and we were without our by far best player for all but 1 game - and he was banged up for the 1 game... So our injuries were all about our incompetence... KD plays 2nd most minutes in the league - but gets a banged knee... is that an age or conditioning thing? old brittle knee bones? lol Did 31 yo FVV have an injury history? btw he was 29 when we initially signed him to a 3 yr deal which WOULD HAVE RUN THROUGH LAST YEAR ANYWAY... he was the same age as Jaylen Brown who folks wanted to get now and his contract runs until he's 32... Max contract Reeves signed runs until hes 32... FVV is under contract this year bc he went from 44M to 25M for last year. (like the SI article says we should do this year... and i say fk that... a 31 yo FVV wo injury history - hell yeh, thats a deal! 32 yo FVV after an exploding knee - fk no! lol) Adams - yeh... Adams was a gamble... but we got him on the cheap due to his injury.... DFS was crap... but only had 2 years guaranteed... eh, a calculated risk that didnt pan out.... but Lakers and everybody else's injuries are apparently just dumb luck... not like Lukas lack of conditioning was ever a concern, right? lol.... and lets not miss the fact that the most dominant player in the series was a 41 year old... but the Rox are incompetent running w KD and a few guys in their early 30s - along w mostly guys in early to mid 20s... lol
No... thats a biased and skewed assessment by somebody pushing a narrative... who were they missing aside from Luka and Reeves for 4 games? or is anyone other than their best 3 players considered on the practice squad? so 2 starters and their 6th man and the rest of their bench are just the practice squad...? ok... lol So we were missing our #1 scorer, our starting pg who ran the offense and the center who made us a #1 defense when on the floor... (fun fact... Reeves just signed the largest contract ever for an undrafted player... it had previously been FVV... and reeves is 28 now and signed a 4 year deal... which means it runs until hes the same age as FVV is now... and he got the max... lol) So... I'm just gonna say everybody else was OUR practice squad... if we're just going to paint narratives to fit our agenda... LOL!
People will have whatever expectations.... I think we were more unlucky last season than just "we planned poorly/relied on older players", which isn't to say mistakes weren't made by the FO the last couple of seasons. I think it's stupid to think FVV (a then 31 year old PG with no previous major knee issues) blowing his knee out after the Rockets signed DFS in the offseason was anything but unlucky. This is not something that generally happens to players, regardless of age, so it is in fact a very rare occurrence. Because of when the injury occurred, we were pretty much locked in until the mid season deadline. While FVV has become the personification of Rocket's fan hate (KD close 2nd now).... quite a few of yall keep missing it was the role FVV played, which the young core and 37 year old Durant couldn't fulfill. The majority of minutes were played by players 24 and younger last season as a reminder.... We aren't contenders so far this season, unlike last season where we the bottom tier of contenders per the NBA media/Reddit. Maybe a trade shakes up (Jrue, Dejonte, player X) for FVV + contract + pick/pick swap (or maybe we even get some SRPs back). Still time to make moves, especially with Lebron being annoying per usual and tying things up. Maybe the basketball gods will shine favorably on us in this parity era.
why are the raptors contenders with an inexperienced team that was mediocre last year? Just the addition of one player somehow makes this unit a contender?
The Lakers were only missing their 1st and arguably 2nd option for the majority of the series lmao. There’s no bias. LeBron kicked Jabari Smith Sr. AND Jabari Smith Jr’s ass. Those are the facts. We may not like it but facts are stubborn things.
And? Facts are stubborn things.... We played a majority of 24 and younger guys two straight times in the playoffs against more veteran teams.... and more than half of y'all are ready to declare the Rockets a failure.
No, the Rockets are in no way contenders. And I think they know it. Based on their limited offseason moves, they appear to be punting on next season unless they overperform and some sort of surprise trade opportunity comes along. Otherwise they'll wait til next summer and pray that those Nets and Suns picks turn into one or two really good rookies(or can be used to acquire a star veteran). It's not just losing in the first round both years. It's that they weren't particularly competitive in those series given the level of opponent. They spotted an aging Warriors team a 3-1 lead despite having home court and Golden State missing Butler for almost 2 games and him being hobbled in Game 4. Then they found themselves down 3-0 to a Lakers team led by a 41 year-old LeBron and missing Luka and Austin. And the Rockets frankly looked like garbage in Games 1 and 2 and through the first 2 1/2 quarters of Game 3.
After this year and next, there should be more info on the Expansion Draft and maybe it would be there. I think that is why the Spurs and Thunder drafted so many overlapping players, one is bc of the CBA cap and the other reason is the Expansion, they are going to shed one decent role player respectively. And maybe one that they least want to extend ..... And Phoenix might declare one of Jalen Green, Rasheer Fleming or Maluach/Oghodoro/MarkWill expendable.....
And the other half refuse to believe there are problems that won’t be solved by old guys with injury problems and a coach that can’t coach offense. You aren’t a better Rocket fan, because you drink the Kool-aid and are satisfied with regular season success. I, for one, am tired of your incessant whining about whining. Organizations that are content to ride the mediocrity train and just make money is more frustrating to some fans, than a 1-2 year re-set with hope for a better future. If you are happy with our core of young players, you would think you’d be interested in their development rather than marching out the status quo, which is featuring 2-3 guys on the downside of their career.
and as I said... we were missing our #1 option... lets call KD a wash for Luka... and our pg who makes the engine run,,, the former highest paid undrafted player for the newly highest paid undrafted player - lets call that wash... and we were missing our primary rim protector and heart of our defense... so we were missing more pieces! We were without 47% of our payroll! NEARLY HALF OF OUR PAYROLL! Those are facts as well... So both teams were missing key personnel... but The Fakers still had a guy whos arguably the GOAT playing the whole series... So to say we were beaten by Bron and their 'practice squad' is totally slanted and disingenuous. If u want to call out certain guys for not stepping up in the playoffs - that has validity... but your overall declarations are wholly biased. and who gives a fk if Bron beat Sr and Jr? Talk about pulling some random fact and acting like it means something... lol
Yea…. You have continually confused cause and effect for the past couple of seasons. You are so triggered by anything other than unwavering pessimism. You were at least tolerable when you the Amen only fan.
I did read it. I wouldn’t call the rebuild a failure simply after 3 seasons of not tanking. Is it disappointing, sure. A failure, no. We were literally a bottom tier contender according to NBA media and Reddit last offseason before FVV got injured. We had a setback and a lot of yall are crying due to adversity.
The constant doom and gloom and pessimism around here is going to make me sound like a Stone and Ime apologist which I most certainly am not, but I think people need to have a little perspective. There is only one champion every year. Your team can't win it every year, and the current NBA shows how hard it is for teams to win multiple championships. This championship-or-bust mentality has really ruined a lot of fans. We should want our team to be good and have a chance to compete for a title, but mostly we want to be able to go to games, take our kids, have fun and watch our team and favorite players beat the other team, which the Rockets did at a 3-to-1 clip last year. All of this stuff about Stone doing nothing this year is just noise. What was he supposed to do, trade for Giannis or Kawhai? Neither of those trades turned their teams into contenders. And it takes a lot of assets to pull those trades off. Was Wemby available? Cooper Flagg? Brown could have been a move, but there are about 25 other teams in the league that had the assets to pull that trade off and didn't do it, either, so there may be some concerns that the general public are not privy to (or just the looming $70M that no team wants to touch. The best thing the team can do is have assets on hand when a Harden, Shai or Luka becomes available. By my assessment, they are prepared for such a scenario. Is everyone saying that we should be a terrible team until we get that #1 pick in a year with a consensus generational talent? We tanked for three years and never got #1. Does it suck that the NBA doesn't just hand us the #1 pick like they do with the Spurs? Yes. But the new rules discourage tanking anyway, so there is no reason not to try winning now and be ready to pull the trigger. Two years ago, this team was #2 in the West. Last year, we had no PG and the team was a rudderless ship with good players playing out of position and being asked to do things that they are not good at. Was that a mistake by the organization? BIG TIME! But two years removed from that #2 seed, this team has replaced Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks with Kevin Durant and Marcus Smart. That is a pretty clear upgrade. FVV's return in some capacity will improve the team as well. Yes, he had a serious injury, but his success on the floor is not predicated on athleticism or speed, so I optimistic that he can provide a boost for this team. If Ime is not an offensive coach, this team needs players like FVV and Smart running things. Not letting Amen see if he can figure it out. And all of this is occurring while Sengun, Amen, Jabari, Tari and Reed are all under 25 years old. We should expect improvement out of them for the next several years. If that improvement does not start to show, even as soon as this year, I'll advocate for a coaching change. But all of this stuff about acting like we are a basement dweller or some sort of laughingstock is just nonsense. Get over yourselves and enjoy the team that we have and be happy that we aren't the Kings or some perennial loser.
