They couldn't have made this particular trade until the offseason when their roster capacity expanded to 20 players. Had they done this at the deadline, it would have needed to be a one player for one player deal, and in all likelihood that would have meant taking back salary that extends beyond this season.
that late first is pretty much meaningless. the biggest value was opening up minutes. that's it addition by subtraction
There are a LOT of things going for Wood next season that will make the Wood supporters on here jump up and say " see!!! we should have kept him!!" -He's playing with an elite playmaker in Luka -He's going to be on a better team -He's going to be forced to adapt and follow the pecking order and not get his way -He's in a contract year Wood putting up 20/10 wouldn't surprise me one bit. Defensively, he could actually play some and that effort could propel him into a $18-$20 year deal from Dallas or someone else. That being said, he's still not worth 3 1st round picks. That's like saying Julius Randle is worth 3-4 1st round picks after his All-Star season.
If you don’t expect Green/Sengun to grow up a lot next year then the franchise is truly fked. Good players make major leaps from rookie to their sophomore seasons. With improvements from the rookies we would have been in the 5-10 range in next year’s draft. Getting rid of Wood for no production back brings us back to the 1-4 range and bottom of the league record wise. Next year is shaping up to be a historic draft so I’m good with that. It’s going to be tough to convince FAs to come with that cap room tho next summer. Tho I’m ok with rolling with homegrown talent.
A late first isn't meaningless on a team as bad and as young as the Rockets. A flyer on someone like Hardy, Baldwin, or Jovic is a good thing for the team. Or a trade up from 17.
the funny thing is we went through this logic of a loser playing with better players with a number of guys that shifted through here. And we know how all of those turned out. Lost of people are so easily assuming this thrive in Dallas. Me, I definitely see Dallas regressing with Wood the dollar store KP
What I mean by a lot, is that it takes out of tanking territory so to speak. End up in that 9 - 12 range in the lottery. Currently, the team is still lacking quite a bit. I guess I'll re-evaluate once we see how the roster pans out prior to training camp. My head is telling me that we will be in that bottom 5 range. For a re-build, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I would expect things to really start taking an exponential turn starting next year though.
it sure is meaningless when they have a glute of players already wanting/needing minutes and then adding a #3 and also #17 this year. meaningless you don't have that many spots in a rotation and develop with that many young players
There were a few rumored teams out there that had contracts expiring this offseason (Jazz - Ingles, Cavs - Rubio, Suns - Saric/Smith), so there was room to make a deal out there during the season. I'm not going to excuse Rafael on that one. He dropped the ball.
I think Dallas will be fine as in they will win close to the same amount of games next year that they did this past season. 52 wins, +/-4 depending on whether or not Brunson stays. But the cracks will once again show in the playoffs where you can't simply rely on one elite player to drag a bunch of average/above average guys to the Finals. Wood's production so far has been on bad to very bad teams in Detroit and Houston. How is he going to play/react when there's actually something to play for other than individual stats?
If there is someone they like more at 26 they can trade or cut other players on the roster. Or they package the pick for something else. The Rockets are so far from being in a place where pick 26 is meaningless to them.
tbh I think Dallas will have a shorter leash having gone through KP not so long ago. Wood will remind them they still aren't good enough and that it just doesn't work. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they choose not to retain him long term and either trade him or let him walk.
I think Kidd gets in his ass and either pushes him to another level or Wood folds because he's mentally weak.
nope 26 is essentially something that doesn't provide much value in the end at this point. It's just the easy thing to believe oh we have the 26th pick now who won't see the floor or provide any type of actual productivity for the rockets 26th pick with context doesn't mean anything for this rockets team. They lost 1 player and opened up 30 mins. They are getting a #3 pick who will play a majority of those minutes and a #17 who might see some time, depending on who it is. Add in everyone else from last year who is going to get an upstick in minutes. This isn't hard to see the 26th doesn't matter
