Going forward I'd prefer to keep: Amen Jabari Don't mind keeping if there is no deal to make our team better now but can be moved later: KD FVV Players I'd like to see moved before the draft for future picks or to get into this years' draft: Alpi Reed Bench players I'd like to keep: Okogie
Id take it a step further. Amen, Reed and Jabari are the trio. Trade everything else to get a Top 5 pick in this draft. Stone takes too many half measures. Pick a lane and stick to it. The young guys are experienced enough to run the team now. They dont need grandpa Fred reviewing their finances anymore. Stonedoka keeps on running this 2 timeline **** and it doesnt work. It never has and it never will. Just like trading for a one dimensional over the hill prima donna. Which could apply to either Durant or Giannis.
I agree with this but doubt it will happen. I would even trade KD or Sengun to get into early teens if we could grab Philon. Hornets picks could probably get us Philon & Cenac Jr. Unfortunately I think we are just gonna run it back with Fred & Adams. I’d prefer this vs dumping assets into Gianni’s, Brown, or Mitchell though
This. I know people WANT there to be a superstar in waiting - I do too.... but there isn't one. A team can pile up regular season wins with a bunch of good players that play hard -- but in the playoffs, that seldom works. The ugly truth is that the Rockets do not have a superstar, and the closest to one they have is going to be 38 years old next year. Right now, the Rockets are locked into being the Grit and Grind Grizzlies or those Boozer/Williams Jazz teams.... take your pick. The Rockets should lock up as many future draft picks as possible, and shrewdly leverage their good (but not great) young players into future chances at a franchise player. However, Stone and Udoka like their jobs and know that ownership will ask why the Rockets aren't further along by this point. So - we just watch the games or we don't...... or we can endless b**** like I do, and ruin the experience for those few left drinking the Koolade.
I've gotten things right. I've gotten things wrong. Overall, I am a decisive person when I need to be. When a decision doesn't have to be made now, and the decision could have big implications if I'm wrong, I will gather more information. Even if I'm wrong about what happens, it doesn't matter if the situation does not force me to make a final decision such that I can still do what I thought was wrong. Funny thing is that I think Stone has leaned into Amen heavily. I think Stone is much more likely to build around Amen than I would at this point.
Yes - I can confirm that Amen Thompson is the player that the front office views as the most likely star. Having said that, he isn't untouchable, his name has been discussed for stars.
Name the endless players this forum was convinced were the saving grace lol!!! The franchise player ready to take Olajuwon’s spot. I’m still convinced Harden would have but for the CP3 injury. Aside from that, nada since I walked out of the Summit after Game 4 in 1995 We don’t have a superstar and we have teams in our conference who have generational talents. And yeah, the spurs are lucky and we aren’t…. Yes please lean into draft picks. If Amen or Sengun can get you picks, great….if Durant or FVV can get you picks, awesome!! What we have isn't close to enough, so don’t play make believe with it. I”d prefer to not play make believe.
Give the Nets : Sengun, their pick next year and the Suns pick, I'm sure theyd entertain that for #6 this year which offers nothing they need. There are those in here (growing number) that feel like Amen isnt *the guy*. Which is fine. But if he isnt, as I've said a million times before, you either trade whatever to get a high draft pick to try and draft that guy or start over and accumulate as many draft picks as possible to get more darts to blindly throw at the board. There is no one out there right now we can trade for that will get us to OKC/SAS tier. Not even Luka would do that. Its either Amen or someone we haven't drafted yet.
Amen isn't a point forward, and it's not just that he can't shoot 3s - he can't shoot jumpers at all. The examples you listed are radically different players - Magic Johnson played nothing like Butler or Hill, and Odom and Butler couldn't be more different (and who would ever have tried building around Odom?). Ignoring that, all of the players you listed had at least a decent midrange and the ones you could actually build around were deadly from the midrange. There is not one perimeter player in today's league who shoots as badly as Amen who's had a team built around him. So that means you have to surround both Amen and Alpi with 4 shooters to maximize their talents. Neither of them are rim protectors (Alpi because of his limitations, Amen because of his position) so one of those shooters has to be a rim protector as well. What we do know is that Alpi has significant gravity on offense and has proven himself as someone who reliably creates for others. Amen has no gravity on offense and creates for others only sporadically. I wouldn't build around either of them, but if the league mandated that we had to choose one (which is ludicrous but then again, Silver seems hellbent on making us a noncontender with the rigged drafts and new rules for tanking), I'd go with Alpi.
Amen's shots are almost entirely created by the gravity generated by KD And Alpi. Dude is a mess when he tries to drive on a defense focused on him, and to his credit, he doesn't try this very often. Plus, a lower usage rate indicates that his offense isn't scalable - basically, we're getting all the offense we can out of him given his current skills. Again, credit to him for maximizing his talents, but that doesn't mean you can or should build around him.
If Amen wants $40M+, then Sengun is easily the answer, although neither are franchise players. Sengun is on a team friendly contract and is improving his shooting. If Amen can't agree to a fair contract, ship him out for picks.
Yup...and it's painful to watch all these players we get for the past 30+ years and nothing has come close to a generational superstar player that can will this team to the end. Even the Yao era, no matter how much I liked him, we knew he isnt the superstar that'll take us far with his injuries. Francis, Yao, McGrady, and even Harden. Only that one Harden season with CP3 was the most hopeful and competitive. I just never felt this team could match the top teams. Maybe it's been too much of a burn, but I'm getting impatient with this team and the same sht repeating every era since Hakeem. But, I'll continue to be here deluding myself this organization will get lucky and be excited about potential (not really). At least there are worst teams out there.
To be fair this team was in a verly early stage before we got KD. Its not the young guys fault the Org blew it with KD.
His grab and go game is very scaleable and under utilized. The playoffs being this slow down half court grind is a myth. Good teams are running a lot. We are inherently making the decision to not maximize Amens offensive talents every time we have him as the only fast guy responsible for sticking to the other teams top perimeter threats. If you want more offense out of Amen, crank up the ball pressure, get him in rebounding and help position more often with guys that can cover on the perimeter and then get their asses up the court off rebounds and live ball turnovers, there’s a zero percent chance Amens offense would go down.
I view the core player as Amen. I think he is going to make a lot of progress over the next two years. Reed/Smith/Durant/Eason all fit well around him. And I’m not opposed to FVV and Adams as veterans in the rotation, but I don’t mind trading anyone other than amen for the right deal. I feel like Jabari may continues to to slowly ascend as he has to a good 3rd/4th wheel. in a perfect world to get offensive coach could integrate Sengun. I’d rather trade him for spacing or another perimeter attacker. I don’t know Milwaukee enough to know how good Rollins is? Heck of a year though. Sengun/DFS /Capela for Turner/Rollins/Trent/Lopez Bring back Okogie Turner/Adams/Lopez Smith/Eason Durant/Okogie Amen/Reed FVV/Rollins
