You turned to cynicism when we had Harden and CP3 but you compare this current team to the Astros? You sure you aren’t actually 12?
Nah, the Rockets were a contender who shot themselves in the foot through the owner’s cheapness and incompetence resulting in the infamous Westbrook trade; the Rockets would still be contending for a title this season had they not made that trade. And that cheap, incompetent owner is still running the show while every good person in the organization ran as far away from him as possible. A thousand years of darkness. Prepare yourself.
I honestly think this was a good thread idea. Better than 90% of the others. Anyway, the point is a good one. These things take time Calm the f#ck down
We have people that will continue to deny all this as much as possible but this has been the truth for a long time.
What scares me though is “the plan” we all see. -2021-22- develop Green and others and position with the best chances to draft a top 3 pick in summer of 22 -2022-23- Have a season where at least 2 young stars are enough of a draw to show potential and make Houston a free agent destination in 2023. -2023 Summer- spend money to sign free agents and along with young players contend. I worry about the lack of time Stone will have to rebuild the right way and the team will have too much pressure on two players (Green and 2022 pick) to pair with an overpaid free agent in 2023 and then we are sort of stuck in mediocrity because of poor signings. I really hope the Rockets make trades this season to get back in the draft for 2023 and maybe even take back some salary in trades to show they aren’t putting all their chips in that basket. If not I fear the Rockets could be more like the Knicks who don’t have the patience to rebuild and make dumb free agent signings that go nowhere.
I remember when the Rockets were winning 50 games and still didn’t make the playoffs with Lowry and Dragic. We finished 9th for 3 years! I know some of you were like 8 when that was happening but everyone here wanted to tank. Now we are actually tanking and people want to finish 10th in the west and get the 8th pick in the draft?
As of right now, it looks like we should gambit on 3 straight lottery picks. Green is still a question, and we know we need two stars to even begin the process. I would tank a third year in row. Stone will be fired by then, even though he likely would not deserve it. But this is what he signed on for.
Oh we're in it for the long haul. Once the exodus began after Tilman arrived a lot of us acknowledged that dark days were ahead and here we are. I really hope Stone is good at his job and is able to build a decent team after a few years of this.
I have no problem with a tank and rebuild. The Astros were basically a run down crack house with no redeeming qualities when Crane took over, bulldozing the whole thing was the only option. But this owner was handed a title ready team and proceeded to immediately ruin it and hamstring the franchise, why should anybody have even the slightest bit of faith in him?
Green going to have that Tmac game where he scores a bunch of points to win and then the young fans won’t care if we don’t make it past the first round
Once the team is rounded out in young draft picks, Fertitta will drop the money for someone like Towns or Ayton and whoever else is needed to put finishing touches on the roster. You have to look at the 76ers and Minnesota presently to have a good idea of what it will look like--Charlotte too.
NBA is going to look very different in the next few years. It is a young man's game and Lebron, Durrant, Curry, Harden will soon be irrelevant role players.
