Not a fan of the trade but who knows what 2022 will bring? The Heat could fall apart and that pick could be valuable. But what is not in question was that Oladipo has been hit or miss all season and will want a max deal. Just be glad Stone didn't get what asked for when he offered that extension to Dipo. Hopefully the draft gods will smile on us over the next few years.
Clowning the Rockets for how well Harden is playing is just idiotic. Yeah we knew he was good. That's why he was offered an extension at $50mm/yr. We got a historic draft haul. We wanted a historic draft haul and a great young player and no one came up with both. Ben Simmons wouldn't have us in some drastically better future outlook right now and there's no real indication Philly's offer was that great beyond Simmons. Clown the rest of the GMs that didn't try to top the Nets offer to get Harden.
So post Orland aging Dwight (Injury) and an aging Paul (Injury) was 4D chess? Maybe Harden would be here and so what? If Harden was here would you be happy? Was Harden the end all be all for Rockets fans? That was our highlight every year? We never even made it to the finals, why do you and others speak as if an all time great championship team was dissembled. That same show The Jump and espn used to call us GS punching bags... We were laughed at when the viral Harden no defense video was hot. We were laughed at when Morey said Harden was the best scorer of all time, we were laughed at when Morey decided two's were not allowed anymore. We were laughed at when Morey and MDA made an ultra small ball team. We were laughed at when we were eliminated by GS over and over again. We were laughed at when Harden could not come up big in the clutch. We were laughed at when Morey went full analytics. So once again, were those really the glory days? Getting our assses beat every year by the newest hottest super team. If Harden was here who else would be here? Probably no one else other than Morey's 4D chess role players who sucks ass so lets just let them shoot threes and hustle so that Harden can continue to score nearly 40pts a night which now he is saying he hated. Now he wants to be himself and distribute the ball, that was Morey and MDA who put him there. Not stone, not Tilman...
I mean I like the positivity, I think whats done is done, the moves were awful, but not every GM will be good at every aspect of their job. For a while Presti was looking like he could only draft well and didn't know how to build a roster through trades, he has made some decent moves with trades as of late, some at our expense , maybe Stone excels at talent evaluation and knocks it out of the park with the picks?
There are certain ppl here that are still emotional about Harden leaving (who quit in multiple post season games w/ the Rockets) and Daryl Morey who was running this organization's name in the mud. You were perfectly fine with Harden racking up personal regular season accolades, at the expense of getting embarrassed in the playoffs. You were okay with Morey scaring away key free agents with his shady business tactics Rebuilding needed to happen and I'm not mad at it. The Rockets are on the right path and will be fine under Stone
This is not true. They likely won’t use it, but Rockets have about $18 million in projected cap space this summer after trading Harden to the Nets and acquiring D.J. Augustin at $7 million for next season. Before the Rockets acquired Augustin in the Tucker trade, they were projected to have nearly $25 million in cap space. Some of that will be used on their first-round rookie picks but they are well under the cap. https://www.spotrac.com/nba/houston-rockets/cap/2021/
Absolutely, when it came to trades and acquiring talent I think for our small market he absolutely outperformed. Mavs had some lame presentation for Dwight and a superman cartoon, that backfired, we as a small market team were able to pull away the top FA that year. Not Mark Cuban, and not the Lakers. I hated Lin when he was here, but again he had just come off of that Linsanity streak, the New York Knicks wanted him, Morey was the architect behind the poison pill contract and stole Lin away in FA, he was also in demand from big market teams. it didn't work, but the fact is we were always in the mix, always thinking outside of the box to make things happen, and we were always rumored to be in the mix for nearly every FA, we were beat by some incredible super teams, but you act as if the Rockets holding the longest playoff appearance streak (longer than the Spurs) to now going to the longest losing streak this season is the same thing if it doesn't net a championship. I would rather be competitive and enjoy playoff games than look forward to where ping pong balls drop every year. We were a top FA destination for years, now we will not be hearing anything of that sort. You should be concerned with how the front office is handling things, people here are getting hyped over KPJ, but the reality is even the young guys think this org is now a joke and that respect will not last much longer. Making the playoffs and being competitive is absolutely crucial to culture, especially when you have young guys like KPJ and need to keep their attention and respect, there are so many teams that can not escape their losing culture even after they have acquired a top draft pick worth the max, they still keep losing because of that culture they developed. That is why I see being competitive as different from being a perennial loser even if neither net a Championship. As far as Harden I don't mind that he is gone, it is the awful return we received for him which is very very concerning. Not just for this trade, but going forward we will see how we are weak in the eyes of rival teams. It would be great to move on and have something to look forward to, but i can't exactly get excited for Kelly Olynik, Avery Bradley and picks that may or may not work out 5 years from now.
What I was speaking against was the notion that losing Dipo's 21 would give us 21M in space but it doesn't because we would still be over the cap losing just him. Yes we will have space if we let all the other FAs go too, mostly Exum and Dj Wilson but the notion that getting just Dipo instead of Lavert got us 21M in real cap space is just untrue. It helped us shed 21M more of the 51M we'd need to shed to have 21M in space.
Losing makes losers... We almost certainly won't get to keep our pick this year thanks to the previous regime...
Harden didn't want to be here anymore though. Enjoying the rest of Hardens prime as a rocket was not going to happen
I think if we had received anywhere near a market return for Harden, even 50 cents on the dollar, you wouldn't see people that emotional. We got absolutely fleeced.
Morey: "Well, I loved Houston and really tried to help by offering Simmons" But you guys decided that turning Harden into 2x very very late first rounders, and 2x swaps that'll never happen plus Bradley and Olynyk is the better idea...... - Morey ROFLHAO
I am literally downloading NBA 2k21 on Steam right now to play GM mode and fix the Rockets as therapy. I'm going to start at the beginning of the season and trade Westbrook and Harden myself. Wall in a Rockets jersey? Not on my watch! Victor Oladipo? Oh hell no.
So being considered in the free agent market is automatically a success? Despite only one (Dwight Howard) choosing Houston? I don't like losing either but this was going to happen, eventually it was. Even if Harden would have stayed retired here we would have been in this position. At some point every team has got to rebuild may with the exception of The Lakers... They will forever and always have the top talent in the league and they are not only the main challenge year in and out on the basketball court but also in the free agent market. People want resolutions and they want them now, no patience. They want all stars for Oladipo, they want all stars for Harden despite Brooklyn not giving up any of them and Harden forcing himself there. They want to win now no matter what the process is. Anything other than winning now is on Stone and Tilman. I want to win now as well, but logic keeps telling me its going to be a while. I don't want some dude that is going to come here and never even feel like a true Rocket because we already know the moment things look bad he is going to want out. Lets give it some time before we grab the pitchforks...
