Durant traded to Houston for Green, Brooks, #10 pick, and multiple 2nd rounders

Wonder when the press conference will be

 

The Spurs were loaded before the draft and even more so now.

Wemby/Harper/Castle is a very high-end top 3 potential outcome

Sochan is an excellent defender and role player - Bryant has upside as well, and Johnson and Vassel have value.

Fox is a very good bridge as well.

The Spurs also have a lot of draft picks

 

Tbh I've actually been viewing this whole thing through the lens of accelerating our timeline to win now because we'd have been (and will be) unlikely to compete with the next wave of better prospects with Wemby, Flagg and the inevitable LA Lukas rigging. We may be able to sneak a win before it becomes very clear how much more pedestrian our young core was compared to the upper side of the young talent in the league. Obviously if Amen really does break out that gives us a potential franchise star for the future, but I don't think that core 7 was as deep as we thought going in to last season in retrospect and now it's a core 2, 2 "probably decents" and a maybe...

 

It is. It is highly dependent on Wemby or Harper having a very high outcome. I'm much more concerned with Wemby becoming and MVP than I am in Harper/Castle being close to as valuable as Sengun/Tari/Reed/JSJ. Wemby has injury problems, and the Spurs are just a team of poor shooters that can't closely match the Rockets defense.

 

So are you saying only Cooper Flagg is the only rookie with any value in the league? That doesnt make any sense. Dylan Harper is the 2nd ranked prospect in the draft so he isnt even worth a fart?

Player value is determined by both quality and quantity. A year ago the Rox were facing questions on quality ( no franchise star) but had quantity (core 7). Spurs had quality (Wemby), but no quantity in fact it was just Wemby. Now they also have quantity (Harper+Bryant+Castle). OTH Rox lost quantity (Green+Cam) and didnt really add anything they already had before in terms of young core guys.

OKC have SGA, Chet and JDub so they had quality. Now with Sorber and Topic they also have quantity.

In other words before you can argue Rox arguably have a better core because Spurs just have Wemby and OKc just have Chet and JDub (SGA is like 26). But now Rox lost 2 guys with high potential while Spurs and OKC got solid guys to bolster their young stars.

I can honestly say Spurs have a better core of young guys than the Rockets. OKC prob even if SGA isnt included.

 

I wouldnt say Rox are pedestrian but they are def below Spurs and OKC now in terms of young guys. If Rox were in the East they would still be the no 1 core in the East imo. I prefer Amen, Sengun, Jabari, Tari and Reed over Magic, Pistons and Raptors young core.

The hope is those PHX assets and swaps give us lotto picks to bolster our youth in the future.

 

Outside of Wemby, who do the Spurs have that matters?

 

Alpi = Wemby
Amen >>> Harper
KD >>>>>>> Castle

Jabri > Sochan
Tari > Bryant

Fred = Fox

Rest of Rockets >>>>>>>>>>>> Rest of Spurs

no comparison tbh.

 

Whether it's the issues he's already dealing with now or the classic frealkishly big man problems, Wemby most likely isn't going to stay healthy. My guess is he plays less than 400 games in his career.

 

I think you are shrewd and I feel the same. Why give OKC and SA a chance to be even more firmly rooted. The Rockets want to get as many real chances to win as possible and that includes 2025-2025.

 

“200 better than Dray” does not equal his impact on that team winning through the Steph era. PLUS they had him on a 2nd round contract at the beginning of the run. I’ll go out on a limb and say he was equally instrumental to the Dubs success to Steph. And if he’s not equal, it’s close. I’d totally have him on the Rockets.

 

I know he is, I'm just saying people keep saying there are x number players better than Draymond but it doesn't work to replace him with any of those players cus the warriors would be worse. And that is what Fred is to our team.

 

Alpi equal to Wemby and FVV equal to Fox? If that were true we wouldnt have lost in the first round lol

Spurs are still gonna be a bad team which is good for them cuz the 2026 class is reportedly stacked.

 

On the depth of the Core 7, I think it was really deep. To me the question has been the top guy. Though, with as deep as the Rockets young players have been and the depth of the draft capital, I've expected the Rockets would star hunt and try to find a way to contend until Amen's extension kicks in. Standing pat was a fallback plan. When Amen's extension kicks in, I expect the Rockets would reorganize the roster. I think the depth is so that if Amen becomes a Top 5 player, the Rockets are golden (i.e., they have better depth than others and would have comparable top talent if this happens).

On the core 2, that's probably a more accurate description than Core 7 or Core 5 even though I really like Tari and Reed. I think Amen and Sengun will be 2 of the Top 3 players on great Rockets teams going forward in which the Rockets are only searching for that 3rd Top 3 guy. I think Tari is going to surprise people if he's healthy, which I think odds are much better than most people make it out to be.

 

I don’t see how anybody can say that Wemby, Castle, Harper, Sochan is definitively better young core than the Rockets young core of Amen, Sengun, Jabari, Tari. Castle was not a good player last year. He was rookie of the year in a historically weak draft. Harper hasn’t proven anything yet and Wemby has been hurt every year and Amen may end up better anyway, Sochan mediocre role player. Not worried about them in the least. OKC is another story. If they are willing to go the route of the Warriors and pay incredible luxury taxes for years to come they’re not going anywhere. The Spurs do have some good draft capital as do we.

 

Not even that but despite him being NAMED the ROY, his performance didn't justify that honor even with everyone else either being meh or not being allowed to play.

Castle was awful on both sides of the court.[/QUOTE]

 

I will say Wemby has looked really good. I'd still take Houston, but I don't begrudge people for liking Wemby.

 

I am not saying that.

 

We have Amen who may become a superstar level player. Then we have Sengun who's a fringe all-star (let's stop pretending that the what, 30 seconds he played in that game or whatever it was puts him on the levels of Jokic, it doesn't, not yet) and some roleplayers who may or may not even be starter calibre. We're entirely reliant on Amen now out of what was a "core 7" this time last year, sorry we're nothing special at all as a young core. That's why we've gone all in on vets because our young guys are NOT projected to compete with some of these squads without those older heads...like remotely.