We are looking for a "1 of 1" player

PS: The secret to the basketball universe is THREE AND D

 

To think that we used to have Chuck Wagon on the team

 

“Player X can’t be the best player on a championship team” is a bunch of hogwash. As someone said earlier, that trope applies to everyone until they win a championship. Chauncey Billuos led his team to a championship and he hadn’t even been an All-Star yet. Since that time, the league has been dominated by Lebron and Steph. Those are two wildly different skill sets. Both have proven that they can’t get all the way without a supporting cast.

No matter who your best player is at any given time, you can’t blow your free agent signings or your extensions. Avoid the Jordan Poole missteps. Keep positive value on the roster and be ready to make a move if it’s available. If it doesn’t, the pieces you put together may ultimately surprise you.

 

1 of 1 talent is just as impossible as finding clones.

Truth is, in the NBA winning is more luck than anything. Jordan, Bird, Magic, Shaq, Duncan, Dream, LBJ, Curry, Kobe,
Since 1980 there have been 45 titles (including this year), 9 (10 after this year) of those have not been won by those top 15 players of all time. KG, Dirk, Jokic, Kawhi, Isah Thomas, Gannias, Moses Malone all top 10-30 players won 8 of the of the 10.

The 04 Pistons and this years champ will be the only champions that are more team driven and not all timer driven, and in those cases both teams are so well rounded its insane. Maybe we are entering a more team driven era, but if that's the case, we need to trade for our star ball handling(ish) player ASAP.

 

Besides Wemby and maybe Lebron, all these guys come out being compared to other players that have already been in the league. Even Wemby was called a hybrid of Porzingis and Durant.

Luka’s game has been compared to James Harden.

Jokic wasn’t thought to be some unicorn when he was drafted.

You don’t know what a guy is or isn’t until they get on an NBA court and prove it. But literally all these guys coming in are going to be compared to players that have already been in the league.

 

You may joke but a little birdie said they are still in contact.....you never know.



DD

 

...you've been drinking all night with the OP and are now at the "seeing little birdies talking about KPJ" phase of your drunkenness?

 

deserves its own thread

 

Nah, I just heard that they are still in contact, have been all along helped guide him to Greece etc, and might consider resigning him, once he is done with this stuff.

I am not saying they WILL do it, but I was surprised they were still in contact.....

For the record, I would sign him.....his talent is very useful and Ime could be the key to turning everything around, if not, cut him.

DD

 

Well, I hope your right, but it depends on our coach or someone in the FO having the skills necessary to get it done. Meaning, a guy who can look at several players both individually and collectively and foresee how they fit and what kind of guy(s) is needed to provide the glue.

It also depends on luck, because even if you know what guys you need, they are not always available.

Meanwhile, it seems like the news the media reports are always about BPA in the draft or whatever star they fantasize we can pry from another team and give up peanuts to get him. Additionally, our FO has said many times they like the guys we have. Does that mean they think we don't need to go out and get someone? Does that mean they see this fluid chemistry developing between the guys already here to the point we can compete at the top level in the west?

Sure, maturity and experience will elevate our guys games, but I don't see championship caliber chemistry potential. We got some holes and needs that go beyond the guys we got IMO.

 

NBA championships are won by drafted players or players acquired on their rookie contracts, unless you are in LA or Miami.

This is pretty reliable rule to follow. There are a couple non-repeatable exceptions involving top 10 players moving teams: Kawhi in Toronto, KG in Boston.

The Rockets as a franchise are interested only in championships. Hence all that matters is if our drafted players (present and future) turn into championship quality stars.

Championship quality stars don't fit a specific mold, other than a track record of clear skill or physical dominance against their age group, preferably both.

Everything else is just secondary asset maximization games and churning second tier assets to optimize the supporting cast.

 

Amen is the chosen one

 

There is chemistry that comes from shared adversity of being on such a stupidly bad team with low expectations and the "fan"base telling you how much of a disappointment you were that I think most of our young guys before Amen/Cam DEFINITELY share....you could even argue Cam shares a similar chip on his shoulder from sliding down so far in the draft his year. In some ways that's better than the difficult nuance of understanding how to build complementary personalities on a team when you probably aren't super familiar with the player you are trying to recruit from other teams - certainly not such that you know what motivates them, what causes them to lash out, etc.

Ultimately in sports however, I think it all comes down to how well a coach can build alignment within a team - find the things that motivate everyone, keep referring to that shared goal and eventually the team adopts the message and holds each other accountable in game and off the court,etc(all the places where the coach isn't around immediately to police). The message matters - winning a title is something every player will say they want - but does it really resonate? Thats why you'll see coaches embrace different forms of motivation to gain alignment - for Phil Jackson it may have been a message about personal excellence and everyone helping each other achieve that standard, for Doc Rivers it may have been a message of "all for one/one for all/Unity" with one team and on another it may have been about proving haters wrong/embracing being the underdog. Pops may have preached about flawless execution....regardless I see some signs that Udoka has been able to instill a culture here - the toughness walked in the door with him and you see guys really leaning into that message. It will be interesting if he can bring a similar shared understanding here that great coaches(like Pops who he learned from) utilize to bring teams that perform beyond the sum of their individual abilities.

 

I think we have the right coach for the job, but no coach, regardless of the culture, can make pieces fit that don't. Whether the Rockets become title contenders or a perennial 1st round exit team in the future depends on which players they unload and what acquisitions they make. No FO is perfect when it comes to this, but I hope we do well enough to compete at a high level in the bear future.

 

...just curious - who doesn't "fit"? I agree we have some gaps on the team currently - especially in terms of a rim defending/roll man but I don't necessarily see someone who doesn't "fit" as much as I still see some gaps in our long term needs. For instance, FVV is a temporary fix at PG and unless Amen becomes a walking miracle with his shooting, he is likely more suited to an undersized center than a zero shooting PG so we clearly need a long term PG solution. I get the infatuation with Reed in this context but I dont feel comfortable picking him that high. If we trade down, it makes a lot more sense to me but his likely ceiling isn't near high enough to pick that high.

 

Rather than saying "who", I would rather say the Rockets have weaknesses that must be fixed, especially shooting. Now, who doesn't fit is going to be the guy(s) that needs to be an efficient shooter, but isnt.

 

I wouldn't call Boston a team with a "1 of 1" player. The league is moving increasingly towards Clone Wars. Wings who can shoot and defend are now the starting pitchers of basketball. You can never have enough of them.