If teams are tanking for Wemby the Rockets should....?

Again, you seem to think the team has to keep tanking or that they even CAN tank this year while so many less talented teams will be tanking. There's no way you can think that and think as highly of the players on the team as I do.

Now maybe you think that in several years the players will be good, but you can't think that they are CURRENTLY as good as I do and still think they could successfully tank.

 

Talented teams don't lose to untalented teams that are trying to lose. Like I spelled out before, the Rockets last season BARELY managed to tank with significantly less talent than this current team has and the ONLY reason they pulled it off was how absolutely terrible Jalen Green was in the first half of the season. If he played better from the start, it would have led to at least a few more wins and the Rockets not being in the bottom 3, probably not the bottom 5.

With more talent on the team and guys like Green having a year under their belt, I just don't see another 20 win season. This current team is closer to a 40 win team than a 20 win team.

 

jabari is very talented. Will he be a GOOD player this season? almost certainly no. Why? he's a rookie, and rookie's almost always suck. Green is still only in his 2nd year, so hopefully he improves his efficiency but overall he won't be someone that can impact winning yet

 

I made my point.

 

It certainly seemed like he was pretty good the little we've seen of him so far....I mean, I guess keep hope alive that the Rockets will suck, but you have to understand most Rockets fans will hope for their players being good.

 

People on both sides of the tank debate need to understand something.

Tanking is something you can do when you have vets and good players by ejecting them or sitting them with suspicious injuries. Or not playing John Wall. Or making young guys play over vets. So on and so forth.

But it's not a decision when you have already gotten rid of nearly all your vets and all you are left with are young talented guys. How the F do you tank now????

You are already playing a bunch of 18-22 year olds outside Tate, EG, and Bruno - and none of those guys really impact your W/L's all that much when you are considering the minutes they are displacing.

The Rockets can't tank. They can not not tank. They are what they are and their record will reflect what they are.

So just freaking enjoy it and let the chips fall where they may.

 

He has played 0 games so we have seen literally nothing so far. I hope long term he’s great, but like basically all rookies i’m gonna be realistic

 

Well, I've seen him play... but feel free to keep hope alive that he'll be terrible.

 

You went to the future? Kinda wasted it just to watch jabari play a game

 

Nah only Morey does that lol. I'm guessing he trades 5 picks for Kyle Lowry if things start falling apart.

 

Really we're in the same place on this ..... this team isn't going to outright throw games but because they are lacking in the experience department, they'll have a poor record organically but being "worst bad" again would likely mean one of the last two lotto picks was a total bust and that's worst case scenario .... I don't see that happening.

I think San Antonio is by far the worst roster in the league. I'd make them the early favorite for worst record. They might be lucky to break double digit wins. 9-73?

After SAS, I think it's a crap shoot .... any of Utah, OKC, Indiana, Houston or Orlando could end up in the 2-6 spots & Portland could pull the plug early on and join the party. If I had to guess, I'd put them in that order.

That outcome isn't terrible - a 9-12% shot at the top 2 and natural improvement .....

What I don't want to see is adding some mid tier veteran players at the expense of future cap space just to try and reach the play in. That's worst case scenario. 0.4-1.7% chance of a top 3 pick ..... just to win 10 more games.

 

I don't see them doing that. If they do, it's really surprising.

So assuming the FO is not going to acquire any good veteran role players, this whole discussion of tank-or-not-tank to me is much ado about nothing. We do not have a tank mode other than sit Gordon who will likely be gone anyway. None of the other veterans are better than the young guys we want to develop. So how are we going to tank if the young guys play well and win games?

The only other veteran role player in the rotation is Tate. But one can argue that even though Tate is not young in age, he is still kind of "young" in his NBA career and may still have some upside. Anyhow, I don't want to see them play Tate in front of Eason. I like Tate. But I would rather see him dealt if he takes away minutes from the young guys.

 

I think that we were the worst team in the league last year and we got younger. Christian Wood is gone. We all seem to expect EG and Derrick Favors are trades waiting to happen. And I just don't see a team as young as ours winning a lot of games. I haven't looked it up, but I bet our rotation is the youngest in the league. You really expect us to make that significant of a jump with this little experience?

I suspect the Spurs and Jazz will be worse than us this year, but I do expect we'll be right there in the mix for the top picks. OKC had the 4th worst record last year and got the #2 pick. No reason we can't do something similar.

 

The problem with the tank crew is that the players you'd have to keep off the court in order to successfully tank are the players you are trying to develop.

This isn't a scenario where you can bench players like Wood or Wall to help the tank. Trading Eric Gordon doesn't really change the win total of the team.

To tank you'd have to bench guys like Green, KPJ, Jabari, or Sengun. Those are the players that are going to lead to wins.

Now sure they are young, so no one should be expecting them to win 45 games, but they'll win more than 30 which will put them easily outside of the bottom 5 teams.

By all means, you can hope the Rockets win the lottery, but it's super unlikely.

It's far more realistic the Rockets sneak in to a play in game which would bode well for the future.

 

They managed to pull off the worst record in the league, but just 5 more wins puts them out of the bottom 5 teams....and basically the only reason they didn't win more games was how absolutely detrimental Jalen Green was to the team in the first half of the season. Given the stellar improvement he's made since then, I don't see that being a problem going forward.

Basically to think the Rockets even have a shot at tanking while so many other less talented teams are actively trying to tank means that you think Green, KPJ, and Sengun all regress and Smith and Eason are total busts. That's about the only way the current team ends up worse than the team was to end the season last year.

Yes they'll be young, that's a reason to suggest they won't be a playoff team....but there's a big difference between not a playoff team, and a 20 win team. They simply have too much talent to be a 20 win team this season.

 

Well, I expect the Pistons, Magic and Thunder to be a little better too. And only the Jazz and Spurs to be worse. I am not saying we will win 20 games again, but I would be surprised if we win more than 25.

 

Then that's expecting guys like Green and Smith to be busts. That's the ONLY way that happens.

Honestly if we win less than 30 games, the entire coaching staff needs to be fired. There's simply no excuse for it given the talent on the roster.

I personally expect Green to get even better, I expect Smith to be a solid defensive player that can knock down 3's which spreads the court, I expect Eason to put in some work off the bench, I expect Sengun to keep doing Sengun things, I expect KPJ to feast as defenses start paying more attention to his teammates instead of focusing exclusively on him....he might even get some open looks from 3 with Green's development and Sengun's passing.

I don't understand the overly pessimistic outlook. I get wishing the Rockets won the lottery, but I don't get how someone could convince themselves it's realistically attainable.

 

I disagree, Silas is our tank commander now.

 

Winning 25 games would mean winning 25% more games than we did last year. That's actually a huge step forward.