[ClutchFans] Heavy investment in Kevin Porter Jr raises serious questions about Rockets front office

Drexler trade brought us a title
Moving that up , Otis Thorpe trade and Kenny smith trade

 

I have no issue with how "fast" or aggressively we tanked. My issue is that some of the decisions made along the way, as Clutch pointed out, are puzzling.

I really like the talent we've amassed and think we made a great HC hire. I also think a lot more developmental capital should have gone to some of our other young players to see what we have instead of KPJ. Both of those things can be true.

 

obviously not as consequential as others have mentioned, but I loved the trade to get Kyle Lowry (we essentially traded Rafer Alston for Kyle Lowry). One of Morey’s best.

 

The best trade in Rockets history was Moses Malone for Caldwell Jones + FRP.

 

Are they really that puzzling under the context of blatantly and rapidly tanking?

KPJ is just an overstatement at this point…. KPJ, Green, Jabari, and Sengun were the top 4 in minutes last season. Let’s not pretend that KPJ got all the development…. KPJ had a contract decision coming due and we’re blatantly tanking.

Would you really be fine if we got the 6th or 7th pick this season instead of the 4th because we tried development and culture? The year of Wemby and Scoot, the Rockets don’t tank hard? That’s madness.

 

Scola trade was also good. Annoyed Popovich even years later. He said it was "sickening" to see how good Scola was for the Rockets.

 

Some of them, yeah. Did you even read the article that is the subject of this thread?

We already prioritized KPJ and had already made a decision on his contract, we extended it.

Like I said earlier, you can still tank while placing more emphasis on developing young players properly and with better coaching by holding out healthy players, which is what the Spurs did. We gave KPJ the keys and left our other young players, especially Sengun and Jabari, as afterthoughts. That was stupid and now we have less of an idea of what we have with them.

 

Put a name on that pick: Rocket Legend Rodney McCray!

(That's also the draft that brought us Craig Ehlo.)

EDIT: That was an interesting draft. It was Drexler and a shortened-career Sampson at the top with a bunch of high-end role players like Dale Ellis, Derek Harper, Jeff Malone, and Byron Scott.

 

Minutes aside, clearly Sengun and especially Smith didn’t get as much usage and burn as KPJ/Green. This was billed as #3 and #4’s team, which was a mistake in retrospect

 

How is someone like Smith supposed to get the same usage as guards?

High usage players usually can put the ball on the floor. In fact it's usually a necessity.

 

If we picked Drexler instead of McCray, history would have been very different.

 

They also aren’t ball handler or guards so I'm not sure why you'd expect them to be similar in usage.

If we weren't blatantly tanking, then I'd care about development but we were so I don't until this season. I don't think irreparable harm or anything close has been done to Green, Sengun, Bari, and Tari .

 

NewAge determined player ability by if they paint fingernails or not. I don't think he actually follows the sport in terms of analyzing on court play.

Sengun has a viable window to go up a lot in usage because he can actually put the ball on the floor. I would say KPJ did actually lower Sengun's usage rate to a fault.

 

You missed out that KPJ actually missed a chunk of games, like 25-28 games.......whether that is injury or for tanking purposes.

And Daishen Nix ran the show.

Seasons are made of rotational changes, usage fluctuates for a young tanking team.

 

Of course I did..... Heavy investment in the context of the worst 3 consecutive seasons in Rocket's history means very little to me since as soon as we cared about winning..... we brought in FA point guard and drafted someone we hope can be a point wing or something close to that.

If Green was a headcase and as unprofessional, I see no reason the Rockets wouldn't afforded him the same type of "preferential treatment".

Sorry, I meant that KPJ's contract was coming up the soonest out of players that would potentially part of the next era.

And again.... "prioritized" when we want to be as bad as possible is much different than than being prioritized when we want to to win. KPJ sure wasn't prioritized this offseason.

Of course it's possible..... But we aren't the Spurs with the coaching and organizational stability as old as time itself and we didn't have the same parameters to tanking as the Spurs. The Spurs lost Kawhi in 2018 and can take their time and we lost Harden in 2021 with the OKC trade hanging over us.

I just don't believe there has been irreparable harm done to Sengun and Jabari because we put the organization and draft position over player development for two years.

We can agree to disagree but KPJ was benched when we wanted to win which speaks volumes.

 

reported

 

Best Rockets trade:

Hakeem to Raptors for a 1st rounder turned to Bostjan Nachbar.

 

Worst Trade Ever Trading Away a Young MVP Moses Malone to the 76ers

2nd Worst Trade Trading for Old, Slow Charles Barkley for Young Robert Horry and Sam Cassell.

Robert Horry and Sam Cassell can Shoot 3s and know how to pass the ball to Hakeem Olajuwon in the Post.

 

I believe the trade is still going even today.

 

That trade got us the twin towers.