[MacMahon] Why the Houston Rockets are going all-in on their 'very painful' rebuild

LOL - ok - sure whatever......we have our one and only Tillman fan .....

DD

 

Easy to tank

let’s congratulate stone when we actually win more games than we lose .

if we are a bottom 3 team again (and it’s because FO mandates it ) Silas will have to be let go and green and the rookies we are trying to develop and create a winning culture with will have just endured 2 years of losing on purpose .

 

People are talking about the route as if they had a choice. They didn't.

Tilman broke up the 17-18 team year after year, and this was always going to be the results. And it happened sooner rather than later.

The full rebuild stage of this organization is a product of being forced not a choice

 

I’ve rather enjoyed myself. I would’ve hated taking back Ben Simmons and it would’ve sucked the life out of this organization. Stone is doing it the right way

I’m ****ing too excited for kpj/green/Paolo/sengun this year

 

To be fair, if you run the numbers for how many 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc picks that win a championship with the team that drafted them I'm thinking it's not significantly better either.

Championship winners with the team that drafted them since 1980 (top 5 picks), including draft day trades (e.g. Scott, Pippen):

1980: Kevin McHale (3rd)
1981: Isiah Thomas (2nd)
1982: James Worthy (1st)
1983: Byron Scott (4th)
1984: Hakeem Olajuwon (1st), Michael Jordan (3rd)
1985: None
1986: None
1987: David Robinson (1st), Scottie Pippen (5th)
1988: None
1989: Sean Elliot (3rd)
1990: None
1991: None
1992: None
1993: None
1994: Jason Kidd (2nd)
1995: None
1996: None
1997: Tim Duncan (1st)
1998: None
1999: None
2000: None
2001: None
2002: None
2003: LeBron James (1st), Dwyane Wade (5th)
2004: None
2005: None
2006: None
2007: None
2008: None
2009: None
2010: None
2011: Kyrie Irving (1st), Tristan Thompson (4th)
2012: None
2013: None
2014: None
2015: None
2016: None
2017: None
2018: None
2019: None
2020: James Wiseman (2nd)
2021: None

If I count it correctly:

1st picks: 6
2nd picks: 3
3rd picks: 3
4th picks: 2
5th picks: 2

 

Cool story.

 

I agree... especially watching Harden flame out in the playoffs 2 years in a row for different teams. The rebuild isn't bothering me at all.

 

Bullshit. They could've thrown assets at mediocre players and could've taken other deals to get mediocre players to be a mediocre team.

Bottoming out was a choice. And it delivered the #2 pick last draft and the #3 in this one.

Say what you want about Fertitta, idgaf, but this is clearly a choice and something any Rockets fan should be happy about.

 

Throws assets at what? You mean the assets he foolishly gave away getting westbrick. nobody is coming here that would make a difference.

Thinking this was some tough choice is nonsense. It was forced as a result of all the dumb decisions hes made since 2018. The rockets are in a full rebuild because there is no other choice.

 

@YOLO I think one option Tilman/Stone could have gone with was to lean in on playing vets moreso than what we saw. They could have rolled out this starting lineup last season and kept it going:

Theis
Wood
Tate
Gordon
Wall

That team, if it maintained health, would have gotten them low to mid 30s in wins. That right there is the epitome of a mediocre team trying to make the play-in.

 

this would assume Wall wanted to play. Just like Horford was in okc, both don't see much reason to waste seasons not playing any meaningful games and add wear/tear on their bodies. I also don't think Green was drafted at #2 to sit on the bench. EG staying healthy which he didn't. We know wood's impact on winning is bad. Theis well he doesn't matter

 

Nailed it brother, amen! This is exactly what I read between the lines there too. These owners are so out of touch it’s sickening as a diehard Rockets fan.

We’d like wins but development is key. That’s straight up loser speak. Paying Wall all that cash to not even play on top of these comments tells me the shartshow is just warming up.

Yay we suck again!

 

Valid points but that starting lineup could have still happened if Fertitta wanted it to happen. Tilman is guilty of a lot of things but at least he's smart enough (for now) to know not to meddle in a rebuild, unlike other owners out there.

 

Draft night and people worried about Tilmans wealth lol.... We got some insecure haters in here....

Good news is, Tilman shares how all of us can get there...

 

In this case - the optimal strategy and Tillman's penchant for cost cutting > contention aligned perfectly.

Prior to Harden trade though there were a number of trade/FA windows where the Rockets seemed to emphasize LT savings/standing pat - the one exception being the disastrous Harden/tillman orchestrated Westy trade.

 

Yeah I can relate. When I saw the New Age billboard featuring Jeremy Lin I wanted to go full blown tank. Then we got Harden and I quickly pivoted knowing there's many ways to rebuild and the most important way is a generational dominant talent or multiple All Stars (get one and that one attracts others).

I know losing can be hard but accumulating elite talent is hard.

 

My point is that I don't care how we got here but it's going well so I don't see the point in complaining.

Btw Les never allowed Morey to tank so he wouldn't lose Money. If that's all that Tilman is after, why would he allow Stone to tank?

I don't really care about Fertitta but it's baffling to me how regardless of the route he takes, it's always bad and he gets critiziced.

He could solve world hunger tomorrow and people would find ways to complain.

It's just not something I want to be a part of.
The Rockets are on a good path right now and I'm happy that they are. That's all I know and to be honest all I care about.

 

Hilarious that MacMahon wrote this work of fiction and even more hilarious that people are buying it.

A championship contender was dismantled step-by-step by the very people running the show now. Subsequent to last year’s league-worst season, they attempted to be a middle-rung twice, first by surrounding Harden with mediocre talent in Wall, Wood and Cousins and then second by hitching their wagon to Oladipo (while giving up Allen and Levert for…) who they offered a max extension to.

This season they again tried to put a mediocre team together by offering Theis and Nwaba long-term deals. They ended up contributing nothing. The Rockets trotted out a rotation the first half of the year that was older than the Celtics rotation.

Now they finally appear committed to a real rebuild, but they got to this point through rank incompetence. Coincidentally this route will save Tilman a lot of money; “$70 million in cap space!” lol. Don’t believe their lies.

 

Oh you mean like they tried to do with Olidipo?

It appears that Fertita has backed off and letting Stone do this the right way, and props to him if true, but this doesn't change the fact that Fertita is still absolute garbage and set this team back years with his idiocy.