When are we going to start criticizing Rafael Stone?

That's the thing though--as soon as it becomes widely known that free agents won't sign or worse, rookies will forsake the NBA rather than play here, Stone will be criticized and vilified. Unless changes are made quickly--and I mean within the next 2-3 months--that's our future. Then, one by one, we lose the young talent we do have and we find ourselves on a treadmill of suck for the duration. And to think Patrick is "learning" from Stone. Our only hope is for a Patrick epiphany but for any number of reasons, the odds of that are low. Really low. It's been a good year for the Ted Stepien-era Cleveland Cavaliers as they finally have some company.

Even when the Oilers were bad and the Rockets were bad and the Astros were bad it was never a bad as fundamental as this. When we were tanking for Sampson and Olajuwon, there was a purpose and it was kind of fun in a gallows humor sort of way. This is just a massive suck and the way we are wasting potential is the greatest tragedy. One can tank without sucking. One can tank and still develop good habits and basketball IQ.

I do think we could pick a committee of 5 posters on here and run the organization better--and that's with a committee of fans, not one legit basketball mind. It's frightening that I think this is absolutely true.

 

if we didnt tank for Hakeem we could have developed the true basketball culture, always compete and win 5 rings in a row...we settled for 2 rings but almost 40 years later this franchise still didnt recover and is on a brink of moving from houston

tanking is the drug, its the poison, a cancerous addiction!

 

Rebuilding involves a lot of luck. The Rockets have been fairly lucky in terms of getting high draft picks. That's something you can't really control unless you do intentionally lose by sabotaging your lineups and rotation. I still don't know if what Silas is doing is intentional. But whatever, you don't want to tank by creating a chaotic and disorganized environment, killing their confidence and morale, making yourself look like a joke in the league community. The one part you can control in the rebuilding is player development. What have the Rockets done in that regard.

 

I was a huge proponent of Holmgren. He was my top overall choice so I believe OKC chose well. He's just been injured all season so I can't support my belief yet, nor can we credit any of their turnaround this season to his drafting.

 

I guess the committee of fans would find ways to seek professional help and admit that they made mistakes if that would be the case instead of steering that ship into an iceberg.

 

I think this will be a BIG Summer for Stone.
Next Year - I think we HAVE to win no less than 30 games.
and be really competitive in 35 of the losses

We cannot be getting blown out and having multiple double digit losing streaks

Rocket River

 

I think the time to put him under the microscope is maybe sometime next season, after this draft and offseason, when he has finished assembling the team. Right now it's hard to tell how much of his decision making is geared toward maximizing one more draft and spending some money on players. Maybe he'll even hire a new coach. Too many pieces of the puzzle still aren't in place. Everyone wants a verdict now, but it just isn't in yet.

 

Unless it was your intention to be this bad.

 

Some people are very short sighted... Can’t see past the nose on their face, or see the forest for the trees.

Some are very impatient… Want everything now, without using time wisely to build carefully and prepare a good foundation. With sports teams this tends to build-in mediocrity, losing consistently while other teams gain championships.

Some can’t see the big picture… They are trapped in the minutiae of the moment and cannot discern the pattern of leadership that is right before their eyes.

Some don’t have the knowledge or the tools to plan for the future, but sure know how to criticize those who have the finances, foresight and backbone to make unpopular decisions that could possibly lead to greatness.


Victor Wembanyama is a 7-foot-4 French professional basketball player (NBA draft eligible) who is considered to be one of the greatest prospects of his generation. Possibly could eventually be the LeBron James of his time. Truly unlike anything the world of basketball has seen before.

Scoot Henderson is a consensus five-star recruit and one of the highest-ranked guards in his class. Henderson averages 14.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.7 steals per game, 46.4% shooting, alongside only 2.1 turnovers a night. In addition to his dynamic athletic abilities, his knack for getting to his spot, his consistent shot-making in the mid-range areas and an outside shooting stroke that looks to be improving, easily could make him one of the best players available in the upcoming NBA draft.

If you were an NBA owner, General Manager or Head Coach, what would you do for a chance to get one of these prospects on your team. Especially, if you already had lots of good young talent on your team, lots of cap space and empty slots to add savvy veteran talent after the draft.


Well, lets take a look at one of the best run teams in the league…

San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs have won five National Basketball Association (NBA) championships (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2014) during one of the most dominant stretches in NBA history. The Spurs also hold the NBA record for most successive 50-win seasons.Their president and head coach is Gregg Popovich, who is the winningest coach in NBA history with over 1,358 wins and the longest running coach with 26 seasons. He was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2003, 2012, and 2014.

Popovich took over from Mike Krzyzewski as head coach of Team USA and met expectations by delivering the gold in the Olympics at the delayed Tokyo 2020 games.

The 2023 NBA Draft lottery could be one of the most important moments in basketball history. Multiple NBA teams are battling for the worst record possible, trying to put themselves in the best position to have a top pick in a potentially historic 2023 NBA Draft class. While plenty of marquee names and All-Star talents enter the league through the NBA Draft every year, things are different in 2023. Scouts and general managers agree there is the potential for this to be an all-time draft class, with some already seeing a future Hall of Famer atop draft boards.

The Spurs NBA standing is 14 wins and 33 losses, including a current 13 losses in a row. They are a half game ahead of the bottom dwelling Houston Rockets. It appears the well run Spurs are also trying to win by losing.

Houston Rockets
The Rockets have made the best of a bad situation. After being deserted by its all-stars and it’s GM, they have amassed a plethora of young talent in the last two years. If their luck holds out in the 2023 lottery they will have one of the best collections of youthful talent in the league.

Team management has shown a lot of guts in swinging for the fences. Expecting greatness instead of settling for future mediocrity by winning now. The team has paid millions of dollars in “dead money” to provide over $60 million in Cap Space for the 2023-24 season to bring in the right veterans to lead a team of athletically talented youngsters.


Their fans can look forward to a very bright future.

 

You can't measure patience.

I think if the Rockets played in the GLeague, nobody would care about it.

In the WC and the league almost every single team is getting better in the arms race each season.

It speaks volumes that other teams have more or better assets in their rebuilding process.

When your plan hinges on a 27% chance of drafting top guys, your plan isn't really that solid to begin with.

72.6% you don't get those 2.

 

The plan hinges on amassing very gifted very young athletes and having 60M in cap space for veterans. You will start to see improvement next year which is what the plan has always been as stated specifically by the GM.

 

Being lucky in getting high picks isn't that great when you are unlucky (or ungood, depending on who you ask) at drafting them.

 

Actually the West was pretty shitty up this year until they added Durant and Irving, and even their impact - it's how OKC got into play in range.

Really there's no excuse to be even worse than last year. But, they are.

 

When every rebuilding team is amassing the same amount of talents or more, then the other stuff counts.

Owership, management, coaching....

People treating this as if the Rockets are not competing in the toughest Conference.

Everyone is getting better, it's an arms race, people and not a bingo party.

There is no consolation prize, for effort.....

 

I disagree here, the West was balanced but it was not shetty.

There just weren't 3 teams that were dominant.

As good as Morant and those young stars have become, there is still no MJ or LBJ prime talent.

Luka ain't dominating on Defense.

 

I agree the coaching is awful and if Stone doesn’t correct that in the off-season he needs to be fired. The fact is, Stone laid out exactly what he was doing and is sticking to the plan. Other organizations that supposedly have brilliant FO’s (SA, OKC) have also been awful and tanking. OKC started tanking before us and are, therefore, a year further along. This next season is the make or break one for me with Stone. They need to markedly improve to show that they are on the right path. A total re-build from scratch takes a while. The only way we become even playoff contenders next year is a miracle signing of a superstar PG like Harden and some other really good vets to bring the kids along. NO TRADES for aging stars like Harden or Dame, please.

I hope to see us leverage a few of the Brooklyn picks for a guy like Bridges and sign a FA PG if we don’t get Scoot in the draft, hire a good coach and assistants and shoot for the play-in next year. If we could pull off a FA signing of Harden for say 2-3 years at near max then we could shoot for real play-off contention either next year or the year after.

 

The west had 4 teams over 60% winning last year and one team at nearly 80

This year they have 2, and oen of them just barely with Memphis right on 60.

This year the East is 181-163 vs. the West (as recently as 2020, the West won 61% of interconference games).

Seems pretty clear to me that the balance of power shifted eastward the last few years, at least during the regular season, when the Rockets exclusively play - I don't think the West's mediocre middle - where 3 games separates teh 5-12 teams, is a sign of strength.

Seems more like a weakness among alleged contenders like the Clippers who can't create a lot of separation between themselves and the Blazers Thunders of the universe. There's games to be won, the Rockets just can't win them, becuase they got even worse, somehow.

 

SA/OKC fans could at least put some faith in their FO even if right now it's not working for them. The only thing HOU is getting right is losing. Everything else looks terrible from the coaching, players' body language, schemes, etc.

 

That's pretty self explanatory.

The Rockets traded away their best (most productive) player - a guy who put up 20/10 on great shooting splits and replaced him with a guy who's putting up 11 & 7 on piss poor shooting splits.


That trade was the right one despite the immediate poor results. Wood had no place here going forward.

It also appears that they have shut down KPJ to support the tank too .... at least temporarily and that means more Nix. Any team running Nix out there outside of garbage time aint trying to win.

 

Getting high picks is luck. Drafting great players is also largely luck. I don't believe people when they say they "knew" who would be great and who would be bust. If they were right by hindsight, they were just lucky in the first place. There have been so many busts people thought they were can't-misses.