[Poll] Do you think the Rockets should tank or try to win?

Normally, I'd pick option 3, but with the Wemby sweepstakes, Spurs and all other mediocre teams are going in on this.

 

Win as much as possible with the young players.

 

I think they're going to be pretty bad organically. They won't need to try to tank.

Gonna be alotta fun to watch (i hope).

 

These poll options are incomplete. We should - and are obviously going to - fill the roster with young guys and attempt to win every single game.

Adding mediocre vets to that equation is a really dumb idea. There's absolutely no indication that doing that during tanking years will result in more wins-oriented players. What happens is you progressively dump losers and accumulate winners.

It's HARD to win the title guys. Can you acknowledge that for one moment? It's really f'king hard with the top of the top players maneuvering, agents being sharks, owners spending different amounts. The teams in the middle of the table are NOT a player away from being title contenders, they just hope they are. That's where we'll be stuck.

Once you're near the Luxury Tax, you better be an easy conference finals participant. That means you make your big signings and trades when you're there. Otherwise you end up like Portland who idiotically let themselves believe that an outlier Conference Finals appearance means that they're an MLE signing away.

You have to get as big a chunk of your core on team-controlled contracts as possible. You have to develop some a superstar or two yourself. You have to develop a few role players that suit a championship culture. Your coaches can have all the championship experience you need. On the court, it doesn't matter till it's playoff time. Lots of young teams have great regular season. It's totally made up in your mind that some mediocre vet on the court and 5 more wins is more important than keeping cap flexibility till the right time, practicing great cap management, creating a roster on which a superstar BELIEVES he is the FINAL piece. Superstars don't join teams that win 40 games and are capped out.

Look at Popovic's Spurs. For all his coaching brilliance, he's driven that franchise into the ground until they finally gave up and blew it up last month. He was stubborn about mid range shots, rebuilding, etc. It just doesn't work. Most learning comes from doing, not from watching or being told. Let's get these players' mistakes out of the way, they are inevitable, you can barely reduce them.

 

I'm tired of tanking!!! Let the toddlers play to win already!!!


Fun Factoid: I let Freddie use my Crown and Robe for this event! ...
Go ROCKETS!!!
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Teams going for playoff / playin

GS
Phx
NO
Clippers
Mavs
Portland
LA
Mem
Den


Tankers:
SA
OKC
Utah


In-betweens
Hou
Orl
Sac


So really there is one spot left in the playin. Sactown is looking to get that spot, so yeah, it's very possible we finish in the bottom 5 of the conference.

We'll probably be picking in the 10-12 range pre-lottery

 

i don't support losing mentality. @hakeem94 wembanyamnyam is a clear bust.

this is a play-in team that is destined for the 2nd round. i can feel it in my faps

 

What's the difference between lose organically and try to win?

 

A three-player core doesn't have to be three star players. You can argue that Klay, Draymond, Smart, and Maxey are all high end role players you can probably get in the 6-15 range.

If you have three cornerstone level players, you can be called a superteam. Few superteams were built purely from the draft.

 

One is all-natural and preservatives free.

The other prob involves hormones and questionable chemicals.

 

I vote they try to win....but you re-evaluate halfway through the season. If playoffs are an option, go for it, if the season is turning out to be a nightmare and your recent picks are looking terrible, you tank at that point.

That said, Silas gets his walking papers if the Rockets win fewer than 30 games no matter what happens....so if things look terrible and you commit to the tank, you commit to firing Silas and looking for a real coach in the off-season.

 

It pretty much depends on how good you think guys like Green, Smith, Sengun, and KPJ are.

If you think they are nothing special, you think the team will be terrible no matter what is done. If you think some or all of them are special, you think being in contention for the playoffs should be possible.

 

They will be trying to win but with a team this young there won’t be too many successful attempts.

Patience.

 

I hope for another top draft pick but only via organic losing, not because of purposeful tanking. I think Silas is the perfect coach and leader to take us to the promised land of another top draft pick before he gets fired and we get a real coach when we absolutely have to start winning, the following season.

 

I'm somewhere in the middle.. I'm hopeful they can win 35-38 games but I'm bracing for 24-28 wins... Which means they need a new philosophy and direction more than an incoming top 8 pick... If they do get 35 wins tho, that will have the city on fire for the next offseason.. Kinda like how BKN had the NBA on notice , the season before the KD/Kyrie signings... They just got 2 jackasses .. They did it right, just backfired so far

 

I'll take the under.

 

If the purpose of keeping the HC is so that we can get a high pick, then that's not organic losing. That's intentional tanking. We should have a coach that is good at teaching the kids how to win, not confusing them of what they are supposed to do to win.

I am not saying we should fire Silas. But keeping him should be because he is good or can be good, not the opposite.

 

Thanks for a decent thread. I’ve always been in on the unintional intentional tank. I think its going to be hard with our talent. I see at least four that are tanking harder than us:

San Antoinio
Utah
Oklahoma
Orlando

If we play Eason over Tate we are not tanking. If Nix gets legitimate minutes we are tanking. If Sengun get 30+ Mins we are not tanking. IF Gordon gets over 20 mins we are not tanking. If Matthews gets over 20 mins we are tanking. If we have won less than 15 games by the all star game Silas is tanking.

 

As of now, I'll take the over.