This not about the thread per se but the obvious use of AI in the creating the thread. I’m already tired of the presence of AI on the BBS. The original post here was at least edited in AI so has the appearance of a well reasoned take. At least on the surface. My word to the young people who think AI makes you sound more grown up, It really doesn’t. To the people for whom English is a second, or third, language, it doesn’t make you sound more native. Please use this board to be yourself. Your own takes with all your weirdness and color thrown in. The best posters, IMHO, are the most idiosyncratic and opinionated without being mean or calling names. Please, to those who are posting more because they have a AI editor to lean on, do yourself a favor and use this as a place to find your unique voice talking about a team you love with your heart and soul. Maybe use AI to do research on stats to back up your points but otherwise share your voice. My Luddite rant is over. Viva la revolution! And I think the season was a smashing success.
Yet is houston ok with just getting in the playin or 1st rd every year? Could this team get better, yet we dont know the ceiling? This org is hoping that this young core will be very good in few years, and they very well could be once there fully developed.... But how much better will they get? Eason part of this team in the future? Time will only tell...
I disagree. There have been some unfortunate pieces of luck. And most likely the Brooklyn/Houston pick swap will not fall, technically in our favor. That being said that is an initial likelihood based on the current value of the assets. Ultimate fate is definitely to be determined. I would’ve loved to see what the cade Cunningham universe, or Wembanyama fate would’ve looked like, but that is not where we are. there are multiple organizational shortcomings that manifested throughout the regular season in playoffs. most of those are obvious, and it will be very damning if they aren’t addressed. I don’t think most rebuilds are a cut and dry 3 to 5 year process. In fact, I think very few are. the results of the last two years in regards to returning to the playoffs have not been ideal, but I still think that we are on an upward trajectory. at the end of the day we have a good bit of flexibility, tradeable players, and a relatively healthy cabinet of draft capital over the next few years. some of the decisions that the BBS would love to be made, like coaching or GM changes are not likely this off-season. we will have to see what unfolds, but we are certainly free and clear of those treacherous three seasons where we were at our worst. I still am optimistic about the future.
From 2021 to 2025 there have been exactly 3 bonafide blue chip prospects in the drafts. Cade in 21. Wemby in 23. And Cooper in 25. Which of those did the Rockets have a shot at? Here are the rest that had/have superstar upside: Jalen Green Evan Mobley Paolo Banchero Chet Holmgren Jabari Smith Jr Jalen Williams Scoot Henderson Amen Thompson Ausar Thompson Brandon Miller Alex Sarr Reed Sheppard VJ Edgecombe Ace Bailey Can probably name a few others. Part of the NBA allure is the randomness of when a franchise altering talent happens to come out when your team picks high. Here's another. When a player has been learning for a few years and suddenly ascends (Deni, Brunson, Steph). Not all paths to stardom are direct or linear. Here's an even funnier one. If the Rockets traded into the Top 5 of the next draft, it is likely a better player gets taken *after* they pick.
Jabari and Amen were the right picks considering the sentiment and what the GM community knew back then. Jabari was expected to go #1 that year, so you can't blame Stone for drafting him. There were 2 very bad picks from Stone.... Green over Mobley and Shephard over Castle. If you remember, there was a serious 50-50 split in the Rockets community between Green and Mobley that year. So we totally could have had Mobley, however I think we would have never traded for the Sengun pick if we took Mobley . As for the Shephard draft? Well that k e was just a crap shoot, but Stone toom the 6'1" dude in a league of giants.
part of the rebuild is also sideline reporter hiring. Went from Shelby C to Cayleigh Griffin to Vanessa Richardson.
I'd add three more names to that list. Scottie Barnes, Jalen Johnson and Dylan Harper. But yeah, I basically came in to say this. The ping pong balls just didn't bounce our way. I actually went back and tried to draft a better team assuming our picks would be the same, and it's not really possible. Sure, there are those who would have picked Grimes instead of Josh Christopher (but I say that's absolute insanity), but he's on his third team. What are the odds that it would be different here? And would having Grimes come off the be the difference? I don't think so. The big problem isn't who is coming off the bench (though that is a problem), it's who our number one option is. There are exactly two guys we could have picked who MIGHT put us in a better position and they are two out of the three guys I mentioned above. Scottie Barnes and Jalen Johnson still have a shot at being a first option franchise guy. That said, Scottie Barnes is an awful shooter so if we drafted him, we would need different supporting players. Barnes, Sengun and Amen would be the worst shooting big three in NBA history. Oh god that would be unwatchable. Anyway, we didn't get lucky. Detroit did. San Antonio did (Possibly twice) and Dallas did. There is nothing Rafael Stone could have done about that. It was random luck. The fun part is that there are as many as 5 guys in this draft that I think might be blue chip guys - and we don't have a first round pick. And then 2027 and 2028 are supposed to be pretty bad draft classes. YAY!
Closer to 7 or 8 could be blue chip guys. If the Rockets could somehow get into the Top 8 then we could definitely target one of Boozer, Dybantsa, Wilson or Peterson. Acuff, Flemings, Brown and Wagler all could end up being All Stars. I would love to trade everything not named Reed, Amen and Jabari for a Top 8-10 pick and then trade *that* plus one of next years pick plus a future protected for Boozer or Wilson. Boozer is my #1 target for this team.
the problem is the rockets never considered castle; they considered clingan and reed. Also they didn't trade away the pick when they had major interest from the league for it(they also wanted to trade back and get marcus smart lol)nor had dinner with clingan but did with reed https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5574543/2024/06/20/rockets-draft-notebook-donovan-clingan/
When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Each time a bonafide superstar franchise level star was in the draft, the Rockets first selection came after said player had already been taken. Meaning the Rockets were out of luck there, you can’t blame them for the ping pong balls. Besides taking Jalen Green, the Rockets made lemonade with all of their other top picks. Jabari, Amen, Reed all seem to be core players; though none looks like a prototype of a Franchise player. The Rockets struck gold with the Sengune pick, as he looks to be a top 3 player from his draft class.
oh yea here's this: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5589674/2024/06/25/nba-draft-reed-sheppard-donovan-clingan-rockets/
Yea, luck is a massive thing that folks love to discount, both for or against. When things go well, people attribute luck to skill. When things don't go well, people attribute lack of results to lack of skill. For years, everybody kept calling the GS warriors a genius org but they got massively lucky drafting Steph, Clay, and Draymond. Now, once you've drafted them, it takes effort to build around them. Give credit to the Spurs for trading for Fox as that was key ...but that move would have been irrelevant if that didn't have that other tall dude on the team. The Rockets tanked for 3 years and didn't come away with next Hakeem, Shaq, or Jordan. Sucks. But it is what it is and it isn't Stone's fault. I will never forget Wemby pumping his fist when the Rockets got the 4th pick. grrrr.
Mobley, Barnes, Cade, Franz…all of those players are better than the guy we drafted #2 and also the guy Stone’s fraudulent reputation as a good drafter has rested on with the Sengun trade. All of those teams were better in the playoffs than us. OKC got the two best players in that next season’s draft. We got two role players. One who shot league average in his 4th season and the other coming off his worst season as a pro. That next draft we got Amen, but the other guy we drafted washed out. The draft after that we got Reed, who barely played his rookie yr and has been outplayed by several of the guy drafted behind him this season. No real player trades to improve the team over 6 seasons except KD, who killed team chemistry and will be 38 yrs old next season. A botched trade of draft picks leaving us without a pick in this generational draft. A premature extension of a coach who simply can’t coach offense, coming off a really bad coaching job this season. Underwhelming development from the “young core”. This rebuild has been a failure and I can’t understand how ownership can’t see that. It’s not bad luck, it’s bad decisions. Bad luck is not why we have such bad player development or constructed a roster that doesn’t fit. It’s been 6 seasons and we still need to be rebuilding, not pretending we are contending. It’s time to move on from Stone and Ime. But I guess it’s gonna take us completely crashing and burning, having mortgaged more of our future assets?
Ownership can’t see that, because they are just looking at the bottom line, which is paved with golden bricks. TV money is constant regardless of attendance. The Rockets franchise continues to appreciate and Tito continues to build his empire with more expansion into the Houston downtown entertainment district. He couldn’t care less about basketball.
