Ime too serious, too quite, seems not too engaged/excited---he wants his vets----KD maybe, or any front court vet who can shoot 3's/D/etc
He has to make it work with the players. It's not an easy job. I'm glad Stone and Ime are on the same page.
Hahaha some people just don't want to believe the front office even if the front office repeats over and over and over again that they believe strongly in this core. I'm not talking about the PR talk of HAVING to say something nice about your core. I'm talking about interviewers asking general questions and the GM/HC bringing the answer back - over and over again - to how much they love this core. The pessimists are looking for Udoka to hunch his back or raise his eyebrow at some random moment that keeps their dream alive - "we’re imminently dumping the young guys!!" lol Further Stone mentions something that this board never seems to understand. Development is about the players doing their work AND the staff doing their work. Development is a joint exercise. If the player is working hard and the staff is a mess or don't care, it's just not going to work. That's what we had for 2 years under Silas. The organization did not do its part. All of these players were under developed after those 2 Silas years. None of them were at optimal achievable development level. How you can be certain of this is we clearly have a core that is hardworking off the court so how the hell did they not improve more their first 1-2 years?? The answer can ONLY be that the culture and development program were garbage so a lot of HARD WORK got flushed down the toilet. They have DIRECTION now, so when they are doing the work it's going towards all the right things. Prior to installing good habits, a process of getting rid of bad habits also takes precedence. You can't undo 2 years of garbage development in half a season for 6 players. The ****-up was too large to be resolved that quickly. Finally I loved hearing that the 1/3rd of the summer that they've been training, everyone has been working hard off the court. I loved hearing that we are focusing very sharply on improving the shooting of our young core internally because that's all we are lacking. Our core is elite for their age at practically everything else.
I believe them, but I have a feeling Ime might not be so keen on just waiting for very long. Also because the aspirations to make the play-offs (and advance for him personally) are truly a measuring stick and I'm sure Stone nor Fertitta will be very accepting of another season from the outside looking in. So it's his ass on the line too. Not that no play-offs means he'll get fired but surely it's in the back of his mind as well as how fast it went in Boston. He's tasted it and wants that again. So while I don't expect something major, I could still see a Smart trade at the deadline or this off-season with one of one our core youngsters potentially traded.
Sounds like the roster is by and large set heading into the season. I’m a little surprised we didn’t add any vet help or consolidate a bit. Still think the roster is fundamentally unbalanced, but we should be in the mix for a playoff spot. I’m now convinced that Reed will play meaningful minutes behind Fred because we really don’t have an alternative. I’m also convinced that we are going to ride it out with Jalen. No idea what his value on the market is so I have to trust the front office that they’re not leaving much on the table.
"grow it organically (pause... turns to look at Jalen)... if we can" I believe you in Jalen... don't let me down
Man i freakin hate the Rockets summer league season every year. Its always the same. They're always the last freakin team to play on the last freakin week of summer league.
Yes keep the core together. So far we have.: Alpi- Superstar (the cornerstone to build around) Jalen - Part time superstar who can hopefully become consistent to do it full time. Jabari - Will be a great 3 & D player as his floor. His ceiling could be much higher. Tari- An amazing versatile player who just makes things happen on the court. Ime says he sees Kawhi in him. Amen - A sure superstar if he learns to shoot. His floor is being a superstar at everything but shooting. Cam - His ceiling is very high. He could be the best out of all of them before it is all said in done but he must learn to pass the ball. Reed - Many had him as the best player in the draft. His floor is really high and his ceiling is just "wow". Build around these guys. See if Jalen can prove he can do it full time this year. Even if Jalen fails we have a core to be extremely excited about.
Ive always liked the idea of competing for a championship with the guys you drafted not just assimilating a bunch of players from around the league who are gone on the next paycheck. The Warriors, though I hate them, were able to do that with Curry, Klay and Green, which I respect. Obviously some of those picks they had just didn't cut it - Wiseman, etc - but they stuck to their core for 13 years. That's awesome. Would love to see that here with 7 guys (if Jalen can stop prancing around and get more focused on winning than preening)
Makes sense. We have 7 strong prospects. Hopefully, you find your 3 - 4 guys from that group and you maintain your draft capital. The biggest thing is one of the guys breaking through to be our true #1.
Wow, this 100% confirms the CF assertion that "The Jalen Green experiment is over, the organisation's done with him and will be moving him as soon as possible." It's almost like CF doesn't actually know a damn thing and lets the echo chamber convince them they do...
How is Jalen only a part time superstar and Alpi and Amen full time when Jalen's put in more superstar performances than both of the others put together by a significant margin? The ONLY player on the squad who's actually put up superstar numbers in any kind of frequency is Jalen Green.
