Yea but remember that off-season hawks went after multiple vets. Bogdanovic, Capela, Gallinari, Solomon Hill, Lou Will at the trade deadline I think. It was a vet heavy team. Hunter and Reddish were hurt or didn't play for long periods of time. Rockets can make the playoffs but we need to keep Guys like Wood, EG, Tate and would probably need Wall to buy in and play.
Agreed, Wood is absolutely capable. He is going to be the next Brook Lopez/Bobby Portis... Making all NBA defensive teams on a championship team as a fan favorite. It would be nice if that team is the Rockets.
Being the veteran who scores the most on a bad young team doesn't mean jack ****. Not too expensive?? He's going to demand a contract much larger than his worth! Yes, I have Yao as my avatar, a REAL Rockets big man.
Yes this is true, the Hawks did trade for Lou Williams at the trade deadline in the 20/21 season, for what? to facilitate....it definitely wasn't for defense. I see facilitators galore right now on the Rockets team as they progress and get better. Jalen Green, Kevin Porter jr, Josh Christopher, Wood, Sengun...... just add water....Jabari? Chet? Ivey? Banchero? Keegan Murray? Mathurin? Capela.....Garuba gets in shape and stays healthy. Capela was/is not exactly a shooter. And I believe Cam Reddish elevated his game in this playoffs. Cam being gone is one of the reasons the Hawks didn't go as far this year. Again I'm hoping, I'm expecting, I'm begging the basketball gods to help Kenyon/Tate improve their 3-pt shooting. If not give me Jabari. Porter Jalen Green Josh Christopher Sengun Wood Tate Kenyon Garuba Mathews add any two of: Jabari Chet Banchero Ivey Keegan Murray Mathurin Tari Eason EJ Liddell Sochan Kessler Mark Williams Patrick Baldwin and most importantly, remove the "Tank Mode" moniker.....I will use the Humphrey Bogart quote here: "Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Wood helps create space for Porter-Green-JC like a speed receiver takes the top off a defense in football. If things go right Great......if not trade him. Some playoff contender could use him as a second or third option. Wall can stay gone Eric Gordon, Nix and Queen are expendable in my opinion..... allows for drafting Ivey or Mathurin
Reddish really was a none factor I think he did randomly drop 30 against MKE when Trae was hurt. I was at alot of atl games because of work and tickets are cheap there(now I'm in MKE tix aren't bad, feels like I just follow Budenholzer)... Reddish never really got a chance there. This year hawks just had too many injuries Bogdanovic/Capela/Hunter AND Their young guys didn't take the next step. Collins stagnant, not a great defender. They definitely leaned heavy on the vets. This Rockets team has a ton of talent felt like every time I would watch the opponents feed, the keys to success from their announce team would always be "Rockets team is too talented... Do not play their game". Cavs/Minn literally mentioned how the Rockets were more talented then they were. Two playoff teams... Scared of the talent. Good sign. I'm fine with Wall being gone too. I'm not even sure if we found out why he wasn't playing but just imagine if he came out and said "I'm here 5, 10, 20 minutes off the bench, whatever the team needs" Then he proceeded to just play a Pat Bev/Alvarado type defensive role. He would be scary good. That would be an INSTANT change to culture. You think Wood would take plays off defensively seeing that? Everyone would buy in. Let me dream.
Some possibilities? Attach him to 17 to move up a couple of spots, get a low 1st in this draft and/or a future 1st with some, but not a ton of protection, along with a high 2nd in this draft, or a future 2nd. Some combination of those things and maybe a young player with a bit of potential and expiring contracts, of course. The main thing I'm interested in is moving up in this draft, but that could be difficult. There's some real talent in the teens, especially if you get into the lottery, but even if we could just move up a couple of spots it could make a real difference. I'd really like to nab Eason, who I don't see being at 17, as some have mentioned, including @Clutch, but there are others who might be just out of our reach at 17. I just don't see Wood being a part of our future and I'd rather give his minutes to a player we hope will be. If we get Smith or Banchero (heck, or Chet), for instance, I don't want either one having to compete with Wood for minutes, who won't be happy at all if he doesn't get them, in my opinion.
DeAndre Hunter was the one I was thinking of, vs Knicks first round Hunter was: Game One: 5 pts and -7 (+/-) Game two: 18 pts and +5 (+/-) Game three: 11 pts and +10 (+/-) Game four: 5 pts and +7 (+/-) Game five: 15 pts and +19 (+/-) Bogdan Bogdanovic, DeAndre Hunter, and Can Reddish all messed big chunks of time during the season. So you are missing the point. They had a team full of 1st, 2nd and 3rd year players they put it together. Bogdanovic was in his 3rd year that season. Tate, Kenyon will be in their 3rd season next year. Players take 3 to 4 years to develop...so Porter also falls into that category. When Trae went from 19/20 season to 20/21 Trae went from 2nd to 3rd year. Kevin Huerter was pivotal in 20/21.....it was his 2nd year. Guess who goes into their second yr next season? Jalen Green, Sengun, Josh Christopher, Garuba. So you can claim I'm wrong; but you are saying the Hawks used trades of Rondo, Kris Dunn and Bruno Fernando in 20/21 to go from 20 wins to 41 wins.......are you saying the Rockets can't make trades to better themselves? Tate, Nix, Queen, Wood, Eric Gordon, Fernando, Schroder, Garuba, Mathews? SnT are there for Schroder/Fernando......so just wait and see, silly. When the Rockets go to 35 or 40 wins because they traded Gordon for Reddish or freed up money for Bledsoe and brought in a pivotal free agent....then you will understand what The Apache Warrior was talking about. Forget-about-it
LOLLLLL a thinly veiled “**** Paolo” thread? Say it isn’t so! As far as Wood it’s pretty much been covered - Awful screen setter, less than ideal free throw shooter, no passing instinct or vision. Shoots 3s well, rebounds and has a deep bag as a “me first” offensive player. I still remember him pouting and throwing a game after being reprimanded by the team. Doesn’t seem to me that he shares good chemistry with the other building blocks. If he’s here on a value deal cool, but I’m not tying up big money on him. Does this make me a hater?
Not turning this into a Banchero thread, but as more mocks come out, I'm seeing him more at #1 for teams like Magic, Blazers, and maybe even Pistons, where they need a bucket getter big. This is GOOD for him and other teams. If we land a #2/#3, and these teams pick banchero ahead of us, that means we can land a chet/jabari, this is good for the Rockets. Wood may not be a perfect comp to Banchero, but ironically a scoring big is something the Rockets already have. Yes Wood might be gone next year, but it feels weird to plug this hole, when there seems to be much bigger other holes to fill on the roster.
You see anti-Banchero propaganda around every corner. Stay sane brother, this has nothing to do with Paolo.
He doesn’t motivate himself at all and he doesn’t hold himself accountable if no one else does… he doesn’t have any respect for his coaches or teammates. Make him play under Spolstra and see how much harder he plays on the defensive side.
I really wonder what would be the result of such an experiment. But I hardly think it will ever happen because teams like Miami do not usually bet on players like Wood in the first place. And it is not just the defensive side. He might get disoriented in a team that has proper ball movement lol. What about (non-existent) shot selection? Screens? the list goes on and on.
Agreed - Spoelstra, Nurse even MDA would have demanded greater effort AND production on defense from Wood. But also noticed that other vets played with less effort and efficiency on defense than they did from last season, not just Wood. Tate EGo Nwaba
That would be great for everyone. If it failed because Rockets value him more than Heat, then that is bad. That would mean probably Rockets sees his value higher than everyone.
