FVV and Lopez are literally the two best free agents available. No stars/superstars available that match our timeline unfortunately. Just keep the contract lengths to a minimum and they could be a good way to ensure competitiveness in the short term and be a stop gap until the young guys come of age.
There is a cap floor. What FREE AGENTS are the Rockets supposed to sign? They literally have to spend the money. This Free Agent class sucks when you have to spend a lot of money. However, what really good players actually get to free agency? They are usually traded or re-signed. Yes Harden is a great player, but Ime does not want to play Harden's style of ball. There are a ton of youngsters to develop. Yes they want to win this year, but they also want vets who can teach the young guys. Can Harden teach them Ime's style of ball? The team is extremely athletic. Harden, although a great baller, is not.
Respectfully, we don't even know who we're signing yet. We know the rumors. We don't know the plan. We don't know who will get benched vs who will start either. And with Udoka saying "Everything will be earned", I'm betting he would tell you he doesn't know yet either because he doesn't know for certain who will earn those spots. Free agency has changed. The superstars no longer have incentive to opt into free agency. They opt for a max extension now, and if they aren't happy, they demand a trade. This offseason is about putting us into position to be the kind of place a superstar wants to demand a trade to. And if we add guys like Vanvleet and Lopez and somehow get to 35 wins next year with a couple of the young kids starting to look like studs, stars will take notice and we will become a lot more likely to get one. It didn't end up working out, but that's exactly how the Nets got Durant and Irving.
I think we're a year early. This isn't exactly the best class of free agents. I'd prefer to run it back, but there's a minimum payroll we must adhere to. I don't understand the hype around Van Vleet. Dude couldn't shoot 40% from the floor.
You're not wrong - Im just positing a scenario where Udoka DID replace most of the starting lineup and still couldnt get past 30 wins. Not everybody can be gifted a tandem of prime Tatum & Brown. I was curious to see how good of a coach he really was and whether or not he could turn our young guys into stars, but it appears that he would rather go shopping for other players that fit his scheme better vs installing that into our homegrown players via growing pains. The trade aspect of filling out the roster with heavy contracts makes a ton of sense. Maybe we can pry either Tatum or Brown from the C's since they loved playing for Udoka so much. That would be a move that offers guys on the fence a little more optimism vs mediocre/overpaid vets as salary fluff being sold to fans as a winning product.
Rebuilding through tanking will always, always, always require you to hit on generational players. Do we have that? We'll find out this year or the next. If no one improves their game vastly, I'd be very worried. FA signings rarely impact that. All Stone is doing is paying dudes short term contracts so we don't get penalized by the new CBA.
They have to be at the league minimum by opening day and unlike past years, they will be fined the under with the money going to the league and in addition they will be restricted on sharing certain league revenues. So the minimum definitely has some teeth. But, nowhere does it say we have to spend all that money in free agency. We could trade for Kyle Lowry. We could sign 3 mid level free agents. We could Trade KJ Martin for a mid level salary guy. It is a false choice to say we have to overpay free agents because of the league minimum. By being patient, the Rockets can get their players and not overpay because it will be very difficult for other teams to pay the max without moving other players or signing and trading.
I hear you. It is tough to hit on a generational player through the draft - and I don't think the Rockets have a generational player on the team currently. But I think every team can find 1-2 fringe all-stars that way and then recruit the Generational Player.
This is the sitch. Phase 1 was about bottoming out to acquire talent. In my view, the Rockets have hit on 4/7 of the first round picks from '21 & '22. Green, Sengun, Jabari and Tari have each given reason to believe they can develop into rotation players at the very least. JC, Garuba and Tyty are question marks still. We will see what Amen and Cam look like over the next few months. Phase 2 is about seeing whether the hits from above continue to develop into cornerstones or are just solid NBA players. Ime is the biggest factor in phase 2 IMO. But surrounding these guys with legit NBA players is necessary as well. I think the changing economics of the NBA makes it seem like these guys are being signed to be stars (consider FVV is rumored to be offerred more than Michael Jordan EVER did in a season and on par with what LeBron earned prior to his LAL stint). These guys are just palceholders. FVV's main job is to help develop Green and Amen, not to be an allstar or anything. Once we know what we have in Green, Smith, Sengun and Thompson we can start to talk about hunting choice free agents to push us toward contention. Until then lets let the kids develop and shoot for modest improvements in the team's W-L record.
