and did they win the championship? NO? lololololololol so dont give me a recipe from the team that didnt accomplish what your goal is...specially if the recipe is a game ruining gimmik as absurd as 'forfeit the games for several years in order to get better' lolololol why not just pay the refs if so needy of 'the success'
are you sure you gonna make it tru the year? I mean a lot of people die these days unexpectedly...some even die from diseases other claim do not exist at all some people also have cancer and other serious diseases and may not live to watch rockets except for this year!.... don't come out like p*****s and forfeit games in advance for some imaginative future benefit that may never come, live in the moment and lets give these people spectacle for their last season as rocket fans!
To be fair that tank job would have succeeded if it weren’t for a cheap owner. The tanking process and the players that were drafted proved to be the right decisions. They went to the Finals in spite of having a mediocre coach. Their path to multiple championships was paved for them. I’m grateful that we ended up with Harden due their incompetence but the failure was solely on ownership and not because of the players (or even the coach).
i mean the warriors won a few titles doing it, the rockets won a few, the spurs won a ton, are you just ignoring all the teams who succeeded by tanking and throwing games?
people need to just stop it with the “OKC didn’t win a title after tanking” talking point because it’s dumb as hell they quickly catapulted to the top of the West making the finals with their core being around age 22 or 23 and then decided to break up their Big 3 because they were cheap…nobody forced them to trade Harden they would’ve made multiple finals at least for sure meanwhile the Rockets haven’t been to an NBA finals since 1995…we’re almost at 30 years since we made the finals and won a ring…30 years!
There no realistic scenario for a trade to happen Philly can do better than John Wall plus a pick, and the Rockets have to believe they are better off using a pick on a 18 year old vs packaging with Wall to try and get a player who can't shoot free throws nor hit his jumpers.
Using championships as the sole measure of roster building success is narrow minded and rather stupid really. There are loads of championship quality teams that never won. It’s not like if you run back last years finals the Bucks win it 10 out of 10 times. They maybe get half of those? History is filled with that. Applaud the teams that won but don’t pretend like that’s the absolute only way to do it. OKC built a very obvious championship level team that just doesn’t have rings.
A theory: Stone and Morey are friends. I think Morey had a legitimate interest in Harden, but I also think it's possible that he collaborated with Stone to help him raise Harden's stock to up any competing offers. What we could be seeing right now with Simmons is the reverse of that playing out. Simmons market value is low, and teams vying for Simmons have been lowballing the Sixers while holding steady on their price. Does the Rockets entering the equation, with a public "source" mentioning their real interest, change that? It's possible, and maybe that's what Morey needed to get Simmons market value where he felt it really is. And that's what I think is probably happening here.
I’m sorry but putting out rumors that Houston wants to trade for Simmons using John Wall and picks does nothing to drive up Simmons’ value.
this OKC is a terrible example of tanking not working out…they’re 1 of tanking’s greatest success stories we’d all kill to have a championship caliber team composed of 22 and 23 year olds as the best players OKC didn’t even get to run it back after making the finals. They ruined what they had built. Philly is getting trashed now, but they very well could’ve made the finals in 2019, and who knows what happens against injured GS. Instead, Kawhi hit that shot in game 7. That team with Jimmy Butler, Embiid, Simmons, Tobias, and Reddick was very good.
Only guys drafted on that Philly 5 were Simmons and Embiid. Jimmy and Tobias were acquired via trade and Reddick was a FA signing. Building a championship contending team strictly via the draft is rare occurrence.
Those are 2 of the 3 main players tho, and how many extra assets were built up and players acquired and developed like Roco and Saric during the process of that tank job to be used in trades for Tobias and Jimmy?
He's the kind of second-best player whose offensive limitations force the team's best player to play outside his comfort zone. He's not the kind of playmaker that makes the players around him better. Arguably he makes them worse by not needing to be respected on the perimeter. He can't do a damn thing in the half-court offense except cut and dunk sometimes. Only when he isn't in danger of having to shoot free throws. Not sure that luxury is worth $35 mil a year through 2025. Pretty sure it isn't.
Fair enough. I mean Giannis can’t shoot either - a lot thought he might be a bust, but he improved until he became a decent player and mostly dunked his way to an MVP but then people said he couldn’t win it all - until he did. I’m not saying Simmons is that guy - but I am saying if you are truly elite in a few areas, you can grow to be mediocre enough in other areas to offset that loss. Giannis isn’t a good shooter by any stretch but he got average enough that became dominant couple with the elite things he does and Simmons has a similar elevate skill set. While our future is still on rookie deals, I would rather pay Simmons than Wall or EGO…but I don’t want Simmons in Houston to be the franchise guy - I want him to be our Draymond while KPJ/Green torch people as playmakers…but that’s just me.
I mostly agree with you. The reason Ben's weak mentality is such a concern for me is because it's the biggest difference between him and Giannis at the moment. I think there is basically zero chance he makes similar gains and when we evaluate Simmons I think we have to do so based on who he is now, because he's not improving in his weak areas, his shot has regressed.
