[99ers Only] Has there been a more unlikable Rockets team than this one?

I agree in a lot of respects, although the “always bring energy” is fading fast with the frustration of losing. Silas has lost this team and I would go ahead and hire an interim just to give the team some hope of improvement and development, but not expect it to translate into wins. We are too young and inexperienced to win.

 

Wait... that was worse than the Brooks/Ariza/Battier/Scola/Hayes era for you?

 

This era is the most miserable, imo. It's not the players. It's that I have no faith in the organization. I always thought we could pull through during the earlier tough patches because we had a good combination of owner / GM / coaching to get us back to the top. There was a vision. What's going on now is garbage. I enjoy watching young talent but hate to see it wasted learning bad habits and a bad system.

People talk about the mediocrity treadmill as being a bad thing and that's true... but right now we're on the Kings' path of bad basketball and lottery picks over and over without being even competitive.

 

I am a Rockets fan since 1992. Have been on this site since the 90s, but lost my password twice and couldn’t recover (Kayman and AussieRocket were my other handles). The team has never been so bad for so long. I am trying to look at the positives, we definitely have young talent. However we have had athletic talent before that never developed: Stro Swift, T-Will, Eddie Griffin, Terrence Jones…

So not much to get excited: some good young talent that may or may not amount to much, that is in addition being stunted by a clueless coach and a pervasive culture of suckiness.

 

It's certainly a low point right now as things seem fractured and uncertain.

There are questions about the way the rebuild is going, the philosophy, the development, the management, the ownership, and the players themselves.

Yeah, dark times. the worst? Well, it could turn out that way, but let's hope not.

 

What? You think that talent level is anywhere close to Green, Sengun, Jabari and even KPJ?

Really?

Swift was a second pick bust by the team he came to the Rockets. It's like if Green busted and joined another team at age 25. Eddie Griffen was almost an near bust by the end of his rookie year showing no where near the promise as Green and Sengun. Remember that was an era where one and done wasn't as coom so the allure of Eddie Griffen was that he was 19 and had a high ceiling. Well Green and Sengun were both 19 and had great rookie years. Terrance Jones? TWill?

No, none of those guys sniff the promise of Green, Sengun, Bari and KPJ.

 

This is probably the most unlikable coaching staff..
Even more than coach clap, clap , clap

 

Coaching is definitely a huge concern. Ownership... people forget that Les was a terrible owner. Until we had Morey, our FO was horrendous. Les purchased a championship team and then proceeded to dismantle it into the ground. Why do you think Rudy T was never with us later on? He's a longer part of Lakers history by the end of his career than H-Town and that was criminal! We signed players lke Cato and Maloney to HUGE contracts. We trotted out the horrific Fanchise/Cat and Brooks/Ariza/Kmart as "superstar" lineups for years without shame. Us getting Yao was pure, dumbass luck while Harden was Morey ingenuity.

 

Who the hell are you quoting? I didn't bring any of those names up.

 

Sorry that I don’t unlike/hate/whatever this edition of TheGoodGuys. OK, not sorry.

My frustration is with ownership/FO + FO/coaching decisions. My frustration keeps rising.

 

Don't know how that happened. Edited it though.

 

Ya Les is a very overrated owner who inherited a championship roster and then proceeded to rebrand right after winning rings and just made so many horrible decisions after until Morey .

 

We're ok man, I'm not too worried. Can definitely see the improvement in the individual players. It is impossible that Silas will get fired before next season, that is the only reason a coach would stick around while the GM builds a guaranteed loss generating roster. They've promised him a season where he has the GM's support and vet players to compete for the playoffs.

We are young and inexperienced, and the solution to those things is to wait for their age and experience to increase. They'll add some vets when they actually want to win next season. They'll bench players for stupid mistakes because they will matter. It will be fine. People are freaking out because we're in an accelerated tank strategy (7 picks in 2 seasons, worst record for 3 years) but our upswing is going to be just as wild as our downswing.

 

I disagree. They need to add vets now. Not because they need to win now but because they need to develop now. How can young players develop when everyone on the court with them is also young and trying to figure out their game?

Imagine 5 teammates on the court at the same time still uncertain about their role in the NBA, still trying to figure out the game. How does that help development? It only stagnates it unless your goal is to teach young players how to get better in the worst possible conditions imaginable.

 

Rudy T was a great coach for two championship runs and pretty mediocre after that. I think Hakeem carried this team to two championships on his back and covered up for a lot of mistakes made... but the trade for Drexler was huge and you have to give management credit for realizing they had to make that move.

Maloney signed a long contract but it wasn't huge money. He made something like $16m over the course of 8 seasons. Cato's contract was worse but even at its highest he was the 3rd highest paid player on the team. I'm not saying that either were good contracts - both bad signings overall.

 

So you don't remember the last time the Rockets traded away a league MVP .... and the losing in the wake of that.

I still remember the day they traded Moses Malone to the 76ers .... I was in tears thinking how terrible a trade that was - who the #&@$ is Caldwell Jones?! and a first round pick ....

The 76ers with Malone & Dr J won the championship, Malone the Finals MVP .... the Rockets got 14 wins.


The next two years were much like these last two on the court ..... the team was abysmal, what we didn't have back then was social media where every asshat has an opinion and 99% of those are bad.

At least we had hope with the #1 pick that eventually became Hall of Famer Ralph Sampson ....

The Rockets also had the #3 pick in that draft which became Rodney MCcray.


Steve Stipanovich .... anyone ever heard of him? He went #2 to the Pacers.

Later Rocket killer Dale Ellis went #9 in that draft .... to the Mavs.

 

It be nice. Who are the vets and what do they cost?

 

It shouldn't be that hard. The bar is rather low. Like I'd be happy just to get Augustine back. But Conley is on the top of my mind of someone who might be available depending on what the Jazz decide (rebuild or play in)

 

No, fans don't like to be in that type of limbo between being contenders and trying to find elite talent ..... but they don't like being bad to acquire that elite talent either.


Look around you .... the sky is falling.


I saw the plan from the get go - three years of being as bad as it takes to get top picks followed by having a large amount of cap space to add to those lottery picks.

We just have to finish the process .... that comes this offseason.

IF by the start of next season, the tide hasn't turned, that's when I join the dark side and complain about blowing the rebuild.

We just aren't finished with the process yet.

 

I agree that that would be ideal for development, but it would not be ideal for maximizing losses. A veteran at PG gives us an uptick in wins for sure because more organized play leads to more wins, it's that simple. Older players generally lead to more wins.

So it just doesn't fit in the strategy. I don't agree with the strategy personally, but I think the most likely scenario is they will get vets a little later than we wanted and the development might be mildly impacted in favor of trying to add a Scoot or Wemby (i.e. another potential franchise player). It's a deviation from what I'd like, but should work out just fine as long as they keep a strong coaching staff overall and keep the players working hard off the court too. Team concepts will take time to develop and the front office supporting its success is a big missing component too.