i believe effort and heart are innate qualities and no coach or external force can being it out of you. Look at De Andre Ayton, Simmons and CWood if you dont have it you dont have it. Ware and Lopez are night and day Lopez was actually seen as extremely unathletic and was pretty much a post scorer going to the draft. Lopez just developed his 3 pt shot in the NBA and got by his grit and hustle.
https://www.forwardtimes.com/sports...cle_63e4f4a0-495d-50c3-b695-23e7bf8ce226.html not sure if this is him
Thats not really the correct assessment because the root cause of those failures isnt the trade down its the incorrect draft analysis. For example in 2018 when Hawks passed on Luka how sure are you they would have taken Luka if they had the 3rd pick? From what I understand their GM was hired from GSW and was obsessed with making GSW East and Trae Young was seen as Steph Jr in mock drafts. So chances are they still take Trae Young even if nobody wanted to trade with them. And before you tell me thats ridiculous who else is mocked to take Sheppard in the top 5 besides the Rockets? I also remember Spurs taking Joshua Primo top 12 in the 2021 nba draft. They could have traded down and still gotten Primo, but they opted not to and it didnt work out for them. Stories are Pat Riley hated Beasley so much but his staff had to convince him to take Beasley at 2. The correct move then was trade down and maybe you dont get a bust, but they stuck with it. The reality is drafting is a hard process and it doesnt matter if you trade up, down or stand pat if your draft analysis is wrong.
Same. That was like the only pic tied to him and rockets but it wasn't real clear. He must have had the internet scrubbed of his image.
Any of the trades where it's just one or two spots, I assume the teams have done enough talking where the team trading back knows who the targets are and they can stilll get their guy. Even then, if your guy is available later on, you might have a jacked up board.
There are multiple “sauces” all saying the rockets are doing different things. I don’t feel like I have even a bit more clarity than I had before.
Flipping the #3 pick for a veteran and a lower '24 pick with a future '25 first (perhaps top 3 protected) means we're getting precious little out of winning at the draft lottery. The Rockets had a low chance of our Nets pick landing at the top of the board. The odds are that this kind of opportunity won't come along for years. It will sound clinical, but why not select a player at #3, have a new controllable asset, and move one or more existing players that still hold potential while their value is moderately high? Stone has yet to reveal that he can make these shrewd GM moves. He holds on to players fiercely even when the opportunity to make a deal is on the board. EG and Porter are the most glaring examples, but Stone held Victor Oladipo's contract until the deadline, finally flipping it for an injured Steven Adams. The jury is still out on that trade since Adams hasn't played a minute. But with Jake Landale playing better at the end of the season, it does look like we settled for what we could get out of Oladipo's contract. That song has been sung many times in the last few years as former first-rounders have been cut or shipped out with draft capital. What I'm suggesting isn't easy, but Green, Eason, Whitmore, Jabari, and especially Sengun are all highly coveted around the league (I'm not going to list Amen Thompson as a trade option). I like all these players. Udoka has done wonders with them. If you're looking for future draft capital plus a veteran, pick at #3 and trade an existing player to acquire those assets.
You're absolutely right. He's become kind of an afterthought, but he shouldn't be, especially if they trade back. He has about as much potential as anyone else does in this weird ass draft.
