What is the reasonable expectation for a FULL REBUILD?

People saying 3-4 yrs dont have a clue. That only happens if you land a generational talent like a Luka, Lebron etc somebody who will come in and immediately drag a bad team to the playoffs.

If you dont luck into that player you gotta wait for your rookie to reach 23-25 yrs old, thats 5-6 yrs. And thats assuming you didnt mess up and pick wrong. Just look at rebuild projects around the league they arent 3-4 yr jobs lol wtf.

If you ask people around the league who did a masterclass in rebuilding they will say OKC. So OKC first traded PG 4 yrs ago and nobody will say they are done rebuilding. And thats already the best rebuild ever right?

 

Definitely. Harden kicked off the Rebuild.
He left the Rockets with some nice draft capital

I think that the Young Rockets this year are coaching away from a 30 win season
Add 2~3 more Talents and they are a playoff team (Veterans)

I expect to be a 40 win team next year

Also . . . . Playoffs means the rebuild is over
Sustained Playoffs means it is successful

The main POINTS of the Rebuild to me
1. High Draft picks and hit on more than Misses
2. MONEY MANAGEMENT! Management of the Salary Cap

I think the Rockets have done a B on both at the least

I don't know college so I don't know drafting
but I am NOT displeased with Green, Sengun, Bari, Tari, KJ
Acquisitions like KPJ does not bother me
The Salary Cap Space hits at the right time this summer
We can even extended while paying a VET BIG MONEY
(which we can have them drop off the books by time out replacement for them is ready)

I know we have been hard on Stone but right now . . . he ain't looking horrible
I am not going to say its luck or design . .. but either way the Rockets are in a GOOD POSITION

ASIDE: I know people are MADD MADD at Harden - But IMO he did us an immense favor
If you don't think so . . .. Would you like to be PORTLAND . . .
where Mr. Loyalty is and his:
"On top of his already astounding contract with the Blazers, Dame has a player option for the 2026-27 season. If he decides to exercise that option, Lillard could expect another fat paycheck worth $63.22 million. The Blazers legend will then become an unrestricted free agent in 2027."
Harden could have easily demanded and got that contract

Rocket River

 

imo... .500 aint jack... esp when u consider u typically got 3-4 teams tanking any given year right outta the gate... then u got those that go into tank mode after all-star game...

Barring injury to your marquee player(s) - .500 should be a minimum expectation for any team not in tank mode...

if u dont have a buncha crappy negative value contracts (and yer not paying Wall to just sit on the bench...) assembling a .500 team of free agents and journeymen shouldnt be difficult... and then u add your draft picks to the mix..

.500 basketball... pick 15-18... thats the dreaded 'treadmill of mediocrity' - right?

if it takes more than 3-4 years to assemble a Kevin Martin/Scola level team... idk what to tell ya...

lol

 

I've been taking the under on our W/L record the past few years but next year I'm way more bullish.

1. KPJ/jalen play more games (hopefully avoid long term injuries) and young guys get better = at least 5 more wins (27 total)
2. coaching improvement = at least 5 more wins. (32 total)
3. spending cap space, worst case, 3 high end rotation/starter level vets = 6 more wins (38 total).
4. consolidation trade = not counting on landing a star like Jaylen brown so lets say conservatively we consolidate into a high end 6th man or low end starter for 3 more wins (41 total).
5. draft, most rookies don't add any wins, wemby might, but with only 14% chance I'm not adding any wins here from the draft.

I ended with 41 wins and this was assuming we miss on wemby, max FAs, and trading for star level talent. hitting on any of those would raise this win total.

long story short, I believe jalen when he said the will be a playoff team next year.

 

idk man.. call me crazy, but personally i think we can be a .500 team next year...

add a top 2 pick... and another 50M in player acquisitions... and a desire to actually win - with a real coach... i'm calling that a .500 club...

and thats without even going into trading for a star...

imo

 

Sports is to be crazy, nothing much reason here or rationality

 

When you have 5-7 teams tanking for the lottery, a .500 record is always doable with the right amount of money (questionable GM) and good coaching. The Knicks were held to a higher standard until the contracts caught up to them.

A successful rebuild is improving from .500 and regularly contending for the top playoff four seeds.

A .500 year would count as a year, not be the final "rebuild" year.

So it's usually 5-6 years after a cornerstone (or #2) is drafted while the spare/#2 or cornerstone is drafted shortly after.

 

Dayum

 

Stone is building this team like starting a new expansion team on 2k

tank first 3 seasons building up top picks. Let your draftees start and fill the bench with bums to tank. Next would be use cap space to fill bench with respectable vets until KPJ, Green, Jabari, Sengun, and next years pick can take the lead. No big trades because it ****s the cap space

 

The most likely scenario is that you touch the bottom the playoffs and then pop back down to the lottery. The worst teams make a big homerun trade or free agency move that pushes them into the playoffs but they can't sustain it.

Getting to the playin like OKC just on the back of your young talent is extremely rare. It shows that their building to a core that will have a shot at deep playoff runs.

 

When would you say the rebuild after Hakeem began? I believe we had like 3 consecutive missed playoffs the last years of Hakeem. We also had a 45 win season in one of those — and teams weren’t regularly winning 60 back then, iirc. If the rebuild started with Hakeem’s trade, didn’t we make playoffs in like 2 years later and started the what should-have-been dynasty of Yao and Francis and then retooled to Yao and Tmac?

it’s not unrealistic to think we could have the core pieces of the rebuild by next season and it’ll just be a matter of growth on the court and the the right role players and contracts.

or do you consider consistent playoff appearances “end of rebuild.” Let’s say we make playoffs consistently starting next year — maybe 7-10 seed for a couple years then start contending. Is the rebuild ongoing until they are a 1-3 seed? Or can one acknowledge the rebuild was ultimately over when they made their first of what became to be consistent playoff appearances?

 

Hahahahahaha who voted for 7 years or more? Jalen's gonna retire 7 years later. 4 years.

 

Even as big time Bron was out the gate they didn't reach postseason until If not mistaken his third season in

So with this current crop you would have to add on a couple more years, though that could change depending on why they get this upcoming draft and what free agents they sign and/or trade for

 

Its the off court BS that drains the love for probably most of those players, those con-tracts and fame come with a lot ''sacrifices''

Those who truly love the game get the short end of the stick due to the politics side of it and don't make the cut and either give up or go overseas

 

If you're defining a "full rebuild" as just getting back to .500, I think 2024 (like the 2024-25 season at the very latest) is a reasonable expectation. I'm not sure we're on pace for that, but much crazier things have happened.

 

I'm confused. What does this have to do with this thread?