round, played on 3 ABA teams in 2 seasons then traded from Buffalo Braves to Houston Rockets after only 2 games in NBA. Hakeem Olajuwon was 1st overall pick in draft. James Harden was acquired via trade and he was not even a starter on his team.