Is perfect! I was watching TNT last night and Charles Barkley made a usual Barkley type comment, saying something without thinking and that same analogy has been supported on Clutchfans many times before as well, and that is to....TRADE WOOD BECAUSE THE ROCKETS ARE IN A FULL REBUILD, BECAUSE HE DOES NOT FIT THE TIMELINE! So, I looked back at teams who have won championships in the past and correlated their rosters to the Rocket's current roster, most notably the Shaq and Kobe Lakers and the Duncan and Parker Spurs. Shaq was 25 or 26, he had been in the league for 4yrs and spent 2yrs in college. Kobe and D. Fisher were rookies when Shaq first joined the Lakers. Sure they made the playoffs but they struggled for 2yrs before they broke through. The Spurs had a veteran roster and Duncan was 26, 27 yrs old when Parker first joined the team but Parker struggled for yrs before they won a Championship. I think the Rockets need to ADD PIECES, rather than TANK! Tanking sets you back further and in 2yrs WHO WILL BE COMPETITIVE IN THE WEST? The Lakers are old, The Warriors main pieces are all in their 30's, same for the Clippers. Phoenix is good but nothing special, same for Denver and Dallas. So, I think the Rocket's timeline is perfect!
Did...did you just compare Christian Wood to Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan? (and also our rookies to Kobe, Manu and Tony?)
Top five nba players are all thirty something…except giannis, so this should have been a thread about HAIRLINE, not timeline: rockets players hairline still good
Tank this year. Tank next year. Take off in year three when we don't have our own first rounder and the young core has had time to significantly develop. I"m worried about adding long term pieces now before we know what we have via our future lottery picks. OKC could've been incredible, but they chose to extend Perkins sight unseen which came back to bite them in the arse when they couldn't re-sign Harden. We're in the very beginning stages of our rebuild. There's no need to panic or limit our options going forward.
Christian Wood, Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan Those 3 are definitely at the same level. Yep. Good thread.
Playing children in a man's game is not actually "tanking", but it has the same results as tanking. The best case scenario for the Rockets is to get their young guys plenty of experience this season while picking up a top 4 pick in the draft. The Rockets don't yet have a franchise caliber player, but they have a lot of good young players with promise.
I thought the comparison was Alpi to Derek Fisher. Anyway… I think the ultimate point is that Wood is not too old to be on good Rockets team if we get there in a few years and the owner doesn’t screw things up along the way.
CORRECT! At least someone get it. I think Wood is perfect for our timeline, no he's not Duncan or Shaq but if the Rockets add PIECES around them, rather than tanking for 2 or 3 more yrs, I think they can be a top 5 team sooner rather than later
The Lakers and Spurs were top 5 teams because of Shaq and Duncan. So that's what is needed - an MVP caliber player - if we are to go by those teams as examples.
we kinda need 1-2 foundational players, TBH, one say, NBA top-10 and one NBA top-30, ultimately. Is Wood going to be one of these guys, in your opinion? I guess the other one is supposed to come from the JG, KPJ, Alpi trio… You’d normally expect this to be Green, being the #2npick. KPJ or Alpi could be that rare draft over-performer… If you squint you can see the potential in all three, the ceilings are high and many analysts have pointed that out. But it is too early for making a certain timeline and sticking to it until we know who our two top dogs are. if Green bombs out and KPJ and Alpi don’t pop-out, what do we do with Wood and a bunch of busts?
The person that made the thread read the first reply and was like wait damn that's a good point. My whole premise and thread just got blown to pieces.
I'm unsure when the Rockets will be good next. I think Wood's next contract fits perfectly with the next time the Rockets should have financial room to add a star plus having 2-3 starting 21 year-olds. I'm open to trading Wood like anyone else on the roster, but the other team is going to have to bleed.
The whole "timeline" thing is a bunch of crap anyway. For it to be even remotely logical then the only way to get new players would be in the draft. In truth, it should always be about getting the best team available regardless of their age. Were Magic and Kareem on the same timeline? Won plenty of rings together though didn't they. Trading your best player because he's a couple of years older than your next best player is just stupid. If we do trade Wood it should have nothing to do with "timeline" and everything to do with getting players who better fit with the rest of the team.
Kind of agree except, the team should not lose flexibility while the team is still trying to form a good team. Putting together the best team available that isn't good, but limits a team's chances of becoming good in the future would be bad.
Yeah I probably should've worded it better. The best team for our current situation would not be to sign loads of aging all stars, but Wood is hardly that. Unless Wood gets worse over the rest of his contract he 100% makes us a better team and is a great fit. Trading him for timeline would be idiotic, trading him for an upgrade would be a smart move.
I think under the best circumstances the Rockets timeline goes like this: '21-'22: Destined to be bad. Like bottom 5 bad. '22-'23: Try for a low seed '23-'24: Shoot for home court in the playoffs '24-'25: Title window opens
Assembling such talent is the goal of every rebuilding team. I think the Suns are the better team to emulate. Get a couple of young building blocks and then add a vet to stir the drink a la Chris Paul once Wall's deal expires.
