Wait and see who fell to #3, get his medicals then make the pick. This includes Chet. If trade contingency options were generated, it should have been explored week(s) before the draft, with actual willing teams. The near panic concerns that Chet might fall to them was amateur hour. Stone was quoted saying he was confused with what happened right before draft. Those on twitter and CF had strong signs from Vegas that Banchero was going first in the early morning just prior to draft. He should have readjusted all possible scenarios at this time.
Okay. That's appearance to you. You seem to make a lot of judgment on appearance. I don't know if the Rockets had Sengun's medicals or not. I don't even know what they had done in their research that got them so in love with Sengun to trade up for him. The only thing we outsiders know is that they obviously did some looking and made the right decision in getting Sengun. And whatever great things Presti might have done about Sengun, it wasn't enough for them and they missed out. Besides, a 16th pick and a 3rd pick is very different. Messing up a #3 is much more serious than messing up a #16.
Where was this concern prior to draft day? And what alternative Intel could they have relied on without the actual medicals. Chet was 2021 World Cup Finals MVP. He played for Team USA. As such Chet would have had to pass required medicals for Team USA and FIBA. Not to mention before playing at Gonzaga having to pass strict medicals as required by NCAA.
I'm using words like appearance now because I've used words like evidence and reasoning (both inductive and deductive) in this thread without much success.
I think the only guarantee was OKC not passing on Chet at 2. Like I said earlier, I think Stone was fine with Jabari or Banchero. We had the assets to get to 1 and we didn't
-They did wait and see who fell to #3 so we're good there. -So, you're suggesting that we should have waited until OKC picked and then attempted to get medical records and evaluate them within the 5 minutes time limit to make our pick? That doesn't sound do-able. -Everyone was confused as to what was going on with Orlando. It took everyone (including Banchero) by surprise. Orlando having the #1 pick and not working out a guy that they were guarenteed to get was confusing. -You are correct that there were signs from Vegas that Banchero was going to be the top pick. That's exactly why the Rockets again tried to get medicals from Smith and Chet. They got Smith's but Chet refused. -Smith fell to us. There was nothing to readjust. You just say "Thank You" and select him. Do you not think that we should have drafted Smith? -Sounds like they did reassess. They tried to mitigate their risk by seeing if they could trade up to #1. Orlando wasn't interested. What do you think would have happened if Chet had fallen to #3? I'll give you my opinion. I think we still would have taken him. I think that without his medical records, they preferred Smith or Banchero over Chet but if it came down to it I don't think that they were going to pass on one of the top 3. They would have just been nervous about not seeing Chet's medicals though. I guess I'm not understanding what you're complaining about. Are you thinking that we should have somehow gotten Banchero? They ended up getting a player that's a great talent and a great fit with our needs and roster makeup. It worked out really well for them...better than I expected. Are you upset by the results or do you like the pick but just attribute it to "dumb luck"?
The idea that Houston saw the lines move towards Banchero on the morning of the draft, indicating that the Magic had Paolo as their #1, and then called them up to try and trade for Banchero is utterly absurd to me. You're not going to trade away the guy you have concluded is the #1 overall player and a franchise-changer to another team just to take a lesser player. The trade is only going to happen in situations like the Philly-Boston swap, where Danny Ainge had Tatum as his #1, and Colangelo had Fultz as his #1. If Philly had wanted to trade up and get Tatum, Ainge would have hung up the phone. If anything, the only thing I read from this article is that they had Chet ranked substantially lower than Jabari/Paolo such that they thought it was worth trading up for. The timeline makes sense if their final big board looked like: 1. Jabari 2. Paolo 3. Chet And that they knew OKC had Banchero ranked #3 on their board. In the pre-draft process, Jabari/Chet quickly separate themselves from Paolo. If you're Houston, you're thrilled at this; you are sitting at #3, but you have a chance to potentially get the #2 player on your board without any movement. It makes zero sense to try and offer to trade up with Orlando for Jabari, since everything pointed to Orlando having him #1 as well, so no deal was there to be made. The day before the draft, you see the signs that Orlando may choose Banchero. These were strong enough that Smith's agent Prather thought it was a possibility that Jabari would drop, and sent over medicals. Holmgren's agent declines to do so. Now you're in a situation where you're deciding between one guy who is the #1 overall player on your board and has a clean bill of health, and a guy who you have ranked #3 with no records. At this point, the value you add for a trade-up might be worth it. So you approach the Magic with an offer to trade up to #1 for Jabari. If you are convinced that Orlando has Paolo #1, then you can make this offer knowing that it's advantageous to both sides (They still get their #1 player, you get your #1 player), as long as you know OKC has Chet ranked higher than Paolo. We never really knew what they were offering, but Portland traded #4 and a former #22 pick for #2 and a future second rounder. If you had told me before the draft that the Rockets could have guaranteed Jabari at the cost of Usman Garuba, I would have leapt at that deal. If you had said it would cost a future Nets pick, I would have declined immediately. But those are both "trade offers". What the Magic did was ultimately pretty confusing, because there is not any indication that they tried to leverage their hidden interest in Paolo to trade back. At the end of the day, you can disagree about their relative ranking of Chet, but there's not much indication that they would not have taken him at #3 if he was there, just that they preferred Jabari/Paolo. I don't really see any issues with the Rockets approach, and I don't see any kind of panic. If you want to see a GM panicking and not being able to close a deal, here's the textbook example caught on video: And the total opposite, a front office in complete alignment, who knows every pick in order, has done months of prep, and lets the draft come to them:
the same reason Jabari withheld his until his agent starting believing Paolo might actually go 1st overall right before the draft…Chet was confident he was going top 2, and he was right he never bothered with the Rockets because he knew he was never getting past OKC at 2
Now you are saying that they were overly careful? I thought you were complaining that they were unprepared? What is it? Maybe you just don't agree with them about Chet, right? Just because you don't agree with how they see Chet doesn't mean they are "amateurish" as you label them. I know you strongly disagree with their not taking Mobley last year and you never really forgave them for passing on your top pick. C'mon man. There's a difference between not agreeing with you and not doing their job right.
@YOLO @Reeko Was curious. Just read this. Never knew it was a thing. Been a bit since we were drafting in that vicinity. Makes sense. https://www.google.com/amp/s/deadsp...fettered-access-to-medical-rec-1829886085/amp
yeah, it’s been going on for years Luka, JJJr, and Mo Bamba did not give the Kings their medicals and this year The Sacramento Kings "aren't Ivey's preferred destination," according to ESPN's Jonathan Givony. However, the Kings could still pick Ivey even if he withholds medical information and declines workouts with them because they haven't been afraid to do so in the past, per Givony. Cade didn’t give us anything or even bother with us because he knew he was going 1st to Detroit…if the Rockets had traded up to 1st, then he would’ve given us his info and met with us
Good post. I would say that the Rockets probably ranked Jabari and Paolo about equal as 1a and 1b, and Chet as 3 because of the health risk. I don't see anything that indicates that they prefer Jabari over Paolo. It's plausible to believe that OKC ranked Chet and Jabari 1a and 1b and might have taken Jabari over Chet if both were available. That's why the Rockets wanted to make sure they got either Jabari or Paolo. Orlando's last ditch change messed up everybody's preparation.
This report is dumb & I don’t buy it. The Rockets had 3 - 1st rounders. One at the very top, the middle and late in the first round. If they didn’t have Medicals on the top 40+ players then Stone and company wasn’t doing their jobs. They literally should have had medicals on the top 40+ prospects to cover their asses, If I was Tillman I’d get to the bottom of that because that’s how HUGE mistakes are made. I just don’t believe that was the case with Rockets management.
