Houston Rockets 2024 NBA Draft Workouts

....speaking of semantics, the All NBA voting I believe is still broken down into positions so its less about the best players in the league and more about the top6 guards, the top 6 forwards, and the top 3 centers/bigs which is still an honor but for instance the Ringer has him ranked as the 24th best player in the league last year because "Bigs" as a position are generally less valuable than perimeter forwards and guards. Their assessment of Sabonis is familiar to me:

The new CBA distorts the logic a bit moving forward - the soft cap was moved closer to a hard cap in practice because there are increasingly punitive measures in place for repeat tax offenders and it will be REALLY hard to have more than 2 max guys on your roster at any point so you really have to make those two players count. I think that's why I'm a bit nervous about extending Sengun because I like him as a 20-25th best player IF we have a legit top 10 player on the roster with him. If he's the best player on this roster though and maybe even the 3rd best "big" in the league, I don't think we will be a very exciting team. For reference, the Ringer has De'Aaron Fox as the 22nd best player and Sabonis as the 24th best. I suppose he's a valuable player worth signing nonetheless if for nothing else but for trade assets but I worry about getting too far down the road building "around" Sengun(and being a significantly improved team) without actually acquiring a top 15 player. I guess I'll go light my prayers candle and pray to the NBA gods that Jalen is going to have an epic year 4.

I mean, the last decade of NBA title contenders suggests you shouldn't build around overpaid centers not named Jokic. As the new batch of ultraskilled centers starts to take the court, that might change, but I think guys like Wemby, Chet, and potentially even Sarr for that matter are examples of really tall wing players who can use their size to achieve things normally dominated by Bigs. This is likely the start of NBA "unicorns" starting to be more common in the league because a 7fter who can lock down the paint AND hit an unblockable step back 3 or push the ball on the break is going to be a valuable tool for teams lucky enough to grab those players. Sengun isn't that type of big though.

I think you are right about the focus issues - he will get better defensively but I'm worried that he isn't as "long" as player like Jokic and he also will never have the defensive footwork and speed to hold up on the perimeter and in the playoffs in particular those become traits mercilessly singled out by opponents. I believe the Kings were the 2nd seed in the West last year going into the last week of the season...and didn't make much noise in the playoffs. In other words, the things that can make you a great regular season team, don't always hold up in deep postseason play.

The Brooks and FVV deals were about meeting cap floor restrictions. I believe you are penalized in some way if you don't meet the cap floor in the new CBA so we offered those guys a lot of money to "set culture"...but really they had to sign someone I doubt there were very many players dying to make a big payday in Houston and you rather overpay Brooks on a declining deal that will get 10% better each year as the salary cap raises from cap smoothing than overpaying a lesser player that is nearly untradeable. At least Brooks' deal will be much more attractive by the time of the NBA trade deadline this year and moving forward.

All good - enjoy the conversation. I don't always agree with your player assessments, but I think your reasoning is sound based on your take. Ultimately I'm rooting for myself to be wrong about Sengun but right about Green turning into a Devin Booker type player...if the fanbase can just stick it out a bit longer but ultimately this is why I would prefer Houston hold off on signing Sengun or Green until we have a little more data from this season. I mean we last saw Sengun leaving in a wheelchair so how bout we make sure he comes back the same player he was before the injury before we rush to commit to a max contract, right? I mean that's reasonable I think?

 

I think he's overrated as well. People say it's a weak draft and Sarr is in his own tier. If he's in his own tier then why Atlanta not taking him first?

 

It doesn't mean anything. Team watch lots of game tape. That's more important than private workout. The workout is just get to meet the player face to face to know him better. Jabari didn't workout with us. Mobley refused to workout with us. Bronny only working out for Phoenix and Lakers. Players often do what they think it's best for them.

 

• Sabonis is not crafty at all. He is fundamentally sound. He has one effective post-move. Alperen Sengun has forgotten more post moves than Sabonis has ever attempted. (Drops shoulder again...)
• Sabonis is the king of the dribble hand-off. He is not in the same league in terms of seeing the floor, or handling the ball on the perimeter, as guys like Jokic/Alperen. He simply does not see, nor process the game in that way. He does not even try to... He can not control tempo. Jokic can, and Alperen shows signs.
• I don't see how anyone can watch Domantis Sabonis and think he has the talent that Alperen Sengun has, and I am a huge Sabonis fan.

 

Maybe we can talk about Arvydas Sabonis then who should have been the most talented in that family.

 

If healthy adams will be a better player than DC for at least 2 years

we do not need rim protection
we already have it with adams


unless a big has superstar potential he should not be drafted top 10

Lopez was a free agent
signing a free agent into open cap space is not the same as spending draft capital

reed is best player in the draft and very well could go 1 or 2 before us

spurs are willing to trade up for reed
not clingan
they know

all this talk about bad draft is propaganda and manipulation
just garbage
ignore it

who does not work out for us has nothing to do with whether we want to draft them or not
stop implying it does

posters giving reed a low ceiling are stupid
they are just repeating main stream media bs

if clingan and edey had switched places the last 2 seasons edey would have won 2 championships and would be the consensus 1 pick while clingan may possibly be picked in the last third of the first round or still stuck in school waiting to increase draft value

edey may have won 4 championships with hurley
that is how good hurley is as a coach

DC is a good young big who if healthy will likely develop into a good player with a long career just like capela Robin Lopez poeltl and many others

should not be drafted top 10 unless he is being traded to a foolish team for greater future assets

as the celtics have built the last piece acquired should be the rim protecting 3point bomber unless he can be acquired with a lower salary contract already in place for 3+ years

we need to trade up for reed if necessary to prevent the spurs from blowing past us developmentally

we will likely see rumors continue about us wanting guys that we do not want and probably zero to very minimal rumors about the guys we actually want

this is a high stakes game of deception

always has been
always will be

thank you for entertaining us jalen

good bye

 

Don’t be foolish - I’m not saying they are identical as players but they definitely have similar games. He doesn’t do the look off passes as much but he definitely makes those quick passes and hits cutters with precision in the moment. Agree that he is a dribble handoff guy but that’s also the offensive system he works within which takes advantage of both his and Fox’s talent to get Sabonis on the short roll making decisions while the defense is stuck in rotations. Udoka tried some similar plays with Sengun this year.

I’ll fully admit to being old and I DO think of Aryvadis (Domatas’ dad) who did have those sneaky passes like Sengun. Sabonis Sr was my favorite player as a kid - I see shades of that type of playmaking skill from Alpi. Agree Domatas isn’t as flashy but the processing and bball IQ is still there for sure.

Don’t gas light me like Sengun and Sabonis arent similar - you know they are.

 

Sabonis has a two-year old son. We should just draft him and stash him in nursery school until he's ready. It's never too early to start making moves for the 2042 season.

 

Sarr would be an outstanding pick at #3. The way this draft is too, I wouldn't call it impossible like Wemby falling to #3.

 

When do the draft workouts start?

 

Well Ackchyually.... [/Internet Nerd]

The awards for All NBA (and defense and other awards I think?) were already positionless this season. This is the first year though, and I definitely had to double check after you said that.

I get what The Ringer says, and this is fairly subjective, but objectively Sabonis was voted as a top 15 player this season (also last year under the old system).

On a side note, I actually think Sabonis did fine enough on defense against the Warriors last year. He was garbage offensively by his standards IIRC (and the whole team had problems). Didn't watch their play-in games this year, but glancing at the box score (and only 98 points scored), seems his teammates dropped the ball offensively more than anything.

Some of this gets into my hot take ideas about how bigs are evaluated defensively, which is a bit of a tangent, so I'll leave it there.

Don't really disagree with much of this, especially at a high level. I'm actually not one of those guys that wants max extensions ASAP for Sengun (or Jalen). If it weren't for the consequences of pissing off agents and the players (which I don't know how to quantify), I'd be fine waiting as long as possible to make those decisions. That's the case even though I'm super optimistic too. Sengun in particular has that complication involving his cap hold, though I'm not sure at this point if Rockets want to maximize cap space next summer (I think if they use the MLE this summer, there's a good chance it won't even matter much?).

I'll also note I'd only be super worried about overpaying Sengun if/when he's supermax eligible. If he's likely to be a top 30-45 player or so, then you could probably argue he's worth the regular max (and tradeable).

To be fair, I'm guessing building any overpaid player would likely lead to failure.

I've wondered if there might be more players like Chet and Wemby. It is really hard to do the things they're doing. Suppose you could argue that neither have proven to be effective enough to win championships, though I don't see much reason to doubt it so far (maybe lack of strength/physicality can hold them back, if anything?).

FWIW I don't really see Sarr in that mold. He seems more like a Mobley type, which is still really good, but not something I'd be that worried about.

I kinda touched on some of the Kings postseason stuff earlier. I do think you're right that sometimes things are just different in the postseason. Though for the Kings, I'm wondering if that might be more about their offense than defense.

On the other stuff, I'll just note I think length is a bit overrated (especially if not combined with other traits). Not that it isn't a factor, but I don't think it is THE factor either. I'll leave it as that so I don't get into my hot takes haha.

You're right about the salary floor, but I'm not sure the specific FVV and Brooks contacts were about that. FVV in particular probably got close to what he's worth (especially to pull him away), and certainly he has even more value on this team.

Brooks was an overpay, though I think people were delusional thinking he'd be out of the NBA. I'm fine in hindsight overpaying him so he'd pick Houston over a contender. But I think that should have been maybe 5m less per year. Didn't have to do that to meet the salary floor. Possibly just gave in after losing leverage from the Lopez fiasco. I guess there's a possibility giving him more money helps with trades by matching big salary too, but can't say I'm optimistic about that thus far.

And I say this as someone who was happy to eat crow about Brooks. I'm still pretty amazed at how he played, and some of the complaints about him (particularly anything related to his offensive game besides shot making inconsistency) never made a ton of sense to me. I did think his defense fell off (due to injury?), but really liked his play. Still overpaid, but don't really have a problem with his deal moving forward. That said, Amen or Tari (or Cam) might need to take his starting spot at some point (but I'm OK with them taking it vs being given it).

Yeah I noted above how I feel about waiting for more data, so don't really disagree there.

Funnily enough on the Sengun thing... I actually almost feel better about Sengun after that injury. I'm not sure if there's any merit to this, but I think Sengun in general is fairly flexible, and perhaps that had something to do with him escaping a more significant injury. If you are going to build around a player, it helps if his body is less prone to (serious) injury if possible. Of course he still has to come back and show he's at least as good as he was (ideally better), so there is that, but I'm not sure that is much of a concern.

 

My bad bro. Like acksually?

 

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ackchyually-actually-guy

 

EASILY worth a second round pick today.

 

You mean Papanikolaou right?!

 

https://nbadraft.theringer.com/mock-draft
And now KOC has Reed #3. Hmm...yeah I thought I felt a breeze coming from the east this time.

 

I really doubt that part.

 

Well just give it a few days and ChatGPT prompts, and maybe the next mock simulation will be better.

 

To be fair look at the Hawks track record in the draft. Passing on Luka for Young etc...