dont tank... just only play the young guys, start anderson. start budinger. just use the year to get our young guys experience with the nba and with our system. i doubt we win more than 30 games like this, but we still achieve the same thing as tanking. and we get the benefit of giving our young guys great experience
This seems to be the most logical, and most likely scenario this season. Don't shatter the confidence of the young guys by simply not trying at all.
I can see it now, in 2010 we approach a Chris Bosh and say "hey, why not come out here? We sucked last season without Tracy and Yao. Now that Tracy is gone and we'll suck less? Plus, Yao might not be back until October so yeah it's a great idea to sign now." IF this team loses in the playoffs, but makes noise it will make for a better campaign to sign a max player. Yes, we don't have the cap space, but we can let our wise guy Morey to figure out the dollar signs. Ultimately, no good player wants to go to a bad team. Case in point: Steve Nash could have set himself up to go to a D'Antonie system in NY, instead he stayed with PHX, why? LAE.
I think that tanking might be a good idea. Definitely not if it means telling a player to play like crap or something like that. Tanking means trading all your veterans that are good enough to win you some games so that the young guys can play and develop. Tanking means putting a young team that most likely won't win games but will be exciting to watch because you get to watch them get better over the course of the year with increased playing time. I've been on this little tank bandwagon since news of Yao being out was first reported and I have posted this before but i think this is a perfect plan for rebuilding. http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=m5ubot link to NBA trade machine showing the money works. Houston Gets: Jerryd Bayless, Rudy Fernandez, Nicolas Batum, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and New York’s 2010 First round pick (owned by Utah) Houston Trades: Kyle Lowry, Shane Battier, Luis Scola, and James White Portland Gets: Kyle Lowry, Shane Battier, Luis Scola and Cleveland’s 2010 First Round Pick (Lottery protected) Portland Trades: Jerryd Bayless, Rudy Fernandez and Nicolas Batum Utah Gets: James White (essentially save all of Boozer’s salary) Utah Trades: Carlos Boozer and New York’s 2010 First Round Pick(they would essentially be paying us a draft pick for taking Boozer's salary) Cleveland Gets: Carlos Boozer Cleveland Trades: Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Cleveland’s 2010 First Round Pick (Lottery protected) We can then trade Zydrunas to anyone before the season starts] for expiring contracts of players that suck(which we will buy out) and draft picks. Maybe he can be sent to Miami or someone like that to help them get closer to a ring this year. TMac can then recover by the trade deadline and then maybe we can ship him out as well to a contender for expiring contracts of crappy players and draft picks cuz in the end he is a good player and somebody will want him for this year. We can then have a few draft picks with at least one high one (our own). During this next season our lineup will look like this 2009-2010 lineup PG - Aaron Brooks/Jerryd Bayless/Brent Barry (due to 12 player limit) SG - Rudy Fernandez/Chase Budinger/Jermaine Taylor SF - Trevor Ariza/Nicolas Batum PF - Carl Landry/Joey Dorsey/Brian Cook C - David Anderson/Chuck Hayes Then we can have a very good core that will allow us to go after a star like Bosh. Then maybe Yao will come back healthy and we can have an elite team. I would probably go after a Aldrich or Favors with the high pick in case Yao does not come back. Regardless we will have reformed this team into a young talent team in 1 year. Obviously a lot depends on the trade above so I would really try to make that happen. 2010-2011 lineup (with Yao) PG – Aaron Brooks/ Jerryd Bayless SG – Rudy Fernandez/Xavier Henry or Avery Bradley (with our late lottery pick) SF – Trevor Ariza/Nicolas Batum/Chase Budinger PF – Chris Bosh/ Carl Landry/Joey Dorsey C – Yao Ming/Cole Aldrich or Derrick Favors* (with our high lottery pick) *Favors is more of a forward but he has so much upside I can't help wanting to draft him even though he won't be playing much at his natural position. 2010-2011 lineup (w/o Yao) PG – Aaron Brooks/ Jerryd Bayless SG – Rudy Fernandez/Xavier Henry or Avery Bradley (with our late lottery pick) SF – Trevor Ariza/Nicolas Batum/Chase Budinger PF – Derrick Favors(with our high lottery pick)/ Carl Landry/Joey Dorsey C – Chris Bosh/David Anderson
Purposely tanking is a losers mentality. We are gonna have enough trouble winning games, and we will get whatever position in the draft we deserve. We have options with Yao and TMacs contracts expiring next year. Giving less than our best effort is not the way to teach our young players. They should play hard every game, learn and improve as much as they can, and we go from there. Purposely tanking is WEAK!!! You think tanking next year will bring a championship the following year? And how many people will want to put an asterik next to that title?
Jason Friedman had the same thoughts as you did: http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/Rocketscom_Summer_Mailbag-319822-34.html
Why are we talking about tanking, when the Rockets, without Yao and TMac, along with a huge, slumping Artest, went 2-2 against the NBA champions? Insert Ariza, Budinger, Andersen...and I dont see why we are a 30 win team...we will make the playoffs, probably as a 6 or 7 seed. If we have good team chemistry, we may be able to advance. No tanking is necessary, specially since we will be players in FA after TMac's contract is off the books.
Chicago Bulls didn't tank. They had bunch of young players that are very talented. Kind of reminds me like the Rockets right now, except the year after this we have a dominant big man back. They developed their player by letting them play hard, but yet they get the number one pick. That pick turned out to be Rose.
I know they started it because of tanking, but i don't think it was just the rockets they suspected, it was years and years of suspicion that brought the lottery.
Exactly what a poster said above. Not going out to lose, but developing our youth at the expense of playing Tracy, or bringing Yao back with 20 games left because we could get the 8th seed. Giving all of our assets a year to develop. To see if Aaron is the real deal. To see if Landry can develop a post game. To see aboug Chase Budinger and Jermaine Taylor. Lowry, Anderson and even Scola to some extent. And then using our capspace, and a high draft pick to finish it off. Whether that means trading Tracy and getting a player that may be signed for longer, or later trading the high pick for a star. Ask yourself if this group in a year, no Tracy, maybe Yao +Bosh equals contender. Maybe, but I dont think so. We need a high draft pick. You may not get #1, but can get the odds on a good one.
They switched to the lottery system to make it harder, because back then you had a 50/50 chance from the coin flip. So the tanking for draft picks, would be even more effective than the drafts afterwards. It's still effective in raising the draft pick from the 14th to the 5th pick.
You have to guage what will be best for the team in the 2010-11 season. Trading veterans for young guys may be something you do if you're planning to start a 4-5 year rebuilding plan. This is not what we're doing. Any move we make is in preparation for when Yao returns. Morey isn't going to trade a role player for somebody who's not as good but has potential to be 5 years down the road. Not as long as the Rockets still intend on building around Yao. Yes, we're not going to be too competitive next year, but management isn't going to trade away contributors if it doesn't make us better in 2010 when they expect to be right back in the thick of things. So, if we're not in full rebuilding mode (we aren't), then the smart thing to do is make moves to improve the team that you have the most control over. Choosing what players you acquire (via trade or free agency) is within your control. Freeing up cap room (through trade or by letting contracts expire) is within your control. Angling for a certain player in the draft is not really within your control. You don't know where you'll pick and you don't know who'll be available when you do pick. If you're targeting an underclassman, you may not even know if they'll declare or not. And with almost all rookies, you have no idea if they'll pan out or not until they get into the league. To be sure, targeting a prospective free agent isn't something you have much control over either, but it's not as bad as targeting someone in the draft. Make no mistake, young guys are going to play. We don't need to make any moves to give AB, Budinger, Landry, or Andersen playing time. The Rockets need to put themselves in the best position possible for when Yao returns. If that means trading Tracy, fine. If that means letting his contract expire, fine. But I downgrading the roster so they finish farther down in the standings hardly helps us. Maybe you get a lottery pick but what becomes of it is largely a matter of luck. The bottom line is, the players aren't going to intentionally lose games and Adelman isn't going to lose on purpose either. The only way the Rockets "tank" is if they intentionally downgrade the roster (rebuilding mode) and as long as they still intend to contend in 2010 and beyond, that ain't happening.
We need a borderline allstar or better 2 guard with a decent 3PG% for the 2010 season, not a post player. We already have Scola and Yao for the 2010 season.
Those players are all going to get playing time anyway. You don't need to tank to make that happen. All of those players (except for the rookie we don't sign) are going to get significant playing time so why tank? I swear, the chances of drafting a rookie that'll put you over the top. You "may" get a good pick but that has nothing to do with getting a good player.
How the hell does this thread have two stars? It deserves one. And especially since it's wayyyy too early to figure out anything about the draft class of next year, and if it sucks, then we've wasted our time? And why would any of the elite players like Bosh or Wade want to come here to a listless loser's team anyway in 2010 if we tank?
