Fairplay, I shouldn't have taken that potshot. The way your post read was a line in the sand where's it's basically Giannis or mediocrity. It's just this absolute level of judgement on 22 y/o's that boggles my mind and your post is the summation of that. Too, I'll mention a player that you just mentioned. Brunson averaged 12/4/3 in 25 mpg in year 3 (age 24). He was top 5 MVP in year 6 (age 27). And your post touts how we simply don't have anyone like him. Ironic, no? And that's the point.
Personally not in favor of gutting our very young team for Giannis. I would learn from the young Suns who added Durant and even Brooklyn adding Irving. The media want's clicks and will spread rumors because they don't care about the team, some fans are impatient and that's how treadmill teams are made. The successful teams, outside of a rare LeBron type cobbled superteam, are typically created organically getting incrementally better over seasons with smaller moves that make sense.
I'm sure he meant Claxton and Thomas to the Rockets + the 2 FRPs. Terrible trade, not sure why the hell he wants to rebuild lol. I guess he lost faith already.
My grandma used to say "when you chase stars, you end up stranded on the moon." Never made sense to me. Still doesn't.
Brunson clearly had the talent and skillset the entire time,to me and to history,it was clearly a usage issue (Sheppard and Whitmore could be that). In year 3 he was 4th in 6moty. In year 4 he played good enough to earn himself a max contract from the Knicks. It could be usage, it could take time or it could be a change of scenery where any of Jalen, Cam, Jabari, Tari or Reed take a step towards stardom, it's definitely not impossible. If i had to put money on any of them becoming an all-star, I think i'd take Reed solely on his ability to shoot, create for others and the fact that he got almost no opportunity for consistency this year and seemed to take it in stride.
If you have the opportunity to land a generational talent in his prime, you do it! We have some nice young players, but none even close to the level of the Greek Freak!
Maybe if Rockets change their logo and colors to look like Lakers we can get Giannis for Jalen Green and #10????
Giannis production at 22 looks a lot like Sengun at 22.... Comparing 19-22 year olds to guys in their prime isn't logical.
I think it's important to note that he's at the ass end of his prime and will likely be out of the league entirely in 4 years. This isn't getting a mid 20's star
You're not doing it intentionally but you're distorting history to fit the narrative. It was absolutely not clear that Brunson had "it" (lets just call it that instead of a sentence). Year 2 Brunson, already older than everyone except Tari from the Rockets core, had a negative BPM, 14.9 PER, and averaged 16/6/4 per 36 on 55% TS while playing many of the non-Luka minutes for the Mavs. And if usage was the primary driver then that wouldn't explain why he fell to the 2nd round and stayed 3 years at Villanova. I think the more realistic thing here, instead of revisionist history pretending it was obvious Brunson would become this huge breakout star in year 3, is to suggest that perhaps we have multiple players whose year 3 platform is equal or better than Brunson's year 3 and it's not illogical to think they might have upside beyond your current expectations. If all our guys were 24-27 instead of 21-24 I'd agree with you. That 3 years is everything. But as of now, I think there's still meaningful upside on this roster.
I don't factor age as much as you are but it's valid. Additionally, when i say i see a star, i mean, I watch the game and I can picture them being a star. This isn't stats based what so ever. This is all eye test stuff, star is subjective to begin with, i'm sticking with non objective vibe based opinions. like Who out of 1) Jalen 2) Jabari 3) Tari 4) Reed 5) Cam do you believe has the baseline talent to be an all-star level player at minimum? Is it all five for you? I personally think Jabari has basically a 0% chance of being more than a role player (a very good floor spacer and defender) but I could see an argument for the others somewhat. This is fully based on his feel for the game and handles which I just think are never going to improve enough for him to be able to put the ball down and get a bucket on a regular basis. and since I guess I came off as authoritative before, i want to re-iterate, this is just an opinion. I could be completely wrong. Also, a role player is still a valuable player, not everyone needs to be a star and even great teams usually don't have more than two high end stars (Amen level). I am not declaring anyone of these guys to be sure fire busts or anything (although I don't think Cam and Tari can even ever be declared that based on their draft positioning) I say Jaylen Brown specifically because he was very rigid as a rookie and it appeared as if there really was no avenue for him to be a star level player at that point. Jabari Smith Jr. being a star would be a similar surprise.
He's a generational talent exiting his prime(will be 31 at the start of next season) who can't reliably shoot so he needs to be surrounded by shooters so he can make teams pay when they collapse into the paint to stop him. We are one of the worst shooting teams in the league and our best shooters are still several years away from being "ready". While it is true Greek Freak is way better than anyone on our roster - what you are asking for is taking a high speed jet boat and dropping it in the dessert. It's not going to get you very far without water. Houston can bring better shooters on board, but they can't remake the entire roster over night - it will likely take several years and using all available assets working against the clock to get a roster in place before Giannis' loss of athleticism(a big part of his value) catches up with him. Is it really worth taking a team that finished second in the West and trading most of the value from that team for 3 years of playoff contention(the # of years remaining on Giannis' contract) before starting another rebuild? I mean this is literally the first year being competitive out of a 5 year rebuild. I would rather improve this team incrementally and stay competitive for the next 10 years than get 3 more years of competing with Giannis before hitting reset again and another 5 years of us sucking through KPJ and Christian Wood type talents. Just do the math - which looks better as a fan? 5 years of sucking +1 year of breaking through + then trading it all for 3 more years of Giannis before + 5 more years of sucking? Thats 10 years of rebuilding and 4 years in the middle of being competitive with maybe a 15%-20% chance of coming out of the West with Giannis(hope key reserves or stars don't get hurt as in very playoffs).... OR 5 years of sucking + 10 years of being competitive and maybe having a 10-15% chance of catching breaks in the West and seeing a guy like Alpi or Amen grow into a guy who can maybe pull a deep run? That's 10 years of playoffs and 5 years of sucking.
That roster makes me want to throw up. I can't imagine how bad we'd be after 3 years. Especially if Reed doesn't pan out.
If Giannis comes here, Sengun will be gone. It's crazy to imagine Sengun being traded before Jalen tho. I'm actually in favor for the trade because Stone has failed us in the draft to get a generational superstar, which may or may not be his fault. We're never going to win a championship going the way we are now so I'd much rather try to win with Giannis and if that fails, do another rebuild with Amen at the helm down the road.
Houston would be open to trading Alperen Sengun, league sources told NBC Sports, but the Bucks may be higher on a Jalen Green-based trade (depending on how they rate Green). Jabari Smith Jr. is likely part of any deal, and the Rockets have a lot of future first-round picks — their own and others, such as Brooklyn and Phoenix picks — that could be part of the trade. It likely takes a third team to make the math work, but it’s very doable. https://www.nbcsports.com/nba/news/...iannis-antetokounmpo-landing-spots-in-a-trade
Yeah there's no way... I'm pretty sure he would just refuse to come if we sold the farm with the cows off just like that.
