With the 10th pick in the NBA Draft the Houston Rockets Select...

Didn't George decline the last 2 years, was repeatedly injured and distracted his mind with his own Podcast.....

All signs pointed to him not being engaged in his craft.

 

That’s why I don’t understand why people keep saying trade the pick. So many allstars have been drafted beyond the top 5. Since the Rockets can’t say who’s their franchise guy or even if they have one, you have to keep picking. You just never know when you may find that diamond in the rough. Whoever doesn’t work out, then you move on from them which we’ve done already.

 

They are harder to spot and harder to develop.....and depends on where you are......mini markets have more patience and less of a choice.

Lakers just can buy everyone and anyone, they don't need to have patience.

The Rockets are in a bind now, do they continue to build thru the draft and give minutes to young players or do they want to go after a championship hard with Udoka..... we'll find out after the draft.

Udoka is really bad at developing.......unfortunately.

 

Just look at the stars on the remaining teams in the current playoffs and you have:

SGA - 11th pick
Haliburton- 12th pick
Brunson - 33rd pick
Jokic - 44th pick

The only exception is Ant Edwards and Minnesota. Pretty wild.

 

Still have a few - they flipped the script of having supporting players being taken with the highest picks and superstars are taken much later

Chet - 2nd
Mathurin - 6th
Jamal Murray - 7th
Aaron Gordon - 4th
KAT

 

Liam McNeeley had a solid combine.

 

You just have to keep picking. Plain and simple. People fed up because we haven’t found the one and don’t want to deal with another lottery pick is crazy. They just want to trade everything. If it’s a lottery pick you keep it, because the player could turn out to be someone special. Then you sort out the logjam later.

 

You're right, but still, the main stars on 4 out of 5 teams are outside of the top 10.

Not saying finding those diamonds in the rough is easy, but it's not impossible.

 

I don't think Knueppel will be on the board, but he's another guy I wouldn't mind trading up for if they want to make the pick. I wasn't all that high on him initially but after looking at him more, given the makeup of this team, he may be my number one guy that could be within a reasonable range. He'd add some much needed basketball IQ and shooting. Plus he can kind of do a little bit of everything and could seamlessly fit into all kinds of lineups.

 

He's not going to be there at 10 because the more tape they watch the more he's going to float up.

 

Yeah I don't think he'll be there at 10 either. That's why I started with I wouldn't mind trading up for him. I think for this team he's my favorite prospect that we could maybe reasonably trade up for.

 

love the defense and effort

 

He can't play D.

 

Development is a big problem in Houston, no doubt.

 

Hard to judge Thomas Sorber at this point. His 7'6 "wingspan and 9'1" reach stand out, as well as his weight (now 261 pounds, 10 pounds heavier than when he was averaging 14.5 and 8.5 rebounds at Georgetown, playing in the Big East as a 19-year-old).

He's a skilled post player who can use the glass, absorb contact, and make quality reads with passes. Shot over 70% from the line and looks comfortable operating outside the paint.

Depending on how his agility and shooting numbers turn out, he might be able to grow into that "bigger big" in a Houston 2-big lineup. He doesn't foul, has great hands, makes lots of steals, etc.

If he hadn't gotten injured in February, he'd probably be making more noise than Derick Queen. They look at each other eye to eye, but Sorber has 10-15 pounds on Queen and 5 inches of wingspan. Curiously, their standing reach is almost the same.

 

Double big lineups is not a goal. It will not be conducive to championship contention. The only exception is if one of the bigs is a knock down shooter from 3. For instance, Wemby and Sengun would be incredible.

 

Keep the pick.

We have yet to find our number one guy yet. Trying to trade for one of those guys accelerates our pay structure and caps us out quicker while losing the ability to support said star. I’d stay flexible and keep our salary structure open until we find our number one.

Look at the mavs. By the time Coopers manning the team by himself they will have no picks and will be capped out with raises to everyone and Flaggs extension kicking in.

We have to keep the cap space open until we’ve found our stars and then start the clock on our pay structure. To do that I say take as many swings in the lottery as you can while keeping this depth that we’ve accumulated. We’ve got potential offensive supernovas with Amen playing the Russ role and possibly Reed playing a movement shooting sniper. We just need some offensive creativity from the coaches.

With that said I’d take Cedric Coward or Maxine Raynaud. Coward is sizzling hot right now. The kids 6’6”, with a 7’2” wing span, built like a tank, moves his feet, slides over screens, chases down all blocks, and is a fantastic standstill and movement shooter. His floor is low usage sniper that can’t get picked on Defense. His ceiling looks like Jalen Williams/lite Kawhi.

 

A bias source on their opinions of Denim but there was some interesting combine news.
At about 4:15 they state that Egor had 14 interviews. The longest were with 'Portland, Houston, Atlanta, San Antonio, Miami and Brooklyn'. All interviews mentioned a contract.
Assuming San antonio aren't going to surprise us at pick 2 then only one of these teams picks before us which is Brooklyn.

Demin is 6 foot 9.5 and made 16 consecutive 3s at the combine, which was meant to be a weakness. I would be delighted to draft him. I reckon his ceiling is very high.

 

I favor Cedric Coward over Demin. Coward is 6'5.75 barefoot with a 7'2 wingspan so tbh functionally he is almost equal to Demin. He has been a consistent 3 pt threat for 3 years now in college averaging 39% from 3 over 3 seasons and shoots in the high 70s-lows 80s from the ft line. He also has a 37 inch vert.

While Demin did indeed shoot great in the combine, at the end of the day he may just be feeling great that day. For example Edey actually shot well from 3 during the combine last year, but reverted back to his college form in the NBA.

 

Fun video of Demin's pro day workout. You can see him shooting those 16 corner 3s. That might be more shots from the corner than the Rockets made all season! Someone in the comments noted that he looks like a young Mike Dunleavy Jr. Interesting comp.

Since Houston, in all likelihood, is bringing back FVV, they could take it slow with Egor. With his coveted size and ball-handling ability, Demin would give the Rockets backcourt something they don't have. It would be refreshing not to have to rely on small guard pairings off the bench (FVV with Reed Sheppard or Holiday). You could even pair Demin with Amen in the backcourt and have a super length advantage.

However, Demin's impact would be slow. Drafting him at #10, he'd likely need a redshirt year to get stronger and develop NBA range. But like a well-worn pair of jeans, once broken in, he would fit any occasion.

This might be one of the players Stone would covet, a player to bring along slowly with tempting upside.