I don't get it....everyone has pros and cons to their game. I'm not complaining about FVV, I just heard FVV had a major ACL injury so how he actually performs for the 2026 season is still a big question. Do you think FVV is guaranteed to better than any of those examples I gave?
I got no problem with guys like Fred, KD, or Adams and the value we gave up for each of them was worth the price but you won't see the problem looking at this from a player to players perspective - you have to zoom out to the overall roster level to see that we have an over reliance on the services of Fred(ball security), Stevo(cleaning up our bad shooting), and KD(only guy who can make buckets regardless of the defense quality) to supplement what the young guys don't really do AND that as a roster we have an over reliance of key guys who are likely not going to be available. . That makes us weak as a team because regardless of age ALL of those guys have been mostly unreliable in recent years. In reality, the reason why it cost so little to get those guys is exactly because their availability and evidence of age related decline had already started to set in for all of those players. There is a big difference between 'injuries can happen to anyone' and Fred having played 64% of available games his games since he became a starter in the league in 2019.....and KD has been even less reliable in that same time period with 61% of available games and Stevo even more so with playing in only 57% of available games in that same time period. At the end of the day the Rockets had - what 70% of our cap space sitting on the bench during the playoffs? We aren't good enough in a competitive West to spot the other team $100million+ of cap space just sitting on our bench. ...and just to take that math all the way - without factoring in age related decline or impacts to healthy, there is a 22% chance that those 3 will be healthy in the same playoff series which means the odds are much greater that one or more of those critical players will not be available. There is a 43% chance at least two of those are available - so less than a coin flip for two...not factoring in they may be playing while impacted by age or injury based decline. Fred's defense and ability to create has been decreasing for years now - he never was a top athlete to begin with so his profile figures to be more impacted by a loss of athleticism. However I think fundamentally we are saying similar things - everyone needs a little health luck to truly compete. The Thunder lacked a healthy JWill/Mitchell the Celtics lacked a healthy Tatum, the TWolves lost Donte for the year and Anthony Edwards was banged up playing through a knee injury in the playoffs, the Lakers lacked Luka, Embid was a hobbled difference maker for the 76ers(no surprise but worth mentioning), and the Cavs had the burden of having the GOAT of playoff chokers in their starting lineup(LOL, I knew they were cooked the moment I saw James trying to close out games for them)....the point is we need health luck for players who at this point have a proven track record of not being healthy in the recent past. The odds are significantly higher that guys like Ajay Mitchell and JWill will be healthy when you need than they are for Adams, Van Vleet, and Durant....and we haven't even factored in Tari Eason's ongoing health concerns...
"Any good" seems a bit hyperbolic. Murray was an average PG with an average streaky shot before the Pels and Achilles injury on 1/2025. Maybe he can still be average. Herro is just a gunner and would be a good offensive punch (when healthy) and he's on the bottom of a FVV replacement.
Not the right fit and average as you say. Average isn’t good. Herro isn’t a point. Maybe worse defense than Sheppard
Funny that you equate Harden to an injured player. Sounds like it's in our culture to be amazing in regular season and hope for a miniscule chance that everything comes together perfectly for us in playoffs (including Harden growing a pair) In that case we're doing just fine. This is a nothing burger
I would say we have progressed - it went from frustratingly hoping for health from a giant who's body couldn't actually support his size, to frustratingly hoping for the health of a real athlete who refused to take care of his body, to frustratingly hoping for a healthy superstar to not crumble mentally in the biggest moments. If you look at it that way, maybe Amen is here to break the "Heart of a Champion" curse....instead of our actual hearts....or maybe he is just part of those Stevie Francis, Jeremy Lamb, Bonzi Wells transition phases.
This team has a ton of injury prone players, they are not contenders even if 100% healthy, but I can see them missing playoffs all together as well. Fred coming back from a major career altering injury, Steven Adams coming off a season ending injury, KD was not even playing in the playoffs due to injury and is pushing 40 years old with injury history, Tari has pretty much gotten injured every year the last few seasons. The chemistry is way off on this team, Tari is annoyed, KD hates everyone, Ime and his staff are being outworked, slander in podcasts from Ex Rockets, this team is likely going to start off really slow and then the injuries will come and I can see them just shutting it down, won't be surprised if Sengun demands a trade by deadline and we get pennies on the dollar for him. Hopefully I am wrong and Marcus Smart changes the culture somehow like Dillon Brooks did, but it feels unlikely.
The Rockets stay taking shots for the embarrassment that was losing to the Lakers. Chris Fedor threw hella shots as Houston in his Cleveland interview this morning lol
Phoenix won that trade. Phoenix was completely irrelevant until the trade, and they made the playoffs after that. #2 in the regular season doesn't mean anything when we lose in the 1st round. We lost in the 1st round TWICE. 2 playoffs in a row, and both to teams who also did NOT make it out the 2nd round. Barring a near-impossible trade or horrendous mid-season injuries to the current dominant superstars in the Western Conference, the ONLY way we actually get to a Conf Finals is if we really put the time and effort it takes to get our young stars prepared for that stage. That takes investment, time, and patience. And that remains true for ALL of us fans. Until then, yeah, you can try to see a nice little package put together by FO, see if we can get to the 2nd round. That's not contention, and we're definitely losing there if we do get there. I'm happy to see that progress, it could be worse. But we need 3 more years for our young talent to mature. KD will not be here longer than 2 years. If he is, the problem is WAY worse than we thought.
Not to pick on this quote too much, but this is I think at the root of the conflict in the fandom. Two years ago the Rockets were not the 2nd best team in the West. We had the second best regular season record. When the games started mattering for real, we then lost decisively to a banged up play-in team that then got gentleman's swept in the second round, by a team that then got gentleman's swept in the conference finals. In hindsight it is very clear we were actually the 7th "best" team in the West in 24/25. OKC/MIN/DEN/LAC/GSW/LAL were all clearly better. Similarly, last year in 25/26, we were in hindsight the 6th best team in the West. OKC/SAS/MIN/DEN/LAL all clearly just better than us. If there were banners for regular season seeding, I would totally agree with the "run it back" believers. But there aren't. If people (correctly) internalized that this era of Rockets bball has never been even a top 5 team in the West or a top 10 team in the NBA, in games where the teams are fully competing, then I don't think there would be much fan disagreement at all. Vegas and everybody else knows it. We are and have been a middle of the pack team that tries harder than most during the regular season.
Yeah, the regular season record (and net rating for that matter) indicate a contender, while the playoff results indicate anything but. I guess if you're an optimist you could choose to believe that's down to lack of playoff experience for our "young core" and also injuries last season. I think most of us see a glaring problem though with the lack of a #1 offensive option on the roster.
This will be my first Rockets hate watch season maybe....ever? Not sure how mad I was at that Dwight/Harden season. Tari : upset, moody, mad at the fanbase Twitterfinger: moody, sociopath, ready to blow Fred Jihad: micro manager, insecure, shredded knee Adams: second major injury in 3 years. Udoka: will play Amen 46 minutes and will play Reed 18 minutes.
Amen’s bricklaying might reach historic levels as this franchise is “high” on him but won’t build around him.
I get your point, but what was the missed opportunity? Kawhi? Giannis? I don’t believe those should be our targets. We want a younger player. And if this team isn’t going to win it all, as most believe, we don’t need to be paying the tax. But now everyone is pissed because the only acquisitions were Smart and Bogi. Well, if we don’t have that true #1 that everyone says we lack (and I believe they are correct), why should we be taxpayers adding players around the edges? The team is set up with decent contracts and draft picks to pull the trigger if a deal like Harden, Shai or Luka hits the market (we should be looking at those under-25 deals). And they are set up to win plenty of regular season games to give the fans their money’s worth. They still have the potential to catch lightning in a bottle, too. If a deal comes along and we get that good young player, everyone would be b****ing about us wasting taxpayer years on a non-contending team when we are handcuffed from improving the newly contending team going forward. My point was that the doom and gloom is just misguided. This team is setting itself up to make a deal when it presents itself and not making dumb payroll decisions. And we get that with a team that’s not embarrassing to watch. We, and our kids, and our friends, are still more likely to watch a win when we go to the games. I think we are still on the correct trajectory. Championships are amazing, but the journey is part of the fun. Championship-or-bust fandom just doesn’t make sense to me. That’s ESPN generated nonsense.
This sums it up perfectly and I couldn't agree more. Until our front office and ownership stop making the regular season a measure of success, this team is going nowhere.
