Houston Rockets Random Thought Of The Day ....2022/23 edition.

LOL

 

Have to keep building on the end of season momentum! Throw in some defense this year and who knows - we may be able to elicit a few smiles out of the doom and gloomers!

 

David Weiner @BimaThug

This article got me thinking. What about this twist on a Russ trade?: MIA gets: KJ Martin LAL gets: Eric Gordon, David Nwaba, "Mavs guys", 2026 2nd rdr (via MIA) HOU gets: Russ, 2026 swap right (via LAL), 2027 LAL FRP (top-4 protected), 2028 & 2029 2nd rdrs (via MIA)
The Athletic NBA
What made it so hard for the Nets to move Kevin Durant? The real issue was that Brooklyn wasn’t willing to rebuild, @johnhollinger writes. More: https://t.co/5W9BtknLWx https://t.co/27a7CaSTe0

 

David Weiner @BimaThug

This article got me thinking. What about this twist on a Russ trade?: MIA gets: KJ Martin LAL gets: Eric Gordon, David Nwaba, "Mavs guys", 2026 2nd rdr (via MIA) HOU gets: Russ, 2026 swap right (via LAL), 2027 LAL FRP (top-4 protected), 2028 & 2029 2nd rdrs (via MIA)
The Athletic NBA
What made it so hard for the Nets to move Kevin Durant? The real issue was that Brooklyn wasn’t willing to rebuild, @johnhollinger writes. More: https://t.co/5W9BtknLWx https://t.co/27a7CaSTe0

 

David Weiner @BimaThug

While this scenario would involve the vast majority of team salary being dead money (assuming a Russ buyout), the Rockets would still be below the luxury tax threshold.
Rob Kimbell
@BimaThug If Tilman eats the Wall AND Russ contract in the same offseason for the betterment of the team, he's a legend in my book.

 

What if fans acknowledge that ketchup and mustard is just not a good combination and craving for a return of those as main colours is only nostalgic and has nothing to do with it looking good ‍♂️

 

That's funny

 

NEVER

 

With the youth movement, newer ownership and positive things starting to happen it’s time to move on from the asian inspired blood dripped “”R”. Retro inspired would be nice (championship uniforms) but it is not essential. I like most of what I’ve seen with the classic logo in modern colors. Just wish we would complete commit and go with a change because we are different now.

 

Craving for a Center who dominates everything is not going to happen in this era. Ooooh Wemby.

It is a whole other ball game.

The colors are fine as long as the team is winning.

 

Indiana ($42.2M)
Denver ($35.5M)
Portland ($32M)
Charlotte ($31.6M)
Sacramento ($29.9M)
New Orleans ($28.9M)
Memphis ($28M)
San Antonio ($26.3M)
Minnesota ($25.6M)
Orlando ($23.4M)
Detroit ($21.5M)
Cleveland ($19.9M)
OKC ($17.5M)
Utah ($11.7M)
Atlanta ($10.8M)
Washington ($7.2M)
Milwaukee ($6.7M)
Toronto ($2.1M)
Phoenix ($1.6M)
Houston ($931K)

 

A'ight, I'll bite.

The Rockets should try to trade anything needed except current blue chip prospects (Green, Smith, maybe Sengun and/or Eason) to move the Clippers pick into the top 10 or as close as possible.

Here's my reasoning:

1. This is a very strong draft class. There's been so much focus on Wemby and Scoot that some of the other guys have received less attention than they otherwise would have. You've got some very high ceiling upside-plays in there, like the Thompson twins and Cam Whitmore, and you've got some really high floor guys who can step in and contribute right away like Jarace Walker and Brandon Miller, while still having all-star potential. Somebody is going to fall to around #10. It happens every year. And it's going to be a guy who could go top 3 in a weaker draft class.

2. This is probably our last chance for awhile to add significant talent via the draft. We don't own our own pick next season, and the one after that is unlikely to fall in the top 10. This is our last opportunity to finish off the rebuild and get as loaded with draft talent as we're going to get. We should maximize that. Coming away with two guys who could go top 3 in most drafts is a real possibility, and if we can do that, we absolutely should do it now.

3. It helps us maximize our upcoming window for contending. The clock is running down on team control for guys like Green and Sengun. If we want to contend while they're inexpensive, and convince them to stay as future free agents if they turn out to be the stars we hope they will, the more draft talent we can pack in right now the better. It doesn't help us to trade for guys who will be gone when these players are in their prime years, toward the end of our inexpensive team control years. Draft picks in future years also have lower marginal value to us, since those rookies' productive years won't line up as well with our current prospects. We don't want to still be developing teenagers in, for example, 2025/2026--we want to be contending for a title.

4. Too many prospects, too few minutes. Adding two more young players to this crew, especially if we're also going to add two or three players in free agency, is going to create some logjams. It's better to clear out guys we don't see as core pieces and make playing time for the highest-value players. I'm not convinced a draft pick at #18 (or whatever the Clippers pick ends up being) even gets playing time over guys like TyTy and KJ. Instead, we should package some marginal pieces and future picks together and try to get a guy who has major upside and/or high odds at being a starting-caliber NBA player.

5. "No we shouldn't, we should trade the Clippers pick in a package for a proven player". I think this is bad timing to spend assets on a deal like that. A guy like that doesn't help us during our contending window, which, sorry guys, isn't next season or probably even the one after that (although you can always dream). If all we're spending is cap space, whatever, that's fine--it depends on the contract--but let's not blow the last chance to strengthen our youth movement before we finish that phase of the rebuild.

6. "No we shouldn't, we should just be hoarding assets to trade for a star who becomes available". This makes more sense but I'm still not sold on it. I don't think any star will want to come to Houston until we're a decent team, and we're still in the "trying to become a decent team" phase. You can argue that maybe we shouldn't punt too many future draft picks or trade away players who may be key parts of that process for this reason, and that's a valid perspective. But I'd still favor maximizing the youth movement right now. Trading up doesn't necessarily weaken our future position anyway--teams would rather have a really good young player when trading away their stars.

7. "No team will let us trade up into the top ten". Maybe not, but all I'm saying is we should try. We have a lot of young players, maybe some team has been eyeing one of them and is higher on him than we are. We don't really know what's going on behind the scenes.