They chose the wrong player to build around, and once they realized that they traded away the wrong player as well. This is something the Rockets could learn from. Hopefully they pick the right guys to build around, and trade for the Next Hali and not for a 30+ year old former star. Both teams in the finals traded for young up and coming guys, not established stars.
I like hali as a player very much. He is a great player. But I also wonder if he played in the west, would he make such an impact and be regarded as the player he is now. Same for Brunson. Same for some coaches. The imbalance between east and west makes such comparisons hard. Definitely agree that we should not go for an aging star. Doesn't fit the timeline anyway.
The harden trade was much worse, the kings wouldn't have been any more relevant in terms of championships with hali, while the thunder likely cost themselves multiple titles. Kings drafting bagley over luka is also a far bigger mistake.
I think people overestimate the difference between east and west to some degree; you still have to play every team, albeit you play your conference's teams roughly twice as often. The west generally comes out on top for head-to-head record, but not by a huge margin (the east winning percentage is 47.2% the last five years, for example). But most importantly--in the playoffs, you still generally have to get through the best of your conference, and the top of each conference is generally pretty comparable, which is why you don't really see the west dominating in terms of NBA Finals wins. The biggest difference is just that there are more crappy teams out east, and more good teams out west. The main impact of this is that it's easier to get into the playoffs in the east and easier to get past the first round--but once you start getting into the semifinals/conference finals, I don't think it's that big. So TL;DR yeah I think Haliburton would have still been really good in the western conference. I'm actually a little disappointed that he's making himself untouchable like this, he was on my shortlist for "best players to trade for" before these playoffs started
Yes, another example of fan impatience and trading very young star potential players that resulted in them becoming a treadmill team, which we should avoid and learn from. Haliburton was 21, Fox was 24. I believe they had Buddy Heild as well. Haliburton made his first all star game the next year after they traded him, and is now in the finals at age 24 starting to enter his peak years. Fox made his first all star game the next year as well at age 25
Not the biggest mistake ever in isolation, but they may well be the worst managed franchise when you consider the sum of all of their moves over the least couple of decades. I think trading Luka from Dallas is still a bigger mistake, regardless of the Cooper Flagg consolation prize.
I think this is a great example as to why the Rockets need to stand pat, rather than make drastic moves. I think Jabari and Cam Whitmore has a lot more to their games. Its up to Ime to find them more playing time to develop.
To see where he is now, just lets you know some of these GMs have no clue. I saw him with the Kings and said that light skin skinny guy has a chance, men kings lucked out. But it’s the Kings, so
Mandatory: Spoiler: If you could give us a guarantee on the "that's exactly why"... Go Rockets!!! ....... ....... .......
That is the tough reality of having too many young guys. Eventually they all want playing time and also the big/max contracts. So teams have to pick their horses and part ways with the fellas that they don’t feel as strongly with. You just hope as a fan that the players all get a fair shake. Sometimes, some coaches pick favorites because they like their personalities or they work better with said players. As we have to remember that if coaches don’t win, they don’t get to keep their jobs. Hence why the GM’s have to know what they are doing, because coaches can get comfortable with average, instead of pushing for excellence. Even having your own vision is a necessity, if not GM’s start the copy cat league squad. Seems Sacramento wanted their own version of Joker and why they traded Haliburton, (which Sabonis is very similar - but he’s not anywhere nearly as good). Seems Ime gets the most out of his rotation players. But he relegates other fellas to the bench with little to no playing time.
Was the trade a mistake? Yes. Was it the worst mistake of all time? Not even close. The OKC-Rockets Harden trade was far worse. The 2013 Boston-Nets trade was far worse. Hell, even on the other side, I’d argue the Shai-Paul George trade was far worse.
They picked the low efficiency chucker they used a top 5 pick on over the much better player they drafted with a lower pick.... after all, the low efficiency chucker was only 23. Yes, we should learn from their mistake
Process wise I don’t think shai for pg was that bad, it just didn’t work out. Even the cp3 for russ trade was a much worse trade process wise. Houston traded a better player on a better contract PLUS a bunch of picks for a worse player on a worse contract.
I like Haliburton, but he's a system player...Carlisle is an underrated coach! He built this team to push pace/possessions and Haliburton is a perfect fit for this system. Have Haliburton and Brunson trade positions & both teams would have different outcomes. Haliburton couldn't crack the USA Men's team rotation because his style of play didnt fit Kerr's system. Haliburton is a better player than Derrick White, but Derrick was a better fit in the rotation.
