talent is relative. people have different ideas of that and what actually is relevant to winning. when your team sucks, you lose. That's the case with the rockets. it's as simple as that. It doesn't need to be spun into all these different mental hoops scenarios. It's not that difficult
I don't think people have enough appreciation for how even bench guys in the league can hoop. And especially against a team that doesn't play defense. The Blazers bench squad almost beat the KD Nets the other night and scored 123 points. The Rockets could easily give up 130 to that same squad.
I think most people have that in the secluded part of their brain. Same Portland team could go cold and stop getting buckets below 90 pts. Every scrub can go off in the NBA.
And hiring Silas, Harden trade, extension offer to Dipo, signing Theis, many many things. And season 2 is far from over.
I know about the top 4 thing. You have to seperate same win/loss records BEFORE you draw the lotto. Pretty sure coin flip IS NOT the 1st tie breaker.
If two teams have the same win loss record, there is a coin flip before the lottery to determine order. The winner of the coin flip will get the odd lottery ball if one is remaining (they add up the balls for the 2 spots and split them evenly as possible), and they will also pick first if neither team wins one of the 4 spots. I don't know how it works if there are three teams tied for the same record, but this is how it worked in 2021, when the Cavs and Thunder had the same record. Whatever you are pretty sure of is nice. You can enjoy that, but pretty sure is not how the lottery works. Have a good day.
This is what I was talking about. There is a decent chance we may end up tied with multiple teams. They don't get "balls", they get number combinations. And it's not just 1 more than the next guy, it's weighted on a steeper curve than that to prevent the lower seeded lottery teams from getting a top pick too often. Be well!
I don't get it. Stone is making his own job harder. If we get 7th overall this draft because we got outtanked, we are going to be absolutely awful next year. A guaranteed Top 5 pick is a nice consolation prize for such a wretched season. We are really going to go the entire season without knowing if Nix can be a contributer at the NBA level. We won't know how Josh Christopher performs with a larger role, and we know absolutely nothing about Usman Garuba. What a joke of a season this has been. The Top 5 pick is ours to lose, and it seems that it simply isn't a priority for coaching and management. Let's hope we get a lucky bounce at the lottery, because without it I have no idea what the goal is for this team moving forward.
Then you trade down for an asset. I think the certainty of a top 5 pick(when the top 4 players are this close), far outweighs any morale boost this team could have in the last few weeks of a 19 win season.
