You could be right, but at least it would be HIS team and he would be surrounded by complementary players. We also traded for a guy who made it known that he wanted to be in Miami so who knows. At least Simmons is healthy and has multiple elite skills we need. And Green is supposed to be our All Star caliber scorer.
How about taking a look at some possibilities? Pull that trade off and you now have picks 3, 22, & 25 in this draft. Then you trade Gordon to Cleveland for Rubio and pick 24. You pick Banchero with #3. Then you mull your offers for the three additional picks. Maybe you pick a player and push the others back a year. You could conceivably combine them all and move up to around 10-12. Or you could use them yourself (currently Nikola Jovic, Harrison Ingram and E.J. Liddell on Tankathon). Your starters are Simmons, Christopher, Tate, Banchero and Wood. You play with that team for a year and then you have cap space in 2023 along with anywhere from 2-4 FRP. You can sign a max free agent, then re-sign Wood to a max contract. SF looks like the glaring hole, so I would go all-in after Wiggins. Your 2023-24 team: Simmons/KPJ Christopher/Mathews Wiggins/KMJ Banchero/Garuba Wood/Theis That's a really good team with nobody who's even 30 and what should be either a lot of promising young players on the bench or draft picks pushed down the road. Gambling on the draft year after year could pay off, but it also might not. I'm not saying I would do the trade, but I'm not going to just dismiss it on sight, either.
Banchero with Simmons would be interesting. So would Jabari and Simmons. Or Chet and Simmons. Ivey and Simmons? Even AJ Griffin and Simmons. Possibilities are endless. Especially if you move Green for another top 5 pick and draft TWO of those guys. Then package Wood to 3rd team for Myles Turner. 6'10 Simmons/KPJ/Jaygup 6'3 EGo/Mathews 6'10 Jabari/Tate 7'1 Chet/KJ 6'11 Turner/Sengun Trade EGo and/or KPJ for FRP at deadline if necessary. But this rotation would be crazy long, athletic and disruptively dangerous defensively AND offensively.
Speaking of Jake he was on LaunchPad podcast today, talking about Rocket players trade value. It was an interesting listen. One comment on Wood, while there's interest, sounded like different teams are not super impressed with the numbers he's putting up here. There's doubt whether he can do it on a "winning environment". https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podca...t-joins-the-show/id1523001283?i=1000549711364 Unrelated to trades, as far as Rockets 'showcasing' Wood by cutting out Sengun's minutes, I don't think Rockets need to keep doing it, teams already know whether or not they want Wood. Jake reminded one of the reason (not Tilman's cheapness), that passing up Jared Allen was because Rockets at the time didn't think Allen fit well next to Wood. I hope Sengun not getting minutes is not the next casualty. I also sincerely hope Stone didn't pass up Mobley because of fit with Wood. Talent over fit, right? Fitting around Wood is now a concern from my view. If he's not our future cornerstone, we need to stop passing up these other opportunities. Stone/Silas' direction is very questionable. --- Other thing, because Pacers is asking a lot for Turner, there's interest in a cheaper back up big in Theis. This was a bit surprising.
Stone & Silas talent evaluation is pure shyte. And Silas lacks the ability to fit players to his system, never mind adjust during a game. If MDA can make Russ efficient by playing him out of position at the 5, the very least Silas could do is find a way to field 2 bigs at same time. It's not like a 2 big lineup has never been done in history of NBA. It's not just Wood lineups, because even the Theis-Sengun lineups have been shyte.
I do not think that is surprising at all. You would circle around deals that are simple. Moving Theis or Augustin for a SRP is such an easy deal.
Might not get someone super valuable back /second round pick. If the value isn't too high, Theis can stay, especially if Wood is still getting shopped. If Theis is moved before Wood, am worried Stone would be unnecessarily reluctant to move Wood when a good offer comes. Lack of front court depth Apparently following teams inquired about Theis: Bucks, Hornets, Raptors and Celtics.
Weird post. It's still early in the Stone and Silas era and you may prove to be right, but I'm going to go ahead and point to the following: The move to get Wood + a 1st round pick for getting rid of Covington was smart as hell and Wood, while maybe not a cornerstone, has more than out-performed his contract. Additionally, in the last two seasons they have plucked Jae'Sean Tate and Garrison Matthews out of obscurity and did extremely well drafting KJ Martin in the second round. I know that KPJ is a hot topic around here, but it should be fairly inarguable that he is worth a lot more than we gave up for him, so that was a good move. And finally, while Green may not be living up to our expectations of him just yet, the kid has shown plenty of flashes. And Sengun and Christopher are exceeding most of our expectations by a large margin (though Christopher hasn't yet met my expectations of being the MVP). And, lastly, Daishen Nix is currently destroying the G League. I just don't know how you can look at all of that and say with a straight face that these guys aren't doing at least a decent job of evaluating and bringing in talent. I, personally, am very impressed so far.
https://heavy.com/sports/miami-heat/christian-wood-duncan-robinson-houston-rockets/ Sources tell Heavy.com that among the ideas floated has been a deal centering on Rocket big man Christian Wood and Miami shooter Duncan Robinson. Involved people have downplayed there being anything substantive, and there would clearly be other moving parts involved. But others are saying there is at least some basketball sense to the talk. “I’ve got to think Houston wants more,” said one NBA GM. “And with the way they’ve been approaching things these last few weeks, I’d go as far as to say that’s for sure. “Houston’s really been over-valuing Woods and Eric Gordon. They think they’re going to get back a major piece, but they’re unrealistic with their expectations. I’ve looked around the league at what they’re putting out there — and I know they have, too. And no one is willing to give up a cornerstone player.” The logic in that particular Miami-Houston scenario would be that the Rockets could use a shooter, and the Heat would like another big body to throw at Joel Embiid in a potential playoff war. Spoiler [Wood being a] Big body to throw at Joel Embiid? Like throwing meat to a Lion?
Both Wood and Tate were signings that were planned while Morey was still GM. Per @Nook and substantiated by rumors of Morey's interest in Wood was rampant during trade deadline in bubble season, season prior to Wood acquisition. KPJ should have been part of Harden package from outset IMO. Stone got lucky that JBB was a huge Lucas admirer and understood that his organization could not provide help this player needed. Cavs literally gave Porter to Rockets for free. Speaking of Harden trade, Stone got the picks he wanted but he could have also netted a real All Star cliber player in JA as well. And Silas coveted Oladipo over LeVert (who is now worth an FRP per trade rumors) and Stone almost compounded this mistake by offering still injured Dipo an extension. It's all well and good that Stone-philes are now saying the offer was merely courtesy but if Dipo had better advisors, Rockets would be absolutely screwed right now. And then Rockets lucked out with Olynyk in what was supposed by be salary filler for Dipo (experiencing career rejuvenation due to great fit in Silas system) dump but instead chose to sign Theis instead of Olynyk who proved compatible with KPJ, Wood, EGo, KJ, etc. - except Theis is completely UNPALATABLE and UNPLAYABLE in Silas system. Nwaba also re-signed. Glued to bench. Stone ignored his analytics and scouting team and drafted Green. But that beaten horse is more undead than dead now. KJ, Mathews, Sengun I'll give him credit for. But I know that Rockets analytics and scouting teams had a LOT to do with these player evaluations, just fortunate he actually listened to them. Nix and Queen are TBD, both on 2 way contracts, same as Mason Jones last season. Remember him? And our other great white hope, Kurucs? WORST RECORD IN HISTORY OF ROCKETS FRANCHISE. WORST DEFENSE IN NBA. Rebuilds do not have to be the worst ever. That's on both Silas and Stone.
Seems to be trend with Stone, he overvalues and/or puffs up assets during negotiations. I remember how sensitive he was during recent radio interview about his GM abilities and kept emphasizing how skilled and experienced he was in negotiations.
https://www.thedreamshake.com/2022/...ential-houston-rockets-trades-eric-gordon-nba When speaking of Christian Wood, Fischer stated the Rockets hold him in very high regard considering they moved Jared Allen because they didn't think they were a fit next to each other. Also that teams around the league don't hold Christian Wood in the same high regard, specifically because of him playing on losing teams his entire career. The Miami Heat were discussed last week, but there hasn't been much chatter at all this week about a possible trade to South Beach. Fischer said the Rockets have already been offered Ricky Rubio and a second-round pick, but they turned it down when discussing Eric Gordon. Also, he believes if the Rockets were offered a first for Gordon, they would have already made the deal. It also seems the Rockets wouldn't have a problem holding on to Gordon past the deadline. Talking to Jake, it seems the Rockets are confident that they can get a first-round pick for Gordon. There is nothing new on the John Wall front, as he is still not interested in a buyout at this point, and the Rockets, of course, would still be interested in a Westbrook and Wall swap if the Lakers would offer their 2027 first-round pick and Westbrook would possibly agree to a buyout. Other notable topics discussed were if there was any interest in any of the Rockets veterans, and Fischer said that several teams are interested in Daniel Theis especially considering the high price of players like Domantas Sabonis of the Pacers. As a result, the Rockets could probably expect a second-round pick back for Theis, who outside of Gordon is the most likely player to be traded by next week.
This all tracks with Stone's recent radio interview. Rockets like their players. Small trades for Theis and Nwaba are the likeliest outcomes this trade deadline. Stone makes more calls then he receives.
https://www.si.com/college/usc/basketball/evan-mobley-nba-draft "The consensus around the league right now is that it will be either Green or Mobley. You can make the case for either player in Houston, and sources say that there’s an internal debate as well with the analytics side favoring Mobley and the more traditional scouting side favoring Green. This is from SI.com and i read something similar just now on dreamshake I think. I remember this being talked about before the draft but it's hard to know how true it is.
Okay, but that isn't Stone ignoring both sides. If what was stated in that article is true, he sided with scouting over analytics. If that's the case, I agree with his decision. (Knowing the little that I know)
