I've had a little too much to drink, so bear with me here as I rant at y'all little bit. Most of the "best player on a championship team" guys are considered unique. You are not successful because you drafted the next Michael Jordan or Hakeem Olajuwon or LeBron James or Stephen Curry. It would be ridiculous to expect that you could be successful by drafting or acquiring a clone of a previous superstar, because those guys don't exist. By definition every superstar is different. Instead, you are successful because you found the next unique player who defined a generation. And you don't ever know what that's going to be in terms of the player's "archetype". He might be a hyper-athletic shooting guard, or a long, tall, mobile center. He might be an oversized playmaking wing. He might even be a guy who can't shoot, but by god, he can do every other damned thing incredibly well. You truly don't know! Every player has strengths and weaknesses. Even the greatest of all time weren't good at everything. There is no "unicorn" who does everything well while being taller and more athletic than everyone else; and if there is, the Spurs landed him, so tough f***ing luck, my friend. Some of y'all (not going to name names) seem truly stuck in the past. Maybe set your assumptions aside and realize that what the Rockets need--whether it comes from a player we already have or one we've yet to acquire--is talent, and that can come in many forms. Stop banging the table for one specific kind of player and recognize that an icon, a superstar, a hall-of-famer and a championship-winner--he can be many different things, and you can never predict exactly what he will be because--as with everything in life--basketball is always changing. And individuals can be part of that change, or they can drive the change. That's all I've got, GARM. I'm going to go have another beer.
We are looking for a 1-of-1 team, and there are several ways to get it done and probably undiscovered ways too. We have some truly unique talent on this roster...
Man, I really really want to believe that, but I just don't see it yet. Potential - sure, but nothing screams great yet. The closest to me are Alpi and Cam..... What makes you think we have that special someone? DD
I don’t know man. I don’t think Tatum and Brown looked like the classic generational talents, and they certainly didn’t when they were 21. I think when it comes to guys like Jimmy Butler, Tatum, Jokic, Curry these guys just didn’t look like they’ll take a team to the finals. You need more than one of these. Just getting one of these while depleting your picks and cap flexibility will take you nowhere. I think many generational talents have come and gone without winning a title too. Stick to what we know. Hard facts. You get yourself a top 10 defense and offense and you’re in it to win it. We’re halfway there.
but we already got fred playing the 1 and amen maybe too unless we consider him a point forward at the 3 spot? is alpi considered a point center? do we need another 1? smdh
OP is 100% correct. He should drink all the time if he's gonna put out on point posts like this. If you think a player is a lesser version of a current star he's probably not gonna be that next generational superstar. You want the guy that breaks the mold. Tatum/Brown/Butler are not the guys we're talking about. Those are very good players and Tatum/Brown may win it all but only after some masterful GM work to stack the team with elite role players who would be the 3rd best guy on many other teams. They will never be in the discussion for best ever of their position. So, Tatum/Brown are not in the same category as Jokic/Curry. Those are true 1 of 1s. Luka is one of those guys. You don't need to meticulously craft some special roster with a guy like that. He's so great you can just patch together a couple role players at the all star break and voila, you're in the finals.
Aside from the two you mentioned... (Prayers up for Cam's knees) I think Amen is a special talent. Soon, you will not be able to take the ball, or minutes, away from him. Lebron/Russ/Rose level rim pressure is coming. I still have hope, perhaps a fool's hope, for Jalen Green.
That doesn’t matter. Our primary goal is a championship. Acquiring a great player is a secondary goal to the primary. You don’t necessarily need a Lebron to win a title. You’re saying Curry is in a different class but that’s just false timing - look at his first contract after rookie scale - he valued himself very low as did his team. Even with injuries star players get paid more than that. He was only seen that way after he won. Same goes for Jokic people were doubting him as an NBA player then as a star then as an MVP then as a champion. He was absolutely not seen as generational till he won one. You can win with Tatum, Brown and Sengun basically. After they win, the one who has the best playoff stats will be called generational. That’s how it works. It’s a big mistake to sit around and wait for someone who’s already been crowned and is young and is available to join you.
Not a single solitary soul was calling Kawhi Leonard, Jokic, Curry or Tatum (not to mention Booker or Butler who came close) a generational talent who could lead a team to a title after their second seasons. You would have been roundly mocked for even suggesting such a thing. I'm not saying any of the guys we have, or the targets at 3, will be that guy, but at this point fans need to stop artificially capping potential when we've seen so many unique title level teams recently. What qualifies as "that guy" has changed.
This. All type of players had led teams to championships and just recently teams have one championships that don’t play the same way. In the NBA, there is no one size fits all. One thing that is fairly consistent is that championships are won by teams that are top ten on both sides of the ball. We have potential to be the best defensive team in the league. We need to get to top ten offense and we will be contenders. I like our chances with Amen, Sengun, Jabari, Jalen, and Cam. We are building a very solid bench as well.
