You cant escape the inexperience and growing pains that guys this young have to overcome, No matter the coach. Im starting to like going back to the minimum age requirement for the NBA just for the sake of the sport in general. Detroit fan will tell you that they play the game so much better than us!
The same okc that has had one of the worst records in the league for years. No different this year. What a silly response that did nothing to help you
While also having a developed star borderline superstar. God knows what Green, Sengun or Jabari will look like when they are 24.... Even KPJ. I guarantee you that most of those players I just listed are going to look very different than they do now.
So yea, let's look at context. SGA has been in the league for 5 seasons. Jalen has been in the league 2 seasons and has averages more than SGA in both is rookie and sophomore campaigns. OKC had about .300 winning percentage the previous two seasons. So if you want to talk about context, you can't compare a 5th year guy to a 2nd year guy and then claim that OKC is doing a better job based on their current situation. Let the Rockets tank this season as everybody on the planet is saying this is the best year to do so. This summer will be very telling as they'll have many assets from which to work with. If they are still in the same boat this time next year, then blame all you want. I wouldn't defend that. But this year? It is what it is. Tanking.
You are the one that asked the question, and I was answering it. You said "OKC only has 6 more wins and are also not in the playoff race. As of right now, they're tied for 7-9 in the draft order. You'd be happy with that?" So I'm just saying yeah, I would be happy with that. I'm not comparing a 5th year guy to a 2nd year guy, I never said anything like that. Nothing in my post even mentioned the rockets or any rockets players, I don't know why you think I'm comparing anything. You're adding in a bunch of stuff to argue against that I never said.
I'm responding to the general tide of folks around here that feel like the Rockets, being a dumpster fire, is somehow worse than other dumpster fires. OKC and the Spurs are both in similar situations being bottom dwellers. Time will tell is OKC's nuanced differences turn into a material change that results in being a contender. As of now, on paper, it's about the same. Nobody is happy not making the playoffs year over year, which is where OKC is sitting right now.
Yeah I can see that, though I don't agree. Very broadly I can divide tanking into three stages, stage 1 is "be really bad until you get a superstar", then stage 2 is "consolidate around your superstar to build a contender, then stage 3 is "fine tune your contender to win a championship." You can theoretically be stuck in stage 1 forever, it's a big reason why a lot of people don't like tanking. The rockets are clearly still in stage1, as are the magic, spurs, and the pistons. But in my opinion the thunder have shown they're moving into stage 2 because of SGA. Finding that guy is really really really hard. Most high end prospects never become that guy, but it looks like Shai is that guy. So I don't agree that the rockets and OKC are the same right now. I'd say they're well ahead of us. And like you mentioned before, yes they've been doing it for longer. Shai is 24 and any of our guys could be that good or better at 24, maybe we'll be ahead of them. Maybe OKC will botch stage2 and never even win 50 games with Shai as the guy, maybe he'll demand a trade, who knows. I just want to be clear I'm not talking about any of that, I'm talking about as of today, right now, OKC is a significant step ahead of us in their rebuild.
I'm proud that his poor performance as a coach kept us in contention for a shot at the top pick the last 3 years
so many guys coming into the league not ready and then placed in an environment surrounded by a bunch of other young players still trying to figure things out…but can’t bring in too many vets or u might win some games which u can’t have when tanking for lotto balls tanking is honestly a plague on the league in my eyes I’ve watched a lot of Detroit the past year and a half because of Cade, and the way their fans have often been talking, the sky is falling…they were on full on meltdown mode with the way Cade was playing in preseason and to start the year…their 7th overall pick Killian Hayes finally started looking like he even belongs in the NBA just recently they thought they’d be competing for the play-in this year, but here they sit at 10-30 but on CF, Pistons look cohesive
I wonder if it's like this for all the crappy tanking teams. Do the magic wish they looked as cohesive as the spurs? Do the spurs wish they were as good as the rockets? Just a bunch of terrible tanking teams with a grass is greener mentality.
I mean I'm certain Spurs fans would rather have our roster. Our roster with Pop would probably have 5 more wins by now with more further development with less stupid mistakes. Keldon Johnson is their highest ceiling player. Not a good spot to be in.
Agree. As far tit for tat, while he gifted Morey Harden. As far as recent big trades with us (excluding Sengun)... Presti took advantage dumping Westbrook to us for Chris Paul and our picks. Then later flipped Paul for a 2022 Suns pick (30th -> Peyton Watson), who ended up going to Denver... where Thunder got another future protected 2027 1st round pick. I realize Rockets was strong armed in the Paul /Westbrook situation, but Presti made out like a bandit.
"Team ball" > Iso ball (allegedly). I do not watch a ton of Detroit - I hear the grumblings on social media and they certainly like to take jabs at the Rockets with the whole Cade v Jalen thing, but if what I watch with them is "team ball" the few times I tune it then Im confused as to what exactly everyone is crying about. Doesnt really matter what type of basketball you want to play if you have guys this young who dont know how to be professionals yet -- it will still add up to a bunch of losses.
what’s funny is that Detroit passes the ball less times than us, and is right next to us when it comes to isolation frequency I will say the Rockets make a lot of dumb plays and the offense can be hard to watch, but such is life when you’re playing for lotto balls at least they’re in games and competing a lot more than last year despite the record…people are posting that tweet where the Rockets have a similar record and offensive/defensive efficiency ranking compared to last year after the same amount of games, but I think this year’s team would beat up last year’s squad
It's a problem, but the league is apparently going back to allowing players to go pro straight from high school. Remember the days of Eddy Curry, Darius Miles and Ndudi Ebi? They're coming back. There needs to be more of a financial incentive for teams to win otherwise owners like Tilman are happy to tank as long as he is making money.
The context missing here is wild. Cade has played in only 12 games this season. He’s out for the year. I promise you Detroit isn’t sitting at 10-30 with a healthy Cade. And re: OKC, they’re infamously known for showing promise and winning a bunch of games the first half of the season, to only then pull the plug to tank the second half. They have to blatantly tank and rest healthy young players (even a rookie Giddey last year) to improve their lottery odds. Back in the 2020-2021 season, they finished 4-26 their last 30 games. They were actually a decent team that year before the full blown tank job, in a season SGA only played 35 games. We don’t have SGA, but OKC without him is still levels above with the coaching, culture, and system, that they have in place.
the Pistons looked like complete ass for most of the time Cade played this year…I would know, since I watched a good amount of the games Pistons with Cade this year were dead last in point differential at a whopping -10.3 they were only decent when Shai was playing…without him, they are competing for the same lotto balls that we are
Tari Eason I think is a Star Player, the Rockets need to trade Eric Gordon and JaeSean Tate for Tari Eason to be a Full Time Starter.
