Season's Pretty Much Over - Thoughts moving forward?

1.Let Sengun go and to become 2nd player in a contender. Thus he can get a ring(s). Current Rockets organisation (FO,Coaches,Owner,FVV,DB,Backup bigs,Non-shooting shooters,Rockets Media) is two decades away to be contender.
2.Jalen needs a mentor. Uni is not a school, it is a life style and lack of education is a big problem for him. He has to learn how to learn first. The best for him to look for a Balkan coach. He may be a superstar if he is mentored. Otherwise a bust, another streetballer.
3.Amen might become the best rebounder next year. He might break some boards at the same time. The first 3 years we might consider him kind of Mark Eaton-Ben Wallace-Denis Rodman,.. He does something very good and something disgusting.
4.Cam's attack to J.williams was kind of bull-matador action in a Spanish arena. Boy needs vision.
5.Jabari is kind of American take-away in a strange part of the world. McDonald's or KFC might not be your first option in Laos, Paraguay or Myanmar but you are sure what you will get.
6.No idea. My knowledge is not enough to answer. pass.
7.Ask DaDakota. As #1 Guntarian, I am more angry than average Joe.
8.Trade FVV/Dillon/Boban/Landale/Bullock/Jeff Green. You can keep Holiday because he is an Aaron/Aharon.
Next year starting Lineup:
Amen
JGreen
Bari
Tari or the player Rockets acquired at Sengun trade
Adams

Bench:
Tari
Cam
Jeenathan
Nate
Adem Bona of UCLA
Holiday

 

Agree with this. This is step 1 in getting back to contention. Bring in a basketball person as GM that puts team culture as the # 1 priority. Enough of Stone and Tilly Jr.

 

My biggest concern is Tari Eason and how Alperen has looked a little worse in the last weeks.

I do not care that much about Jalen Green....yeah it looks bad and the team has to figure sth out.

FVV and DB are mercenaries to me at this point. Great guys in the beginning though.

Regroup and plan for next season.

 

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/houston-rockets/jalen-green-74109/

If the above is right, he is signed for next year and then becomes a RFA with a 16M qualifier.
He would have to accomplish a lot for me to want to give him that qualifying amount.
So if by the time his RFA status arrives, there is no clear consensus on his worth, the FO doesn't want to invest 16M more in Jalen, then he goes via FA.

 

I actually think the next 20 games are really important for many of the players. If the season ended today and I was Stone here are the obvious headlines in my team meeting with Fertitta:

-Need to pursue a shooter in free agency. Open minded on the position. Preferable non tax payer mid level exception contract.

-We should cut bait with Jalen Green. If we cannot get a first round pick by the end of free agency then we allow Ime to move him to the bench all next season and be ready to let him walk as a RFA. Mid first round pick and Veteran rotation player should be goal to net in a trade.

-Extend Sengun but no max. Even if he ends up being Enes Kanter on defense he’ll have value in trades for the next 5 years. Extend him if you can. Give him homework over the Summer to develop skills to play the 4. Lateral quickness and working on his 3 should be priority.

-Cam should play the PG in summer league to work on his handles and try to re-wire his brain to look for the pass. He can compete in the preseason for starter position at the 2. If he has to come off the bench next year it’s not the end of the world.

-Brooks can be available in trades for the right price. Okay keeping him but for sure take calls. If you get a good first rounder for him I’d take it. I like Tari and Amen a lot to man the 2-3-4 spots moving forward after Brooks moves on or moves to the bench.

-Love FVV. Heart of the team and he’s needed as the glue guy. You’d have to blow me away with an offer to trade him.

-Would like to keep Jeff Green one more year unless he wants to retire.

-Make Boban an assistant coach. No more signing him to sit the bench.

-Swing for the fences with one of the 7 footers in this years draft. Unless we land in the top 5, we need to stack talent at the 4-5. It’s like pitchers in AAA. The org needs to be much better about stacking future true 7 footers at the end of the bench even if they don’t work out. Im tired of this team falling in love with a team on nothing but 6’4” guys.

 

LOL unless we get a star or top 3 pick, why the **** would we do something so dumb?

 

Don't worry. They will give you a star or top 3 pick for Sengun. I did not say just dump him to Salvation Army garage.

 

I am just tired of hearing people try to theorize how to make Jalen Green work. Baby sitting a guy and changing everything because he lacks confidence and skill set isnt the way to go. We have better options.

 

I don't think we are at a point where we decied to build around any one player. Just put as much talent on the floor as possible and let it shake out.

Green should have been gone at the deadline but I doubt there were any offers that amounted to fair value.
No, he's not a basketball player, just another great athlete masquerading as a basketball player.
Maybe he ends up playing in China or the Philipine league.

Not ready, the shooting has to be respectable to be the starter. Much like Westbrook, he might average a triple double but the shooting will limit his ultimate upside. That doesn't mean he can't be effective as a player - just not as a lead guard.

May as well give him the opportunity but coach him hard along the way - he makes bad decisions take a seat.

Jabari has big upside, just needs to add a few little things to his game and he might actually be that #1 or at least #2.

Use this years on a player (more below).

Hope they are just being cautious ..... my favorite Rocket.

Unless there is a real star in FA stay the course with the young guys.
Cam replaces Jalen, the rest of the starting five stays the same.

I hope the lottery is kind to the Rockets - their own pick falling in the top 4 and the Brooklyn pick is no worse than #8. With those picks I'm taking Shooters.
Cody Williams and one of Sheppard and Dillingham all three shoot at least .452 from 3.

Williams reminds me an awful lot of McGrady - real long, very skilled as a ball handler & playmaker and a great shooter .457 from 3.

Dillingham is also a fantastic shooter - .452 from 3 and is as quick as they come, filthy handles and a great passer.

Then there's Sheppard .... just an otherworldly shooter. 50/50/80 splits right now, .514 from 3 on the season. But not only is he a great shooter, he can get to and finish at the rim, passes exceptionally well and might be the best defender at the 1/2 in this draft class. This is the dude I want most out of this draft.

Starting 5 looks like -
Sengun
Jabari
Brooks
Cam
FVV

With a bench of

Amen
Tari
Cody Williams
Sheppard or Dillingham
Adams
Tate

 

While I branded the season successful at about the 1/3 mark, I'm starting to worry that the ceilings are lowering and lowering for certain key #2 and #3 draft picks. Rockets management needs to start making hard decisions and not sitting on all of their eggs too long.

 

try to turn 4 quarters into a dollar... maybe even throw in an extra nickel or dime or two...

take a gamble if needbe...

there are a few guys that are all but untouchable...

but we need to do some consolidating (and upscaling) of assets before we end up paying folks to take former frps off our hands - again!

 

IDENTITY!! Where is the indentity?? After 55+ games, this team still does not have an identity.

Reason being, we have a mixture of the wrong players. Either we RUN AND PLAY DEFENSE, similar to what Toronto did when they won the championship or we become a SLOW DOWN and movement team similar to Denver.

If we elect to run, Sengun and FVV has to take a backup role or be traded. If they elect to become a slow down and movement team, Jalen, Tari, Cam and maybe Amen will have to go. This is on Stone!

BUT TO GET BETTER, FIRST WE HAVE TO KNOW WHERE WE ARE GOING....WHAT IS THE IDENTITY THEY WANT MOVING FORWARD

 

Basically the rest of the season is just seeing if Nets' pick gets better for us.

Currently watching Nets @Grizzlies up 26 at the half... same Grizzlies team that spanked us 2 weeks ago. I still don't know how we lost that game or like the game vs the Blazers. We lost too many winnable games this season because Stone can't field a proper roster with shooting.

 

Can we just dump you instead?

 

My overall thoughts:

We are still extremely young, and don't need to be in a hurry to make bad long-term moves. Peak years for players begin around age 25, and the best player on a championship team is almost always that age or older. Our best players will be age 25 around 2027 or 2028. We are looking to open up an extended championship window, that's the whole point of doing a full rebuild, so we don't need to add anybody who will already be in his 30s when our best players are beginning their peak years. That means no Mikal Bridges, Dejounte Murray, etc. The only exception would be if we're acquiring a guy good enough to open up a championship window immediately, i.e. an MVP contender. Obviously if you have an opportunity to acquire a Luka, SGA, Tatum, you do it, but that's highly unlikely. We should only spend important assets (FRPs, blue chip prospects) for long-term assets that fit into a future championship picture down the road. Otherwise, be patient.

The "franchise player" conversation is over (sort of). Jalen has pretty much played himself off the team at this point, he ain't it. I like Jabari, but he is almost certainly the third-best player on a contender at best--no elite skills, not good enough at enough things, not an elite athlete. Cam Whitmore has high potential as a scorer but also has glaring flaws that I think will prevent him from ever being a guy you run the offense through, so even if he maxes out his potential, I still see him as more of a #2 option at best.

Our only two players with the potential to become top 10 players in the NBA are Sengun and Thompson. Both of them will need to become decent jump shooters to get to that level, but if we find a "franchise player" internally, it will almost certainly be one of those two guys. Barring that, we'll have to trade for one or wait until we do draft one.

Since Sengun and Thompson will not be great shooters, we need to surround them with shooting. The most obvious first step in this would be to go get a good shooting guard or combo guard with a high 3P% on volume. Somebody like Desmond Bane would be an obvious fit, but probably not available. Again, this needs to be a younger guy, so maybe you think about trying to acquire a Malik Monk, Collin Sexton, Coby White, etc.

We could also use a young, athletic, switchable shotblocker who can play power forward or center depending on the matchup. This is going to be important to cover for Sengun's defensive weaknesses. Ideally this guy would also be an outside shooter for spacing, but those players are rare and valuable. (The perfect fits would be, like JJJ, Wemby, Chet--you can see how highly-valuable these kinds of players are.) In any case, perhaps this could be a guy who comes off the bench, but it's definitely something the roster lacks and needs to have to deal with some of the matchups that have been killing us. Steven Adams is a fine player, but I'm not convinced he can play alongside Sengun, and he is only a temporary stopgap in any case.

Dillon Brooks' value will never be higher than it is this offseason--we should trade him if we can find a good deal. With his 3P% way up, and his shot attempts down, he looks like he's fixed his biggest weaknesses. But I'm not convinced he won't regress long-term, his defense is a bit overrated, and I wasn't that sold on the contract in the first place. We also have a lot of players who can theoretically play small forward; Amen Thompson (though I still see him as more of a guard), Cam Whitmore, Tari Eason, maybe even Jabari Smith Jr. Dillon was always a stopgap, and his services are no longer needed.

 

No worries. At least I don't see you/your posts anymore.Win win situation.

 

Well this is depressing, lol. Another “next year” thread. I was hoping we would make the playin this year so the young guys could get a taste of that playoff experience, and of course it would be nice to have something to look forward to, but here we are again…...I agree with a previous poster. Getting a basketball mind with experience to run the organization is the first step.

 

The answer to our problems is Ja Morant. Offer Sengun, Jabrari, Jalen and 2 firsts to get the guy. We need a superstar at all costs. A lineup of FVV, Ja Morant, Dillon Brooks, Tari Eason, Stephen Adams with Cam, Amen, Tate, Holiday, and a FA center is an NBA Finals caliber team. We are going nowhere with our current group and it’s time to trade youth for a star.

 

The moment we signed FVV and DB, we kicked playoffs hopes out the window. I said as much before the season.