Since we are ahead of the curve....

Didn't say it would be good, just that I wouldn't be shocked if it happened.

 

What are you basing that on? The Timberwolves had the #1 pick last year and they already had Karl Anthony Townes and DeAngelo Russell (who have proven a whole lot more than Christian Wood and KPJ). Are they around #8-10?

 

AD had missed 8 games last year and then got a ton of time off because the league shut down. How’s that health working for AD now?

I’m sure if we had our superstars Wall and EG healthy this year, we’d be a playoff team no doubt since they’re the difference between playoffs and being 1 of the worst teams ever.

 

I'm pretty sure the owner and his son just flattened the curve.

 

It really depends on who you draft. If you draft Cade and he turns out to be a superstar where it's pretty clear that he's going to dominate the league for years to come...then yeah...but if you draft Cade and it's not clear and he's more of a bust or mediocre player then...

I mean, I'd say we are actually ahead of the curve because we do have good young players. KPJ could turn out being a complete steal, players just don't do the things he does at his age. When I compare our situation to say Detroit, Sacramento, Magic, and other rebuilding teams I think our situation is a lot better. I'm not factoring in the owner here, I'll let everyone else get emotional about that. Only team that might be better rebuilding wise would be the Twolves who can add another top 5 pick to Edwards and KAT. OKC is in a pretty good spot moving forward too. It's all based on potential in the end, the Rockets do have a lot of draft picks, we could turn out having 3 first rounders (including hopefully a top 4 pick) in this draft and if Stone picks right...then we'll be more than fine moving forward.

 

Of course it depends upon who they draft and that player turning out to be a solid choice but I'm of the opinion that all 4 of those guys in the top 4 are gonna be very good and can come in and move the needle in the right direction.

I think a big part of where individuals stand on the rebuild process relates to how they feel about Stone .... I think he's shown so far to be a pretty good talent evaluator - better than Morey in that aspect who was a talent accumulator & asset flipper rather than relying upon his evaluation of "potential talent" - Marcus Morris Over Kawhi ? Draft picks were currency .... and nothing more , they haven't had a pick since Sam Dekker in 2015.

I think his handling of the Harden trade turned out about as well as could be expected - He was never getting equal value but controlling another teams draft for 7 years is pretty astounding , Brooklyn sold their soul & he got other assets in the process ... & its possible he can extract more assets out of what's left of the Harden & Tucker trades.
His statement of judging that trade in 10 years isn't much of an exaggeration .... The last pick doesn't convey until 2027.

If you watch this team , they have 4-5 guys who are better than the record suggests in Tate , Wood , Olynyk & Porter. They have next to nothing off the bench aside from Martin.

This roster is missing guard play aside from Porter .... Cade , Green & Suggs can each step right into that void giving you a solid starting 5. (assuming Olynyk is retained).

Now its time to build a bench ...


They still have two other draft picks , the NT-MLE and the BAE to add talent to this roster with.

Assuming they keep that top 4 pick , I don't think its a huge stretch to expect them to be a ~30 win team next season with the bullets Stone has in his pea shooter .... that would equate to a 10 win increase from a normal 82 game season and have them picking around 8-10 , unless they hit the lottery.
You are looking at adding up to 5 players in a single offseason - 3 via draft , MLE & BAE.

 

Can't disagree with anything you've said. I wish we would have gotten a young star for Harden, sure...and that's my one big fault with him. Everything else though? I think he's played his hand well and so far the players he's picked have done well.

I hope that Stone can do what the Knicks are doing, that despite what might be a bad owner, making the most of the situation. If he hits on this draft (even if he doesn't get a top 4 pick) we really have to consider that his strength is finding good players and that's a quality that can make a GM elite.

 

I think we all would have preferred Stone got a young star in return but there weren't multiple teams bidding and pushing the price up , this was one team finally offering enough to make a deal happen.

We knew from the moment Harden demanded the trade that we weren't getting equal value and there isn't another player in the league capable of doing what he does offensively.


Where are they if they did get a "young star" and a couple of picks in return ? .... maybe they win 10 or 15 more games than they did so far.
They are still 11th in the West & picking between 7 & 13 .... Definitely sending that pick to OKC and they likely don't control another teams draft for 7 full years , just a couple late firsts from a loaded team & we're looking at the following draft before there's any real hope of improvement.

At least in the current scenario there is a slightly better than 50% chance that they keep this pick and they control another teams draft for an unprecedented period of time.


That said , its gonna really suck if they end up with the #5 pick .....

 

This is one of the wackier takes I've seen in a while. What evidence is there that Stone is a better talent evaluator than Morey? He has been the GM for literally one draft. We drafted one guy. And, Morey had only stepped down a month prior. Do you think Morey and company hadn't been working on the draft all year? I'm sure they kept adjusting their big board in the weeks after Morey left, but Morey was part of that conversation for about 90% of that process. How are you going to give Stone 100% of the credit?

Same with KPJ. We all hope that KPJ will some day be half the player that Harden is. And, you know, Morey identified that Harden was someone he was willing to build around when many thought he had peaked at 6th man (and continued to say so on record both on camera and in print until Harden unleashed hell his first game).

And we know Morey liked Christian Wood because he brought him on to the Rockets previously and tried to trade for him again last year.

So that really just leaves Jae'Sean Tate, who, like Patrick Beverley under the reign of Morey, was plucked up from overseas after showing promise there. He was signed about a month after Morey walked out of the door and, again, I find it pretty unlikely Morey had no hand in identifying him as a potential offseason target. The whole organization had been working on that board all year as they always do. And, again, this isn't anything Morey hasn't done before. He did it with Beverley.

In regard to Kawhi (which will always make me laugh because this argument also means that every single GM in the league is a bad evaluator of talent for passing on Nikola Jokic, Isaiah Thomas, Marc Gasol, and on and on and on), Stone has been with the Rockets since 2005 and, from his own mouth, has been a part of the decisions the franchise made for a very long time. Which is to say, if you want to blame Morey and staff for failing to recognize that Kawhi would blossom into a star, you are also blaming Stone who had been part of that staff for 6 years when Kawhi was drafted.

Look, you could still be right. Stone COULD be a better evaluator of talent. But this isn't even small sample size. The sample hasn't even begun. Next offseason is the first time we will be able to be 100% confident that Morey had no hand in the decisions being made. So can we wait until there is an actual basis for a claim before we make one? Thanks!

 

Tilman says he’s not so sure about playoffs next year

“We're not going to go do something stupid to try to get into the playoffs next year”

 

yet still not even sure of making the playoffs next year…hmmm

 

AD is 38 years ago? That’s strange

kawhi isn’t going anywhere

both teams will still be in the contender mix in the next 3 years easily

 

I mean you said the lakers 2nd best player is 38 years old, when in fact hes 28.

ironic someone calling someone else an easy target, coming from someone who makes such dumb threads constantly

 

WTF?

Even if you want to go there what hell has Stone done to make you think he is good at anything relating to talent evaluation?