Again the 3 assets were dumped to sign Brook Lopez who had already verbally agreed. If Lopez wasn't coming the 3 musketeers wouldn't get dumped. Is it that hard to understand? The projected value of signing Brook Lopez alongside Dillon Brooks is worth more than the value of keeping 3 tertiary rotation players. Stone didn't wake up one morning and decide to dump 3 former frps for Alpha Kaba. I also don't think free agents agreeing and then reneging is common place last time that happened to the Rockets was Bosh a decade or so ago and how many FAs have the Rockets signed since then?
Josh Christopher was one of the few few few players under Silas that was given some opportunities and made himself look like a fool in almost all of them. Grimes was right there.
I think people are mostly upset that we got no value out of 3 first round picks and that KJ Martin is seen as a young player on the rise. I would rather have kept Martin over Tate, but the front office liked Tate more for some reason.
Reason was easy to understand; defense. KMJ had flashy blocks but was a mediocre defender at best. Even before Brooks, we had a SF glut of Tari, Cam, Tate, and even potentially KPJ contending with him for PT at the 3. With his 3pt shooting cratering last season, his only proven upside is his ups. Tari and Cam are both probably way more talented, so who would coaching prefer to keep as a defensive and veteran role model?
MCW had that same leadership quality coming out of college. If amen doesn’t develope that jumper to be respectable , he’ll have a similar road in career
The trades that were made to create cap space should have been contingency trades provided that the Lopez trade goes through. You see it all the time like in the draft teams have a bunch of trade agreements made but if their guy is gone, they don’t through with the trade. It happens in free agency too because it’s not the first time a player has reneged on a verbal agreement. Stone failed to protect his assets because he’s an arrogant SOB and it came back to bite him in the ass.
Dillon Brooks isn't that much of an upgrade for the contract the Rockets gave him. He's a pesky Pat Bev type of defender, but that's about it. He has no shot and he's not athletic. KJ and Dillon Brooks have roughly the same field goal percentage from three. KJ is younger with more upside. Plus he blocks shots and gets rebounds. The whole team was bad on defense so it's not really fair to call KJ mediocre. You would've thought Udoka could get him to improve as a defensive-minded coach playing alongside veterans like VanVleet. What's even more cause for concern is that Dillon Brooks said he's more than just 3-and-D wing and has more to his game. He wanted a bigger role within Memphis' offense yet failed to prove he was worthy of it in the playoffs against the Lakers. Coming to Houston with that contract he's probably going to have a bigger ego while utilizing more of the offense.
I agree Brooks is poor value due to being vastly overpaid. It's one of the reasons I really hated his signing outside of simply hating the persona he brings with him. Hopefully, like his potential delusions of grandeur on offense, Ime can check that at the door. I disagree that KMJ has more upside though. They have been equally shyte from 3pt line, but Brooks is SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER from the charity stripe which gives me more confidence in him bouncing back from last season. I also disagree with the defense part in that I believe he is a more cerebral defender and would be even better under Ime. As for KMJ, could his D improve? Sure, but Brooks is already there plus some on a young team that can benefit from watching his defensive effort.
This is different because Lopez wasn't a trade he was a free agent signing. Not sure if you understand that the trades need to happen first before you can sign someone to a contract. You can't do it backwards cuz you can't sign him without capspace. How are the Rockets arrogant here? Seems to me you just didn't understand how these things work. In your draft scenario it's like you already drafted him and he suddenly decided he'd rather play in his home country and not go to the NBA. That happened to Orlando when they used a lotto pick on a star player in Spain and that dude suddenly decided he didn't want to leave. Can Orlando call the NBA and tell everyone to redo the draft cuz their pick bailed on them after submitting his name on the draft?
We needed to trade young players Unfortunately I thought we would get a little more back esp for KJ Martin. But yeah JayGup Garuba TyTy never got a chance
Yes I would have rather that Stone had traded Jalen Green and Kevin Poter Jr instead of Josh Christopher.
