Stone doesn't need a pitch. The plan is already set, which is to maintain maximum financial flexibility until 2022-23 season when Wall becomes an expiring contract. You do that by trading Dipo and PJ for picks and/or cheap young players along with expiring deals. You continue to use your cap space to take on cheap projects like KPJ or rent it out for picks by taking back certain short-term contracts to help other teams make deals or avoid the luxury tax. You do this until 2022-23 not only because Wall will be expiring during that season but at that time Brooklyn may be on the verge of collapse - maybe KD gets injured again, maybe Harden keeps choking in the playoffs, maybe Kyrie disappears for good, or maybe they all just lose a step - for whatever reason, they break up and the value of their picks becomes more apparent. Then, and only then, you go shopping.
The Spurs were just bad. It’d be like if you took the Rockets MDAs first year when they lost in the 2nd round to the Spurs, and took James Harden away. They’d be a really bad team. 37 year old Nique was their second best player I guess and he played 63 games. Sean Elliot was their 3rd best player and he played 39 games. if I recall the Spurs were without Robinson to start the year and went like 3-15. Assuming they didn’t come out and say let’s rank the season from day one... they were just bad. The DRob came back briefly and they went like 3-3 before I think he got hurt again. I’m not against tanking ... later on. At some ooont indeed they were like we suck there’s not much left to do here let’s suck more. but even then... they knew what was there in the draft. Who are we tanking for? wouldn’t it be better to not rank, try hard, shine lights on some players that can increase their trade value, build a ton more assets and tank next year?
Golden State. They shamefully tanked to keep their pick that was top 8 protected. Ended up being Klay I think.
By “he got hurt again” you mean- they put him in mothballs so they’d keep losing and get a high pick. Aka- they tanked.
Tanking, unless it's for one year at the most, creates a losing culture and you end up being the modern day Knicks or Pistons. Which is sad. Now I'm all for playing and developing young players over vets as we scratch and claw to win every game possible.
The plan I laid out in this thread gives the rockets 13 players under 26 going into next season. That is enough for several of those guys to bust and still leave plenty of young talent to build with/on. Starting next season the goal is absolutely to win as many games as possible and develop the kids. All of that is possible if the rockets just embrace the tank for 3 and a half months.
I'm aligned with trading PJ and Oladipo but I don't think Philly makes that deal, and maybe not Miami either. Trying to lose to get the top 4 pick could end up being fool's gold and do more harm than good for the culture and career of Coach Silas. That said, I'm all for playing the young guys while we try to win every game. I'd rather win games like last night and develop a winning culture than try to lose to maybe get a top 4 pick this year. Now if Wall gets injured for the season and Dipo is traded then we might want to start thinking about our chances for a top 4 pick. We have to respect the careers of the players trying to win and the new coach.
Just proved my point. These are just your beliefs but again, the other team needs to say yes and to be honest they won't. Philly won't give up a prospect and a 1st for a washed up and undersized center with tuck and you overestimate the value of House. Miami on the other hand is a free agent destination as long as Pat Riley is in office. They can afford Nunn and Robinson and have them shipped for someone better than Oladipo. This is not 2k.
Of course they're my beliefs as it's your belief that the heat and Philly wouldn't agree. Again: Philly wants to win now. Miami needs to win now. For this reason each team is likely willing to sacrifice players with potential for players who can contribute now. In the case of my philly deal, morey is giving up Thybulle and Bradley. Thybulle now plays fewer minutes than any other guard on the 76ers team. He has been passed by Maxey and Isaiah joe on the depth chart. Similarly, bradley plays the same position as their franchise player Embid so minutes are few. And dwight howard was brought in to be the primary backup. So basically the rockets are getting guys at the end of philly's bench and a late first for 2 vets who can help philly in the playoffs this year.
