I don't see the fit. Udoka and Harden/Green backcourt? Udoka not allowed to get in Harden's face or Harden will sulk until he can get him fired? This Harden may as well be a worse 95 Clyde who failed to help Hakeem win and then leaves to go back to Portland and be the #1 there again except instead of Portland being a playoff team with Sabonis, Strickland and Cliff and Buck, the Blazers are coming off 3 straight worst record seasons. Disastrous set back. I have no doubt he can still put up 50 point triple doubles, and still help the team win a lot of regular season games. Come playoff time, it'll be the same old story with a softened tired Harden flaming out, and probably early in the 1st round without a true #2. Hell! He might flame out in the Play In Tourney ffs. Harden needs a stacked team of 2 way players and at least 1 perimeter and 1 interior ELITE defensive players to have a chance. I don't like the chances of that happening at all in a 2 year window. We're going to trade all our young studs who still have tons of potential for Bridges or Brown and Capela back? Turner? That team is a middling team. There's no realistic route for this fantasy return like 30 year old Bron back to Cleveland with an entering prime Kyrie and 26 year old KLove coming off 25ppg 12.5rpg and 4.4apg. Ridiculous. Harden is head honcho chasing, reliving his glory days of ultimate power within the organization. Just move on. If it happens, it happens and i'll root for him as i always did. If he manages to be a key piece in a championship, he'll be forgiven and forever loved. If he doesn't do anything and sets us back another 5 year rebuild after a few more pretender years stretching it to a decade of misery? Yeah, he's going to be even more hated than if he just left and stayed gone. Imagine a scenario where all our top picks hit, Green. Bari, Alpi, Tari, even TyTy and Garuba and Jaygup all start to produce...now imagine we've got a fat old Harden taking up the majority of our cap space, fails to deliver and Tilman refuses to pay lux taxes to resign the best of those players coming into their primes. I will hate Harden(and Tilman) more than Quitten.
Whitmore will have just turned 19 when summer league starts. He may be a wing but is not going to impact winning in 2023-2024 like Jarace would for example. I personally think this is just misdirection from Houston. But maybe by the time they complete their process they feel like Whitmore is a better option than Miller or Thompsons. They may be right. Whitmore projects to be a stud but Id rather draft a PG.
What if Harden's influence is just allowing the team to feel more comfortable taking BPA? Without Harden, we have a glaring hole for a playmaker, which could influence the team to select a playmaker like Henderson or Thompson, when maybe the team actually feels like Miller or Whitmore is BPA? Nobody knows, everybody is quick to get their jimmies rustled.
Can't shake the feeling that Whitmore = Rudy Gay. Didn't want Rudy Gay then, and I don't want him now. Could be wrong about Whitmore's potential, but that's my concern here.
So you weren't in attendance booing during that draft at the Toyota Center. JVG scurried from the stage.
I remember being fine with Shane Battier at the time. In hindsight, I still believe that was the right move. Rudy turned out fine as a player, but never a truly great player.
Was the Rockets version of Mario Williams over Young/Bush. Incensed isn't even the word to describe the sentiment around the city for that one.
Somebody made the comp the other day for Whitmore as being Jaylen Brown. I think that some of the passing comparisons that’s probably accurate, but Whitmore will have way more of a handle and ability to create his own offense compared to Brown.
Sure you can believe that. That's not my interpretation of that quote. I read it as they're willing to pick a lesser prospect because we have Harden to create, which if that's true then yeah it's ****ing stupid.
I trust the talent evaluation of the Rockets. If they think Cam, or Amen, or Miller is the guy, I will give them the benefit of the doubt.
To be fair, when you slide to #4 in what was widely-touted as a "3-player draft," then you might be looking at a lesser prospect anyway--although let's hope for the best, whatever it may be (trade up? trade for established player? someone outside the "top 3" is actually purty durned good?)
It’s really dumb. Harden is going to give you 2-3 years, that’s it. The Rockets still need to invest in a point guard for the future, and Amen Thompson is the BPA at #4, not Cam Whitmore.
Most people project Henderson or Amen Thompson to be the BPA after Wemby. So the fear is the other way around, that if they sign Harden, they may not take the BPA because that guy is a playmaker.
I don't, they've missed twice on top 3 picks in the last 2 years. They composed a team with exactly one above average shooter on the entire roster....and that's a guy they lucked into, not someone they drafted. I see no reason to trust the talent evaluation of the Rockets FO.
I honestly think Cam Whitmore is a significant step down from where Brown was as a prospect in terms of his passing and decisionmaking. And that's troubling, because Brown was not (and still is not) good in those areas.
^ when you drink too much "draft big board" kool aid, you say wacky things like "meh, too much like 2x all star and current all-NBA player, SIGNIFICANT STEP DOWN; HARD PASS BRO" and then you get back to arguing about how your 20 win team with its 20 win players is the bees knees.
Are you just trying to pick fights for fun? I say, to paraphrase, "I'm concerned that he has significantly worse playmaking abilities than Brown showed as a college prospect", and you hear "meh he's too much like Jaylen Brown, he sucks". Those two statements are not equivalent!
