This team is too old. Our roster-building strategy doesn't make sense.

this is what happens when the “young core” is nothing special and can’t pull their own weight

no KD, and they showed what they’re about in that Lakers series when they had the opportunity to prove their worth…MFers went down 3-0 to AARP Lebron and a bunch of bums and then went out sad in game 6

they were struggling to score over 90 points against a bottom 10 defense

 

There's nothing more boring than an average old team of guys at the tail end of their careers. Nothing. I'd rather watch a young and developing team grow even if they aren't as good. So. Hopefully this Rockets team will win a lot of games, because if they don't it's going to be LAME to watch.

 

I’m just hoping folks will make judgements based on the outcome this season. They’ve had their mulligan. Can’t ignore the end result of this season. KD makes no sense on a non-contending roster. If we go deep in the playoffs, there’s some vindication there, but only if our core looks like they’ve taken a big step. I’m bracing myself for a year of ugly basketball, but the results matter. No more excuses about old guys getting injured. We need big leaps from the “young core”.

 

You are not listing who is actually playing the minutes though. I think the Rockets may look older on paper, especially when you list the roster like that.

While I can't predict how this season's minutes will go (especially at guard spot) but here is how it looked last season:
player (age) MPG
Amen (23) 37
Durant (37) 36
Jabari (22) 35
Sengun (23) 33
Sheppard (21) 26
Eason (24) 26
Adams (32) 23
Okogie (27) 17
DFS (32) 17
Holiday (29) 14
Capela (31) 12

* bolded denotes under 24 years old
**add a year to get to the players' current age

Even if we had FVV last season, we would only have 3 players not 24 or younger in our in top 8 MPG. We are young team if you actually look who is playing minutes on the court. The FO has certainly preferred to balance out the 5 young players with cheaper, older vets that are mostly in their early 30s, but I still think we have room to improve whether internally or through trade. There's still time this offseason to upgrade the FVV/Capela spot.

I guess I just don't view the Rockets as "stagnant" as you do.

 

The Rockets have a top 5 Young Periphery in the league - I see multiple future 6MOY candidates

 

I dont quite have a grip on the valuation for Peyton Watson. I’ve seen 20 million ish. Sign and trade Watson to a 4 year 22 million dollar deal for FVV.

Then trade Durant+Capela for Braun+Nnaji+Cameron Johnson+Tyis Jones+1st rounder+1st round swap.

They arent keeping Watson. Braun isn’t a value contract but could be a reclamation. Same for Nnaji. Johnson also a bit overpaid but more so useful. Jones is a good contrast to Smart. We get assets as we take on young players. Maybe trade Nani into thd TPE to get them another minor asset.

Denver

Jokic/Holmes/Capela
Gordan/
Durant/Jones
Williams/Strawther
FVV

Houston

Sengun/Nnaji/Adams
Smith/Eason
Watson/Cam Johnson
Reed/Braun
Amen/Smart/ Jones

 

I think it would 100% make more sense to do that strategic stepback and trade Durant and go even younger. The best path forward is to sign Amen to a contract similar to Sengun’s, and then keep searching for that SGA-type guy who maybe isn’t getting a ton of opportunities in a stacked team but can flourish here - or keep your flexibility to aggressively go after someone like Ant, unless one of Amen or Sengun doesn’t break out (or add up to a productive duo)

I legit don’t understand why they want to hold on to KD. Makes no sense whatsoever. He seems fine with being traded too and I think he’s actually signaling a desire for it.

 

We did take a pause with drafting and developing FRPs with Durant last season and Thornton probably won't get too much time this season. However, we still are net positive 2 FRPs in 2027 and 2029 and own our FRPs going forward.

I don't see why taking a pause when you have so many young players, as I outlined with the minutes distribution, is such a negative. I think there's a limit to how many players you can develop and still compete.

 

I fully agree there OP and I don’t see how anyone can make a case this was the direction we needed to go after last year. The FVV & Adams weren’t there argument just don’t hold when Adams would’ve only exacerbated our spacing issues and FVV cannot be your saviour. KD going down was to be expected plus Ime didn’t want our young guys relying on him so much. It feels like a roster pleasing Ime and KD first and firemost, which tells me this is about money, exposure that leads to money, and status.

Fertitta is probably drooling over having KD here, selling tons of jerseys, now with the rebrand selling even more. KD brings in the national TV matchups. And Fertitta loves Ime it seems so keeping a controversial yet respected and loved coach around is a good move again for exposure, keeping our name out there, keep the respect of some specific (black) journalists and of course Fertitta doesn’t want to look like a fool for the extension.

Neither does he want to lose more money so his ego won’t allow him to acknowledge we failed at getting any of your youth going so far and adding veterans is simply a desperate attempt to mask that on top of keeping Ime and KD happy. Bringing in more youth would be a riskier option since Tari would act out even more, Sengun would force his shots even more and go stat hunting, Jabari cannot handle the pressure of fighting for his spot, Amen won’t lose his so the dynamic would be even worse.

Still I have liked us to go younger, add talent to push the established core and also hopefully have landed on a hidden gem.

 

one word: revenue

Having a hall of famer on the roster definitely helps fill Tilman's pockets from merch sales to ticket sales.

 

We bet on the lottery and we basically lost every year. We got some good talent but missed Wemby, Cade and Paulo so we’ve had to resort to adding free agent talent and they’re avoiding the cap. Plus they took the strategy of having a vet for each young guy to learn from. Just have to hope one of Amen, Sengun and Reed break out to superstar status and maybe we can flip some of these good old players with picks for a superstar soon. I don’t have much hope Durant and FVV will stay healthy all year unfortunately.

 

there is no logic no rhyme or reason to the front office moves. they are just catering to udoka’s wants while trying to stretch out their own employment as long as possible

 

There is a new CBA in 4 years and new Expansion in about 2 years, we await what happens but it is literally tick tock for every major and serious contender.....

To squeeze one out before the landscape changes again.

 

Kids this school season will be bullied with Yo Rockets so old jokes.

 

The only thing that makes sense is they realized Jalen wasn’t the guy. I’m afraid Reed isn’t the guy either so the rebuild led to a good but not great core.

I’m optimistic that we are sitting pretty good with a lot of our vets able to come off the books in a year or two. As long as we keep our picks we have a chance for long term success.

 

Lauren trying to be legit

“not doing that right now”

 

Genuinely, what do you think of the development last season with KD on the team? Because, in my opinion, you're purposefully stunting their growth for seemingly no reason.

 

oh wow!