Whats your regular season prediction for next year? (POLL)

I can see playoff concerns.

 

Trading KD would be of limited benefit this year because of the pick swap with Brooklyn and actually has some downside risk regarding the Phoenix pick. Say we dump KD and it hurts our record enough that we drop from 5th seed to the play in or worse. That frees up a potential playoff seed to Phoenix and we've gone from two potential lotto picks to one. That would suck immensely with the now flattened lotto odds. We absolutely need to keep Phoenix from being a top six seed. Next year is a different story because we have no pick obligations to or from anyone.

The risk of waiting to trade KD is that he might lose all value by next summer, but I don't think the risk is massive. He might have the same value as a $46M productive expiring contract as he does right now. The Rockets are at a crossroads, but they aren't desperate. They can wait to see where the Brooklyn and Phoenix picks land and go from there.

 

The risks of keeping KD are much more egregious than you state. If he gets seriously injured, his trade value is absolute zero. You are also assuming that whatever returning players we got in trading him are a negative fit wise. There is also risk in another year of treading water with Amen, Sengun, and Reed who need the ball in their hands and in the right position on the court to develop their skills. Kd is an absolute chemistry killer. He is an iso player(really good one) that needs the ball in the exact same area that Sengun and Amen need it to be effective. Worrying whether Phoenix will surpass us is kind of silly if we have a decent sg from the Durant trade. Phoenix had a total sh*t off-season in my opinion. If Portland is through they are no problem. Utah and Dallas, I guess could be problematic, whether we have KD or not.

 

Here's a cynical take.

The Rockets have the habit of losing to tanking teams. Now the system is discouraging intentional losing, I am actually hopeful that the Rockets won't lose to those bottom teams. A fairly good regular season is ensured, maybe a bit better than last season.

But playoffs is still the same.

 

The risk of serious injury is there for every player, including whoever we might trade KD for. Jalen Green played 82 games in back to back seasons for us and as soon as we traded him to Phoenix for KD he immediately missed 50 games.

I have no idea what KD's current trade value is now. Last summer only we, Minnesota, and Miami made offers to Phoenix. Minnesota and Miami have since traded for other big names so the market might be limited. If a team is offering us a good SG and picks then go ahead and take it. If the best offer is CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert like Atlanta got for Trae Young then no thanks. I think that offer is there next summer.

 

yeah I just have to respectfully disagree. Your first point abiut not trading KD because that might relegate us to a non-playoff team (increasing the value of our pick), boosting PHX into the playoffs, seems very insignificant to me because 1) we’d also be boosting the value of our own pick 2) we are already talking about very flattened odds 3) it’s a very weak 2027 draft 4) whatever we get for KD would be much more valuable than any insignificant repercussions from the PHX pick.

We can get future picks for KD. If we are not doing what we need to in order to contend this yr, we should recoup some value and move on. We would not have to “dump” KD. He’s a valuable asset and we should cash in before that asset losses value via injury, or just being closer to free agency. I think there’s significant risk of injury, why gamble? If there’s a good argument for keeping him I’d love to hear it. I haven’t heard one if we aren’t contending.

 

I just want one pick and expirings and/or TE’s, but I realize I might be in the minority in regards to what others think of KD. Vegas has us pegged as the 16th best chance to win a championship. That tells you how they value KD on this team. Trae Young was also a negative asset. I think there is an outside chance that once Detroit finishes off the Duran situation, we might be able to get a crappy pick and filler for KD from them. Unfortunately, the front office still thinks we are a regurgitated FVV away from being championship contenders.

 

you should hear what Detroit fans would give up for KD. A lot more than the people on this board think.

 

60 wins

 

46 wins 6th in the West. KD will only play 50 games because he will carry another large offensive load at age 38 and Ime will only play him a cool 37 minutes a game and he will get hurt.

 

About still tipping in 44 wins. We're sitting sideways this season

 

Yeah, saying we aren't young was the wrong way to put it. What I meant was that we aren't young enough to still have hope about one of our guys being a franchise player. We had some nice years where we thought it was Jalen, Sengun, Amen, Reed, or even Jabari. But I think that ship has sailed and I just don't know where we go from here. I'll still watch because I like watching basketball and I'm a fan, but I don't see how you can have a hopeful outlook for the future of this team.

 

I have been watching since the YaoMac days and the team has never been the frontrunner from when I started till today. The only time you can argue they were one was in 2018 but even then that was arguable since a lot of people were saying Harden and Cp3 will just choke in the playoffs (valid).

Other then that single year every time the Rockets have been dark horses every year at best so I dunno why you are suddenly so down.

While you are right the Rockets dont have that franchise player yet, I feel more confident about this team than the Harden era teams just cuz this version of Rockets are still very young whereas those Harden teams only have 2 yr shelf life before they need to be recycled. Harden never had a long term teammate aside from Eric Gordon and PJ Tucker, everyone else only lasts a couple year before they are traded away.

At least Sengun, Amen, Jabari, Tari and Reed prob gonna have 5+ yrs together. When they are all 28 and in their prime they can def go deep just like Knicks did.

 

The horse they pick is they hate Stone and want him gone. It doesnt matter what the argument is they just move the goal post and spin it so Stone should get fired.

Like right now the narrative is Stone turned the youngest team into the oldest one when the only guy we lost was Jalen Green and these same people were screaming to have Green traded before too.

B2B 50 win seasons? Running the franchise into the ground. Like we were collecting rings and finals appearances the years before lmao.

 

I feel pretty confident that they will win 50 games and exit after the first (or maybe second) round of the playoffs if they can stay healthy. I think they are too old to be healthy for the playoffs though. They probably have a better roster now than they ran with last year, but they aren't going to be anything particularly special.

 

I think it's likely that the PHX pick being in the lottery is no more.

They got better this offseason despite having a large amount of dead money on their cap sheet.

Out of the two teams, I think it highly likely they have the better record. Their SG / SF group is really good - shooters and defenders and no one on the roster over the age of 31.
Their bench might be a bit weak ....

 

Eliminated in the play in tournament by, you guessed it, the Warriors.

 

I still think we have a 50 win base. While it's unlikely we got some major leap from the young core next season, Tari Eason will be the oldest at 25 years old when the season starts so I think it's likely there's still growth left. We have some decent playmaking depth this season, but still need to see the final roster.

The primary concern will still be primary playmaker/point guard and we still have some cards left to play there this offseason: Dejounte Murray, Jrue, and Herro (more of a combo guard/shooting guard).

 

Between 50+ and play in