Chad Ford's Re-drafting the Lottery Picks from the 2021 NBA Draft

Well the G-League needs to be taken with a grain of salt because it was a small sample size and he was streaky from game to game. Had he shot poorly in two more games, the numbers wouldn't have looked good. It's the same reason scouts were overly harsh on Scottie Barnes and Josh Christopher as shooters based on a small sample size during COVID.

It is clear that Green does have touch and when he repeats his mechanics well he shoots well.

I am not a huge fan of this coaching staff. Lucas is someone that really is a lifer and works very hard with younger players and they overall improve with him, but he isn't really a great shooting coach and he isn't on the cutting edge. Part of my criticism is that the front office lacks anyone that has a strong voice that coached at the highest levels, and the coaching staff lacks young innovative coaches that are really adept at skill development and progressive in their thinking. If you think about it, that is a terrible combination. You have people that do not understand coaching making the decision, but you have analytic driven decisions.... but the coaching staff that coaches the players chosen do not rely on analytics or are aware of the top cutting edge training philosophies.

 

I’m not terribly surprised how bad we are after trading Harden one year and like 9 days ago.

The Cavs lost Lebron in 2017.

 

That was an excuse for the GM to do mediocrely? Noted.

 

First, neither Harden or Westbrook trusted Tilly or newly promoted Stone. And neither wanted to play for Silas. Both MAY have stayed if Lucas (their stated preference) was hired as HC.

And myopic commitment to Wall, Boogie then Dipo was INSANE from the start. All were coming off MAJOR injuries and were NOT recent ALL STARS and had been playing like shells of former selves. That Silas openly fawned on Wall and Boogie over Harden was mindblowing.

And Wood and KPJ were projects that Stone lucked out on (Morey plan was always to sign Wood in offseason since identifying him previous season as complementary piece for Harden and MDA system) while KPJ was happenstance due to Lucas rep for dealing with talented but troubled players.

JBB was doing a solid for KPJ and not the Rockets. Otherwise KPJ would have (and should have) been included in Harden trade package.

Rockets have lacked LENGTH and elite rim protection since before Harden left and Jarrett Allen was perfect solution for this GLARING problem. It was a truly baffling decision considering the defensive struggles team was still experiencing at time of trade. And hindsight has PROVEN that Stone F'ed this up.

Then Stone doubled down on this stupidity by choosing not to re-sign another big that they acquired serendipitously in Olynyk even though he proved adept and efficient in running Silas wonky system instead choosing to sign a journeyman and unproven in Silas system for a few measly dollars less to DISASTROUS results.

Stone and Silas were running a cluster fvck and they were fortunate that a cascade of injuries gave them a scapegoat for the season and excuse to pivot towards a full on rebuild.

 

If that's the case Green needs to hire some private trainers in the off season. Seems to be the trend these days and it correlates to good results. I know Lavine and Tyler herro work with this one guy that's pretty popular on Social Media, Lonzo Ball also works with some hyped up trainer in LA that fixed his shot

 

Or an explanation where the franchise is.

We were predicted to be a bottom 3 by Vegas and lo and behold...... Not my fault you caught feelings gurlfriend.

 

Seems like the work they're putting in on correcting his shot hasn't paid off yet, but hopefully with enough repetition and mental tenacity on his part, his shot will come around.

 

The thing about Kelly O is that he’s good with the ball. Really good Off IQ, creates for teammates etc.
However, imagine the riot here about how he’s stealing touches from Green. There is just one ball. With KPJ, Green, Wood, Kelly O. and EG all demanding it, who’s gonna play off-ball?

 

Jarret Allen was a RFA. I wouldn't be surprised if Tilman wasn't interested in paying Allen half a season after trading away our franchise player. We are like $10 mil under the luxury cap.

 

It's called overachieving and playing beyond expectations.

Rockets used to do it regularly with Harden, Morey and then MDA.

That has become a thing of the past with this franchise.

And guess where Vegas predicted Cavs to be ranked THIS season?

 

Yeah, Harden and Morey and Westbrook all wanted nothing to do with Tillman after how he handled the luxury tax with an elite team.

Yeah the fact that Silas opening complained about Harden shooting was baffling early in the season, especially the press conference when Harden in his first game back went for like 46/17 and almost willed the Rockets to a victory over the Blazers. Then again, Silas' talent evaluation overall has been poor.

Tate and Wood and Weaver were all projects that started under Morey. Now Stone was part of that process and deserves credit for going through with it. However you are right, they were not originated with Stone.

Well that is a matter of perspective. I think that the Rockets wanted to love games and a lot of games and Allen would not have helped that happen. Having said that, the Rockets should have gotten more for Allen. Still, the Rockets long term arguably made the right decision clearing the decks and tanking.

FWIW I don't think they should have signed either of them. They should have gone with a young player and taken their lumps.

We agree on this.

 

KO played off ball at very high efficiency too with Rockets.

And having another playmaker and elite 3ball shooter would be a PLUS on this Rockets team right now.

 

Just trying to be the voice of reason here on page 8 that roughly one year into the rebuild we don’t know **** about what our young guys are going to do yet. Let’s not throw them all in the trash just yet. The only thing I feel like we can say with any certainty is that we have too many young guys relative to inexperienced coaches. Someone needs to be able to project reasonable development goals and give a blueprint to the players and staff to get there and that seems to be missing. I expected us to lose a lot of games because we are overmatched on a talent basis on most nights but how we lose as a team because of communication is alarming and the fact it keeps happening in the same ways points to a lack of coaching development. I have respect for some of those coaches but maybe several of them just have the wrong skill sets for the task. Take Lucas - is he really the right coach for the rebuild if we don’t have KPJ and since it’s looking less and less like KPJ will be the star we rebuild around, is Lucas bringing the value we need at this stage? And by the way, I’m not saying KPJ can’t be good, but I’m saying maybe it’s time to explore his trade market and stop having a coach here full time who is really only helping one underperforming player on our roster while we have several other younger players who need more skills development than personal guidance.

One more note on Stone - we are at our dumbest point in this rebuild of knowing where we are going so I would hope Stone prioritizes keeping options open as we move forward and that means not signing wastes of money like Theis. I know to some extent he is still saddled by the “win now” deals in the Harden era that brought us Ego’s extension and Wall but he is under a microscope for me in terms of what he does next because the Theis signing and opting for Dipo over Allen in the Harden deal we’re not totally awful moves, but they also both look like missed opportunities in retrospect.

 

Then I'd say you are living in the past and should move on.

Yes.... all those people left with Harden leaving 1/20/21, a little more than a year ago. That's why my expectations are different from than Harden/Morey/MDA era.

We haven't had a rebuild in almost two decades. I'm not sure how old you are but maybe you've only known the playoff and #14 pick Rockets.

Not anywhere close to being third in the East. Vegas missed on the Cavs and Grizzlies.

Mobley is an absolute stud with an up and coming point guard in Darius Garland.

 

LMAO

I've been a Rockets fan since their final season in San Diego.

 

It’s well known that most young players take 3-4 years before they become the players they will be in their career - you see that year 3 bump statistically in most developing players. By that measure, Cleveland is just starting to see the fruits of their talent investments post Lebron.

 

Well then suck it up buttercup and act like you've been through one of these.... Stop falling apart over every move you perceived as incorrect.

Move on. Stop living in the past.

 

All the folks in this thread going Cade over Mobley seems pretty nuts. I think there’s a bias against Mobley on CF since he’s been the primary direct comparison to Jalen and we didn’t pass on Cade to take Jalen.

 

Mobley, Cade, and Barnes are pretty easy as the top 3. I think you could make a case for several guys, including Jalen, at 4.

 

Just to be clear, Vegas isn’t trying to predict the future, they are trying to make money and that means they set odds at the intersection of where they think a team will actually finish vs what the public perception of where that team will finish is. It’s a statistical model meant to separate dummies from their money(see Lakers fans). Vegas knew the Cavs would see a “bump” in year 3 of their young player development while adding a top tier lotto pick just like they knew the Lakers weren’t going to be good with an aging Westbrook…but the odds don’t reflect that wisdom by design.