You need at least 10 yrs of sucking with good front office . 5 if you stick pile picks and commit to lottery diving those throw away yrs . Tilly won’t which is why it’ll be 20+
Yea unless we stumble upon a crazy pick it's going to be 4 or 5 years.. for us to be competitive with no assets? Probably closer to a decade from now
Without Harden, it's going to take Silas & staff at least 3-5 years to build a winning team again. And some favorable picks along the way.
I voted 8+, but I really think Tilman will not own this team within 2 years. It really depends on who the new owner is and his ability to hire the right people.
This question is unanswerable without knowing what trades take place. What if we trade a Harden package for Jaylon Brown and Gordon Hayward? What if we trade him for Ben Simmons and Matisse Thybule? What if we get the shitty nets package? There are a lot of plausible scenarios where we unload everyone for picks and make the playoffs like...next year or even this year. I don't think it's really worth discussing until we see what all the trades look like. edit: looks like @Vivi already made this point
In the 15 seasons preceding Harden's arrival, 8 out of those we didn't make the playoffs and in the 7 that we did, we only went to the second round once. So... yeah. It's gonna be bleak. Maybe even moreso with Tillman as an owner.
if we tank really hard next year we only have a 50/50 chance of a top 4 pick next year. can't count on it. we will get two top rookies in 2022 and 2023. chances are only 1 of the two will develop into an all star. then how long will it take for him to develop and lead you to the playoffs? 3 years? without our own pick in 2024, 2025, 2026 there won't be much help for him. so maybe if we're still bad enough by 2027 and 2028 we can draft a solid partner for that guy. maybe they make the playoffs by 2030? sure you can hope to sign a max guy in FA before then but who is coming here to play for tilman knowing he doesn't pay to win? sure we can get a bankroll of picks for harden but I guarantee you the nets can sign max guys after KD and harden are off the books. even if we get their picks from '24-'27 there's no guarantee those will be lottery picks.
With very few exceptions, you must have an MVP type talent to win in the NBA. Those are hard to find and this franchise is 1-for-3 in building enough around MVPs to get a championship. I have little confidence this owner will find another MVP-level player and absolutely no confidence he or his insipid offspring can build a championship team. The only way we get anywhere close to an MVP under this regime is dumb blind luck. Winter is coming folks--and it's going to be a long one.
Just happy I was alive to witness the back-to-back championships. We're now more than 25 years removed from the last title. Another one doesn't look likely any time soon ...
Remember when the Rockets were constantly coming in 9th in the West before the arrival of Harden. Welcome back 9th place and/or less. Rookie draft picks will get on the job training and then move. 3 to 4 years and then excel with another team while we invest the money training them.
A lot of panic sellers here. I get it, I'm a bit pissed off too. But we weren't going to win against the two LA super teams, or the GSW coming back into the fold. And I haven't even got started with Dallas, Portland, Utah, or Denver who all could've potentially been better than us even if we had our full roster. I think the new GM is really good so far. He's got two picks for a 30 year old version of Trevor Ariza. He's not budging quickly on Westbrook or Harden. While it's not very fun in the short term to potentially miss the playoffs for a few years, the excitement of starting a new crew will have it's own thrill. While it's definitely a step down from 2018, the best time to move on is now before it's too late. It can only get better from here.
