However, it is even easier to solve your 44 million problem provided Fred declines a minor deal in the future. Sign someone like Conley jr. or Tyus Jones who come cheaper and count your sheeps until one of Amen or Reed is ready. 20 minutes for Conley or Jones. Conley is the mentor for cheap and Jones is someone at least capable of running the Offense for quite a bit.
"Draft strength" isn't known for years. 2021 was supposed to be the strongest draft since 2004 and it's been an absolute bust of a draft so far outside of Sengun and Scottie's Make-A-Wish All Star selection.
My favorite player? You mean Sengun or Amen? Don’t get your point. We are loaded with Combo guards on this team. FVV is the only pure PG on the team. Sheppard is not necessarily a pg on offense. I think the job of facilitating in the half court will be shared by FVV, Amen, Jalen, Sengun, and Sheppard(if he gets the chance and succeeds). Your expectations on how fast these young guys can become good NBA starters has always been unrealistic. You’ve somehow, against all logic, have anointed Reed as our future PG and significant contributor before his first regular season basketball game. At least, let’s see what he can do against NBA starters before anointing him. I think Sheppard will be good eventually, but in my opinion will not be a significant rotation piece unless there is an injury, Jalen is terrible, and Brooks is traded. I think that is a way more logical take then thinking an undersized guard who was the third pick in a weak draft will immediately be a competent back-up NBA Pg in the first half or maybe even his entire rookie year.
Sure, if they aren't planning on extending any of their own guys, by all means, waste 44 million on FVV to just have an old guy in the way of your #3 pick's progression. I'm not sure many GM's would think that was smart though.
Oh, are we back to pretending that's the case? LOL, fair enough I'll play along. I can't name a single combo guard on the roster. Jalen has essentially no PG skills and a comically low BBIQ....Whitmore is just a version of Jalen that can shoot a basketball. Amen is a forward. Sheppard is a pure PG....if you had watched him play, you'd know that. You even went with the "undersized guard" take....despite the fact that Sheppard is significantly taller than the highest paid player on the Rockets and current starting PG. Honestly comments like this are hard to take seriously because I know you've watched the team before, but nothing in this comment makes me suspect that to be the case. It's almost like 90% of this is wishful thinking, I don't believe you actually think these things.
That's exactly what I'd suggest. Decline the 44 mil, go with Sheppard, pick up some vet backup for a fraction of what you saved by moving on from FVV to anchor the bench.
Daily reminder that Reed Sheppard is going to tear up the NBA after he traverses the typical rookie speed bumps. Elite feel for the game. Elite basketball IQ. Elite shooting and playmaking. Reed Sheppard is our franchise player, and is already better than bum Jalen Green ever will be.
You don’t understand cap management if you think one more year of FVV will keep us from signing Sengun to an extension. If Jalen is March Jalen (which i doubt) then you might have to let FVV go or re-structure.
It would be really difficult to re-structure as Fred had helped the team immensely......unfortunately. Fred taking a lot less money would just be a sign of mercy or grace. Nothing is impossible as Adidas seemed to propagate.
I’ve watched every Rocket game available since I moved to Houston in 1987. I live in Tennessee now and haven’t missed a game other than when they play Memphis or Atlanta because they are blacked out. I saw Sheppard play whenever Kentucky was on National TV. You are so obsessed with Jalen hate that you are paranoid that even when non-Jalen cultists say anything other than he is a bust and presume he is their favorite player. My guess is we have 2 future stars on this team right now and that is Amen and Sengun. Jalen, Jabari, Cam and Sheppard all have a chance to be special. I’m just more patient and realistic than you are and I don’t have an obsession for how bad Jalen is or how good Sheppard is.
Right, that's why I said "I know you've watched the team".... That's what makes your hot takes so weird, they are as if you never watched any of the players before despite the fact that I know you have. You say you aren't a cultist....but you just advocated for Jalen Green to log minutes at the 1....I don't think there's a single person on the planet that isn't in the cult who thinks that would be a good idea. You might as well be calling for Sheppard logging minutes at the 5. You also say flat out false things, like how the Rockets are stacked with combo guards....when they don't have any, and that FVV is the only pure PG on the roster when they literally just drafted Sheppard, the best pure point to come from the draft in years.
Fair enough, he just has really odd, obviously false hot takes that I only hear from those types....so maybe he's just been infected with their rhetoric.
Just a difference of opinion. Jalen, Cam, Amen, and Sheppard are all or could be combo guards. Right now, I think Cam is a small forward and Jalen is a SG. Amen can play 1-5 on defense and 1-4 on offense. Sheppard didn’t really play much PG in college, but may have capabilities there. Jalen improved his passing and court vision over the course of last year and definitely has the handles to play point and will be one of the main facilitators in the half-court to start the season. If you can’t see the potential for Amen to play point then you are the one that must not have watched the games.
Fair enough, I can accept differences of opinions even if I find those opinions completely lacking in supporting evidence. However..... This however, is an outright false statement that suggests you didn't actually watch the games, opting instead to listen to really stupid people and just regurgitate their really dumb talking points. Sheppard was the PG most of the time he was on the court in college and he lead his team in assists despite coming off the bench....along with a tiny SG that pretends to be a PG sometimes. I can accept your weird obviously incorrect opinions about players, I won't accept outright misinformation used to push those weird unsupported opinions. So by all means, think a draft bust SG is a PG and think that a guy who was awesome as a SF last year should be forced into the PG spot just to block the #3 pick in the draft who is a pure PG....and you can have the opinion that PG is "too small" despite being the same size or often significantly bigger than not just the current starting PG but most of the best PG's of all time. You get to have those really weird opinions no matter how ridiculous they are, you don't get to repeat outright lies without getting called out for it.
