The Rockets going forward from now until next October

You are the eternal optimist yet you whine about impatient posters.

Show optimism towards your fellow posters.

 

Most people would probably have taken a Booker level career on the night we drafted Jalen so that’s no insult to him. I think he’s a notch above in his prime even without a more developed passing game. But I think he gets that too.

Whether he can be the best player on a championship team or not probably depends on who else is on the roster. I don’t think he could drag a bunch of randoms to the playoffs like Harden but I’m real bullish on his future.

 

There is something - Alpi

 

We'll have to disagree on this one. I see a very special roster where we have two 20 year olds who are elite among their peers despite both not having the benefit of college basketball and sort of playing catch up since they got here. Further there's Jabari, and I definitely can't judge a guy whose whole game is based around the 3pter while his 3pter is not falling. I've not seen anything to say he won't become an elite 3pt shooter and elite defender, and the combination of those two things has never not resulted in a huge net impact on the court. Plus he has so much room to add muscle and work on his interior fundamentals.

Green and Sengun are developing amazingly well. In 2 years time, these two guys are going to be extremely difficult to stop from creating offense. Sengun is very Harden-like in his tactical dissection of his defender and not needing an athletic edge to outsmart and outplay his opponent. He's going to average almost 20 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 1.5 blks on extremely good efficiency in the NBA as a 20 year old kid. Jalen Green's slump is 21 points on 18 shots as a 20 yr old kid with multiple 30 point explosions and still showing he can develop into an average or better defender. Last year's team defense was rudimentary, these two are learning real competitive NBA defense for the first time this season.

Then you have a basket of wildcards in KPJ, Tari and Christopher who look like they could end up excellent role players in a year or two. The rest of the roster contains interesting projects all around.

Then you have two max cap slots which means we're not using all of our resources that would normally go into beefing up a roster. We have the cheapest rotation in the NBA easily. That tells me we're not investing a lot of cash directly in the prospects (I know we're paying waived players) and we're still getting great results.

The head coach hasn't shown himself to be excellent, but great players have developed with or despite his presence. I don't see him ruining a career. The rest of the staff looks amazing but we know as little about them as we do any other team's staff. The roster has been characterized several times by Silas and Lucas as one that works especially hard off the court. In the world of hiring employees that may not matter so much, but in the world of 4-year player development projects that matters A LOT. One of the biggest things that gives me confidence is that the coaches and players seem ultra motivated to improve the product.

On getting a high pick, I just don't think it's going to be possible without giving the players instructions intended to generate losses. This is easily going to be the worst quarter of the season. That's true because the schedule is going to get average or easier. There's also the huge factor of just how many young guys we have and it's normal for a roster even a year or two older than ours to take ages to understand the full defense and offense.

So our first year of tanking doesn't count, we had no young players except a stint of KPJ. As far as the core is concerned, this is the very beginning of year 2 of the rebuild and we picked especially young players vs other rebuilding teams. They should take longer to develop than your average rebuilding roster.

More patience is warranted here. It's not like I'm wowed by the numbers right now, I just think there are unusually large external factors at play at the moment. Give this team till the 19th to catch a breather and watch them flourish the rest of the way. It's way too early to make the assessment that there's nothing special here in my humble opinion.

 

Outside of Banchero, the last two drafts haven't really had someone that looks like a true franchise player. You have some good offensive talents like Ben, Ivey and Green. You have other defensive ones like Mobley and Barnes. Cade is just better KPj and not really Luka-lite. Honestly? The second best player right now from the last two drafts behind Banchero is....probably Sengun. At least based on current performance.

Green or Jabari could take a leap this year or next. I think an offense that doesn't just have them standing around if they don't have the ball in their hands would benefit them greatly. Jalen is also a much better passer than Booker.

Getting a superstar is hard.

 

It's also too early to make judgments on any of the players to be honest.

With the 2009 draft, no one would question that Blake Griffin was by far the best player in the draft with the highest potential in the first 3-4 years. Around 5-6 years later, Harden and Curry not only leap frogged Griffin but dominated the NBA for the next half a decade.

Superstar potential often show up early and fizzle out (Karl Anthony Towns being another good example), you can't judge any of the players until at least after 3-5 years.

 

If Green turns out to be something like Booker, there is still hope. All we need is a guy like Chris Paul. CP3 is no longer a superstar. But he is savvy and knows how to make play. Will we be able to get someone like that in the next few years?

Our other young guys look to have the potential to be high end role players. Smith, Sengun, Porter, Eason, Martin, even Garuba.

 

Dude, it isn’t all on the coach. I mentioned before this team has been built to tank the past 3 seasons in the post Harden era. Why? Because the team keeps getting younger. It was mess in 20-21 with leftovers and expiring contract guys. 21-22 the team shed the roster and got younger with several rookies. 22-23 got even younger with mainly 2nd yr guys and rookies with the exception of gordon and KPJ (who still plays like a rookie). The team has refused to add vet leadership leaving young players to figure it out which is an intentional recipe for losing. Silas may have been a temp stop gap coach to help develop these players offensively. I don’t think management certainly believed in the Rockets winning anything with this roster and the strategy is likely a protracted rebuild. But I think Stone has a target date in mind where he expects the team to be. I think that date is 22-23 season. Rockets will have 61 mil or so to spend on young vets to help guide their young core. They have signed and extended most of their young core (tate, JC, green, Sengun, Bruno). They are primed for a lottery pick. We could see this team contend in 23-24 for play in or lower seed (7-8).

 

Typo: *23-24 season target date

 

Define “lacks a culture”. I would say The organization has already established a culture allowing its players to grow taking a holistic approach to development and grooming. The handling of KPJ exemplifies this culture that has been set. The retaining of Lucas to mentor and develop has set the culture. The drafting of Jabari is due to a culture and identity the team seeks to establish.

 

Cade and Mobley are really really good and locks for future Allstars. What makes you think they're mediocre? When Cade is on the floor he controls the game. Mobley hasn't been scoring much this year because of how deep that team is but his defense is awesome and the way he moves is still elite for his size even on offense. I love Sengun but those 2 are still miles ahead. I'd probably have Sengun 4th though.

Edit: Franz is probably better too.

 

I tend to agree for the most part, especially ownership, but don't count us out yet.

In regards to a franchise player, the Rockets have 4 cards in their hand to play to add impact players.

1.) Someone on the roster may take huge leaps and become that superstar. Unlikely, but you never know. At worst I think Green / Sengun have a good chance to be all star caliber, and Jabari / Eason at being high end role players. That in and of itself could be a tremendous foundation.
2.) This years pick could easily a franchise guy, specifically if lands 1 or 2, and you never know how the next couple of guys will wind up. I like Amen Thompson quite a bit and Nick Smith is no slouch either. Even if its just another "all star" level guy, you could easily have three of them, which would be awesome.
3.) Cap Money - while the free agent class isn't amazing, we do have tons of money to spend. Van Fleet, Turner, heck maybe even convince Harden to come back, if you can use the asset stockpile to trade for another star.
4.) The Nets Picks - while I don't think we will ever ended up drafting players with them, those will be huge trade assets for the next star that wants out. I bet you can get Durant if today with those picks if you wanted too. Would you support spending your cap and the Nets picks to reunite Harden / Durant in a Phoenix style rebuild?

I still think we are in great position moving forward. I think in two to three years, we are going to look up and say "damn, our roster is pretty stacked"

 

I didn’t say I necessarily agree with their culture that they have built but they do have a philosophy of what culture they want to cultivate. I said their approach is holistic. Rather than punish and exerting harshness they decided to handle KPJ delicately taking into account his history and mental state. The organization stressed love for its players and accountability and hard work. Both Stone and Silas have gone on record to say this. We haven’t seen KPJ act up since and they seem to listen to Silas. We haven’t seen any discontent or other disciplinary issues. We have seen them play hard. The reality is they just aren’t good. You can teach math to teens all day but if they don’t get it they don’t get it. You can try your best to help them but at the end of the day the talent and discipline has to be there. And to KPJ’s contract the stipulation is that Rockets can release him at any point which I believe they will likely trade him. Agree with it or not a culture has already been set by management and coaching.

 

You gotta have patience lol. I keep mentioning Suns, but it took them 5-6 years after Booker was drafted to be relevant. They missed out in several high draft picks like josh Jackson etc. It took Memphis several years to build that core (which included Dillon Brooks who morey traded lol) before Morant got there. And they weren’t good until year 3 of the Morant era. I think the Rockets will make moves this summer and bring in a Dillon Brooks or Van Fleet etc. young vets with winning experience to anchor this young core. Add Wemb or Amen or Scoot and combined with JC Green Sengun and company and we got something cooking. Relax and wait dude lol good things are coming

 

Cade is quite overrated. Dude can’t shoot but still gets high praise. Mobley is no offensive juggernaut but again gets high praise. Same with Giddey. Good players but not great. That’s why I say again that what makes a player attractive and gets the attention of media and fans is more than your ability on the court. Demeanor physical appearance and temperament matters. Curry is great but look at how the media and the world have embraced him. Its for sure not just his performance on the court. Media loves Jabari in the same vein they love Mobley. Go back to the draft and summer league and even first reg season game there was much praise and love for Jabari. Imagine if he played well. His celebrity would go through the roof. For some reason the media and fans have not fully embraced Jalen. Interesting to me.