REBUILDING: Tanking v. Changing

We could do both by 'developing' the youth... WE COULD DRAFT HIGH DRAFT PICKS AND TRADE FOR YOUNG PLAYERS

Hypothetical: Lets say we manage to trade Scola PF for Harden SG and Cole Aldrich C and Martin SG for Mayo PG/SG and Thabeet C and also manage to trade Brooks and Lowry as well ... we could throw out a young TALENTED lineup that wont win games off the bat due to their lack of experience. But the team would definitely have the talent to develop into a contender through time..

OJ Mayo/ Ish Smith
James Harden/ Courtney Lee
Terrence Williams/ Chase Budinger
Jordan Hill/ Patrick Patterson
Cole Aldrich/ Hasheem Thabeet

The losses this line-up would get early on(due to their lack of experience) could land us some high draft picks which would give us the chance to draft the elite prospect that we're looking for, (2011 possible elite level talent: Kyrie Irving, Perry Jones, Harrison Barnes, Enes Kanter, and Donatas Montiejunas).

And with the unrivaled drafting department that Morey has, I like our chances at drafting an elite prospect with a high lottery pick.

 

i say we're good the way we are we just need 2 add a couple of players 2 the mix n will b ok.. dm knows what hes doin. i think t.prince will b a nice addition.....we hav a lot of young talent and draft picks which calls for good future trades

 

we have way more # of teams who tanked in the past but went to nowhere than # of teams who tanked and got a good deal.

good luck if rox does tank.

 

Lowry's gotta be one of the first to go. At the absolute best, he can be an average starter in the NBA, and he probably won't ever get to be even that good. Brooks just depends on the price. He still has the potential to step his game up again and be a top 5 starter so he's worth a gamble if the price isn't too high. I don't see any use for Martin on this team. Martin should at most be the third best player on a championship team. We're not gonna get two players better than Kevin Martin before his contract is up or he gets injured.

 

there are 3 possibilities here:

a) tank and hope that you can get your next superstar through the draft.

b) package your veterans and some assets and trade for a superstar.

c) believe in what you've got and try to plug the holes.


a) is your best chance to get a superstar and win a championship in the future but the problem is that this route takes a lot of time and there isn't any guarantee that this strategy will work out as planned. you'd have to lose a lot of games for a couple of years and could still end up with a jay williams, steve francis, greg oden or yao ming.

b) would be the best way for everyone involved. unfortunately, superstars don't grow on trees and no team is going to trade you one. it doesn't matter how many assets you've collected. trades for superstars only happen when those superstars actually want to leave their teams. realistically, why should a superstar force a trade to the rockets? it won't happen.

c) is NOT the way to go if winning a championship is your ultimate goal. but if you've got an owner who is satisfied with having a good team as long as he earns good money it's the way to go.


imho, les alexander will take route c). he'll not allow morey to tank for a couple of years. he'll let morey try route b), but it likely won't be successful. so, at the end of the day c) is what will happen.

 

all I know is this: we've been through the most roller-coaster BS decade in Rockets history, from cellar-teams to stellar teams, from 1st round exit disappointments to a heavily injured and undersized team taking the future champs to 7 games on their home floor, and therefore I've suffered as much as a fan can for 10 years and can honestly say that no matter what this franchise does, I will always root for them and have faith in them.

Its too early to tank, and in the next 2 weeks we could be above .500

To be able to be there before January while starting 0-5 and going 3-11 or whatever is great and I dont see why we shouldnt always try to be as best as you can be. A first draft pick can land you a future-injury-prone player, a bust, it could be a poor draft class, blah blah, wtvr. Tanking means you cheat the fans, your players, and the league all based on the "idea" that there's light at the end of the tunnel.

There is no such promise. Play as hard as you can, make good moves, and dont puss out just because you dont think youre good enough to do otherwise. There can be only one champion, but theres no shame in being one of the other teams that tried to do it as well. Whats sad in life is watching things not meet their potential.

Yao was a #1 pick, look where that got us in almost 10 years - 1 2nd round appearance, a few against Utah, and a Mavs one... and a sht load of injuries.

go ahead and tank for your #1 pick. Look at Yao. Look at Oden.

I dont think its worth it, and I dont want to be cheated out of my money either. GO ROCKETS!!!!!

 

/thread

 

If there is still any question, Rockets answering right now:

**** TANKING, GET THAT WEAK **** OUTTA HERE

 

Yao's expiring isn't enough to get a max-contract guy is it? I fear we're stuck in playoff purgatory for the next 3 years.

 

It is still not too late to rebuild to contend yet. They should not give up on the season.

 

Of course Portland tried that route and are already winning...oh wait

The Thunder lucked into 2 good franchise players (Durant and WB) and are still far from contending 4 years into their tanking experiment. Will they win next season? No. That's 5 years spent rebuilding, even with two superstar players.

 

The Rockets have so many young players right now, why do you want to tank??? The most obvious route is to develop the young players and see if they can become a franchise player.

Right now Jordan Hill is doing great, give him 1-3 years, who knows what kind of player he can become.

Ish Smith is starting to become a pure point guard with all of the great passes he does.

We got 2 great players already with huge amounts of potential and you still result in tanking for a franchise player. I say why don't you develop the players we have already, make some trades and if all that don't work out, then tanking will become an option.

 

Nice point.

 

The Rox are 1.5 games out of 8th right now, and 7.5 games out of 4th seed, i.e., home-court advantage in the first round. They got here without Yao, and they have been playing beneath their potential most of the year.