That's fair. I do think simply efforts to win and normal development of talent from SO many young guys could get 15 more though. We're talking what, .400 win%? I don't think that's astronomical and honestly I would consider a play-in loss a success lol... This is well stated though, so good on ya. I guess it's just the time of the year we can be hopeful.
there's a whole offseason left. maybe the blazers and jazz blow it up and tank for wembenyama. maybe pop retires and the spurs decline a bit? the thunder and kings could be in reach for us as is. its all possible! but keep in mind for the play in we have to be better than 5 teams in the west. that's the tough part.
Well, I still prefer Banchero so good news everyone! At #3 he's likely the BPA. And no matter how it plays out, a top flight 4 is BPA. We have to get rid of Wood. Why on god's green earth would you draft one of these guys and make them sit behind Wood? To diminish his trade value? To lose the confidence of your #3 pick having to wait out a bum? I see it as a foregone conclusion, Wood will be traded draft night or shortly thereafter. Having him in the building is poisonous to this young group. Where does Wood + 17 get us? End of the lottery? Would a Nix, Queen or Mathews sweeten the pot enough to get Portland's #7? Wood/Gordon/17? I'd hate to do it but if Wood, Tate, 17 for #7 was there that's a hard one to pass. Who would you take at the end of the lottery, 10-14 range? Who would you take if you got another top 10 pick, 6-10 range?
I think the difference this year will be dramatic if we can improve just to a top 20 defense, we will improve 10-15 wins. That is the deciding factor in my opinion, not youth. In order to improve the defense, we have to replace Wood with a defensive PF or SF be it through the draft or trade. Sengun playing full-time and the removal of Wood will let our back court run wild as they did the last part of the year. We just need a nominally improved defense and our transition offense will be among the best in the league. Defensive rebounding and quick outlet passes are extremely important to the offense and Wood making a good outlet pass would be his first. Paolo will be a good rebounder (if not great) and is already an excellent passer. Sengun is already a great passer and blocks out well on the defensive side of the ball. With a little help for Sengun, our defensive rebounding will be much better. Wood got a lot of rebounds, but sucked at outlet passing. Jabari is my preference, but any of the three should help our defensive rebounding improve. If Paolo is the pick then we really need a defensive wing to help our half court defense.
I think we have enough talent, particularly after this draft, that losing on purpose is no longer a good strategy. Maybe they don’t make the playoffs but winning 30 instead of 20 is a vast improvement. Maybe it all starts clicking and they make a play in. I don’t think it would be wise to continue tanking and throwing winnable games.
The spin for Wood I can come up with is look how he played with Harden. He actually tried on defense when he had guys (ie. veterans) holding him accountable. Maybe they can recreate that with Dame. Do your scouting and get a player at 17 that can contribute. They still have Nurkic who can cover for Wood. He's on a reasonable, expiring contract so if he blows up you have to pay him but it also means the Blazers probably made it back to the playoffs. If not, you haven't lost that much. It's a reasonable gamble for a guy who can be a 20/10 guy, be one of the best 3 point shooting bigs in the league, be a secondary scorer to a star. Not sure there's any player at 7 who can offer the same production or fit. AJ Griffin doing it for them? Was that convincing enough? lol... Wood, 17, future 1st, Queen is a pretty square deal. Queen is the G league MVP, guy like that just needs a chance. Honestly I wish the Rockets would give him a real shot.
It's quite the pickle. I don't see any way he can stay and I also don't see other teams clamoring for him. What do you do? Just pay another guy millions of dollars to go home?
I’d trade Wood, Tate and #17 for Eason, let alone moving all the way to #7. That’s a no brainer. I’d also have no problem straight up releasing Wood if we don’t trade him before training camp so there’s that.
@D-rock that NBA trade Twitter called it days in advance. That rockets tweet about us wanting banchero over Chet might be true..
As an org, I believe Rockets will try to make a best effort attempt, at least first 3/4 of season. Honestly, I doubt we'd even make the play-in. Realistically not projecting to be good next year is not an excuse to not try to get better in every way possible. I'm not saying you're saying this, this is more of a message to the Org when they're making moves. Gentle reminder to folks: Before last season started, lot of local Rockets analysts had us with a W-L record of mid-20 to low 30 wins. This included some of the Vegas odds. People outside and local pundits didn't think we'd be this bad. We ended up with 20-62. It was a miracle we even got to 20. Org squeezed 3 wins out of last ten. Jalen had a few 30 pt games and KPJ played better *individually. But people seems to forget that last ten games was league's 29th easiest schedule, and the 3 wins we did get, two of them were on Blazers, whom, they were playing mostly 10 day contract guys from off the street. * It'd be Silas 3rd year, he has to show some progress even if we don't make the play-in. * After 2023, if Stone also wants to make a play at some free agent(s), the team has to show showcase some semblance of progress. Org has to be at least 'mid' or slightly below average. 2023 is just one NBA season away. Spoiler We're not close to competing for playoffs... but we should be competing with ourselves. Team is 27th in offense and 30th in defense. Teams like the Hawks is 27th in defense, but they #2 in offense. Kings 28th in defense, but 22nd in offense. 5-out team like Hornets 23rd in defense, is 9th in offense. When Rocket fans look at the draft and ask for players who show promise for defense, there's this thinking that we can just get defensive guys when we can get to it... as if it's a luxury. Our offense is bottom 10th percentile; it's not like the offense is good enough to offset anything. People here remember last season, when team kept losing. Some of us prayed a little for a win here or there just to end that super long L-streak, so we don't start some embarrassing league worst record. If NBA was a class of 30, we're the slowest worst performing student. Every year some team has to be last, but doesn't mean you have to set records being one of the worst of all time.
Wood<Banchero. Feeling good right now. Obvious, I can't really say I called it but damn it feels good to be on the other side of Christian F. Wood.
