I get it and can respect the opinion. I don’t agree with it. This team needs Amen to be a no. 1 option on offense to be the engine this team needs going forward. I’m not saying it as a one year goal. Spamming KD, FVV, Sengun ISO’s and PnR may be better for our regular season success this year, but it gets us no closer to be championship contenders and does nothing to inform us on whether Amen is who you build your team around. You are going to get your wish and this team will probably have a similar regular season record as last year. For some folks, that is entertaining. It’s just not for me. Amen can be a borderline all-star from the dunker’s spot, but he is a superstar if he develops as a PG. I’m willing for the team to take a step back to go forward. Stone and Ime are too risk averse.
He didn’t trade Tari because he is afraid of making mistakes. I would take Ayo Dosunmu or Coby White over Tari any day of the week, even with the extensions they got, but Stone simply didn’t have the courage. He played it far too safe. I personally never liked Tari as a player. He lacks basketball IQ and he is not a good half-court player. Sometimes as a GM you’ve got to make evaluation of your own players and have the guts to part way with some of them. Punting the season just because Fred went down is a loser's mentality. You always try to improve the team and give it your best shot. If the GM gives up, it just becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Marcus Smart and Bogdanovic don’t fix anything. I appreciate your optimism, but it doesn’t make sense. Marcus Smart is not a point guard and never will be. He is a good player, but we already have a ton of defensive-minded guys, and he doesn’t fix our issues on offense. Bogdanovic fell out of the rotation last season with the Clippers, and whether he will even crack the rotation next season is a massive question mark. I highly doubt he is Udoka’s type of player. I don’t care why Boston traded Brown; he was right there for the taking. An MVP-caliber player in his prime was available, and Stone should have tried harder to get him. You can’t convince me that standing pat and banking on the health of a 33-year-old point guard coming off an ACL injury is a good plan just because of the new CBA's repeater tax. This approach is lazy and completely lacks vision and creativity. There is absolutely no excuse for doing nothing last year and then failing to make a big swing this offseason. None.
It’s hard rooting for the mediocrity treadmill, which I think they are on. But we should be better than last season. Since I’m not a believer in the coach or the front office, I certainly hope for a change next offseason, but can’t root against the success of the team. So I guess the bar is a 2nd round playoff exit and everyone goes home happy? That’s hard for me because I think this is a very poorly constructed team that isn’t going anywhere. hopefully they have a deep playoff showing that everyone feels good about or things go poorly and they reset from top to bottom. They need to pick a direction. Hard to get excited about a team with no direction.
I didn't notice the giant petition in your bio to have a man lose his job. I feel you win this passion off and we can agree to disagree on how dire the circumstance is.
Gosh that… that was a brutality. If that’s the case too? I mean I guess I’ll hope for one of the young guys to really go star level. I’ll hope for health and good fortune like always. but if they’re already punting to next season I’ll be pretty disappointed. I get that they walked into a corner last year, and bad luck crossed us out. Choosing to stay in the corner is… kinda does feel like a restauranteur is running a basketball team.
Correct. Too many people conflate "The Houston Rockets are heading in an obviously incorrect strategic direction" with "Stone and the FO are dumb". The first statement is true, the second statement is not. Stone and the FO are smart people making smart, strategic moves... in service of their own career outlook. Those strategic moves just happen to be very bad for the Rockets' long term pursuit of a championship. Winning 50 games and losing in the first round every year with a boring no hope team is enough to keep Stone in cushy employment somewhere in the league forever, even though he won't be a lead GM. We are in the principal-agent trap. Only way that changes is a different FO, or Patrick Fertitta forces the current FO onto the correct strategic path because he has permanent job security (not holding my breath for that one). To be clear I'd do the same thing in Stone's position. This FO is not uniquely nefarious. It's on ownership to solve.
Nah. I would normally agree with you but the roster construction has been terrible- there was close to no thought in how the roster was constructed and the pieces would actually fit. The player development was horrendous. You can tank and still have strong player development staff and smart people. The Rockets under Stone didn’t even consider it - it was left to John Lucas. That has severely hampered the Rockets. There also has been a general lack of cultural identity or philosophy when it comes to basketball. These are all things that are obvious to people involved in the game and are builders. The best hope is that Stone has learned from his mistakes - but I am skeptical with about some of that. There still isn’t a real basketball philosophy from what I can tell. Udoka changed the culture and he has his own philosophy. Stone is smart - he seems to know how to network to certain personalities and I hear he is a very good contract lawyer. However I haven’t seen any indication that he has a high level aptitude or knowledge of the game and he doesn’t seem to be very good at leading or building culture.
It is a tangent - but there is a lot of truth to this. A lot of these corporations are now being run by people that know almost nothing about their product or the industry they are in. Look at McDonalds for example - they used to be ran by people that worked their way up. It is going to eventually harm US industry.
They are a better team than they were a year ago IF they stay healthy. There isn't anything wrong with this team, it's just kind of frustrating to see how they are older and have obviously been lapped by both OKC and San Antonio. But I agree with you. They're going to be competitive if nothing else.
I'm not saying that Amen couldnt develop into that role - but lets work on his shooting first... U've heard my 2 year KD/Kyrie? plan - thats our #1 option for the next 2 years... lets get these younger guys realizing their potential leaning into their existing attributes and gradually add more to their plate... for Amen... already a defensive shutdown defender who can finish at the rim... hopefully this year he develops his mid range... year after start dropping some 3s... if that all comes along, then we can try him as a facilitator... but dudes gotta walk b4 he can run.. for Alpi... fk Senhub - learn how to defend the rim at one end and develop a consistent mid range at the other... for Bari... its time for him to work at being able to put the ball on the ground and drive... Reed... either he's a situational 3pt threat... or send him to RGV and let him learn how to run an offense...
If you're talking about that 2-year (?) deal they offered him - Oladipo himself said they knew he would never accept it. That's because he wanted a longer term deal and they knew that. I posted a video of him being interviewed and saying that a while back. Well, to be honest, if you're talking about what he said during the broadcast during the first game of the SL, he was referring to the question about age and managing minutes so they're the best version of themselves later in the year. That's when he responded with whatever they did last year didn't work (probably referring to the KD being injured at the end, others being injured during the season, etc.). He even stated KD and he agreed KD's minutes need to be cut down. It's at the 2:54 mark :
My point is waiting 2 years to hand Amen the keys is a mistake of major proportions, when the ability to compete for more than just a playoff berth is almost as sure a bet as can be made. If they do decide to go this route, they had better wrap up his extension this year, because he and his agent are going to be very hard to deal with if they demote him back to the dunker role. They know his superstardome and super-max will be determined on his progression on the offensive side of the ball.
