Much longer than people think. We'll likely get much worse than we are this season for a couple more years, especially if they don't fire Silas and the rest of the coaching staff. Rebuilds only work if you have a good competitive coach to teach the players how to play. The way we're looking the tank kids will get their way and we'll continue to suck throughout the 20's whilst giving our picks to the Thunder. We're not going to be one of those teams who turns it around, we're going to be total bottom feeders, just like the tankers wanted, and it'll be that way for a very long time. Expect our good young players to leave for good teams, you don't retain talent by being utter garbage.
They first need to figure out if anyone is good enough to build around and sign for big money. Then you’ll see a completely different type of roster around them. Hard to tell but closest player to being that is Green and he looks good but not that good yet. The Rockets prob need to look worse before they can look better. Think home renovation. They need to first open up some walls and demo some bathrooms.
LMFAO I never really thought about it, but Rockets fans haven't had to deal with a true rebuild in 20 years now. So I imagine plenty of fans here don't know what one actually looks like. Even the Francis rebuild was extremely quick, although it didn't amount to anything. We're actually almost 4 decades removed from multiple seasons of truly bad basketball, but even that was only 2 seasons. This is almost guaranteed to be the worst stretch in the history of the franchise since they came to Houston. It's kind of an impressive comment on the overall quality of the franchise history. 3 losing seasons in 36 years prior to last season.
I think it’s important to understand we are really just looking at tile samples at this point. We still have to tear down walls and put in some beams. Things can go fast when you find what you need (see Harden trade or the Cavs drafting Lebron), but in most cases it’s at least 3 years. The Sixers process was a very very ugly 3 years and that was the most extreme example of a gut job which is the fastest way to remodel a home/build a contender. If Hinkie was running the front office with a different owner, he would have already traded all of those veteran players. Still kind of baffling EG is still on this team. Stone is really playing with fire given his injury history. Stones method for remodeling this team could take a long long time.
There are two players that don’t help the development of the players and that’s Wood and KPJ. both require the ball in their hands and take away positions from JC, Green, KJ and Sengun.
James Edward Harden Jr. is not walking through that door. Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon is not walking through that door.
True but a GM would probably assume that someone that gets on the court with Wood or KPJ that was as good as a rebuilding block like Harden, Lebron, or even an Embiid would still outshine them. I think Stone is trying to trade for a Harden… again… instead of truly rebuild. It’s like when Morey would brag about how Scola was one of the players most sought after but he missed his window to trade him and Battier at decent value during the rebuild. He ended up having to use the amnesty clause on Scola because he held onto him too long. I feel like Stone might be making that same mistake with Wood and EG… and especially Wall who is looking looking more like nothing more than a max contract for a trade. The assumption he seems to be making is that time + usage adds value. And you hold your pieces for a big trade. What he’s doing with Wall speaks to this strategy more than anything. Since he won’t play him anyways it makes no sense except for the fact that he has a superstar sized contract. I think we unfortunately have a front office and owner who are about as naive as some of our fans… just in a different way. I don’t see another Harden trade on the horizon and it’s concerning to me that Stone seems to be acting otherwise.
when we get a Chet / Sengun frontcourt. goofiest front court of all time but other team will be so befuddled we become a contender.
I think you’re overthinking it a bit. What I think it’s about is team control. Rockets have Green, KJ, JC and Sengun locked up for 3 years while KPJ and Wood are potentially free agents after next season so they want to see exactly what they have in them before sending them out. There is no way they want Harden here to ply with Wood and KPJ.
Getting over the hump doesn’t necessarily mean winning, it does however mean improvement and trending in the right direction. Even if there is still a ways to go, we should be seeing FLASHES. I’m not even seeing that tbh. We look like a bunch of JV soccer players forced to be the basketball replacements. Where’s our Keanu?
We keep getting battered by letting through 80 points in a half and we'll see a lot of players walking OUT of that door as soon as they are able, that's for sure.
I remember before Christmas when there were a few people statmuse-ing me to death about how Wood's numbers were comparable to Larry Bird's. Wonder what happened to those cats.
To be fair to myself, the whole point of Clutchfans is to "overthink it too much." But yes, I keep thinking about what Jeff Van Gundy said in a broadcast early in the season. I think he said "they are just trying to figure out if these young players are any good." But then you have the EG situation, and to a greater extent the Wall situation. There's just kind of alot going on from a roster in flux standpoint so alot to talk about, and "overthink." I'm not convinced one way or another than Stone really knows exactly what he's doing here either, and maybe that's by design where he's just sort of letting things play out without any real one singular direction. Only thing we as fans can really do is just sort of set our expectations that they likely aren't drafting the next Lebron, and the Harden trade was a once in a 100 year trade that almost never happens. To earlier point about a remodel... it has to look worse before it can look better. I'm just ready more than some to tear it ALL THE WAY down to the studs. (and no I wasn't advocating trading for Harden. God no. He's starting to look aged a bit on the court which is rare for him given how he doesn't rely on athleticism much at all. He's got 5 good years left in him to win it all, and the Rockets need someone with a 10-12 year window if they are trading for a building block instead of using the draft.)
Very good information for the impatient, “why are we tanking” crowd. In reality, we are not intentionally tanking. It is totally unrealistic to expect this team to be better than the 3rd worst team one year after the Harden fiasco. Stone is doing a good job building the roster and we are making progress on offense. We will make defensive strides when we have a real defensive big, instead of Mr. Soft and a rookie. We have lots of draft picks even with the crap Westbrook trade and will probably have a couple more at the trade deadline. I expect we will make the play-in 2024 and even better if we can trade for a star in 2024.
Bye! The only players that really matter are the ones we have drafted. The others are experiments or trade filler and we'd be better off trading them or using the cap space they generate by leaving. This isn't a playoff team where the 10th guy on your roster really matters. Currently the GM does not have the tools to turn this into an overnight contender. Thanks, Tilman, who accomplishes this over 3 years of systematic value destruction. Walls albatross contract and Christian Woods tiny windup motor are big problems for this team, not to mention Theis. Gordon is good and deserves to be elsewhere. Who are we worried about losing? KPJ? We might lose him at any time during the season anyways. Silas should be all in on developing Green and Sengun IMO because they will likely be the only survivors from this roster in 2024 when we've also drafted other lottery picks and used free agent money to balance the roster.
Do you really think a player as competitive as Sengun is going to want to stay on a team this bad if we continue to be this bad for multiple years? See Anthony Davis for reference as to how it goes when you draft high then continue to suck major ass.
I would like Gordan to be traded as soon as possible, but we have no idea what’s being offered. Teams know Gordan’s injury history as well as we do, so they would want to wait as long as they can to a time where he can still have an impact.
