I view it as over-reliance on both vets - Fred and Dillon, more Fred because I do not see a good enough backup playmaker. Jalen the tentative PG isn't it. The biggest conundrum we faced for half a decade for sure.
Right. Ime's blind adherence to playing Fred VanVleet 40 mpg made Tom Thibodeaux look reasonable by comparison.
We have Cam Whitmore. He just needs to be able to crack the lineup. Will Ime Udoka give him a chance? Absolutely no need to gamble on old news, an ageing player in Kevein Durant. Admittedly its tempting.
But that's not true. WE ALREADY RAN IT BACK. Go back and look at the Rockets record post 2023-2024 all star break and last season and you will find an eerie correlation. They were virtually identical. 52-30 vs 17-10. SAME TEAM. I don't want to lose our assets but you can't develop forever. If #10 never plays next year OR THE NEXT what true value did they have if we couldn't get our assets developed. FVV+10 or FVV+2028 is not gutting our team. If we won't pay for Durant (he is taking FVVs salary BTW) then why even have a team or try to compete. Everyone competing is in 1st or 2nd apron. Its just how you get there and how you manage it. Our team right now was the 2 seed with SEVERAL teams heavily depleted. They will be better next year. Rockets NEED to get better. When you can compete you NEED to compete. No one is saying all in. I don't want Giannis. The window isn't closed by trading for Durant. It is not a choice between run it back or trade Green, Brooks and 3 1sts from PHX for Durant. This BS false narrative has to stop. If Durant gets traded for more than what we offer no one is complaining about losing out. This is about chasing "discounted stars" to compete now and compete later. The problem with running it back is you assume everything stays the same and WE stay the same. That is never true. FVV is nonfunctional as a starting NBA PG. Jalen Green is a deeply flawed streaky SG. If we had KD right now we would still be playing. If we had Harden right now we would still be playing likely. I think you have stated some of the following yourself. Correct me if my assessment of the following is wrong. Our spacing is horrible, defenses (GSW) cheat against us because we can't shoot so other teams don't expend the amount of energy we do on D. We wear our guys out because we won't use our bench like other teams. (It gives a false sense in the playoffs when everyone plays with max effort and knows your weaknesses) We can't collapse the D or finish on drives and suck at FTs. We win because our coach optimizes our offense for DEFENSE. We rely on brickfest rebounding and don't optimize our shooting. Its the way he won games in 2024 and 2025 and why our record is the same. We win because of defensive effort and rebounding and hustle NOT because we are actually good at the things that matter, like offense. Our weakness is shooting and if we don't address it OUTSIDE of this team, we will have a worse seeding next year. We should have beaten the GSW and we know why we didn't. We knew at the all star break and even before the season. Our backcourt was ****. We couldn't shoot FTs or do anything consistent offensively. That's not changing without roster improvement. We will still grow but you have to determine WHO you want to grow with and not just keep pieces that don't fit or work. You always maximize assets. Green and FVV don't fit.
That's not a strong enough offer to get KD...if we're not willing to give up Jalen Green, there are other teams with matching salaries (with better players) that will go after KD who are in the win-now window: Celtics (Porzingis/Derrick White) T-Wolves (Gobert/Jaden McDaniels) ***Knicks (OG Anunoby/Josh Hart)*** Grizzlies (Jaren Jackson Jr or Ja Morant) If the Knicks lose to the Pacers, they will definitely be going after Giannis or KD.
I’m 98% sure he won’t be a Sun next year. How it works out, I’m about 1% sure. There will be a number of teams interested but some of it will depend on whether they see Durant as a player they keep on a one-year contract or if they want to give him a contract extension, which I suspect he’s going to want.
It would be the max I would offer for him--take it or leave it. Other teams will probably outbid us, you're right. Don't care though.
