Tate and Wood have been the bright spot. Wall and Olidipo, not so much. I wish we could have gotten rid of Westbrook's salary without having to take on such a long and bad contract. Over 90 million after this season. I'm sure that contract was a factor in Harden wanting to leave. Probably thinking to himself, I'm stuck with this gimpy dude for 3 more years. I'm F'ed.
Tate has been a pure gem. He's short, but knows how to play physical defense and can finish aggressively inside. He's so versatile and is only going to get better.
If he doesn’t make the next top 10 on the nba.com Kia rookie ladder (he fell off after being featured as #9 last week) it is most definitely media conspiracy
This guy is my favorite player on the team . normally you’d think a 25 year old rookie has limited upside , but i feel like Tate could become a top guy . His defense is superb , and you have to think his nba familiarity will go up and he can get even smarter there . offensively he’s still an unknown . Can he develop a shot ? That no-look pass last night was sick . I think developing a team around Tate and wood could yield a team that can compete for HC in the west in a Couple of years . John wall has impressed me too . Can you really believe he tore his Achilles ? Can he look even better after another offseason ? Tate at SF/SG is great . He can play the 4 for stints too . But , I’d be wary of trying to make him play vs bigger guys for a whole season . He’s strong and thicc , but I’d rather develop wood and other guys over 6’8” to be my primary big men defenders . Don’t want Tate to lose anything on the perimeter (which is still where the most talent is ) I think he can be a top 10 defender VS guys that are like 6’2” to 6’8” . Probably need a smaller quicker guy for the smaller quicker guys . Gordon looks really good this year too . I wonder if we will flip or keep . It’s rolling the dice , but if we keep him this year and he looks good again next year ... that’s one less year on his contract making him a more valuable asset (I think?) Weve got to land some blue chip guys to go with Tate and wood . Our good guards don’t quite fit the timeline . wanna see more Tate and nwaba lineups .
The Tatenator. I love how he doesn't show any kind of fear when he's up against some of the best players in the league as Zion or Morant. It doesn't surprise me Harden threw a ball at him (if true). With a little more guidance of PJ and adding more experience, he'll be in the conversation of NBA All-D-Team.
I agree he’s effective at it . Still , I don’t want a us using a 6’4” player for 82 games plus playoffs of that . I’m not sure if he’s best at it right now , but it’s close . I really like him on the perimeter too .
Our best perimeter defenders are Nwaba then EGo. This is a good thing being so deep in near elite iso/switch defenders.
This is why we have to trade Tucker, Exum, EGo, and Dipo NOW. The Rockets are going nowhere but I would love to watch them the rest of the season and next watching these guys grow and show what they can do. Let them learn the right way together. This was an old team put together to compete for chips. We need to align our roster and assets post Harden. They are ready to make the leap starting now, not on the bench. Wood and Tate are obvious but Nwaba and Jones and even getting Porter some burn is something we NEED to do. House still has a lot of value too as a solid rotation player. They can't get any minutes until we get serious about our roster and actually move forward with the team we will have in the future. We could have a frontcourt of Tate, A Gordon, and Wood and have Nwaba starting with Wall with Jones, House, Bamba, and Porter coming off the bench. Youth, size, athleticism, versatility, D, and flowing O. Max caps slots after moves next year with draft assets and a young stocked team like this.
Defensively He reminds me of a young Artest If he can get his offense up he will be a solid #3 on a team If it goes up ALOT then a #2 Right Now He can be a Top 5 guy on a good team . . . Tate has GOOD Upside. It is not unlimited but The Top limit is still very Good. Rocket River
i know he's an old rookie but he straight up plays like a 10 year vet. love him. not sure what his contract his but extend asap before some scrub team pays him.
Hearing Tate talk about how the vets have really helped him come along and he specifically mentions PJ and how much he has helped him on the defensive end makes me glad we didn't trade him before these guys got to play together for a bit.
Gotta root for someone on this dam team I guess. It's either this man or wood everyone else always seem to b resting in the infirmary
