Damn, your dick is in the dirt over Harden? If my 2 cents can make you feel better, I'll try: Harden would not have led a return of greatness to Houston, FVV and Lopez will also not be leading a return of greatness to Houston. Our future is being built around the guys who are 18-21 years old on the roster, in 4 years from today, they will have just BEGAN to start their primes as players, and Harden will be retiring. The objective this off-season is not to immediately improve the roster as much as possible for next season, it's to facilitate the greatest possibility for us to win a ring with our young core. That's why we are looking at all-star & championship accomplished, high character vets to come in and set a system for our young guys to grow in. FVV is the table setting PG who will run the offensive system, and Lopez is the defensive backbone who will run the defensive system, both can shoot the 3-ball which will space the floor for our young athletes. They are also only being offered 2 year deals so the Rockets can still be players in the 2025 free agency class that is currently set to host nearly 10 all-stars who are currently 30 or younger. Harden would have been fine if he wanted to be here under the terms we were offering, he didn't, and that's fine too, we have other options that exceed our needs for this off-season. Keep your dick out the dirt blood its all good.
Well, your well laid out plan is not well laid out if the Rockets do not become a Playoff team. Brooklyn made the Playoffs with the likes of De Angelo Russell, Joe Harris, Dinwiddie, Jarrett Allen. Scratch those All Stars in 2025 who are currently 30 and go with those that are 26 today........again it is a gamble in 2 years like it is a gamble today.
And we have to spend a lot of money to get to the salary cap floor. The people complaining seem to not know that we have to spend a ton of money no matter what.
Wrong, we fans do not have to spend anything. Tilman spends. Well, complaining, Tilman will complain a lot more than we fans do now.
Remember the time all the SoFs lost their **** cuz Silas benched Sengun in favor of Bruno Fernando? Yeah me neither.
The Rockets are giving their young core one year to prove themselves. They're giving Jabari/Green/Sengun a year to show they are stars. If you're stuffing them into role player roles by signing someone else to take most of the shots and usage, it wouldn't even matter if our young guys succeeded at that - we would have failed with our picks. If our top picks are just good role players, we might as well trade them now. You may not believe there's a chance, but that's a very pessimistic opinion that no professional front office is taking seriously. It's clear that our front office and coaching staff is not jumping to conclusions. Think about this: we've heard a report from Woj and Stephen A Smith now that Udoka didn't want Harden. You heard earlier in the summer that Udoka was pleasantly surprised at the talent level on this team after he went through the film. He's talked about amazing things they can do and he's talked about accountability. He's met most of them and has been working out with them along with his assistants. At the Whitmore/Thompson press conference you heard Stone say that in earnest they are only now going to start communicating team needs. Since that press conference all of the players we've been linked to by writers who "work for" the Rockets (Feigen, Iko), our insiders and even mainstream reporters they are all linking us with elite role player types. It's 100% clear what this organization is thinking. Stars should emerge from this core, we need to give them the best opportunity to do that and we need to make a decision on whether to keep them or not by next summer. We're very hesitant to give any FA a contract so large that it will interfere with rookie extensions. If Sengun and Green show out, then Harden making $53m in a year is a f*cking disaster. That's the point at which you'd want to secure your young guys extensions, sign excellent role players to 4-year contracts and go all in on a contention window. We'll be sitting with a 35 year old Harden as one of the highest paid contracts in the league so that he can feed our young guys the ball. It would 100% get in the way. If our young guys ain't it, there's no point pinning your hopes on Harden or Kyrie or whoever. The organization is doing the right thing. They are treating our existing core as the priority and whoever joins has to fit AROUND them without destroying our cap flexibility and ability to pay them. Brook Lopez and FVV are elite versions of such players, they have been role players on championship teams. That means we do our part in giving the young guys the best chance at succeeding and it also means ultimate accountability: if you can level up with Lopez and FVV as role players, you just aren't a star. You have to tweak your mindset OP. We're not doing your plan or my plan. Everything the organization is doing is on the basis of our core being the priority. The sooner you see that it's set in stone and out of our control, the more you will understand what's going on. You should be excited that Ime Udoka - with his coaching background as assistant and HC - looked at this young core and told Stone to get players who fit around them. Stone drafted them so obviously he will believe in them more stubbornly than us. It could have just as easily gone the other way where Udoka decides these guys don't have it or that we should approach the market as though they don't have it. Jalen Green is your young Booker. Sengun is your young Sabonis. Jabari Smith is your young Rashard Lewis mixed with Rasheed Wallace. If you had the young versions of those 3, you would not be clamoring to sign a 34 year old James Harden - feeling like we're going nowhere. These guys will only show their full selves nearer to their mid 20's so we have to get a CLEAN and FAIR look at them in 2023-2024. That's before counting Amen and Whitmore who could emerge as stars too. There's a group of potentially excellent role players in Eason, Garuba, Tyty, KPJ and Christopher. Roughly speaking of course and I'm sure every fan will view each player differently. This is the direction we're going. If it doesn't work out, then in 1-2 years we wipe the slate clean, keep whoever is useful and actually go big fish hunting as an organization that has its sh*t together and a great culture built by Ime Udoka. You'll see, we're going to be the young team that "plays right" very soon. I'm personally loving it. This is EXACTLY what I waited for. I have no doubt at least two stars will emerge from our core if we are giving them the best chance and teaching them how to win games for the first time ever.
This. This free agent class is hot garbage. Would OP have preferred the Rockets gamble on Harden or Kyrie? Or the alternative is completely blowing up the rebuild by trading a ton of assets for second tier stars like Siakam or Bridges. There was not a path to immediate serious contention this summer. Phase 2 isn't "immediately win 50 games." It's about ending the tank culture, starting to play competitive basketball and creating a new culture of winning so they can contend in a few years. If they can get guys like FVV, Lopez or Brooks, that's a positive outcome.
It's not over yet but like I've feared - Phase 2 has a distressingly high chance of being about selling the fans of the team the same pile of sh-t product they've been sold for 3 years.... ..... and hoping enough of them Process Brain themselves into believing they are on a hero's journey riding on an upward trending morality curve that offers exponential future rewards to distract from the fact that your team is "focusing on development" by January.
You're not wrong, but this is a pretty pessimistic way to view it. Bottom line, when you're rebuilding, you don't blow up the rebuild three years in and move all your young players for stars. You're banking on your young players becoming the stars, and after all these first round picks, there better be a couple of future All-Stars on the roster, or we're screwed. It's sink or swim time. Either they figure it out and lead us back into contention again or we get to go through this whole thing again and become what the Kings were for 20 years. A new coach and some quality veterans will help, but Jalen, Sengun and Jabari are the ones who have to get us there.
lol…. Been there, done that. nobody needs the diva, he would be out clubbing again and handing out honeybuns…the guy is no Kobe or MJ, no dedication to the game. And thats the main reason it never works out - its him, just another bad divorce waiting to happen. Nobody needs to learn his laziness.
I was fooled in that I thought Udoka was going to show up and push the young guys and offer them the type of coaching necessary to take the next steps in their career(s). I didnt expect for him to show up and bench Sengun, KPJ, Jabari or Jalen in favor of guys like Brooks, Kuzma, FVV or Lopez. It just sends off a strange signal and it starts to feel like the last 3 years were wasted time or that we chose the wrong coach for the job if developing younger players is not something he prefers or is even good at.
https://www.espn.com/nba/attendance Only the Pacers and Thunder (I believe they do not have a big population) have fewer attendance. I am sure Amen, Whitmore, Van Vleet, Brooks and Lopez would be a smash hit with the casuals......(doubt it)
