Houston went all in on talented but recovering Achilles tear players this offseason - Wall, Boogie, Nwaba. It seems like Stone had a clear directive to go high risk/high reward this offseason knowing Harden could blow it all up anyway so why not try. So far it’s looking good but the reality is at least one if not several of his gambles will backfire eventually. That said - I agree with the gamble given the situation. Nwaba, Wood, Tate, Brown, Boogie, Wall - this is about replacing a known quantity with uncertainty in hopes that it raises our ceiling as a team with Harden or at least gives us tradeable assets if we pivot to “blow it up” mode...and if everyone years their Achilles again- then at least you are bad enough to kick start the rebuilding process. Teams are dangerous when they are willing to take risks like this. Hopefully it works out - whether it works out in the long or short term is the question.
we have harden and wood 2 'superstars' ...others are more or less easily replacable with the deeper rotation guys or through trades... if one or dare i say even all of Wall, Boogie, Nwaba goes down it will not be the end of championship aspirations wood plus harden plus a great coach plus a bench you are guaranteed wcf and a shot at finals
If Wall or Cousins can help, it raises our ceiling significantly which I think is the BIG difference between the teams of the last few years and today’s team.
Tilman & Stone: Great news Harden! We got you 3 recovering Achilles tear players in - Wall, Boogie, Nwaba Plus undrafted Christian Wood which we believe you can turn into an all-star in time for a championship run this year And a rookie coach Harden: Trade me
Yea his elbows are kinda pointy. I like him anyways. Haterade is on the top shelf. Save it. We got these three bros actually playing decent basketball for minimum prices. Wat a time. To be a alive
Sterling Brown is really a underrated Player. He has Eric Gordon type skills, but shooting form looks like Khris Middleton.
I don’t get the people saying Nwaba deserves more minutes . it’s 4 games in . He played good minutes the first two .. sat the 3rd and played the 4th right? and Silas still plays 9+ man rotations . If nwaba didn’t deserve more minutes then sterling brown would deserve more minutes . not saying Silas isn’t liable for critique and nwaba isn’t good .... buuut it’s 4 games in . I’m glad nwaba is playing so well so far . So Is brown who Really provided a spark in the first half of game 3 .
Christian Wood, Jae'Sean Tate, Sterling Brown all are 25 years old. Christian Wood is becoming a Great Player Jae'sean Tate can be a Great Power Forward Right now due to lack of Small Forward defenders, he is playing this position Sterling Brown is a Excellent 6th Man
Nwaba, Brown and Tate all can defend well. They all defend different positions but all do the little things to win. The ability to hit 3’s is what is ultimately going to decide who is getting more minutes. Nwaba is the Rockets best defender at the one and two. That makes him unique because he can steal minutes when Wall or Harden sits. Nwaba is also the Rockets best overall defender. Right now he is still adjusting, he thrives in the open court and defensively gets back in transition.
He is going to need to be a consistent three point shooter if he ever plans to have a solid role carved out. It's just the type of league we play in.
You guys have the wrong idea on the "risk" from achilles tears. I'm in the months long recovery process from it myself right now so have done all the research and have personal experience. Rerupture rate is very low, that's not the risk in these players. The issue is that many people come back as a shell of themselves and is never the same again - that's the risk. So far we have already seen the worst of what Wall, Nwaba will be and should only get better. Wall is actually a year ahead of Nwaba so that might be why they are taking it slow with Nwaba. Cousins has been back from achilles years ago and is now dealing with other lower body injuries that came after, acl tear most recently, so hes a different case. It is possible that Cousins got these other injuries from overcompensating his achilles, that is another risk. But that risk is also lower for lighter guards like Wall and Nwaba vs a heavyset in Cousins.
Sorry - I didn't literally mean the risk of re-rupture, I was really referring to the risk of not being able to physically perform at the level they need to be to make an impact on the ceiling of our team - I should have worded that differently. I agree that even though Wall in particular has looked rusty, the speed and explosion he has managed to retain is a great sign for us. Obviously he moves the needle for us the most. Boogie just needs to be able to retain his high basketball IQ and skill and not get roasted on defense and he will be an overall plus. If we get anything out of Nwaba at all it will be better than what we got from our short bench last year.
