Nobody on this roster is the Rockets franchise player.

But I thought we had multiple "player is the rockets franchise player" threads

 

Amen would start on OKC, because they probably would have taught him how to at least be a somewhat decent shooter by now

Y’all forget we were straight up ignoring Lu Dort in the bubble giving him wide open shots and he was bricking/airballing all of them? He had 36/26/53 shooting splits that series, but look at him now

aside from that, I’ll agree with everything else except for this ever looking like a great rebuild…we got screwed in the draft every single year

 

Not a reasonable argument. Durant, Sengun, Amen, Bari, Tari, Okogie, Capela would all at least get bench minutes or start for OKC.

We didn’t lose because we are not talented. The Lakers are far less talented. They started 3 cheap rejects - Kennard, Smart and Ayton were acquired for peanuts. We lost because we played the wrong way and didn’t acquire a PG.

This team has won 104 regular season games in two seasons. Stop lying to yourself that we lack talent. It’s just poorly constructed and coached, even if we’re not the most offensively talented team in the NBA like OKC.

 

Spoiler

I’m not even a big Amen guy but I think he could/would start for all of these teams. (Amen for Dort, Amen for Castle, Amen for Braun or Johnson, and Amen for…DiVincenzo?)

Amen - Reed - Holiday
Okogie - Tari
Jabari - Tate
Durant - DFS
Sengun - Adams - Capela

SGA - McCain - Topic
Jal.Will - Wallace - Mitchell - Joe
Dort - Caruso - Wiggins
Chet - Ken.Will
iHart - Jay.Will

Durant would start, Amen would start, Sengun would maybe start?(could see either way), Jabari bench, Tari bench, Reed not in rotation, Adams bench(every team below, all their backup centers are just as good/better but I’ll say bench), DNP: Holiday/Okogie/Tate/DFS/Capela

Fox - Harper
Castle
Vassell - K.Johnson - C.Bryant
Champagnie - Barnes
Gumby - Kornet

Durant would start, Amen would start, Sengun would not start, Jabari bench, Tari bench, Reed bench, Adams bench, DNP: Holiday/Okogie/Tate/DFS/Capela

Murray - T.Jones
Braun - THJ - Strawther
C.Johnson - BBJr.
Gordon - Watson
Jokic - Valanciunas

Durant would start, Amen would start, Sengun would not start, Jabari bench, Tari bench, Reed bench, Adams bench, DNP: Holiday/Okogie/Tate/DFS/Capela

DiVincenzo - Conley - Bones
Edwards - Dosunmu
McDaniels - Shannon
Randle - SloMo
Gobert - Reid

Durant would start, Amen would start, Sengun would likely not start?, Jabari bench, Tari bench, Reed bench/not in rotation(see previously Dillingham), Adams bench, DNP: Holiday/Okogie/Tate/DFS/Capela

 

I was specifically addressing this phrase:

It’s just not true.

As far as starting, Sengun would easily start over Hartenstein. Chet can protect the rim and make 3’s so he’s actually a perfect front court partner. Amen would start. There’s a good chance Jabari starts over Dort as well because he’s a much better shooter and only slightly lesser defender.

I know we’re upset with the loss but try to imagine how much better our guys would look if they had SGA and Dignault. Everyone’s efficiency would be up and you would see them totally differently.

Now also imagine Chet - who scores only 17ppg - going from that environment where he’s getting tons of open looks and assisted shots to coming here where he’d have to grind it out for every shot with that frame.

The coach + the presence of two non-shooters makes everyone looks worse than they really are on offense. Don’t be fooled by Ime’s curse. I’m not saying we have superstars in hiding, but I also know they are better than they look right now.

 

The premise that none of these guys are a franchise player may well be true (but is not guaranteed to be true), but the idea that none of our young guys would start for OKC is just silly. Our problem is that our best young players are around the level of J-Dub and Chet, but we don't have an SGA and we don't have OKC's depth and well-constructed roster. Or a halfway decent coach.

 

This is an intere

This is an interesting discussion from both sides, but I definitely don't think Jabari would start over Dort. I think Dort is a far superior defender, although that could be skewed by his ability to foul people very hard without getting called.

 

Issue isnt that. Is Year 4 Dort better than Year 4 Jabari? In Dort's 4th year, OKC was 40-42.

Do we bail on these guys prematurely or do we know enough about them to kick them to the curb?

 

Something has to change, I'm not saying kick everyone to the curb...I'd be curious to see what they look like with Ime gone or moving or two to make the roster fit differently. I'm losing faith that anybody will develop as things currently stand.

 

Does OP know that Hartenstein starts for OKC? I mean, you could say Sengun wouldn’t start over iHart, since we’re so down on him. But iHart wouldn’t start for us, either, and they would trade him for Sengun in a heartbeat.

That said, I do agree we don’t have a franchise player (yet).