Lol at another ridiculous proposal by someone who failed as a lawyer and is like 5' tall. An embarrassing situation all the way around
It's the right type of thinking.... The 24 year old franchise player is disgruntled... there's thinking he may not be a franchise player. Good time to buy low(ish), but I don't see it happening during the season or maybe even next season. Hawks are too committed for the time being. However, for the sake of the discussion I feel like Green would need to be the headliner in that package.
How many top level teams build their foundation through trading for their stars? Giannis, Luka, Zion, Tatum, Morant, Embiid, Booker, Jokic, Curry. All drafted by their teams. If Trae was on their level, there's no way in hell they'd even consider trading him. At best, he'd make us a mediocre low playoff seed. Building through the draft is the only way to get it done. If you don't think our draft picks are good enough, you keep tanking until you hit on somebody.
As @xaos said on the first page, such a trade would completely handcuff us for the foreseeable future. If we don’t think that the players we have are the right ones to take us into contention, we should either trade them for more draft capital and try again, or try to grab the main pieces in free agency and turn our current roster into the supporting players. If anything, this thread shows that the Rockets shouldn’t try to trade for a star right now, even one in “buy low” territory.
I’m not trading for Young if it’s giving up any of Smith, Green and probably Sengun. Why become Atlanta with less talent if trading so much away? What I see with the Rockets is a real lack of leadership, both on the sideline and on the floor. You have a bunch of young guys with solid talent but no one really directing them on the floor. I don’t hate KPJ like some, but he’s not the guy that should be running point. He will have great runs at times but I also see him shoot the squad out of the game because he’s trying to get his. For me, KPJ is not a part of the future. I could be wrong but that’s how I feel. I think this team is another year or two away from bringing in a couple of solid vets to help lead and stabilize things. I also feel like it’s time for a coaching change after this year. What is the plan? What is the direction of this team? I feel like coaching just runs guys out there and hope “talent” takes over. If your plan is to tank, and it has been, Silas is fine. I just don’t feel like this staff as a whole can take the Rockets into the future and find real success. I’m not worried about JG’s progression. He’s fine to me, but feel like he needs more of a true star next to him to help him unlock some things. So a trade for Young? That’s a no for me.
The tank's not en route it's been driving for 3 seasons and its still in roughly the same place as it started. No foundational pieces but a few new boxes of window treatments and shiny light fixtures lying around
Being "ok" is absolutely no better than being awful IMO. If we don't have a reasonable trajectory/ceiling that fans can see towards a championship, it doesn't matter whether we win five games or 50. The latter is kind of worse, cuz you have moments of false hope that later gets crushed... For example, think how excited Hawks fans were a couple years ago with their young stud PG right after a promising run to the ECF. Now they're hopeless. I'd rather stay bad and keep hoping to win big in the draft.
Selling our young core whose max age is 20 and already deciding that they don't have what it takes to be a championship team is certainly a knee jerk. Not sure what you're expecting from a bunch of 20 year olds but I've seen enough of Trae to know he's not worth the package it'll take to get him. He's a great young player to be sure but he's not Doncic, whose generational. I honestly don't think it's an insane take to think that Green has a higher ceiling than Trae. Bigger, more athletic, shooting is coming around...also seems to be a team player, getting better on defense. Hell no. Sengun, fine, I could see that. I could be convinced of that especially if we were to get Wemby or something. Smith. Nope. It's far too early to go selling on your #3 pick especially as he locked up Giannis last night. Smith and Green both, from what we know and see, just have better mentality about the game. Hard workers looking to be great. Trae got that feeling to me that he's going to be as good as he is now for the rest of his career, which is great but... This team doesn't need Trae Young. Trae Young swapped for those guys makes the team mediocre and Trae is still surrounded by unknown talent, just players with potential...which is all this team is now. You may as well just let these kids grow and see what you have. It would suck to end up trading Green for Young only to find out you traded away the better player.
I’m open to swinging for the fences, but (1) I’m not trading Green, Sengun, or Smith, and (2) it’s weird to say this team has a “low ceiling” considering how young it is AND the fact that we’re starting to beat some pretty good teams.
While everything you've said here is true, I wouldn't make a deal for him unless it was a lowball offer. Bad defender and a chucker ....
Yeah, so perhaps you should not approach your keyboard after tough losses (or great wins even). The Rockets are not focused on winning this year. It's been said on multiple occasions that their focus is on player development and though you may not see it. I do. And a win like last night like shows progress. A team that pretty much dominated them in their previous meeting was routed. The young guys looked prepared, they had a game plan for Giannis and executed it. Close game with Rockets needing a positive possession at the end and your 2nd year guard, who is quickly learning the art of drawing fouls, draws a foul from one of the better big defenders in the game to put the Rox up. That play doesn't happen last year, hell it doesn't happen earlier this year when JG obviously let Carter get in his head... PROGRESS. I like what the Rockets are trying to build and to proclaim that none of these picks will pan out is incredibly obtuse. You don't know, I don't know, they don't know, but I'm willing to give them more than a year and a half to figure it out.
