Our once proud franchise is being run into the ground

I think a lot of the negativity is valid but the BBS becomes hard to read for sure. I think we have always been building toward longevity, the Durant opportunity just ended up in our laps and the trade was fine. We could recoup that value today. The value lost was in Amen or Reed not being on the ball more. Absolutely.

If we are healthy to league average, I do think internal growth and return of the injured players helps a lot. Not putting us over the edge, but neither would finding our franchise savior at the age of 20. We need to give Amen a serious look at being the guy and then go from there. I am pretty sure you will see that this year.

 

so don’t recoup any value for him and watch him decline while we don’t win? Make no sense if the goal truly is to build a long term contender.

 

Stonetitta's plan predicated on the idea that the young core will grow. Then they brought cancer in and obviously the consensus (including the GM/coach themselves ) is they didnt grow. Either blame the org or the culture. Since you don't blame the org then the best player is one that sets the culture. It's time to learn from our mistakes and do a mini tank season. Many here seem to be willing to do just that and want either Dickerson or front office to go.

 

Bricklayer isn't a franchise level player. His handle isn't good enough and his outside shot is putrid. Teams simply pack to paint on him. We need to sell high on him.

 

Dickerson wasn't the main problem but he absolutely not the solution. He's just getting older and more cranky. We need to sell high.

 

I didn’t say that. I said players that can help this team win. The trade for him was ill thought out in the first place. I think many if not most Rocket fans know this. But that was the organization’s goal—to win a championship. Likely still is. It makes little sense to me to reverse course as many fans on here seem to advocate. The organization made a commitment to enter their third phase which is being a legitimate contender. And as i said, he wasn’t the reason this team lost.

Starting 2 non shooters in Sengun and Amen was the reason. Playing an inexperienced player (Sheppard) who doesn’t play defense was the reason. Not having a vet backup point that could play pick and roll was the reason. Not having a vocal leader on the court after the departure of Brooks was the reason. So let’s fix that instead of scapegoating Durant

 

That makes no sense. Commitment to who? Third phase? What the hell does that even mean? It’s all made up. If u make a mistake u try to rectify it, you don’t just live with it when you can move off that mistake and salvage things. The reasoning here doesn’t make sense.

 

At some point though, you have to accept reality. We've seen enough from our "young core" to realize that none of them will likely ever be a true #1 or possibly even a #2. So is it smart to keep plowing ahead ignoring reality?

 

Here’s the truth about KD that no one has ever exposed on this board. The lawyer traded Jalen, Brooks and 10 th pick whose combined salaries equalled 60 million for KD whose salary is 47 million and traded away this year’s lotto top 6 pick (which conservatively would make 8+ million) which equals a savings of over 20 million dollars for this season and next. That’s 40 million total that Stone pocketed for Fertitta. They made zero moves at the deadline and are selling us on the FVV savior story as they pocket millions and millions of dollars. They couldn’t give a floot about building around KD as he was simply a seat filler who made ownership millions upon millions of dollars. This is why you have a lawyer as a GM instead of a real GM….because you care more about money then winning.

 

I don’t blame anyone in particular. It wasn’t like this organization is in complete shambles or hasn’t been successful or able to assemble a competitive and talented team. Look at some teams that just haven’t had much continuity or stability (hawks, pelicans, magic, grizzlies, kings) How about DEN? They have a top 3 player in the league and a great pg but won 2 more games than us. What happened to them last year in the playoffs?

Where I think they had some misteps is drafting Sheppard then trading 2 younger players for Durant. Then playing a team with no backup point and 2 main players that can’t shoot. That’s the real issue of this organization not Durant. He did his job and played at a high level. The team showed us they can’t win without him. So let’s fix this issue

 

I never said plow ahead with this core. I have said plenty of times past year or so that the team should explore a trade with either Sengun or Amen or both. I was actually pondering if Brown Sengun Durant would work at least for a couple runs next 2 years. Or Brown Amen Durant. One of them at least needs to go. And this team needs superstar power to get to the next level. I don’t know what happened with Giannis but if it was their insistence on keeping Amen then i think that was a missed opportunity.

 

Yes, Tilman hired the wrong people.

 

As far as I understand Denver has its own problems with culture and Knicks had shown that culture and deep bench matter (to stay fresh for and during post season.)
You need talent, cohesion, culture to develop and win. Stone, it appears, only understands talent and probably less well than Morey.

 

what makes no sense? what’s made up?

The team publicly stated that they’re in the third phase of their rebuild which is being a legitimate contender. They committed to this with the Durant trade then building a team around him last year with defensive wings and shooters. I don’t get what you’re arguing against.

The plan obviously didn’t work. It wasn’t Durant’s fault. This doesn’t mean you have to trade him. And it doesn’t mean you have to trade for lottery picks. As I and others have repeatedly said on here the team doesn’t work because of our personnel (sengun, amen, sheppard, eason). Let’s focus on solving this instead of simply demanding a rebuild

 

Let Amen go in a Celtics trade and next draft season draft a PG and add another young shooter in a Sengun trade. They need to be more athletic and most importantly find a good young PG/Shooter.

 

Coaching is just as important. If the Knicks have proved anything its that the NBA has left behind defensive forward coaches who have no offensive system. First the Celtics now the Knicks. Ime needs to be gone.

 

but trading away our young guys to build around KD is dumb when we aren’t close to contending.

 

It’s not building around KD. It’s adding a star to propel this team to the next level. And again you have to look at what the organization is trying to accomplish. I don’t think the gap between the Rockets and the top 2 West teams is something unreachable either. I think it’s a defeatist attitude and mentality to keep seeing our team as lesser or make those teams out to be more than what they are. You don’t win 52 games without skill, talent, and coaching. Rockets play these top teams tough and are competitive usually. The roster didn’t work so it’s about retooling. What’s dumb is making our current players and fans wait several more years with another rebuild for a future that isn’t promised after just going thru a long rebuild. That’s stupid to me

 

Denver already won championship in recent years.

 

This.