Also, lets not forget that they also tried to and thought they had Brooke Lopez this off season. They only pivoted to Landale after Lopez backed out. There's no way they were approaching this past off season and expected the teamto be playing the way they are playing now. They were trying to make moves to take a sizeable leap.
You make a big post about how the season is below expectations and spoke, verbatim, about how there will maybe be changes in front office staff “because they’ve failed”. l push back (as a non Stone fan) because the idea that the Houston front office has failed this season is a ridiculous one, out of step with basically any outside NBA observer or commentator. Respond if you want of course, but my commentary stands on its own.
this should be so exciting. the rest of the 2024 trade deadline huh. There really isn't anymore though.......
Unless he's about to tell us they finally signed somebody off the waiver wire/buyout market I don't see what there could possibly be that makes things any better
I would love for Amen to be ready for that but I think there is 0% chance we can have a top 20 offense with 2 starters who are poor shooters in Amen and Sengun. If Sengun takes that step in 3pt shooting it can work but otherwise this is a death sentence for all our SG's unless we want to turn them into catch and shoot players only. In fact we have a lot riding on Sengun developing that 3pt shot. I'll just disagree on the depth issue. I believe we were prepared to be as deep as a non-contender could possibly be. The only exception is Landale has been far worse than anyone could have expected. Generally a hustle guy gets his numbers no matter where he's playing, but Landale's ankle must have been worse than we thought. To a team's fans when injuries happen we never feel like we had enough depth, but that's the NBA. Great players aren't going to be 3rd string on a team that's in the bottom half of the NBA. Other than that, Jeff Green was the backup PF of the champions (playing less minutes with us), Tari is an elite backup at F, Tate is an exceptional emergency backup you don't often have someone worth 2 2nd round picks there, Bullock and Holiday are good shooters, Amen and Cam are excellent rookies. Unless you're competing with the biggest spenders in the NBA (i.e. 2nd apron) you're not getting better depth than that in this NBA imo. Even Ime has constantly said we have enough guys and we have great depth (this is from the most cynical voice on our team). Personally I think our #1 area for improvement is offense and the biggest hole is that our SG clearly needs to be able to get to the rim even in a somewhat crowded paint, make open 3's at a HIGH level and play passable defense (i.e. a player worth $30m or more). One of Cam or Jalen will elevate into that role after this boot camp of a season imo. So I guess I went in a circle to say that since our starting/backup SG position is secure for next season and we got our backup C for next season, then you're right for next season probably the best thing we can do is upgrade the quality of our bench. Making that bench elite could be a weapon for us and we're already going to be pretty damn amazing with Adams, Tari, Jalen or Cam and Amen. Just need a catch and shooter with those guys imo.
I just don't think Cam can play shooting guard with this roster as currently constructed. Him and Dillon Brooks and Tari Eason all have the same problem, they are score-first to a pretty extreme level on offense. Very, very clearly off-ball players, not guys who can initiate the offense. So if Jalen doesn't figure it out, I don't know. Maybe a starting lineup where Amen and Fred share ballhandling duties and Jalen and Cam both come off the bench? That's my main point of disagreement with you, other than that I agree that we are reasonably deep everywhere but at the 5 (which Adams fixes next season, in theory) but just have been bitten pretty badly by the injury bug. Cam could maybe play 2 guard if we had the right small forward to play next to him. A guy with good ballhandling and passing capabilities who can play on or off the ball, i.e. Franz Wagner.
Just different visions I think. In my view a surplus of playmakers in the starting lineup is exactly as detrimental as a shortage of playmakers - and we've seen experiments where too many people need the ball, it saps their confidence, the competition becomes unhealthy and the team is very very expensive with a shortage of depth. We have a more similar set up to the Nuggets or Warriors cause one of our playmakers is our C. So FVV and Sengun run an elite PnR plus a guy who is score first to take the pressure off them when they're not peaking is ideal to me. The FVV-Sengun PnR is unorthodox but the numbers are staggeringly good. I think the crux of our difference is: what if you're dreaming of an offense led by a star SG and that's the best path forward (correct me if I'm misunderstanding your position)? Cam can't do that next season, I agree. I also disagree heavily that you can play Cam and Franz for example, there are no champions who don't have an ACE defender at SG/SF. However, Jalen is a small improvement in 3pt shooting away from doing that (on the assumption that better 3PT% = defenders give him more space = penetration becomes easier and more efficient too). The more likely scenario is FVV-Sengun remains the primary play and our SG is pushing our offense over the top, filling in for them, supporting them and of course winning some games for us with big individual scoring nights. Our SG would be like a souped up Michael Porter Jr in this scenario. I don't see any need for our SG getting more than 3-5 assists as long as FVV-Sengun PnR is as successful as it has been. Sengun/FVV/Jalen can generate 18-20 assists between them which is elite for your top 3. Jalen is already in that range (3-5 assists) and I guess experience/summer will make him get even slightly better. At the 2 and 4 I love that we have hard nosed catch and shoot players who finish plays and I need these two players to never ever need to dribble the ball - similar to a Klay Thompson in style. To me that's a perfect offensive balance. You add one more guy who needs heavy usage and what happens is FVV's usage will take a major hit and there is no chance he will be worth $40m if he's not doing a lot of playmaking and shooting for us. Part time playmaking and 3pt shooting is not worth $40m imo - that's essentially Mike Conley with better defense. The other thing that happens if you bring someone in with heavy usage is - in my opinion - dramatically reduce the chances that a young guy has a large growth spurt in their game. In my ideal environment, there is room for people to step up. I think you prefer playmakers to a pretty extreme level am I right? I think it's extremely rare for a successful contender's starting lineup to include 3 playmakers as good as Sengun/FVV/Wagner. Most of the time this has happened in the NBA (3 guys who get points and assists) it has not ended well and the conclusion has been "there's only one ball". In my humble opinion, one of these guys will get the ball way less than they should and we will be underutilizing them which also has cap and thus depth implications. One thing that I take into consideration is we're an elite defensive team now so I have no doubt we will be same or better next season. Given what he's done this season, I would not bet $1 against us finishing with a top 2 defense next season. That means we simply don't need as many points to win as most teams do or as our Harden days. You can build a contender many ways, it's great that we have all these options and the assets to take any route we want really.
Free agent center Nerlens Noel has drawn exploratory interest from the New York Knicks, Houston Rockets, and Charlotte Hornets, league sources told HoopsHype. The Rockets toyed with the idea of adding a center at the trade deadline, and adding Noel, a 10-year veteran, has also been discussed. https://hoopshype.com/lists/nba-intel-a-near-trade-deadline-deal-and-buyout-market-updates/
I've been saying let's go after Noel since the summer. Cheap and can certainly be valuable for 10-15 minutes per game. Would be great to get him. Unfortunately I think the Knicks can offer him more minutes with both Randle and Robinson out for most of the season. Can we pay him more than they can? Maybe we have some kind of exception that helps us do that.
Does Noel have anything left in the tank? Dude shot 36% last season. Granted, small sample size of only 195 minutes played.
It’s like most every one is late… but now understand. We have one problem that still needs fixing. Green I used to just want a return on investment but now just let him sit or walk. Split up his touches and let the others develop. Watch the TEAM play improve across all aspects of the game. I truly believe if we want to improve, it can’t happen with Green in his current role or any.
I misspoke about our depth, I was just trying to point out that we are too young to suffer the injuries we did and still compete at a high level. I also think you value FVV way more than I do. When he is chunking up 3’s at a 29% clip as he was his last 10 games he Is a negative on the floor. If Cam, Jabari, and Brooks can continue to knock down spot up 3’s, Amen and Sengun can run the PnR as well as FVV and also solve our rebounding problem. Jalen not being able to shoot is much more of a problem than Amens lack of shooting. I’d love having Cam as our sixth man, but the Jalen problem has to be solved.
I don’t think we’re far off from each other. I think FVV is exactly an average starting PG (15th) despite his peaks and valleys. Do you think he’s much much worse than that? In my mind an average PG will have flaws like that. People are running him off the line because he is worse than Jalen at finishing (meaning he’s exceptionally bad). As for Amen and Sengun PnR, we do disagree but only in time. I love your plan for the season after the next. I’ve just never seen a deadly PnR run by two sub-30% shooters and if that PnR is not deadly then your offense (Cam, Bari, Brooks not being good at iso penetration) will struggle to be top 20 in the NBA. There’s not one single person in that lineup who can threaten to make a 3 and take you off the dribble. I’ve also never seen any successful offense without an elite iso penetration threat unless Nikola Jokic is getting 30 points triple doubles in the center of it all. I’m sure our guys will get there but just find it unfair to expect it so soon (next season). In theory, I love your idea. As for Jalen it’s pretty simple. If his post ASB is not great, he won’t be a part of our future. If it is great, then the only thing he’ll need to improve in the summer is strength and 3pt shooting - and we will be kicking ass in the NBA next season with a lot of young, seasoned stars at our disposal. There’s no better outcome for us than Jalen panning out. I don’t believe Udoka will be patient or allow majorly flawed players to start next season - he will push to acquire a star starter to pair with FVV. The push-back he got at the deadline is the last one imo. I don’t want Cam to get buried behind semi-all star but I don’t have faith that Udoka will be ok going into next season with just our draftees starting. He’s a coach that needs offensive players who don’t require coaching and plays.
