I think they have a better roster than last season, but that's before the absolutely inevitable injuries hit. They'll be broken down again by the playoffs and will get smoked by some better, younger, healthier team. Is there any way at all that this isn't EXACTLY what's going to happen?
Hitting the nail on the head while being captain obvious... I agree. At the trade deadline we would need the necessary moves made.
I’m sick of the doomer vs homer debates going on. In reality, most on this board are being realistic about our chances over the next couple of years against some of the deepest and youngest teams I’ve ever seen in the NBA. Wanting your team to make moves consistent with that reality is not doomerism, it is being a practical and good long-term fan. Taking a small step back in order to move forward is the most prudent step this front office could take. Wanting to pivot back to a youth movement, is more of an indicator of optimism about our core, rather than doomerism. As a 68 year old man, one would think I would be wanting to push all the chips in to make a run at a championship sooner rather than later, but looking at the availability of players that would make us able to compete with OKC and SA during Durant’s limited shelf life, makes reasonable basketball fans look for an alternative path for the team. We can still be entertaining team with an optimistic future by sticking with our young players and optimizing our assets by trading KD and our other aging vets for either upcoming young players or draft assets. This will allow Amen, Reed, Sengun, and Jabari more opportunity to hone their skills while awaiting for the re-enforcements a couple of years down the line.
"Cooked" is being very dramatic. If by "cooked" you mean the Rockets will easily make the playoffs this season, then ok. But they clearly are not OKC or SA, mostly because they don't have SGA or Wemby. I'm not in the camp of making trades automatically makes you better. Remember when the Nets built their superteam? That team was cooked. The Rockets have a solid base and have tons of assets. Stay the course, make moves on the margins, and wait for the right trade to come along. Jalen Brown wasn't it. Ja Morant wasn't it. Lamelo was interesting but wasn't a silver bullet answer. Giannis was the best option ...but maybe they were asking too much and/or the roster would be too flawed after the trade.
My sentiments exactly I fear Ime will stunt Boji from being effective and since he’s not young or an elite defensive specialist, he will rot on the bench with Reed next season
sure anyway? sure... If we trade FVVs and DFSs expiring contracts... If we minute manage Adams and no b2bs... maybe he makes it to the post season... KD slotted the 2nd most minutes in the league last year... his injury and post season absence was a fluke... Tari is the wild card in this respect... but he could have his injuries in the reg season and then be healthy for the playoffs - which has been his norm... its possible... id call it 50/50...
The right trade may not come along for a while. Hanging on to KD until he is worthless on the trade market is not prudent, nor was extending FVV. I’m not in favor for trading for trading’s sake, but the best way forward is to re-group a bit and try to re-coup some assets for when “the trade” comes along. There is no reason to stand pat, unless there are no options to make your future better. Doubling down on old and injury prone is extremely short-sighted.
I agree. I guess the frustrating thing in which I hear a lot of people point out. Is the Rockets are trying to have it ALL WAYS at once, which is what’s kind of jamming up the team. Rockets have to sell tickets so they know it’s not good for business to say “Hey we realized we’re not as good as we thought and other teams are miles ahead of us so we have to do a soft rebuild”. Instead they are playing in our faces and expect for us to think this team can compete with true contenders. Stone is doing his best to manage picks, salary cap and extensions , which is fine but he’s also scared to make a definitive decision on our direction so we look like the BOB Texans era version of the Rockets now. No real direction but JUST good enough to sell optimistic fans that we have a legit shot. Ime is going to Ime, he’s literally NBA BOB. Once again not a bad coach but he thinks he’s better than he is which leads him to be stubborn and arrogant and it hinders him from being an actual elite coach and he can’t get the best out of his players and team and he wants more vets over young player development so once again there’s no true direction. We’re not good enough to be true contenders, we’re not bad enough or they refuse to go all in on developing and accumulating young talent. Our player development and shooting coaching looks to be one of the worst or atleast bottom half in the league. We should be grateful we actually have a legit almost guaranteed playoff team with legit star talent to watch, but it’s still frustrating that the organization is overvaluing them and. Not maximizing the potential of the team. Just had an epiphany they are Literally the NBA version of our BOB Era Texans team. The coach, The GM The personnel The organization refusal to make a major decision until fans literally forced their hands
In terms of this current roster actually achieving any form of playoff success next season: Top end talent? Mediocre Fit? Bad Depth? Ok Coaching? Mediocre Injury risk? High Playoff track record? Really bad Tactical advantages? None Tactical disadvantages? Many Vibes? Bad Fan interest? Low This current team is miles away from contention. Idk why people talk about OKC and SAS, or even Denver or Minny or LA. We are 15th in title odds. Portland/Orlando/Phoenix/Atlanta are our level, in a playoff context. But we’ll be an above .500 team, have some future picks, and no terrible contracts. So let’s run back the same top 8 that embarrassed us last year right?
I hear you. Trading Durant for value in return makes sense but it takes 2 to tango. IF Durant has another top 10 season and... IF someone steps up to the plate and can play like legit NBA PG and... IF Adams/Capela can hold their own and... IF Jabari, Tari, Reed or somebody can step up to be a consistent 3pt threat and... IF Alp can consistently hit his bunnies and maybe hit some 3s... THEN the Rockets can win a championship this season. I know, I know. lol. At this point, run it back and see what ya got. If it ain't working, a contender will want KD before the trade deadline if he's playing well. Nobody wants KD right now.
According to Nook, who I trust more than you, there are multiple teams interested in KD. We will be fine in the regular season and on pace to finish in the same general vicinity of 52 wins, unless KD, Sengun, or Amen get injured, giving false hope again. Stone will sit on his hands like he has for the last two years (maybe even more) and then everybody will say, just wait for the off-season.
8 years of training Jabari Smith Jr ball to finally get into a playoff series vs a good team just to show that he obviously can’t play at the SA/OKC level.
