[The Athletic - Kelly Iko] Rockets Trade Deadline notebook 1.0

Fair enough but you then you can say Toronto did a better job at playing Moreyball than the Warriors.

 

Silas' "system" is as good as the primary ball handler he has running it. If you have a transcendent player like Luka then it's a prolific offense. if you try to square-peg-round-hole a player like Porter into the primary ball handler role you get....mixed results. That's not a mark on Porter; it's just that fancy shmancy chaos system is heavily dependent on your primary ball handler doing a **** ton of work that only a handful of NBA players can really excel at.

 

silas system?! lololololol
stop it !!! silas has no system unto himself... he s the worst coach in nba, the son of the worst record in nba holder...

 

Silas' "system" is just whatever Rick Carlisle wanted the Mavericks to run. I am not offering an opinion on Silas, but he didn't invent a system and while he worked with the Maverick players daily, it was obvious it was Carlisle's system.... you could tell by the spacing and ball movement. Carlisle is probably the best NBA coach ever when it comes to spacing the floor.

Honestly at this point the Rockets need to try and improve defensively. I believe the Rockets are by far the worst defensive team in the entire NBA. Some of that is the players they have are not good defenders, some of it is that the players are typically young and some of it is effort.

 

One paper, it looked the same, but the reason why they played the way they did was much different. The Warriors were just playing to their strengths as a team with a lot of decent shooters and strong bball IQ reading defenses. Houston was clearly outmatched against GS(like every other team in the league) so they choose a desperate strategy which gave them their only real shot at beating GS - and it almost worked out. If Houston had just let Harden iso, CP shoot midrange jumpers, and throw lobs to Capela(their team strength at the time), they would have been trading 3s for 2s on most possessions against the Warriors and would have been swept in most series.

Put it like this - if it had been one of those old school MTV Rock N Jock celebrity basketball games pitting Houston against Golden State where there are super long shots worth more points, Houston would have been the team shooting from the timeline to hit the deep shot worth 20pt all game.

 

Man Rockets are so far off from even making playoffs. Green looking like years away from developing into an NBA-caliber player. Do not even know whether Porter is a PG or SG and is non-reliable to lead but Rockets act like he is the next superstar. These 2 are supposedly the main focus for rebuilding right now but are playing utterly badly and have absolutely no chemistry with any other players in the roster. Maybe the offers really suck but it's sad to see Gordon playing for this pathetic squad when he could be so much more valuable for championship hopeful teams. Wall is also sitting on the sidelines when he could be bringing his services to a team that is in a dire need of a PG. Wall can still ball and help certain teams.

I just think under Tilman, dealmaking has simply gone to crap. NBA has been known for head-scratching trades in the past so it's surprising how Rockets are not able to pull off decent trades with players as valuable as Gordon, Wall, and Wood if rebuilding is their goal.

 

This is the correct take. Two teams doing similar things for completely different reasons. The Warriors never did "Moreyball" - they played to their strengths in a way that happened to resemble the same technique Houston employed out of desperation to give them a shot to win against better teams.

 

Exactly. Defensive focus is something you obviously set up the rest of this season once vet players are gone and focus on the results of the improvement next season. Offensively you can score, if not efficiently, but you are a bottom dweller because there is NO defense. Even with EGo being good I think Wood being so bad along with jettisoning the other veterans sets the stage for the ability to develop a new team mindset. I think 80% is young players and lack of effort. It's really a Popovich type level of teaching that's needed there. You have to be a smart player that works awful hard all the time before you get on the court or you don't stay on the court. That's not what we see out there. I don't care if it leads to more substitutions and going deeper in the bench. I know Harden got tired but I got tired of seeing that crap too and railed on him for it. The smiling after an efup. TOs and no defense kill everything. You can learn to shoot better and improve your %s but that takes a lot of time. Years.

D is always the low hanging fruit. It starts with a lot of hard work and pays quick dividends. These are core fundamentals that have to be drilled into this team now if they are ever to climb out of this. It's not some magic Harden coming through the door scoring 50 and hitting insane last second 3s that are going to save this team or make them a winner. That team is completely gone. A team has to do these things together and grow together so that when you are at that level that one extra star can push you over the edge instead of being drained by carrying half the team.

 

Green will be fine - the idea that he would one day potentially lead the league in scoring hasn't changed by the view of most scouts this year who have watched him struggle this year but he is going to have to grow into the role like many upcoming stars have who weren't necessarily great from their first year like Booker, Beal, Lavine, or even Edwards. The learning curve for that type of ball dominant player is just longer not to mention the physical curve of Green needing to fill out his body as he matures. Frankly he still has the body of a teenager.

Trading Gordon, Wall, Wood isn't as easy as it sounds. A rebuilding team likely doesn't want Wall or Gordon - too old and too much salary and are all primary ballhandlers and generally rebuilding teams are trying to give young ballhandlers more reps - not less so you don't want them sharing minutes with the young players you are trying to develop....ironically that's where Houston is right now.

That leaves playoff teams looking for talent but Wall and Gordon are overpaid relative to their production because they were signed by teams going for title or bust and you generally sign those players to long term deals where they are a steal at the beginning of their contract, but are bloated at the end when they age and become less effective(see Eric Gordon's declining defensive metrics for an example of this). Would you rather pay Wall $44/mil to give you 20pts / 7ast or Van Vleet $19mil for the same stats on better efficiency knowing that the salary cap means the more you pay at one position, the less you have to spend at the next.

The other problem with large contracts like that is to make a trade happen you either have to trade one large salary for another OR you have to package several players to make the cap math work and generally playoff level teams aren't interested in losing roster depth to get only marginally better at a position and if Wall is a 20/7 guy is he really giving you THAT much more that it's worth losing potentially 2 bench rotation players to upgrade your starting PG? That's why Wall for Westbrook is about the only trade that makes sense in the league for Wall because he would be an upgrade over Westbrook...but it would come at a cost to the Lakers in terms of future picks because Houston would be getting the worse player.

Gordon is maybe a little easier to trade but still there aren't a lot of teams one Eric Gordon away from improving their roster with $20/mil of salary on their roster that they don't need that Houston would actually value in a trade. I suspect Wood is the easiest of those players to trade and I would be shocked if he wasn't traded but I guess it comes down to whether Houston thinks he is going to be a future Rocket or not. He's a nice enough player but for a rebuilding team, he isn't exactly the type of player you build around and we will likely be drafting high in this year's draft where the best players are bigs so I would much rather use Wood's minutes developing a young lotto pick big for less money than wait for Wood's contract to end in 2023 and then have to extend him for a lot more money.

 

@Nook completely random but are you hearing any chatter about De'Aaron Fox possibly being traded? If so you think the Rockets have the assets to get him?

 

Who the hell thought they'd be in the playoffs this early in the rebuild anyway?

Some of you might want to relax about the playoffs, because it's going to be another couple of years before we even sniff a shot and a 1st-round exit.

 

IIRC there were some, last summer, that held out hope that this team could be in the play-in by season's end

 

Fox has the reputation now of being a guy that isn’t disciplined or hard working enough to be a star. The Kings have floated him in deals but McNair has a lot of pressure to win now, so moving him better bring back another star.

Do the Rockets have the assets? Yeah they do but I don’t think the Rockets would offer what it would take.

 

That’s good. Don’t want Fox, unless its for Gordan, Wood, and a couple of crappy picks at most. He is a ball hog and we already have 3 young very capable guards to build around.

 

Green has overall improved and at a minimum looks like a long term starter if not an all star. Most of his problems are ones that improve with experience. So he is A foundational piece at a minimum.

As for KPJ, I think the Rockets are wasting their time but he does have a lot of talent.

The Rockets WANT to move Wood and Gordon but they won’t give them away. Both are under contract for next year. I expect at least one of them to be dealt. No one on that Rockets coaching staff want Wood here long term.

This is year two of a rebuild that is AT LEAST 3 years long and likely 4-5 years. We will hopefully see some light at the end of the tunnel at the end of next year.

 

Fox’ speed is special and the talent is undeniable but I agree he isn’t a great fit with Green defensively and really offensively either. If the price was low enough you do it, but not at the expense of hurting the team.

 

Those are mostly people who do not want to see the Rox picking high again.

 

That was the joke. Didn't you hear the slide whistle noise?

 

Agree - I think 4-5 years is more accurate and we are really just over a year into it because we started last year as a playoff hopeful but agree that Jalen is a good start to the rebuild, Sengun should be a solid player for a long time, and hopefully Houston manages to get another future star in the draft this year and can parlay one or both of Wood or EGo into future draft capital to continue to have a talent pipeline.

I would have argued with you on KPJ a few months back but I’m finally there with him as well. At his age everyone is working on foundational aspects of becoming a long time pro and refining the talent they are born with and I feel that KPJ is having to invest all his efforts on just managing his own baggage/temper. I wish the kid well, but I think the odds are much greater that he never amounts to much more than where his god given talent takes him….plus he is a bad fit with Green anyway.