I think its reasonably possible that they are a playoff team next season with the right FA acquisitions. First thing is a point guard and even if you pay the max to a lead guard you still have ~$30-35m left to spend on another position (or multiple). Imagine they land FVV and Myles Turner in FA along with a top 4 pick and a late #1 from Milwaukee .... FVV/KPJ/TyTy/Nix Green/KPJ/Christopher/Mathews KMJ/Tari/Tate Jabari/Tari/Tate Turner/Sengun/Garuba/Bruno and two rookies - you have a solid roster and assets to get even better. You would most definitely expect that squad to make the playoffs at a minimum and the expectations might be higher than that. 50 wins and home court ... Obviously, your targets in FA might be different depending upon where you land in the draft - #1 pick you aren't going after Turner and #2 you probably aren't looking at FVV but a much cheaper option as a backup point as you are drafting one of Scoot or Amen.
Is this a serious post or is it a joke? I admit that it is inexplicable that Silas continues as the team's coach and his insistence on KPJ is infuriating, but Stone got Green, Sengun, Jabari and Tari in two consecutive drafts. Not to mention the huge pool of assets for the future. Houston got Sengun and Tari with draft picks that were previously wasted on taking Royce White or Sam Dekker! Time to fire Stone? Time to learn something about this business my friend...
Were they really tanking or were they just .... not good enough to win? I think it's the latter and proof of that is them winning more recently - they are getting better (developing) and that's a credit to Silas. Popular opinion around this place is that Silas sucks and should have been fired long ago but popular opinion isn't always the correct opinion .... then again most of the complaints revolve around opinions of who plays and how long with no understanding of what happens at practices or team dynamics - what all those people refuse to look at is statistics and the stats show Silas offense to produce a ridiculous amount of open shots and producing them with a team made up of rookies and 2nd year players doing the heavy lifting. He's got them beating playoff teams ..... 5 of their 7 wins came against teams who are currently in a playoff spot. If he should be fired for something, its screwing up the tank.
I agree that we have to see a much bigger sample size and see the team with another coach preferably in order to come up with 'Sengun' s problem is his TO to assist ratio'.
lol I’m more in the stone hater camp than Silas hater one . Mostly I just don’t like losing and think that the front office is too comfortable tanking for 3 years ... even if it is a good strategic decision . I also miss my boi Tate . I wish he could be a bigger part of this growth , given how hard he’s played on the floor and sacrificed his body on **** teams . and agree that people generally have no idea what they talked about . I am also a little pissed at the lack of a meritocracy. A lot of guys outplayed green last year and didn’t get nearly as many mins. still this year , better play doesn’t mean more time . we have cap space next year but I am not optimistic about getting the chance to use it on impact players . (Ie players wanting to come here ) I’m glad we are showing SOMETHING , and we really do need to keep it up. If we finish 20-62 again I’d say that’s a problem on multiple levels
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/te...-evaluation-25-games-into-season-17643609.php “The whole season is about growth,” coach Stephen Silas said Monday, the night 76ers counterpart Doc Rivers called the Rockets' improvement since last season “amazing.” “It’s (about) 82 games of growth for us. It was really hard at the beginning with all the travel. Now we’re going to be home. But we’re playing some really good teams, so grow that way, too. Grow being at home, practicing at our practice facility, getting extra shots up at night, sleeping in your own bed. Then going out there and playing teams like Philly, teams like Milwaukee, teams like Phoenix and Miami, who’s coming up. “It’s (about) the individual development and growth for each guy, but (also) the team development seems like it’s kind of coming together a little more.” “It feels like we’re pretty on track,” general manager Rafael Stone said. “We’ve seen a lot of good things. We’ve seen a lot of growth from a lot of different players. We’ve seen some team growth, too. Sitting here right now, at a really early stage, we feel comfortable that we’re talented and our guys are really hardworking, which is, from a macro perspective, our two largest goals. “(Last season’s draft picks) are materially better basketball players this year than they were last year. I think that’s evident when you watch them. Their weaknesses are not as weak, and their strengths are stronger. They’re far from finished products. We’re really happy with all our young guys.” “Fundamentally, we all ultimately get judged on wins and losses,” Stone said, “but if you’re a 19-year-old rookie competing in the NBA for the first time, no one should expect you to be as ready as an NBA veteran.” “The first 13 games of the season, we had the hardest road schedule in the history of the NBA,” Stone said. “We didn’t ask for it. What we had to rely on is all the work off the court, all the work that people had done making sure communication was good and our guys understood what we were doing so we can weather bad times. I think the coaches and the players did a really good job of doing that. “We have been one of the harder-working teams in the NBA, and as they got a little better individually and meshed a little better, they started having a little success.” “It’s part of the growth process, part of learning to be a professional,” Silas said. “If we concentrate on the things that have been successful for us, which is playing super, super hard, playing together, and then playing poised down the stretch of games, it shouldn’t really matter who we’re playing against.” “Obviously, the talent is there,” Gordon said. “We just have to continue having more chemistry. It’s all about building along the way. Of course, the next 25, we want to be better. And after that, the next 25, you want to be better. At the beginning of the year, it’s always tough for a younger team. They’re finding chemistry, finding themselves. They all want to establish themselves at a high level. But you've got to learn how to do it together.” Improvement has been obvious. So too have been the areas, especially defensively, in which there is a long way to go. “I feel very good about (the level of growth). I feel we’re improving for sure,” Silas said. “We had a tough start. and over the last 10 or so games, we kind of solidified a little bit. But we’re still young. We’re still making mistakes. We’re still turning the ball over. There’s still a lot we have to improve.”
I don't think they are comfortable losing at all ... I think they all hate it and it drives them to be better. Damn near the whole team was in the gym all offseason working & that's a huge credit to both Stone & Silas as well as the players. As for Stone, I think he's done a great job acquiring quality talent in a very short period of time, now we have to wait for them to mature .... and it's happening faster than I expected to be quite honest. Really did we expect a bunch of 19 year old kids to turn the corner in year one and start winning out of the gate this year? That was a hard reset, they were a talentless team after Harden left. Now they have so many guys worthy of minutes it's almost impossible to play them all. A lot of people had unrealistic expectations this past offseason talking about making the play in .... and for the most part its those same people who are driving most of the negative narratives here. They just need someone & something to blame be that KPJ and the isolations or Silas being the worst coach ever .... On the meritocracy issue - I'd like to see some other guys get extended minutes too, but you have to understand that they are trying to build superstars out of those high picks that are getting all the run and I find it hard to blame them in a league that's 100% star driven and let's not forget about the results either. There was a time last season where Jalen Green was statistically the league's worst player. The improvement he has made since then shows they were right in making the investment / commitment in him. Green has star potential, I love JC but he just doesn't have that same potential .... even if he does deserve minutes, those minutes cannot come at the expense of Green. We can go back and forth on KPJ too, I see the talent and all the mistakes that leave us shaking our collective heads .... he has so many physical tools and is shifty as they get even if he is a turnover machine - they lose nothing in trying to develop him into whatever it is they envision him as .... if he puts it together and becomes a part of the future, they are a step ahead of the game. The only real complaint I have about Stone is that EG is still on this roster and one of my few complaints about Silas is that EG is getting 30 minutes a night .... Next season the kid gloves come off, they have to win - If they are still bottom feeders next season, that's when we start complaining .... have a little patience and don't get caught up in the false narratives.
You forgot a couple to complete the TTD trilogy there is only Tanking - Taxes (luxury saving) and Death
It was a comical reply as the cliche quote of the only thing for sure in life is death/taxes Life is a game, some say
while I agree with you on what he’s done . I’m not really sure it’s that impressive . You had A real big piece to trade in harden . He seems to have done OK with that . he’s done well at getting rid of Russ and now wall (but it’s not like we got ride of them Early ) we just got the one that would help us lose more games . I don’t think losing (as a goal ) is hard to put off . most 19 year olds you can draft have potential and we had top picks . My expectations are high man . If you tank for 3 years in a row you better be damn good and not just for a couple of years . green has improved a lot . Part of that is he had nowhere to go but up . thinking of last year . It wouldn’t be crazy to say josh Christopher was ahead of green . Green got 30+ mpg no matter how he did . Josh got the short end of the stick even if he played well . I have a hard disagree with you on the meritocracy. I do not think that “building a superstar “ has a formula . That more mins your rookie year = a better outcome . Green has star potential at this point because he was ranked highly predraft and a team validated that and took him top 5 . I obviously have to be patient with the choices the org has made . But if we don’t shift models SOON. Then I think it’s gonna do more damage than good . ive calmed down a bit on my overall outlook given a couple of the recent wins and close games . We need to keep it up . ~20 wins ain’t gonna get it done and if that’s the outcome we really should take a hard look at stone and Silas . At the very least stone should be feeling pressure to have reversed direction permanently.
I keep hearing this losing culture nonsense and people need to give it a rest. It's not a thing. When we start actively trying to win next year, the core parts of our rotation will be: - Green and Sengun, who will have endured 2 losing seasons. - Jabari and Eason, who will have endured 1 losing season. - Likely 2 major free agents, who wouldn't have been exposed to our "losing culture" at all. - Our 2023 #1 pick, who wouldn't have been exposed to our "losing culture" at all. - And a couple role players who really don't matter all that much. This is a week or two old, but still relevant for perspective. Not to mention our own Houston Astros, who endured 3 100 loss seasons in a row, and went on to the playoffs 7 of the next 9 seasons, winning 2 world series.
