My much briefer take: Stone gets a pass on the Dipo whiff; he's new as GM and still finding his footing, and we can't overlook the good moves he's made (Wood/Tate/KPJ). Tilman, however, sucks donkey nads and we may not have seen the worst of his sucking yet.
Did you not remember the Rockets actually tried to offer him a 2 years extension? Is it really all about : Tilman wanted a large expiring contract?
I'm glad we got KPJ, but calling him a foundational piece at this point is like calling Landry's a high-end restaurant.
Amazing post. I will say I supported the trade before because I thought the swap had no protections, soured on it a little with the protections...but people really need to understand the context of the Oladipo trade in itself (excluding that he was traded for Harden) they simply had 0 leverage for a player that had little value. Only thing I can think of is maybe this was a wink wink deal where Stone did a favor for Riley and the favor will be repaid somewhere down the line like with the KPJ deal where they basically gave us a potential young starting level player for nothing.
This is the best situation we could possibly be in right now after Harden leaving We have Porter & Wall and a real chance at a top 4 pick which I have never experienced Trying to compete after Morey & Harden left would of left us borderline 8th seed for 10 years with the YOUNG upcoming west. This is the best chance we starting over Those who hate are situation I believe are ignorant and can’t see the big picture This is the way
I am with you. Yes, I am optimistic especially looking at his age but let's pump the brakes a little bit.
I do and it was a mere formality. The end result of the harden trade is cap savings /cap flexibility plus picks from the harden trade.... that should tell you the overriding motive. The true value of the picks are TBD.
IMO it's not that there's too much Rockets hate, it's just that too much of it is absolutely mindless hate and whining. If it was halfway intelligent, I'd have no problem with it.
He has the ability to be a foundational piece, no there are no guarantees he keeps his head screwed on straight.
I rarely post in the GARM these days (ask @heypartner and he will verify this) but I can't help but respond to this thread: Nook - I like your optimism and you make some good points; however, as some other people have pointed out, if we don't get a top 4 pick, we're screwed. And if Tilman Fertitia remains owner - we are going to be screwed. I have watched my father for the last 40 years be an Atlanta Hawks fan. Arguably, their best moments came when we were at the top of the NBA with Olajuwon and then they have fallen off the cliff. They have Trae Young but they still have been garbage for many years. The Kings - another franchise that has been terrible and terrible for a long time or how about the Phoenix Suns? The NBA has so many of these franchises that "seem" to start a rebuild and they are still working on how to figure it out (see also the T-Wolves). I don't want to see the Rockets join this list. I'm all for a rebuild but I really hope that there are people within the Rockets FO who can figure out that the rebuild will not take years and years and years. The people that this owner has in place leaves me with little confidence. I remember shortly after Quitten burned his bridge in Houston, Drexler retired and Barkley got hurt along with Hakeem aging it seemed rapidly in dog years. Those teams that were led by Steve Francis and had Walt Williams and Kelvin Cato were not fun teams to root for. I am really hoping that the Rockets in the next couple of seasons won't be like those teams. But only time will tell.
I'm much more inclined to believe the no-leverage version than the Riley-promises-a-future-favor one.
Kpj is not a good player right now. But he has the handle and vision of a pg in a strong 6'5 frame. He has shot making ability, but the 3s still need to fall, he is shooting 60% inside the arc. His skillset is that of a foundational piece, but he has yet to put it all together in a way that contributes to winning, but hes 20. There's no guarantee that he will pan out but hes the exact kind of player you want on a rebuilding team. Look at a guy like Jalen green who will go top 4 this year, kpj is perhaps slightly less athletic but looks to be better at everything else especially passing, and he's only a year older.
im no diehard, i don't support anything associated with tillmen. i do enjoy the brehs here doe. i keep missing games to be a diehard
One thing I haven’t seem many people talk about is the lack of any trades beyond Dipo after all the fire sale talk. I guess injuries largely derailed that.
On the contrary, there isn't enough hate on the Rockets right now. Literally everything is self inflicted. Their future is highly uncertain and that's also their fault. I'll be the first to applaud and be excited when things get turned around, but right now they not only deserve the hate they're getting, they should be getting more.
Yeah, it's wishful thinking but the Rockets didn't have to trade Oladipo for what they got back. Little to almost no benefit, they could have easily told Miami to go **** themselves and hung up the phone...and Miami is over there really excited about this move too. GMs and FOs do build relationships over time so who knows. I think the Cleveland thing was definitely a favor for getting them Allen, they could have gave KPJ to anyone and it just happened that they gave him to a team they just dealt with.
