Would you call what Stone and the Org are doing, tanking?

Silas would’ve been let go already if there was serious tension between him and Stone. You can tell that Silas is in on it with the 10-11 man rotations he used to run. Lately he’s been trying to win and has been playing fewer guys off the bench. We almost beat Miami and Sacramento if it weren’t for those unfortunate slip ups by players to close the game.

 

I think he is making it up as he goes.

I think - assuming they could have actually done it - if the team started out and was more Magic or even Thunder like this year, then that would have been part of the plan all along, too.

In other words, there was no plan to be this awful or to not be this awful...

 

I would call what they are doing borderline criminal. The organization has basically stolen money from me because I bet the over before the season started expecting them to give better effort. I think the players have tried, but the organization has not put the team in a position to be successful, and I do believe that was by design. Obviously it was my own fault for believing that they would attempt to be more competitive this season. Live and learn!

 

The players are tryin to play, but the franchise and the front office purposely did the bare minimum in preparing their players for success with employing a rookie coach and the kpj pg experiment. This really is like when the front office provided Harden with the likes of John wall and Cousins as teammates to "compete"

 

You had the mindset of a fan instead of a neutral party trying to win some money.

 

Grow up man......

There is no way the Rockets were ever going to come out and say "a 3 year tank is what we believe to be the path forward". Or before this season started "the whole reason to tank is to land a player like Wemby so we are going to put ourselves in the best position to achieve it by not signing any FAs and going younger as the season progresses".

 

Also just think about it... Why would the Rockets want all the attention like the Hinkie rebuild? We really just started taking sh*t in the national media this current season.

 

Absolutely not. I fully believed, and still believe, they could have covered the over with a little effort. Fandom had nothing to do with it.

 

Strange thread…what else would you call it? This is textbook tanking. I guess the results show that most people get that.

 

Right.... but you didn't ask "will they want to cover the over" in a draft with Wemby.

 

You have to do that, did you not see what the media/silver did to philly? They have to lie and make a mockery out of it, no other option

 

Yep. I assumed they wouldn't tank. The organization proved me wrong. The NBA rightfully sees that as a problem, and in the modern sports betting era it's an interesting one because the choice an organization makes has a bigger impact than it normally would on fans. Teams are expected to try to win, but win they don't, it's kind of like throwing games. No bueno!

 

As I said, it was obvious they didn't want to win when the started KPJ at pg.

 

At the trade deadline, they sent out Gordon and two end of rotation guys in Mathews and Fernando without really bringing in anyone.

Of the players they traded for, two already left because I don't think the Rockets were serious about keeping them around, despite some public gestures of doing so.

Outside of a rookie in Washington, Nix is the only PG they have while KPJ recovers from injury. And yet, they seemed to have reduced Nix's minutes and inserted Tate, who has no real playmaking ability, into the starting lineup.

I think it's safe to say this team is tanking.

 

You can call it whatever you want. Thanks to some boneheaded moves near the end of Harden's time here, the team was in a really bad spot. So they cleared the decks and tried to take advantage of this little window of opportunity to accumulate young talent and clear cap space before the picks start going away. They've done that and it looks like they've got one more draft to add more, and then they'll be in a good position to start tweaking the roster with that cap space, maybe hiring some new coaches, and building something with an eye toward winning. I'm excited about that.

 

Fertitta seems like the gambling type to me. He seems take risks in hope of getting that big haul (but while probably keeping himself protected.)

I don't know if he'd be the right owner to instill a "winning culture," which is a much slower process.
But nevertheless, I guess things might end up working out for him, and the Rockets might get the coveted top pick in the end.

 

I think those days are over. If everyone knows you're lying then there's no point in doing it. No one rational person thinks the Rockets aren't tanking no matter what they say. The Spurs are honest about it and nobody cares.

 

Hopefully they clear house after the draft. Obviously we unfortunately can't rid ourselves of Tillman but we can of Stone, Silas and KPJ