The NBA offseason can sometimes be painfully slow. Then you end up with random threads that are ultimately pointless, becuase there's not much else to talk about. Not naming any threads specifically, but you are probably reading one now A couple of days ago, ESPN had a 'Worst roster move since 2020' article for every team since 2020. For the Rockets, they had drafting Green over Mobley. This has been talked about and debated to death, so why not talk about it some more? At the time, I think there was a legitimate argument for both. Green could still improve and become more consistent, but we've been saying that for years and at this point it is pretty obvious who the better player will be barring injuries or some other drastic change. The very interesting thing about this question, however, is the fact that we got Sengun in the same draft. I think a better comparison, instead of who is better Green vs Mobley, has ended up being who is better, Sengun or Mobley? They have very different strengths and weaknesses, Sengun is one year younger, they both made their first all star game. Could debate that, but for this thread, I am more curious on what if we had drafted Mobley? I am assuming if we had Mobley, we wouldn't have drafted Sengun later in that same draft. Who would we have drafted instead? Would Mobley, with a couple of years with Silas, be viewed as better or worse than he is now? Would the Rockets- with Mobley and whoever you think they drafted at 16 instead of 16, be better or worse than they are now?
We could have played Sengun at the 4 and Mobley at the 5. Only thing is we probably would have lost our draft picks to OKC and/or not been able to draft Thompson and Smith Jr
they would have still drafted sengun because they liked him so much. trading 2 draft picks for him is a sign
Green was the right call. Green still has the potential to be a franchise player. Mobley will always just be a very solid starter. If we drafted Mobley, we wouldn't have pursued Sengun and kept our future picks. We also would likely not have chosen Garuba or Josh Christopher. Likely we would have had Mobley, Cam Thomas and Grimes. Which would have been VERY interesting. At the end of the day, Sengun turned out to be a pretty Dieng good deal. ;-)
Hindsight drafts... I think the conversation is always Jalen or Mobley but Scottie Barnes is right there too, he won DPOY and isn't a bad choice either. Are you picking cherries or trying to remain somewhat reasonable? Picking cherries...like you can take anyone after the original pick? 21- Mobley, Sengun, Grimes, Herb Jones 22- Jalen Williams, Eason 23- Amen, Sasser 24- Edey Amen - Jalen Williams - Eason - Sengun - Mobley Sasser - Grimes - Herb J - Edey/Kessler ________________________________________________ Being somewhat realistic and keeping it within range? 21- Mobley, Sengun, Garuba, Grimes 22- Jabari/Tari 23- Amen, light a pick on fire 24- Edey Amen - Grimes - Tari - Sengun - Mobley ----------------------------------------- Start with Scottie Barnes? 21- Barnes, Sengun, Grimes, Herb Jones 22- J-Will/Tari 23- Amen, fire 24- Edey Amen - Williams - Tari - Scoot Barne - Alpe
Drafting Mobley to pair with Sengun would have put the Rockets back in the playoffs much sooner, but there's no telling what the team would look like because without Tank Commander Green, we would lose out on so many top picks. Let's just be happy drafting the bust didn't kill us in the end.
We'd be dogging him too because we would've needed him to be a 20/10 guy immediately for that Silas led team
I don’t see a scenario where we draft Mobley that year. After losing Harden we still somewhat had infrastructure to surround a playmaking scorer - something that people were foolishly telling Jalen he could do. If you couldn’t draft Cade(who I was advocating to trade up for), Green was the next best hope to step into that role. Maybe Barnes would have be a third option…there was elite defensive talent in that draft at the top of the draft and that really wasn’t what Houston was looking for in the moment…but ultimately that was a curse to come in as a high flying scorer playmaker archetype to a Houston team just after Harden split and a fan base used to being a good team for like a decade before. He was never going to succeed in that situation. Mobley probably would have got the Alex Sarr treatment had he played in Houston - would be maligned as a bust almost immediately because of how rough the offensive game looked(but you saw the defensive promise if you watched games not stat lines).
Who would Rockets have at guard? KPJ and Eric Gordon as a placement? Then what? It's pointless to be regretful and go back and rehash these scenarios while longing for the past. It didn't happen. Who knows where this team may be or what they might have done. They didn't do draft Mobley. Old news. Move on. Let's focus on this season with this group of players and coaches.
Also, if the Rockets don't draft the bust, they won't have to draft his boyfriend so they could spend that pick on Grimes.
Its hard not to envision a synergistic skill set between Alpi and Mobley But then again we probably wouldn't have gotten Amen
Why bother? We have a stacked squad now and we are legit contenders. I’m more than happy with what we got…. None of it would’ve been possible without Jalen. Besides. Mobley’s dad flat out refused workouts for us because the assumption was that he didn’t want his boy anywhere near KPJ. Which would’ve made for a damn good reason.
Christian Wood was playing Center. Bruno Fernando also. Remember Alperen Sengun was the Backup Center. I remember he only played 5 minutes. Stephen Silas said to Sengun don't shoot 3s. It is true Alperen Sengun still can't shoot 3s still in 2025. Tough to get minutes over Christian Wood and KPJ. Evan Mobley was considered a Center. Moving him PF was because of Jarret Allen. Maybe Allen should be the DPOY. Without Allen, Mobley wouldn't be weak side Shot Blocker. Evan Mobley was really punked in the Playoffs against the Knicks Mitchell Robinson and Julius Randle. Backed down Mobley, Mobley falls down easy layup or dunk. This Playoffs Evan Mobley never gets the ball from Donovan Mitchell. Evan always plays a spot up corner shooter. I am curious what was the point Firing JB Bickerstaff. Same results in the Playoffs.
We probably wouldn’t have drafted Jabari either. Also something to think about, had we drafted Mobley, could we still have drafted Amen Thompson down the line?
Amen and Jabari together are better than Mobley, and thats assuming we still picked Sengun which I doubt. Its a dumb exercise as well cuz Mobley is now extremely overpaid, he is now making 30% of the cap after he won DPOY. You think Mobley is on the level of Jokic and SGA? LOL wtf. Dude's gonna make 269M bro.
