I’m no cap expert, but my understanding is they can now exceed the first apron to sign Eason, whereas if they paid more for Smart they would have been hard capped at the first apron.
Honestly I’m not mad with these signings. Smart is the playoff signing. Bogdan is a min signing so who cares, if there is some optionality, great.
Does Smart get to the play the Rockets in the playoffs so he can shoot significantly above his normal percentage? Otherwise it's going to be bad. Don't even waste the money. There isn't a point. He's not raising the Rockets playoff chances.
Who is raising our chances? What exactly do u want Stone to do? Blow it up? Besides Jaylen Brown, who exactly is available that will get us over SA or OKC?? Yall love to spew nonsense talking about acquisitions like it's NBA 2K
Do the Rockets even get to the playoffs. They finished a few games out of the play in based on early wins stacked in November before the league figured out. Pretty much a . 500 team after that. And that was with Durant turning in a legendary age 37 season playing the second most minutes in the NBA after Thompson. A run it back season is going to be a regression. If this is the plan, make some edge bench moves, ooh boy that's gonna make a lot of people mad.
If the Rockets can't get a marquee player then they need to move to the next phase, which means getting the hell off of Durant and Sengun. Unfortunately I fear that Stonetitta overvaluation of their own drafted players will lead them to hold on too long again
They finished 3.5 games above the play in and even that required Kevin Durant to play 39 minutes in game 81 (that they lost). A Durant that plays 65 games instead of 77? In the play in, no question
I don’t think so. I think we are a play-in team. It’s not ridiculous. What’s ridiculous is thinking it’s ridiculous to think that the rockets may not make the playoffs. It’s completely possible. This is not a 50-win team. This front office and coach have absolutely killed my fandom for the team. There is virtually nothing to look forward to next season…except hopefully a complete house cleaning at season’s end.
So blow it up, and do what exactly? Tank with the new tanking rules? U want the Silas era again? Waiting for draft picks to grow up Set up a bad example that we don't want to win to future free agents? Just hoping for a superstar draft player? Tell me exactly your strategy to become a champion again
A lot of you don't seem to actually watch the NBA outside of the Rockets..... You do understand most teams end up like the Rockets when they rebuild from scratch? Your entitlement clouds your ability to view the world objectively. We didn't trade for KD to be a franchise player at 37 years old.... we traded for him because we needed an elite scorer.
I've literally never once given a 2K acquisitions lol. You like to spew nonsense about imaginary posts. I've stated from the start signing Smart does absolutely nothing but hamper the growth of Reed. It's a pointless move to end up with the same result team wise ( 1st round exit ) while further hampering the growth of your only young guard. It doesn't make sense.
I mean they also finished 2 games out of 3rd place too. They were closer to 3rd place than any play-in spot in fact so this post is confusing? Yeah they started strong...which is almost always the case for any top 4 team. Starting strong is essential to that since you know things get tight at the end of the season and those early season wins do start to matter. Some of these teams got worse, the Clippers are a rebuilding team now, Lakers are worse today than they were yesterday. Jazz might be the only team realistically that jumps into playoff relevancy. The rest have pretty much stayed the same so far barring what Lebron does, most of the big moves were made out East.
Play the Durant thing out......wait for possible splash trade til' next year. Perhaps someone of the ilk of Ant becomes available
No wonder Dickerson called yall regarded...... Anyone who thinks KD is our franchise player is as stupid as they are ugly.
Suns have been universally panned for giving up that much for Bridges.... Seems like they are building the best play-in team ever assembled.
1. Shed long term commitment to Sengun, because he ruins your entire team concept with his presence. He is a dead end. He still had some value - use it. 2. Depending on the return for Sengun, get rid of Durant if it's draft assets. Unclear though how you match his salary though. 3. See where you are. If you want to draft, draft. If you want to trade more, trade Basically I am saying that building a current day contender around Sengun & Durant is unlikely and can never work, particularly if they are hell bent on keeping Thompson who meshes poorly with Sengun Time to try something different. Whether it's a now or later move - I can go either way I do know this version of the team isn't going anywhere and is unfun to watch or talk about so try something new
I mean at this point running it back should have been the play. IMO they should have looked hard at trading Sengun to get into the top 15 of this past draft ( maybe they did and nothing planned out ) and then looked at dumping KD for whatever young players or picks they could get. They really desperately need Reed to take off and Amen to develop any kind of shot. Smart is just going to take opportunities for growth from Reed while not raising the Rockets ability to compete. I just don't like it and I'm not even a Reed fan. I think at this point I would rather the team have a reset/ let's really see what the young guys can do year vs another 1st round bad exit.
