Don’t want Walker or Hendricks at 4. We need higher upside players more than we need safe role players. Prioritizing role players when we have no proven star is crazy to me.
I can't speak to how Udoka is thinking or what the Rockets will actually do, because I have no connection to those guys. Maybe they would rather play it safe or go after players to help them be better sooner rather than later. Personally, though, I see that as a mistake. I've said this in other threads as it relates to the Harden discussion, but if they make personnel decisions on getting as good as possible as quickly as possible, I don't love that approach. Rebuilding is a long game, not a short one. Drafting a guy because he's going to help you be better in 2023 rather than drafting a guy because you want to be better over the next decade is a foolish way to rebuild a franchise.
I'm all for moving #4 for 6 &11, taking Walker @6, then moving 11 & 20 in a deal for a young, veteran stud.
You're missing the point. There is no star at 4. Frankly, there is no star at any point in this draft, including at No. 1, because these guys (Wemby included) are all insanely young and unproven at the NBA level. It's not about drafting guys who are going to be great today; it's about drafting guys who have the best chance to eventually be great. If they take someone like Walker over someone like Amen or Whitmore, I'll get over it. But I would hope it's because they've scouted his game and they think he has the highest likelihood of being a star at No. 4, not because he's the most ready to contribute today. And based on every piece of analysis I've seen on these guys (I'm no expert, nor do I pretend to be), Whitmore and the Thompson twins are the guys labeled as having future start potential, not guys like Hendricks and Walker.
Wemby is most definitely a star day 1 in the NBA. Funny thing about getting too hung up on the consensus is that the powers that be are also wrong a fair amount of the time. Thats where you start to get guys like Wiseman and Patrick Williams convincing people of their upside. I would like some shooters on this team. Hard to argue against that and dismiss the investment made on the core we have here today and say that there is no star or worthy building block so we need to keep looking for that player. Jalen, Jabari, Sengun all offer a promising future and you need to surround them with complimentary players who dont need to be be ball dominant to be effective. I'd be fine with Jarace Walker, but feel Taylor Hendricks is better. Just a random opinion. I'm super curious to see where Udoka wants to go with this pick.
I watched all of Walkers UH tape and his very best skill is defensive close outs he is elite in that trait. He can shoot and score in plenty of ways. I would like him here, I'd love him on a trade back. I need more time to decide on Cam. Amen does worry me with that broken shot Ben 2.0 is a real scare.
Maybe. I think it depends on your definition of a "star." In terms of the media attention and highlights, sure. But it may take him a year or two to actually reach All-Star level from a productivity standpoint. And if he didn't, he wouldn't be the first No. 1 to bust in the history of the NBA. My point isn't that Wemby isn't the closest thing we've had to a sure thing in the draft in years (he absolutely is). It's that no one is a 100% guarantee to become a superstar, but you want to target guys that have the best chance to become one. I don't disagree with you. But no matter who you take at any point in the draft, it's a gamble. With every player, you're buying a lottery ticket, and some guys have a higher risk-reward factor than others. In the Rockets position, I'd rather buy a ticket that has a greater chance of making me a ton of money than one with a lower risk factor that could make me less. I don't see anyone here saying that the Rockets don't have any building blocks or that any one of the Rockets young guys can't become a star. I certainly don't think that—there's still star potential with those three. But as of right now, none of them have reached that level, and we don't know if any of them will. Until you know you have that guy—your Giannis, Luka, Jokic, Embiid, Tatum, etc., you have to keep buying those lottery tickets when you're lucky enough to get them. Saying "we have our core, now let's go add complimentary pieces around them" when you don't know if you have a star yet would be a mistake, IMO.
I didn’t say draft a star. I said draft high upside players over role players. At 4 that would be Amen or Whitmore who have the potential to become stars.
We have to dance with who brung us. The guys who this franchise has identified as possible stars in the making deserve every chance to fulfill that or flame out. If you keep adding "potential stars' to the roster that overlap some other guys then how does that totem manifest? I see positives with Amen and Whitmore no doubt, but who will get reduced playing time in order to give the new guy his touches? Are we going to draft a bench player at 4 as a hedge vs Jalen, Sengun and Jabari all flaming out? I think everyone on this team would look better if they could count on some shooters around them to reward assists and open up driving lanes. I happen to think Jalen Green can become every bit of a 'star' in this league and would like to offer him supporting weapons to reach that status. Same with Sengun. Same with Jabari. Im drinking the kool aid. I view each of those guys as supreme talents and worthy of the focus over anybody we could draft at 4. I want to give these guys capable shooters to depend on and hope that Udoka can tap into this talent pool and everyone can have confidence in the future. Looking for a star at 4 just feels like we've already failed in finding talent via the last two drafts or being too hasty to say any of them can not be 'stars' in this league.
Walker's the most all around player on both ends at the 4 pick. He could add a whole new element to this group. Has the least amount of bust potential of any the guys being mentioned in the top 5 picks. May or may not have the highest ceiling but definitely has the highest floor.
Well, call up KPRC. Channel 2 BREAKING NEWS "Good evening, I'm Keith Garvin." "And I'm Daniella Guzman. A cataclysmic shift on the unofficial Rockets fan page 'Clutchfans', where a poster named Hemingway has agreed with the famously opinionated poster named 'bobbythegreat'. For more on this story, we go to Brandon Walker live in Austin. Brandon?" "Good evening, Daniella, Keith. I'm standing outside the home of Dave Hardisty, who created the Clutchfans site in 1996 and lives here in the Austin area. We attempted to contact Mr Hardisty several times about the lack of conflict that occurred just today on his site but were rebuffed. Now, normally bobbythegreat is known for deliberately antagonizing other posters on the site. When we reached the poster known as Hemingway, who prefers to keep his anonymity, he stated, and I quote, 'I'm used to the guy stressing me out, I'm still in shock and had to take the day off from work, even though I spend half the day at work on the site'. Daniella, back to you."
I don't think there's so much overlap that the guys they would take at 4 would push Green, Jabari or Sengun to the bench. Amen is a PG, Whitmore is a wing who could play next to Green, etc. If anything, you could argue that Walker or Hendricks might be the most duplicative in terms of fit and skillset, because they play more that 4 role where Bari feels like a lock. Do you push Bari to the 3 in that case? Does Sengun come off the bench? You could do that exercise with any of these guys. And if you look at some of the star players I mentioned above, those teams drafted guys with similar skillsets and at similar positions. Philly took Okafor a year after they drafted Embiid. Boston drafted wings back to back with Brown and Tatum, etc.
