I thought one of the good things about the KD trade was supposed to be that we could pivot out of it with very little harm if it didn’t work out. Supposedly our sunk costs were limited and we still had assets to pivot back to team building. Why the reluctance to pivot? Burnergate wasn’t enough? Inexplicably dodging the KD injury bug is going to happen again at 38? The product on the court was so amazing, were so close to contending we have to stay the course? No. No. No. none of this makes any sense.
Remember a few years ago when the Rockets signed FFV, Brooks, and Adams? The Rockets then went from being the worst team in the NBA to a 52 win team. They went from 22 wins to 41 wins the first year after adding FFV and Brooks. Those guys really did make a difference. The next season adding Adams to the mix continued our improvement. Sure, the young guys getting experience helped improve our record. But, the veteran leadership and on court awareness by Fred, Brooks, and Adams was probably the most important aspects to us becoming a better team. Without Fred, Brooks, and Adams this is a different team, and yet we still won 52 games. Durant definitely helped us in some areas, but hurt us in other areas. Adding in Fred and Adams will be a big help next season. It probably won’t be enough to make us into a real contender, but it should help. The roster definitely needs to be tweaked. Reed and Amen have failed at becoming the point guard of the future (at least we learned that this season). Capela and DFS are under contract, but did little to help the team (Capela played 22 minutes in the post season). I think the Rockets WOULD be willing to make trades to improve the team. But, it takes two to tango. Do other teams value what we could offer in a trade? I don’t think our stash of draft picks look as enticing as they did a couple of years ago, and most of our players have flaws that can’t be ignored. In the end I think we do bring back basically the same team and hope for better health. I think Fertitta will say we never got to see the team we envisioned when we traded for Durant. I don’t think this will make Clutchfans happy. But, I Don’t think Fertitta cares what any of us say or think.
thanks. Debate is pretty much the backbone of this forum. I appreciate it when disagreements can be kept civil. Of course, the immature equate trash talk and nasty dick references to debate. I do my best to ignore those guys.
I said when he went down that we would miss him the most on the defensive side of the ball. I think he is overrated on the offensive side of the ball. In today’s NBA guards need to be able to penetrate, dish, and draw fouls or finish. It is why Sheppard is a short SG in my opinion. If FVV and Adams stay healthy we will probably have a better regular season record, because we will be a better defensive team and get more offensive boards. We will still be first round fodder and will have wasted another year of Amen’s progression as a PG, which is where his future lies. FVV, Adams, and KD are all fading players that are incapable individually or as a group to dominate in the playoffs where the best athletes excel and balanced teams win.
We didn’t learn anything about Amen or Reed and their potential at PG. Outside the first week or two of the season, they were rarely cast in a true pg position. Dribbling ball up to the half court and handing it to Durant or Sengun is not being a PG. It is a false narrative. If this year was really about preparing for the future like Ime said, they should have played Amen and Reed as pure pg’s all season instead of abandoning it at the first stumble. Even with about 20% usage as pg’s both Amen and Reed made strides in ball handling, passing, and taking care of the ball. Amen had .3 less assists than FVV on half the usage. Amen needs at least a mid-range jumper and Reed needs more muscle and better defensive IQ to be starting pg’s, but they would both be better than FVV if given the opportunity. Ime is just a narcissistic a-hole that puts himself above whats best for the team. If not, he would have sacrificed some wins early on for a payoff later in the year and for years to come.
Well, I disagree, but that’s okay. Neither Amen or Reed look like our point guard of the future to me. Reed has point guard instincts, but doesn’t have the athleticism. Amen has the athleticism, but, lacks the instincts. That’s my opinion and others can disagree and that’s fine. I could be wrong, and time will tell. I would be delighted if one of these two guys could develop into a good point guard.
I have been a diehard fan since day one, but time to move on if no changes are made. They weren’t even fun to watch this season.
I mentioned in the other thread but I’ll say it again that this is a bad decision by Tillman. Ime and Stone both know they need to win now and will gut the future this season on marginal moves that cost future assets and make the team older and riskier to injury. Also… regardless if the data shows that running it back gives this team the best odds, why is nobody above Stone not sounding the alarm at just how unwatchable this team is??? Like seriously… this team, even with the young lineup, is unwatchable. And it only gets worse when Adam’s and FVV come back. Helps the team win yes… but holy crap this is going to be one of the least enjoyable season of basketball to watch win or lose.
If you look at the contracts, next offseason has been their planned reset option. The FVV contract is over, the DFS contract becomes non-guaranteed, Jabari has a dip in his contract, KD can opt out. I think they hoped that extra money would be going to their young guys becoming superstars but it can also just be a reset. But, even then, the reset would likely be another set of vets that hopefully fit better. I doubt there's a scenario where the Rockets revert back to full rebuild mode this soon and Stone keeps his job. So, he probably won't be recommending that. If he moves the chains next year by getting to the 2nd rd he'll probably survive another year.
That assumes that Stone will be pressured into a Giannis trade. Stone's incompetence in roster building has me wanting Morey back (even though he had some bad misses too)
Iko and Amick were saying Rockets is big fish hunting. Shaprio should sit in the room with the Atheltics guys and come to a consensus.
