[Chron] Jalen prefers long term deal but not top priority immediately

The weird argument people have is "who on their team is a Top 10 player"? We have 3 or 4 guys on the team that can project as a Top 10 player in the league. Will they? Who knows. But right now we have Sengun, Green, Amen, Reed, Cam and Jabari. Any of those 6 could ascend to superstardom. I can find a comparable player to any one of them that also had plenty of question marks surrounding them at first only for them to make the leap and become a Top 15 or so player.

A better question is this: is there someone on this team currently who will have more All Star Selections than Devin Booker (4)? If you are betting on the Rockets core or Devin Booker being the best player on a title team....who are you betting on?

Lastly...vibes. These are the best vibes a team has had since 2018 or the Parsons/Lin/Harden team or the Scolandry team. I dont want some primadonna vet coming in here and ****ing that up.

 

I agree. I also think that you'll have a difficult time trading Green if he gets the amount that he'll likely expect. Especially if we are able to trade for Booker. Booker takes away a whole lot of his possessions. I honestly think an FVV/Booker backcourt would be far more exciting, and I expect after year 3 he would be ready to take his paycut. Might even renegotiate if they don't pick up his third year. I can't even imagine a backcourt rotation of Booker/Reed/FVV. I think it would be the best shooting backcourt rotation we ever had (if we don't consider Amen's contributions!).

 

I think your examples under Morey pretty much sums up why the Rockets are clearing space. Bosh and Melo at the time were both looked at as 3rd guys on those Rockets teams behind Dwight and Harden. Just this past year, the Celtics top 2 paid guys were Porzingus and Holiday to essentially be their 3rd~5th guys. I don't know why people need to use this strawman's argument that the big FA signing needs to be the #1 guy. If you get someone who can be the 3rd best player on a contender through FA money, it's a win. After all, unless there are 4+ players on this current roster all demanding max money because they've turned into franchise players for real, the FA money isn't really going to affect things much. Especially if you're signing a contract that's less than 4 years.

 

Repeating others here, but I totally agree…very mature response to those questions. Good for him!

 

I think Tilman might surprise us and this is a luxury tax team after next season for the next several years.

I know the history, I was beyond pissed at how he tore apart a 65 win roster and then continued to screw things up until finally the team is forced to rebuild.

I have a theory on why that all took place - business is done in the margins. Tilman had this idea that he could do it better. He came in and cut to the quick, expecting all those veteran minimum contract scrubs to replace a guy who had played 35 minutes a night guarding the opponent's best offensive player. He was wrong, NBA basketball isn't like business where the profit lie in cutting the margins - in fact it could be argued that it's the exact opposite - those that spend on good peripheral players have a distinct advantage over teams with just stars (See PHX).

Since the Westbrook disaster, Tilman has been pretty much hands off and lets his basketball people do basketball things. I think he's learned his lesson .... and that he will spend to bring a winner back to Houston.

He's spent ~$70+M on the teams new practice facility ....

 

Right contract, wrong player.

 

My concern goes beyond Tilman. The way teams are doing business and the way the new second apron affects things - it's just different. It's really hard to carry more than 2 max guys now.

 

Things were a little different back then:

Back Then: the thinking back then was that the Warriors were unbeatable and teams were
tanking rather than challenging the Warriors and ending up 8th, 7th, 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, or 2nd.

Rockets on the other hand were one of the few teams that said, "we'll challenge them."
But I have no doubt Tilman still had his reservations and resisted paying over the luxury
tax. Had we won in 2018, I believe Tilman would have paid up to keep it going.

Now: a bunch of teams are on the elevator coming down. Warriors looked like
a strong dynasty for 5-7 more years (back in 2018).

Suns: as some have mentioned, might break up if the team struggles with injuries
and poor depth. Rockets own their draft picks.

Lakers: LeBron and AD at best get them around 8th seed instead 2, 3 or 4th.

Denver: as I said in the season, Nuggets would probably lose KPC (they did)
and then start losing Aaron Gordon and MPj (Aaron Gordon is a free agent next
summer I believe).

Minnesota: Gobert-KAT break up this past summer was talked about a lot. Good chance it may
end this season.

NOP: as Zion goes, the Pels go. Ingram available as payroll is getting too high.

Sacramento: we might be better than them now....?

Warriors: re-tooling as Curry-Draymond getting older. Kuminga-Podziemski- Moody-
Trayce Jackson-Davis. Youngsters have zero championships right now....same as Rockets
youngsters.

Thunder-Memphis-Dallas might be the dream of the crop in the West beyond this season.

Boston I said by many to be the lone team in the East. I would say look out for Miami
with the addition of Kel'el Ware, Josh Christopher, and Keshad Johnson.

Villanova Knicks of Brunson, OG, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, Julius Randall,
DiVincenzo

 

that’s nice. But I’ll wait til Tilman proves me wrong before I believe

 

Yes everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I'm just telling you (forum) my opinion:

1) Reason why Green and Sengun haven't received their extensions.
2) why they won't get extensions before current season (opener)
3) VanVleet ($40+M) and Dillon Brooks ($20+M) can be used in salary trade-off for star by deadline
4) a) if Rockets trade for star by deadline; Sengun - Jalen might get extensions prior to free agency.
4) b) if Rockets don't trade for star; Rockets dive into free agency....then determine if they sign Jalen/Sengun

[Hope is both Sengun and Jalen Green have monster seasons and the Rockets sign both as
#1,#2, or #3 options.........star entering picture as #1, #2, or #3 option with Sengun and Green]

.....if not?

[then It might be a matter of styles Sengun-Drop Coverage defense, slower pace offense or
Jalen Green-switch everything defense, faster pace, 5-out offense. Added star or free agent
pick ups fitting with one or the other (Sengun or Jalen Green) ]

**again VanVleet final season is non guaranteed. Can be valued at trade deadline or
used by Rockets to go after about $40+Million in free agency next summer

I wanted the Rockets to sign Tyus Jones
instead of drafting Reed Sheppard.
Tyus Jones signed with the Suns for $3.3 million.

Booker/Tyus Jones x VanVleet.....Durant to 3rd team works for me at trade deadline.
But then again Durant and Jalen Green were playing at pro run. Maybe exchanged #'s.

 

I can see Tilman opening his wallet, he is 67 years old now and worth 5X what he was in 2018 and one of the wealthiest owners in the league now, i think he wants trophys, but also don't see him getting desperate for a star just yet, i think he remains patient for the right guy.

There are no star or potential star level players rumored to be on the move other than Ingram and Zion, but there are always teams that get impatient or some sort of personal issue comes up between player and employer and a deal needs to be made, or teams get tired of a player not being available.

Potential players who could be on the move:
-Zion and or Ingram
-Ja Morant, things are not exactly ideal there and availability issues
-Joel Emiid, availability issues and very high expectations when you have a roster like that with aging guys desperate for a ring, it typically doesnt last too long before breaking it up (thinking like what BKN had to do, Suns may have to do, etc)
-Durant or Booker
-Lillard (bad contract) , the Lillard move out of desperation may have only kept Giannis there a little longer, but he could be on the move to a bigger market himself, they seem to be making mistakes as a franchise as of late.
-Clippers entire team may be blown up soon
-Heat entire team could be broken apart
-Donovan, new contract but I do not think anyone is truly going to be happy in Cleveland if they have options
-Kings or teams like them will trade players for the sake of trading them, no one knew Haliburton would be moved so guys like that can pop up at any given time.
-Trae Young