The trade was executed well, and we got good value if you include the extension KD signed — meaning we could hypothetically flip KD next summer for as much or more than we traded to get him. A good sign, transactionally. Kudos to Stone for that. The “vision” of using resources for a 37 year old when our best players are 22 and 23, and all of them (KD included) are levels away from the best players in our conference? I didn’t agree with it then and don’t agree with it now. Basketball isn’t like other sports. You only win titles by hitting the talent jackpot. OKC/SAS/DEN/LAL all did, we haven’t yet. It should still be our focus until then, IMO. Otherwise we’re just in first or second round exit purgatory forever.
I think we’d be a better team with Amen / Jalen / KD / Jabari / Sengun with Reed pushing for 6th man off the bench Wish we could’ve traded FVV, Tari, and Brooks or something
That starting lineup keeps losing. It's Jabari, how do people still keep missing the elephant in the room? You think a bench player is the fix... that's funny
We’ve never seen that lineup before. We have Okogie starting which is embarrassing for a team calling themselves “contenders”
I didn’t like the framework of the trade. Should’ve kept Dillon, I’ve been praying the rockets get rid of Fred(against Ime’s wishes) for a long time and then pick up another better/cheaper vet pg. But no they extended him instead then proceeded to sign players in positions we already had filled. This team has consistently sabotaged themselves in an effort to keep Ime happy. Now they are finally facing the Karma for taking on the stubborn mentality of their idiot coach. I’m tired of the bs, trade Fred’s contract asap. Get rid of Tari or Jabari, and get rid of the Capela contract(waste of roster spot). The front office and Ime has really let this organization down with the bad draft decisions, holding on to assets too long, and signing players that don’t feel needs. We also sabotaged some of our young players because the coach doesn’t develop anyone besides his fav. player Fred. He never criticizes vets , he only goes after young players because they are soft targets and they won’t stand up for themselves. He also kills their confidence with his passive aggressive bs with the media. He almost broke Reed, had him questioning if he was good or not, he was even scared to shoot. I think he destroyed Jabari’s confidence. This is all Karma for hiding stubbornness behind the identity of patience. The front office needs help just as much as the coaches do. Where is the owner? Do something
Let’s be real, without a trade we would be running (Sengun, Bari, Dillion, Tari*,Amen) since Jalen might even not come back this season till march. We would’ve draft Khama and not signed Capala but not enough cap space to sign anyone significant. However we would’ve been a top destination for Trae, LaMelo or Ja Morant by trading Jalen + all our picks
I didn't mind it much because the actual resources used were pretty minimal. Late lotto pick in a bad draft, young guy with some remaining potential who was looking unlikely to truly "get there" and was arguably overpaid, and a solid starter on a pretty good contract that was going to expire in a couple seasons. If KD didn't come so steeply discounted I would have hated the trade and I largely agree that we should keep our eyes on the prize, so to speak, and not trade away real assets for win-now moves unlikely to pay out with a chip.
Well said, that was my concern with the trade as well. Like a lost value equity. A percentage of our total player value worth that we put an expiration date on and will expire right when Sengun and Amen can legally rent a car. KD looking like he spry and the theoretical idea that he’s flippable helps.
I’m gonna need to wait and see how many first Round picks Jalen Green is worth in 2028 before forming an opinion. I’ve seen Dejounte Murray get traded for 5 too many times
Dejounte has fallen off the little, I dug some more, he had couple of unfortunate family deaths and untimely injuries.....consecutive injuries to deal with.
'Talent jackpot' meaning a true 1st option on a true contender right? (SGA, Wemby, Jokic, Luka) How do we acquire one of these? Teams don't normally trade them away (lol sga, luka) I think Sengun and Sheppard are our best bets on the roster... Amen will always be limited by his shooting.. Drafting looks like our best option, especially with 2 potential lotto picks in 2027. I really think we're still rebuilding as a franchise depsite our recent success and I hope the front office sees it that way too... (unpopular opinion)
I get the idea here but you really paint a “draft an all world talent or bust” picture here and you might be in the draft for a decade searching for that game changing top 5 guy…and what is the super valuable thing you would have done with Jalen/Brooks/late draft pick? I think the thing about last season is we were likely playing at our ceiling as a club- neither Dillon nor Jalen appeared to be getting any better. Exchanging those guys and a fairly unexciting 2nd round pick for KD changed our ceiling and opened up minutes for other players on our roster(Tari/Reed) who needed development to build value. Basically you got back a significantly more efficient version of Jalen and opened up minutes for players with higher ceilings and likely more valuable in the league than Brooks. I love Brooks - but he is still just a role player…
I would have traded JG for a bag of potatoes just to shut the toxic JG fanboys up. everything else has been gravy. I still remember after the playoff loss, seeing how obvious it was that JG couldn't play to expectations. The JG fanboys were blaming everyone on the rockets except the man himself and than seeing Stone defend JG publicly just to keep his trade value up adding fuel to the fanboys voices. I was beyond relieved to hear the trade happen and completely shut them up.
