If the House always wins, why bother doing anything ever in the NBA. This season literally has no benefit for us. I dont care about OKC maybe getting that pick. And I wasnt going to say anything but then you said this last line. We arent that good. These last 4 games have gassed a lot of you up. You need to look at who we actually played. You can tweak things to tank. If you have a 52% chance of keeping your pick, you do it.
The only thing stopping this current rockets team from making the playoffs is injuries. If the rox win tonight, all the tank fans will say the pelicans are a really bad team despite winning 5 in a row and being a top defensive team.
At first i thought we should tank . now I think we are too good to tank . We would have to trade Gordon/dipo/wall/pj earlier . Along with guys like nwaba being hot and Tate and wood being good young players as well .... I mean Silas isnt coaching to lose in his first year . Wood has been better on defense the last few games he’s played and our perimeter defense is strong . Tate and Pj also always bring the energy . makes me wish we kept James , but oh well . **** , even cousins has been hot from 3 I understand the 52% keep your pick ... but there’s also another side to that . In the case you lose it and it’s like 5-9 you are giving a conference rival a really good pick .. and they probably aren’t good too . it’s like you go “rebuild mode” but OKC has 2 Top 10 picks this year ... they are way ahead of you in terms of talent and assets and they are on a similar timeline . I think Morey proved you can tread water and reposition yourself for the future . Harden was better than expected . But maybe this time the young guys we keep grow with our blue chip acquisition and you don’t get too good too fast . we got harden in 12-13 . And by next year we were already “contenders” because we got Dwight Howard in FA . Maybe it would have been better to let the team grow organically for another year and then get that last big piece in 14-15 if you know what I mean . maybe this time Terrence Jones and DMO and Royce white turn into stars . wood is pretty good . How good remains to be seen . 1st he’s a big . 2nd we have other veterans supporting him right now , he’s not the one making the young guys better . I think you tread and remain opportunistic. I’m very curious to see what we do at the deadline . It does suck likely not having our pick . But between the pick we do have and udfa/ guys already here ... we have enough decent high potential guys to either leverage in a trade or keep . we will see how good stone really is . Tilman should not be much of a factor the next 2-: years . I do not seeing the tax being a limiting factor . And Tilman would love to spend 3 mil on a pick to “prove” he’s willing to spend
https://www.businessinsider.com/houston-rockets-tanking-2014-3 My opinion, we trade everyone over 25 with any kind of positive value. This still leaves us with a team that won’t sniff the worst record. Still going to have all our really young guys plus Wood, Wall and Cousins. Really only looking at losing Dipo, Gordon and Tucker. And it’s possible the return on trading some of them could be a young useful piece that prevents a big drop off from what we expect to be currently. Shouldn’t overly focus on 1 single asset coming through for us(this years pick) it’s accumulating as many assets as possible to cash in for a known or to just have more possibilities at picking a franchise guy ourselves.
How can you get top 10 pick optimistically when it will go to OKC? As I have been repeating ad nauseum only top 4 pick or better is retained by the Rockets and thats a 50-50 if you are one of the top 4 worst teams in the league (48-52%).
Gordon isnt a positive value, they tried moving him already in the summer and failed cuz teams wanted assets to take him he is overpaid. Tucker's going rate is 3 2nds Im ok with that. Dipo cant be traded till 3 months from now cuz we just got him. Rox are indeed accumulating assets. Theyve been doing that since Stone got on board.
I think if Gordon continues his current production, by trade deadline time he will easily be seen as positive value. This off-season he was coming off his worst season ever. He’s bumped his TS% from 51%(Westbrook level bad) to almost 59%(which is just shy of elite level) He’s getting to the rim close to the rates he did as his peak younger year and he’s finishing at the rim at a career high rate. There’s no immediate rush to trade anyone. But the priority shouldn’t be to find reasons to keep these older guys if we can get younger developing guys plus draft assets for them.
Because both Miami and OKC are worse and it's possible we continue to be bunched together. Right now we'd be the 13th pick and OKC would get the 4th and 11th pick..... plenty of permutations for us to get 10th and OKC 4th and 9th.
If OKC gets the pick like you want, then yeah there is no benefit for us. If you gut this team and lose the chemistry and still give the pick to OKC, not only is there no benefit you also harmed the team because you made the team a loser, and no coveted FA wants to play on a loser. You prob also will make Wood the only real star on this squad frustrated for 3 years so he will leave in FA. Tanking isnt how Miami got to the Finals, they git FAs. Tanking isnt how LA got a ring, they got Lebron via FA. Rox also didnt tank to get Harden, they traded for him using Kyle Lowry and a bunch of mid tier assets. You act like getting that pick solves all problems. It doesnt. Atlanta isnt better now than when they got Trae Young, in fact they are markedly worse than Al Horford era. How good will NO with just Zion and none of the assets they got for AD? The only top pick in recent years who changed the franchise trajectory singlehandedly is Luka. OTH the no of free agents who made their team a contender includes KD (GSW, Nets), Lebron (Miami, Cavs, LA), Kawhi (Tor, Clippers) and Jimmy Butler (Miami). If Toronto decided to tank because they werent good enough and traded everyone for low first rounders Kawhi would never have agreed to be traded there. Lebron going to LA is pure Hollywood Magic, he wouldnt go there if they werent the Lakers cuz that team sucks.
I believe this is obv already. Rox are under no delusion they are contenders. They are just enjoying the ride cuz it makes no sense to destroy a good thing for uncertain gain. IMO Hp3 just thought this team is trash and he wants to be right so he wants to destroy the team regardless whether they get the pick or lose it. When you wanna gut the squad and dont care whether OKC gets your pick or not, thats not a decision stemming to make the team better.
Nah Im saying theres no point. We dobt even know why Miami is bad, they play the same dudes who got to Finals last year. OkC and Houston just 2 games away from 4rth place so we cant say if they will tank or not. If you tank and OKC get in the playoffs you just look like a moron IMO. Just tried to mind games and played yourself.
There's no point in trying to over succeed, let the chips fall where they land this season as we move towards bottoming out 2021 and 2022. Miami is bad because of Covid. We are on a winning streak because of Covid decimating the teams we've been playing. Too much variability.... trade the vets and let the chips fall.
If they dont win tonight it will be tank mode. When they play top 4 team its gonna be tank mode. lalala.... They truth is , you role what you got, and you adjust your roster and add with picks, transactions etc.. I think if you try to strip everything down with young players coming in, you will hate the losing. I remember it from when i hit the bars alot watching the Astros, night after night they were terrible. Do you want this for 3 possibility 4-5 years?, and possibly not get but where Houston is now. The truth is you get lucky and try to make transactions, but these small market teams have to settle for this. Houston is the 4th biggest city, common now. Houston should be able to Retool and Rebuild both! HOW ABOUT BOTH!!!!!
You are making a straw man argument no one is trying to oversucceed. They are literally trying to let the chips fall where they land. Tanking isng letting the chips fall where they land do you understand that expression? Rox as it is rn are too good to tank letting the chips fall where they land means a 6-8th playoff spot. I already said the only vet who is an asset is PJ Tucker and the Rox think he is worth more than 3 2nds otherwise he would have been traded already. You THINK EG is an asset but until there are reports that say he is then sorry but he isnt. You are not the GM of other NBA teams. Rox already tried to unload EG in the summer no takers...in fact EG has been on the block since he signed that extension there is a reason he still on the team.
I'm not advocating tanking..... I think we keep using it incorrectly anyways. The Rockets could be 6-8 playoff seed or end up with a high draft pick with all this variability. They could trade their vets or only trade Tucker. I'm less concerned about the sunk cost of OKC getting our pick.
Your post earlier said trade all the vets and go for that top 10 pick cuz OKC, Houston and Miami are bunched up. But you are not advocating tanking. Lol I also dont care about that pick thats why I dont wanna tank this season. Next season may be worth tanking for since we 100% have our pick then.
