We have the hardest schedule remaining of the tanking teams - your theory may be right, but I hope you're wrong because the drop-off from 4 is steep Tanking next year will be critical for the future of the franchise IMO - 2 elite talents are coming up next year that are genuinely worth tanking for as opposed to this year's draft - the rockets are not gonna have a better chance of adding franchise altering talent than the lottery for a long time
Trading Wood and Gordon this off-season is key. Sign maybe 1 or 2 backup vets to 1 yr Deals "for culture" and be bad 1 last year. Current rookies should improve further. Our newest epoxies will improve over the year. We will have our "hopefully" last high draft pick. We will have a ton of cap space to add quality around our youth. We start owing our 1st rd picks so it benefits to stop bottoming out. 2024 I expec5 enough growth and talent to be a fringe playoff team and that's gotta be our current rebuild schedule
What does tanking next year look like though? I think we should move Gordon and Wood but those are the only valuable veterans we have left. If the young guys improve and we draft an impact rookie there is nothing the team can really do to make itself worse.
I think the team should be trying to get any good young players they can this off-season. Being so young will likely cause them to be a bottom 10 no matter what but I don't think should be shooting for bottom 3 again. If it happens it happens but I don't think they should avoid players 25 or younger because they think it will cost them a few losses.
I don't think this is the off-season to go shopping. Trade wood and gordon, replace with 1 yr vets in a backup role for like 4-8m each to replace that "leadership". Go into the following year with mad cash with Wall and the 2 new vets expiring. At this point is where I think you try and target the best player(s) you can. I also agree, that I wouldn't purposely tank top bottom 3 again next year, but rather play super young and naturally be bottom 5-7 while trying to win with such a young team.
I think we are close to the same page. I don't think they should go find players to help them win next year but I do think they shouldn't avoid players that will do that. If you can get a solid young player for Gordon or Wood I think you take it and especially if we can get a top 4 pick this year. If a player like De'Andre Hunter was available for a reasonable price I think they should take it.
Oh yeah for sure, I didn't factor in whatever comes back via the wood and Gordon trades because that could be vast. I'd be with getting youth via trade as well, just feels more likely to be salary filler vets and picks. My current ideal situation is to trade wood and the bkn pick to move into the top 10 this year, Portland being the most obvious target. Trading Gordon for a future 2023 1st as well. That would net us 2 1st rd picks in 3 straight drafts, which at this point we would have enough youth to start looking to add vets and trade assets to start competing seriously. That also lines up with when we start owing okc our picks.
On the surface it seems like trading away Gordon and Wood and plugging in two young players from this draft who should be pretty good would sufficiently maintain the tank for one more year. However, we will have to bring back $35M in salary in those trades. What will those players look like? Will it be a good, young player already signed long-term from a team looking to tear it down and is looking for expirings and picks? Or will they be washed up veterans who are overpaid and contribute nothing, and what is the incentive for each side in making that trade? How we move forward is probably going to be dictated by the moves made available to us.
I believe the NBA could still achieve their desire, but tighten up the numbers a bit, like if your 1-3, worse you can get is #3 and best in #1. Do it in smaller increments 4-7 and then 8-14--something like that. Like you, I hope this is the last tank and we move out looking to solidify and grow our squad next year. These almost wins are such a love/hate affair for me--love the effort, but staying close to Tank top is critical to our future.
4 1 6 5 5 2 3 5 6 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 6 2 5 5 4 2 5 5 5 3 5 4 2 5 6 4 5 5 2 2 3 6 3 2 4 4 5 5 5 2 1 2 1 5 5 3 1 5 1 2 1 5 2 2 5 1 1 4 1 4 6 4 1 5 6 5 3 3 6 2 2 6 1 6 6 5 1 6 4 4 5 2 6 3 5 6 1 4 5 1 5 5 3 5 1: 15 2: 17 3: 11 4: 14 5: 29 6: 14 Did another 100 sims with the current 2nd worst record. This is the difference of not having a chance to pick 7th.
At some point we have to trade some of the youngins because of the massive incoming talents the team is going to acquire. You thought we had bad minutes distribution this year, wait till next year or 2 years from now.
Thats fine. By then we will know what we have in kpj, Martin, garuba etc... and which ones to keep and ship out and ultimately replace with new ones. That's not really a problem.
Silas is the gift that keeps on giving. His first 2 seasons will go down as worst Rockets teams in franchise history. If he has 3 straight such seasons it would be insane to retain him.
Impossible to develop that many FRP and young players. I do not have any faith in this FO or coaching staff to identify the right players in draft, trade or FA let alone have the ability to develop these players.
Sure you can, you just ship out the ones you don't want anymore that are in year 3/4 of their rookie contract. It consistently happens across the league. By the time we hit 2023 draft and off-season we will know who's staying and who isn't. Easy shuffle. Yall are making way too much out of that
