I think Cam has the best chance to become a DUDE out of everyone on this team. And Hardens Dude status has been revoked, no thanks. DD
First - if I had a dollar for every time someone not from Houston said "Houston we have a problem..." yeah.... Just stop people. Second - Stone and Fertits would be creating a massive potential problem by overreacting to the success of Dallas, and Wemby's promising stardom by saying "OMG we need to win the title NOW... must trade all our picks and young players for... DONOVAN MITCHELL!!!!" ... -It's very likely that 2 years from now, the Lakers, Phoenix, the Clippers, Golden State, and hell even Sacramento might all be in rebuild mode. -The most talented "contenders" could be just Denver, Minnesota, Dallas, and OKC. with Memphis, NOLA, Houston, and SAS fighting for the 6 to 9 slots in the playoffs. -There would at least be 1 if not 2 of the Contenders having an injury riddled season with their star players leading to them essentially taking the season off. -Lasty there is also star player drama that always happens every year or two with stars being unhappy, and blowing up a contending team overnight. .... So the Rockets just need to stay the course, and not overreact. The Western Conference is going to be as good as other teams, and star players allow themselves to be. The Rockets can only control what they can. What would benefit them is having as many cracks at the bat as they can get for as long as they can get it. AKA look at the Astros 2015 to 2023 run. That was build by continuing to farm talent and rarely taking short cuts with the exception of Verlander. Stay the F-ing course. Keep all your young guys for now, and keep making good draft picks. Don't trade for a superstar unless its a steal, and doesn't drain your talent farm .
Verlander was the key - you have to be willing to go out and get someone to make your team better, we have 6 and now 7 with this pick young players, and we have no DUDE. If a DUDE breaks loose you go get him for a couple of "Non-maybe-dudes".... DD
That's individual luck as Bradley had a relatively long career. Some media members have him at 2-3 championships already with multiple DPOYs but I am cautious there.
Totally... but at the same time its very possible that Donovan Mitchell and Trae Young are not Verlander. I mean maybe they are and I'm wrong, but I personally think that with this current batch of "potentially available" superstars it would be like the Astros in 2010 trading for Alex Rodriguez in exchange for Hunter Pence, Altuve (I think he was in the minors at that time) and the draft pick that would become Carlos Correa. People just like to throw out these idealistic "star" trades assuming it'll just be inventory type of assets... when in reality over the long run this type of trade can KILL the longterm sustainability of a franchise.
Or like Harden it can propel it to contender status. Right now we are sitting on a bunch of eggs, we don't know which egg will hatch or if any will......it is better to trade those eggs for a proper c0ck, if a c0ck become available. Sometimes that c0ck can net you a lot of other chickens that want to come be with that c0ck, other times it can cause all the chickens to run away and you have a c0ck that has no pull.... Stone just has to look at all the c0cks and decide if trading some chickens can get one...and if it is worth it. DD
Long term, I am not worried about the Mavs. Kyrie is only guaranteed for next year and Luka the year after that. Kyrie has been on exceptional behavior and I don't expect that to last. I also don't think very highly of Cuban. He is bound to make another Brunson or Chandler Parsons blunder soon enough.
Yeah, the reasoning should not be about Luka but who is Luka's next team. There are enough young teams that can target Luka and pair him up with another dude. Luka could go East and would be the end of the problem.
Thinking Houston is Fine, you keep your roster now. They won 42 games with a roster of developing young players. They can retool there roster here and there. You wait to see if you have that "dude" with the 6 top 1st round picks you added last few years. I think they make this decision by next summer. Be stupid to trade any of your top 6 rooks now, and you probably if the offer is right trade #3 for a shooter or find one in the draft like Sheppard.
I can agree with this, but no Dude has broken loose. It also can’t be an over-the-hill or injury prone dude. If Giannis breaks loose than yes. Who else? Jokic, Ant, Brunson and Tatum aren’t going anywhere. Embid and Zion are nos for me with their injury history. I’m ok with a mid-tier star like Booker or Bridges, but not for any of our core other than maybe Tari, Cam, or pre-all star version of Green. Pg-13 for Apache Warrior’s trade package would be a yes.
Lol the original phrase being sent to NASA that there would be problem in Space and not Texas having a problem obviously. This became infamous.
If you assume this is true, who is this dude you are talking about? It's not Mitchell or Young or 34 year old Paul George or can't stay healthy Zion. Being desperate for a dude and losing your most valuable trade pieces for the wrong dude is not the move
Totally agree, although I would take a flyer on Paul George if it doesn’t cost us any of our core and only #3 this year, like Apache’s trade. I don’t want Mitchell, Young or Zion. Mitchell and Zion because of their contracts and Young because of the way he plays. Paul George can still play when healthy and he is basically a one year rental. If all you are giving up is #3 in this crappy draft and junk we need to get rid of anyway, then I think that’s worth the gamble. Upgrade of PG over Brooks > upgrade of Mitchell over FVV and you save your flexibility.
Sengun will be our "Dude" for a long time. Cam also has a shot at getting there as well as Amen if he develops his shot and/or Jalen if he ever can consistnetly harness his streak energy.
This team is well positioned right now - we have lots of high level defensive dudes we can throw at any scorer. Until injuries at the end there, we were a respectable defensive team despite having a lot of very young guys on the roster....but like we can throw Amen, Jabari, our long forgotten homie Tari(who was looking like Kawhi defensively before he got hurt), Cam(when engaged), and Brooks at any defender today. That makes for a long night...but the REAL action here is that at some point we will likely be trading in one or several of Alpi, Jalen, Jabari, Cam, Tari, Amen, or this years #3 pick along with Brooks/FVV to grab a real star. ...we haven't drafted the A+ guy yet(and frankly haven't had the opportunity for a true game changing talent yet) but we have drafted talented young players that are valuable pieces in deals. Alpi still projects as an offensive savant, Jalen is still some consistency away from being one of the most unguardable scorers in the league(the skillset is there), Jabari is still one of the most promising 3 and D guys in the league, Amen is still NBA elite in multiple areas(athleticism, intelligence, passing, rebounding for his size, defense), Cam is still a walking bucket, Tari is still a high level defensive wrecking ball and effort guy. We likely can't afford all of these guys anyway so at some point there will be trades and there will be consolidation. It's certain. The real problem here is thinking we will forever be the team we have drafted - it's not actually possible to keep all these lotto picks on one team. We just have to make sure we don't let any of these players walk for nothing - we need to get future picks, better players, etc.
If anything, this year is proving that the era of "super teams" is over. Rockets can compete because we have a great coach along with several promising youngsters that are supposed to keep improving. Sengun, Jabari, Amen, Tari etc
