The Ringer: Why Can’t the Rockets Win the Next NBA Title?

One thing I'll give this Rockets team is I see the vision, I just don't agree with it. It feels like a team built in video game franchise mode. Bunch of OK young guys with a random aging star added and the roster filled out around the edges.

It COULD come together...... but it probably won't. The three things good teams are built around: shooting, length and IQ.

Stone's strategy:

 

And I would call it a rift but KD at the end did not even care to suit up....not even trying for 1 Game.

The injury was not severe enough, he was just not moving well.....

JayDub with a severe injury, tried to play 20 minutes in Game 6 despite re-injury risk.

 

He should prevent the collapses we had, just by limiting turnovers.

 

Completely agree.

The Rockets need someone that can completely run the offense and create for himself and others. It needs to be an engine ideally - like prime Harden, prime Dwayne Wade, Luka Doncic, Michael Jordan or someone like Brunson in the right place at the right time. They can likely win if they get/develop a duo like Brown/Tatum, but that is arguably harder than just finding an engine in the draft.

While the draft doesn't look especially great at the top next year, things can change somewhat in the next year. 17-19 year olds change often physically and developing. James Harden, Steph Curry, Kawhi Leonard, Nikola Jokic and SGA all were not projected to be high level - franchise altering players. All of these players were the best player in the world at different points and were good enough to lead a team to a title. That is off the top of my head, 5 guys in the last 16-17 years, and I am sure there are others I am forgetting. So lottery picks have value - the odds are not great, but every couple of years one of these guys jump up and become special, when they were not projected as franchise players.

 

We have good players they just don't fit. Stone roster building is asscheeks.

 

What type of cake are we eating? Our older players, while good in their own right, cannot (or have not shown to be) a championship engine. KD is an incredible play finisher but needs to be set up. He is not the heliocentric offensive player that can bring you a championship.

Our young players are also being stunted developmentally because the offense is catering so heavy to KD. Sengun, Amen, Reed have shown spurts and could still develop into that franchise player, but it would be despite Ime's offensive game plan of running through KD, not in congruency with. So why are we making it difficult for that to happen by keeping KD?

 

As the age-old philosophy goes… always draft best available, not for need. That’s what Stone has done. He hasn’t reached on anyone, or certainly not at the top of the draft. When it comes time to start tweaking the roster, you don’t want to trade someone too early before you really know how good they’ll be (see Harden). These guys are 21-23 years old. Give them a chance to develop and rise up. If any one of them is actually great, they will separate themselves and you will know which way to go.

 

you have been fined five credits for repeated violations of the verbal optimism statute.

 

By definition..... they are above average.

 

The vibes were off before the burner..... The whole reason for the burner is because our young core was consistently unable to beat teams 4 vs 3 to get cause and effect in the proper order.

I listened to various player podcasts and none of them were especially critical of Durant because this is part of the game. KD may not have called the young core "ret*rds" to their face but what info do we have that KD never communicated to the team how they were not executing doubles and traps?

 

Why do we need FVV to play 36 minutes to improve the team?

 

Any Ringer assessment tying Thornton to fixing the Rockets problems is just the laziest offseason reporting. “Hey, I need you to do 10k words on the Rockets and I need it by this afternoon. Can you throw something into Chat GPT?”

 

No, the Rockets are not a contender. They don't have a franchise player. A team with KD as the best player is not a contender. Then you add a possible toxic locker room, which makes it harder.

Ramona Shelburne wrote last year that the Suns' locker room was toxic. KD didn't like that and complained that Shelburne's reporting was unfair and lazy. No one else on the Suns complained about the report. It turns out that KD was lying because Dickerson complained that Booker was a dictator. A year later, I haven't heard anything bad about the Suns' locker room, and they are very happy with Dillon Brooks.

I have seen that KD didn't address the burner and lingered for the year. Shelburne wrote that team sources said that KD's "moodiness" took some getting used to and wore on the team's young players throughout the campaign. That's the definition of a toxic person. The Rockets have invested a lot of money and time in the young guys, and I prefer that they don't have to deal with Mr. Toxic.

Two years ago, KD complained that he should be included as the Goat. He's delusional. As a scorer, he's great, but he's lacking in playmaking, defense (never made 1st or 2nd team on defense), and leadership.

An analyst said after the burner scandal that KD is not a leader, but he's not a follower. He's a complainer.

 

The ringer told us to draft all these bust players.

 

They had Mobley over Green at least.

 

There is no way somebody who watched the playoff games and has working object permanence can think this team construct has playoff series wins in it's future.

We have been straight up outclassed against low level first round opposition in both playoff appearances. The final series standings flattered us. The series were not close. The GSW series was effectively over after four games, and the Lakers series over after game three (including getting spanked in the game KD played). Blown out at home to end each series.

In the NBA playoffs the better team wins. The teambuilding goal is not to buy a ticket to the raffle and hope you get lucky. You will not. The goal is to be the better team.

"The league is wide open, there's a new champion every year, anybody can win" takes are FO propaganda to curry interest in their first round fodder team. We are absolutely nothing like the Knicks or the Pacers. Those teams made the conference finals the year before by outplaying legit competition in multiple playoff series. They won their conference because they were the best team in their conference that season, not by getting lucky with the 6th or 7th best.

 

The thing is I think we have the overall talent level to at least be at the fringe of the conversation--but we don't have the #1A level of player who can be the MVP of a playoff series against a real contender--we don't have a balanced, well-fitted roster construction that could have a long-shot chance of covering for that problem--and we don't have the elite, Hall of Fame caliber coach to help hide our weaknesses and emphasize our strengths. If we could fix one or two of those problems, or ideally all three, we would be in the mix.

If you want to be optimistic, we could honestly be one move away, but it would have to be the perfect move. It would have to get us a superstar level player while simultaneously fixing our roster construction problems, and without giving up too much talent in the process. Those kinds of trades rarely happen in this league.

Too bad we never had the opportunity to acquire Luka.

 

Where did the article tie Thornton to the Rocket's success? This is the only mention of Thornton:

He "maybe" able to carve out a roster spot?

 

Dodged that crappy contract.