Come on, if Green was in this draft you'd be saying the same thing. Which scoring guard hurt you? lol Jaden can be a D-Wade/Ja morph and a chance to end up the best of the class. It is a top 4. It's just the teams with the top picks already got their primary backcourt players drafted recently. Star guards and wings have been primary players winning championships and contending for the longest now with the exception of the anomaly that is the Greek Freak who can't do it without his scoring wing.
we all want one thing to be able to win an NBA title, IMO Thunder/magic are use to being bad teams/drafting high we are still new to this rockets have only had three tanking seasons in our team history we are more use to winning then we are losing like them.
What was it like before yaomingmania? Each of one of the characters in Aliens are Rockets fans in a nut shell with the majority of us being Private Hudson's:
Not sure I want Bryce McGownes's mom's big board included as it has a slight bit of favoritism on the top of her board.
It was a different situation last year, I preferred the big over the athletic SG but Green was always in the talk about the top picks. This time around, the team already has the quick athletic SG.... so I'm not for drafting a lesser version of what we already have. He's not a top tier player AND he doesn't fit on a team with Jalen Green. There's really no coherent case for Ivey.
No, i get you when it comes to our situation, but a team with a log jam of bigs takes Ivey top 1,2 or 3 which makes him a top 4 player right? Despite his fit on the Rockets, or the other top 4 teams. This huge gap between #3 and Ivey isn't very true at all imo, but just a next best prospect behind 3. We can both agree he doesn't fit this current roster, though.
Oh I agree that fit could have potentially pushed him higher, but I think if you are creating a roster from scratch, Ivey isn't a top 3 pick.
You ask good questions - with Smith specifically currently he's an ancillary player. Maybe Stone is looking for more of an engine and not a role player that needs refining on offense? Fit isnt a thought at the top of the draft you take the best player and who that guy is will vary depending on each GMs vision for his team and I think Stone happens to favor offense. Neither Jabari, Chet or even Paolo are wings. They are all skilled bigs with differing degrees of defensive impact and likewise offensive capability. Houston needs size more than position. Stone could address both in this draft according to his own independent board. All Im saying is that if Stone moves up for his guy how is that a bad thing if his guy is rated above the others for him? If he moves up for Banchero and he becomes an perennial all star and borderline MVP guy would that not have made it worth it? Seems as if things will remain static without any movement among the top 3 teams and each franchise gets "their guy" so it all could be moot. I agree to a certain extent on using assets to find tier 1 type players just not sure that waiting for a playoff team is the best time to use them.
Now add in Victor and the question next year will be How can any team beat JG,Paolo and Victor in a seven game series in the playoffs?
We shall see… All i’m saying is i’m happy with any one of the top 3. Could even justify Ivey (assuming they trade KPJ) or even maybe trading back a couple picks, picking up a couple more picks for down the road, and taking Sharpe. But with regard to where they are slotted right now, i’m happy with Smith, Holmgren or Banchero. I just don’t want Stone to fall for any pump-fakes and waste ammo he doesn’t have to. After the 2023 draft, this teams needs to be a playoff team. Right now for’22, we just need to add the optimal pieces available and see marked improvement from last season to this upcoming season. I trust Stone’s judgement…just don’t want him to get okie doked.
