I would disagree with the assertion of the article in the OP. Jalen was a disappointment, sure, but he was still the leading scorer on a 50+ win team. He wasn't some bust like Anthony Bennett. Mobley is definitely the better player, but we have a better player in Sengun anyway (which makes the article's claim that only Amen has a higher ceiling than Mobley pretty funny also). I would say a bigger mistake would be drafting Usman and Josh over Grimes, or even Jabari over Jalen Williams as much as I love Jabari. Those are roles on the team that we sorely need.
I never liked KPJ as a player and didn’t like thr signing but it wasn’t big money and the contract offered protections for the Rockets. Management and the coaching staff saw talent and potential in him and Stone gambled but the contract had little risk. https://rocketswire.usatoday.com/st...r-up-to-four-years-82-5-million/77507320007/# “The contract, which kicks in starting with the 2023-24 season, is worth as much as $82.5 million over four years. However, only the first season at $15.9 million is fully guaranteed, per Shams Charania and Kelly Iko of The Athletic. The unique structure could largely protect the Rockets in the event of any unforeseen off-court issues, which defined much of Porter’s initial NBA stint in Cleveland.” “The contract includes June trigger dates after (the) first season, but the Rockets can essentially release Porter at any point, without further pay, up to the $82.5 million,” Charania writes.
I don’t get the fascination with Grimes a slow footed player who has had issues driving to the paint and hasn’t had a stellar career until the last 5 weeks of last year. Still not sold on him
Silas was forced to play people out of position to insure the tank. All masterminded by Stone. No coach could have done any better with the roster he was given. I remember Silas limiting Sengun his rookie year. (Much the same way Udoka did Amen & Reed) KPJ & Green were used as pawns nothing more or else. They’re both talented but not enough to make a difference. The tank was on.
indeed, I meant ROTY of course This is gonna sound wild, but like... what if you just try enjoying being a fan?
I don't think he's all that or anything but he's a productive NBA guard who would definitely be in our rotation next year as a shot maker and offense creator off the bench.
Sengun wasn't our BPA. We traded to get him. If we had Mobley, it seems unlikely we would be motivated to do that. That's the whole point of the "if we drafted Mobley we wouldn't have Sengun" argument. I think it's a valid argument. There's a difference between picking a player at your draft spot and spending assets to trade for a player. But I do agree with you that we cannot evaluate a move, be it a draft choice, a FA signing, or a trade, by subsequent happenings that were unintentionally caused by it. If we picked the wrong guy, we picked the wrong guy. It doesn't matter if having the wrong guy made us bad enough to get a good player later. It was still a wrong choice.
Shai and Thompson had better seasons. Daniels should have won just off of the 3 steals per game. Heck, even Jalen Williams had a better season statistically. Mobley is great, I just don't think he'll ever be a franchise player. Mobley only won DPOY because they didn't want to give SGA every award.
This is a stupid scenario…without drafting jalen we wouldnt having segun…0% chance we’d have drafted Mobley and Segun.
The contract that Kevin Porter Jr just signed in the year 2025 was for 2 years and $11 million. The Rockets were set to hand him roughly 4x as much this year on an annual basis Seems like an overpay - glad he's gone. - saved from incompetence by domestic violence is hard to get excited about
I don't think we suck enough to get Amen if we draft Mobley over Jalen. I'm happy with where we are tbh. We've got Amen looking like a future superstar, and Jalen did just enough for us to trade him for literal KEVIN ****ING DURANT. And as a bonus we've also got Alpi who should continue growing into his prime as a top-tier 4/5 and if not perennial then I still think certainly an occasional All-star (he's already a greater player than FVV for example, and I'd hazard he get to be at least a little better than Sabonis.) I'd love to see a plausible hypothetical scenario where Wall/KPJ/Tate/Mobley/Wood progresses over 5 seasons to leave us in a better position than we are now? Seriously, show me the steps, make it believable?
Essentially that is the elephant in the room. Mobley hated KPJ, and the Rockets loved KPJ…. Seems the animosity happened when they had interactions at USC, maybe on the recruiting of Mobley? Since KPJ had long since left when Mobley played at USC. KPJ had some nasty temper issues and Mobley likely saw that or was warned about it by USC coaches and or teammates. It’s been since revealed that was THE reason Mobley did not visit with the Rockets pre-draft.
We're still lying about this? Mobley didn't work out for any team other than the Pistons because he wanted to go first overall. Somehow that didn't cause the Cavs to draft a bust instead.
I don’t see it that way at all. They knew his history and structured the contract that way to protect the organization. Only 1 year 15.9 mil guaranteed. If he blows up to be very good they have a bargain. That was his market value then. We don’t really know what he would have turned into if he didn’t get in trouble which likely derailed and set back his career a bit. Oh well he’s gone now. Happy Those days are over.
yeah doesn’t make sense when you’re building a team to draft 2 bigs. They needed a guard and scorer and that’s who they drafted. Barnes is not a scorer and not great at driving and finishing. Drafted Sengun to fill the 5.
Mostly a fit thing, the stuff he does well would work really well on this team. I don't think he's a future superstar or anything but probably ends up being Mikal Bridges-esque.
I see it that way - people widely panned the KPJ deal at the time because it was none of the things you were saying it was Go back and read the old threads and podcasts or whatever, not just Rockets fans here (including myself but I'm far from alone) because the Rockets did nothing to figure out the "market value" of KPJ, they handed him a big money extension with no other offers on the table and after his various incidents, and Tilman went around saying how underappreciated kpj was (untrue, he is not an especially good player!). It was a market of .... One team! Convinced they found a future star on the cheap (they did not) Dumb decision, saved only by the fact his bad behavior occurred in a midtown hotel where it couldn't be ignored and the Rockets had just hired ime off the naughty list
