A new wave a talent will walk through the nba door (albeit the draft or some young star truly breaking out - like a Brandon Ingram or MPJ); the key thing is playing your cards right which I think we will, with a component GM; things will work itself out. Bottom line you have to have $ to acquire talent (Lakers or clippers) or draft well in this league...while we don’t have the cap space yet we have the draft capital to do it. Look at the western conference teams that are now competitive: Blazers drafted well - Dame and CJ Nuggets drafted well - joker (round 2!!), Murray and MPJ Dallas drafted well - Luka Jazz drafted well - spider, golbert (draft day trade) Suns drafted well (Ayton and booker) same is said for the eastern conference... Giannis was the 15th pick for the bucks. Draft well Stone and put this franchise back on the map. You have a sh*tload of pics (something Morey would envy during his time here) make it happen.
So let’s say you intentionally tank. How would you do that exactly? My guess is you trade Oladipo and Tucker at the deadline for the best picks you can get. Not prospects mind you. If those prospects actually turn out to be good, then the whole tank project could fail. Then you flip Wood and probably Tate over the summer for the best picks you can get. You definitely don’t trade Wall or Gordon because they have negative values relative to their contracts at the moment...ie it would cost us picks to unload them. So you have $60 million of dead money on your books for the next 2 years. So you have tons of picks. Let’s say you get lucky and one of your 2022 or 2023 picks is a foundational piece. It’ll take 2-3 years for you to know that, so you’re somewhere around 2025 before you know you have 1 core piece. It will take another 2 years at least to build a team around them and attract another star or 2. So at best, you’re looking at contention in 2027 or 2028. For at least 3-4 of those years, you were terrible. I consider this scenario optimistic. More likely, you’re looking at 2030. Im not saying not tanking is full-proof. Just that if you look at the context of our team, it doesn’t make sense to tank.
I think we will be "flexible" but lean towards keeper a lower payroll unless something becomes available.
I don't see why you would need to flip Wood or Tate, if we can manage to move Dipo and Tucker at the deadline. It would be even easier if the Magic, or some team, wanted a veteran two way combo guard in Gordon for contracts like Fournier as an example. Without moving Gordon before the deadline, it would take some shameless tanking to get into the bottom 4 but doesn't mean we can set the ground work for the next two seasons and beyond. This team isn't very good, even with Wood, Wall, Gordon, and Tate. I'd peg the Rockets as the bottom tier but top of it without shameless tanking and/or moving Gordon. I think the stars are aligned for us to setup up the tank: 1) We have our picks in 2022 and 2023 along with top 4 , top 10, and top 4 protections in 2024, in 2025, and 2026 on our picks respectively. We have the means to pull a Hinkie. 2) We have an our owner whose business is tied into a sector of the economy that had been devastated by Covid. I don't see us wanting to take on contracts for a few seasons unless it's truly worth it. 3) If we get a little luck there's no reason why we can't be Celtics or Sixers-esque.
I don’t think anyone is under the illusion that tanking will be quick and easy and we’ll be right back to contention in no time yes, u get rid of or don’t re-sign Dipo, and u trade Tucker there is no reason to flip Wood or Tate, they are not winning u many games...EG can be traded whenever, his subpar plays actually makes him a great tank commander move Wall at the earliest opportunity just trying to be competitive and sneak into the playoffs so we can be obliterated like we were doing pre-Harden for the next several years doesn’t get us anywhere near contention any time soon either
Getting all star veterans and mixing them with talented new recruits plus trade flexibility due to the massive haul of draft picks is the way to go. If the veterans continue to be healthy and the new recruits continue to play well and even improve, Rockets can be very competitive all the way to the playoffs. Equally important is the coaching skills of Silas. Next move of Stone should be to trade Tucker
Consistent rate? Do y’all know understand how well he’s playing? He is top 10 in boards and top five in blocks. He’s easily playing like a top 5 big man, arguably top 3. Not only that, he’s been doing it since last season and has only gotten better.
Here we go with the leaderboards. He’s up and coming, but not amongst the best yet. The reason why I say consistent, is because he’ll have a game with 15 rebounds, then the next game 3 rebounds. That’s no exaggeration — he’s had two games this season with just 3 rebounds. And both games came against Jokic and AD. So he struggles in marquee matchups. Hell, even Nurkic took him to school on opening night. He’s already shown great strides defensively and on the boards these past two games vs SA. So I don’t doubt he can reach that level. But I’m just not ready to call him a cornerstone. He has a long way to go.
I like the content of your post but it's weird because the thread title is Stone's Mandate but you never address what that mandate is. The mandate is given from the owner. Has Tillman given Stone a mandate? What is it? I'd be interested but that's not what this thread is really about.
