All I want to see is improvement and growth throughout the year. Especially from Green, of course. KPJ's development is important too, but its not like we invested anything to get him. The record doesn't matter at all. I would be thrilled to see one of the lower draft picks pan out, and am hopeful that Tate, Wood and KMJ continue to develop.
I expect us to tank. This is the year to do it as we own our pick in a loaded draft. This we will be rewarded for tanking, even if you miss the 50-50 you still end up in the lotto.
The biggest day of this upcoming season is the trade deadline. Hopefully Gordon, House are gone long before then, if not fire sale. Wood has upped his value to an all time high & is moved for asset on draft night. Wall starts to be the tank commander once again moving us to the top of the draft.
.500 ball is a good first goal. We should have a goal of beating some playoff teams on the road. I like the attitude of going after wins and trying to prove ourselves. If a pair of the older teams face injury bugs (and someone always does) we might slip into the playoffs. We'll likely struggle more on offense with our perimeter scoring unless Green is the superstar that some think that he is. With 4 19-year olds, we'll have to be patient. Some nights will be better than others. Everyone needs to be on board with a long-term plan, either with buyouts or trades. We should honor those vets by seeking out their best opportunities (and soon).
For the Thunder it absolutely was. Out of the players in their top 9 for mpg, 5 of them were 21 or younger. 2 of them were rookies and 2 of them were in their second year. ONLY two of those players were older than 26. Cp3 and Gallo. And they made the playoffs and took the Rockets with Harden and Westbrook to 7 games and lost on some last second plays. Even the Grizzlies last year were pretty young with 4 1st or 2nd year players seeing consistent minutes. And a few other key players not much more experienced than that. As of right now the Rockets have Wood, Wall, House, Gordon, Augustin, KPJ who are all third year or more. Tate is an older second year player about to turn 26. Not even counting Nwaba. We will see how it all shakes out but teams with a similar age makeup have made the playoffs before and surprised people.
I am referring to the star players/best players. Kpj is in 3rd year but has only played 76 total games and last year was in the gleague before joining the squad. He is a 3rd year player with barely a years worth of exp. The only key player that does have more than 2 years exp is woods and he is not anyone's best player on a good team. Okc team had young players but they were fueled by Paul, Adam's, Schroder and galo. Yes dort and sga contributed but more vets than rookies. Memphis was led by morant who was in his 2nd year but even in just 1 year had played just 11 less games then what kpj has had under his belt entering this year. Also morant didn't have to deal with a team and position switch which surely you would agree slows down progress. Their next 3 best players were all veterans. Rockets have Gordon and Wall sure but they are not the players who should be getting max playing time nor attempts. They are looking to trade those players not have them part of their rotation so the objective is different. We are not trying to have a starting 5 that has Wall, Gordon and woods to try to compete for the 8th spot. We are trying to develop the youth
That team still had Hakeem, bro. WTF are you talking about? Even ancient Hakeem was better than anybody on this roster.
Hakeem was through that year. He ended being benched. Wood is better right now than Dream was in 2000. The best players that year was Francis and mobley
Haha you must not have seen him play, he had his occasional solid game, but overall was as good as dead.
If we keep Wall, we need Porter and Wood to be better players both scoring over 20 points a game and shoot free throws better