If you're supposed star Sengun can't dominate a Ayton/Hayes matchup then he's not that guy...Giannis coming to da H!
This is some revisionist history. Dosunmu wasn't traded for a 2nd, it was 4 2nd's and expiring salary. You have to play by the salary cap rules and Tari's contract didn't match either White or Dosunmu. For White the only way to make the money work was DFS contract. They got expiring contracts and draft assets - you couldn't offer expiring contracts. For Dosunmu you could use Tari and another ~2m in salary .... but at the time, most thought that was poor value for Tari. Yeah, Kennard in the offseason would have been nice, as a free agent with the MLE money that went to DFS.
I recognized the Rockets issues and predicted this outcome after the Durant trade. But Apache, VanVleet.....I said VanVleet lost a step (the whole previous season) and can't get by anyone. Now after an achilles tear, don't expect that to be better. Go with option 4) ALL OF THE ABOVE Blow it up, Big changes & Run it back Blow it up: wholesale changes including Udoka, Stone and Gretchen Shier Big Changes: deal out Sengun and Durant Run it Back: build around Amen Thompson and Tari Eason I said let Jabari go to restricted free agency and sign Eason to contract. Rockets flipped it and Jabari is not worth it and Eason would have been cheaper and more worth your buck. Chicago has always wanted Eason and have $60M to use. Probably taking Eason away at $22M+ and be very productive with the Bulls. Durant burned his stay with Houston with his burner account. Sengun is a liability as a Drop Coverage defense defender.....first round exit can be anticipated. NBA purgatory. Trading Sengun, Durant, Jabari, Reed Sheppard brings back shooters, rim protector and draft picks galore. Run it Back: surround Amen Thompson and Eason with 3&D shooters and rim protector/defenders. Or suffer a "Trust the Process," ten year rebuild.
Just please address the guard situation this off season. I’d probably try to move Sengun myself and build around Amen but really don’t care what they do with Sengun or KD as long as we fix our guard situation Trade / Upgrade Fred & find one more solid guard to come off the bench(Jerome). Reed isn’t that guy yet consistently & Amen can’t hit a 3. I’d even take Herro for a year in a KD trade and move Amen to the 3 than watch whatever I had to watch this year in the backcourt I’d fix the guard / bench issues & see what happens. Wait for that Nets 27’ pick to land and then go heavy on major roster reconstruction like trading Sengun, Reed, or Amen. Giannis too old to go all in this summer I think personally
Just don't sell the future for some washed entitled superstar. WE DON'T HAVE A WINDOW. Don't delude yourself. That scenic picture on the wall is not a window. You need to knock down a wall to make a window.
Using KD as a substitute PG and having him initiate an offense was, well, just stupid. He's a great player, but he cannot do that. There were many games where it was abundantly clear it would not work. So we bring Sengun out top to initiate the offense. Great idea! He's not a good shooter and when he drives, it's always into a crowded lane. When he makes passes form up top, it forces him into making the passes a PG should be making and takes away his creativity. It tires him out having to work the perimeter on offense, defend the post, and switch on the perimeter D. Plus, he rarely gets the advantage of starting in the paint on offense. OK, so let's instead have Amen initiate the offense. Except he is so, so much better off-ball and having to try and do PG things hurt his natural offensive game as well as made it more difficult to be that defensive menace we love and everyone else in the NBA hates. All of these things were evident from the first few games and should have been evident from the first day of training camp. It's been a wasted year and the blame for that lies solely with the front office and coaching. When you think about our front office, what has Stone ever done that really surprised us? He's picked the consensus pick. He made the Durant trade after a year of people talking about it. At best, he is a caretaker and not an initiator. He's certainly not innovative. I guess he did surprise me a bit by signing an injured DFS instead of a PG. And don't get me started on Junior having any kind of say about basketball operations. Such nepotism has been a huge sign of failure in the past and our boy ain't gonna join Jeanie Buss as the maybe exception to the rule. (I say "maybe" because the Lakers had Jerry West picking players and continue to have the ability to land stars because of their location and stupidity of the Mavs. They have hired good coaches though.) I appreciate Ime giving the young 'uns an identity, teaching toughness, and putting the Silas years in the rear view mirror, but that only goes so far. Now that we can play decent defense (it would be better with more defined roles on offense--transition D killed us against the Lakers), we would be better served with an offensive mind as HC. We have a unique blend of talent and I am not convinced at all that the parts are incompatible. A good offensive mind could, I think, design a system that takes better advantage of individual skills (assuming a legit PG on the floor at all times). Puts Bari and Reed in better position to get good shots, puts Sengun in a place where he can score more easily and use his creativity, puts Amen in a place where he can cut and cause havoc, and puts Durant into a place where he doesn't need to work as hard. But alas, we will run it back with the same coaches and front office. With FVV back and healthy, we'll win 55 games and crash out in the playoffs again. Good enough to not have a high pick, bad enough to not reach the WCF.
The more I think about this current stable of the young 'core', the more I'm thinking they shouldn't be the foundation and team should consider a reload back into the draft Current top tank teams, who have a top #1-#5 pick.. their natural instinct is to not trade their top pick for almost anyone. But... What if the Rockets up the price: Thought excecise, if you offer up an Amen to a team for their top 5 pick and some expiring salary, would they actually do it? * If they say NO, that tells you his actual market price and maybe we shouldn't be treating a solid defensive player as a franchise guy. * Don't go for big old fish hunting (Embid, Kawhi, AD), they are not the answer. * The current Rockets vets is whatever; their deals will run out. The GM currently want to keep the young stable around otherwise trading them would be like admitting failure that the development has not been adequate. * GM/ coach should go. It's less that current coaching staff can't win regular season games, but the current coaching staff is not better at developing young talent relative to other coaching staff around the league. I wouldn't even go after a Dave Adleman, instead poach OKC's assistant(s). Their farm system is just better. Field a staff for Sam I Am. * Look more towards modern NBA don't keep any of the non-shooters around. * Amen, Sengun, Bari and Tari should be on the table but not for big fish hunting nor lateral young players trades. Instead trade back into the draft for a real blue chip prospect.
You don’t blow it up, the Rockets still have one of the youngest and most talented rosters in the league and have room to grow. People tend to forget prior to this season this team only had 1 year of playoff experience then you had a coach who wanted to bring in an aging injury prone player and that accelerated the rebuild and added bigger expectations to what he had the season before. That being said I don’t think you just run it back either, Even with a healthy FVV, Adams, and KD I don’t see this squad beating the OKC’s and San Antonio’s of the world, so that leaves big changes. Do we need changes definitely! But do they need to be big is the question? The only big change I’m willing to make is trading KD, but that’s only if he’s made it known that he no longer wants to be here. I’m not trading neither Amen or Alpi just yet as I felt both guys were playing out of position and out of their true roles. Both were asked to basically handle point guard duties which they shouldn’t be and I feel in some ways it improved their game but took away from their games in some aspects. Both Amen and Alpi’s defense were much better a season ago compared to this year and I think a reason for the drop off was due to them having to due more offensively. I think the main thing we need to focus on this off season is working on 3 things, getting guard help (mainly PG help), getting 3 point shooters, and improving bench depth. I know getting all 3 won’t be easy but these are definitely things we have to get before the start off next season. Also we need to find a way to get off of the DFS contract, and make a decision on who to keep between Adams and Capela to free up some money. Also I know everyone isn’t to high on him after this year but I would still bring back Tari in free agency, if nothing else you know he’s good coming off of the bench and you could use him as a trade asset during the season. I’m also open to moving on from Udoka, he’s not a bad coach but I’m just not sure if he’s the right coach for this young squad moving forward. But the problem is we just re-signed him to a new contract and who do you replace him with? My ideal replacement would’ve been Mike Malone since he worked with Jokic and could possibly maximize Alpi, but he already took the UNC job. Or we need to get us an offensive minded assistant coach who can get the best out of Alpi
Everything not named Amen, Bari and Tari should be trade bait but the bald fraud doesn't have the stones
If we can convert KD, Sengun, Tari, and Reed into a top pick in this 2026 draft (and we should be able to do that for less), we’d still have a foundation of: Amen 2026 drafted franchise player Bari both 2027 picks both 2029 picks That’s a pretty great reset with a bright future. Keep the vets around like FVV and Steveo. Maybe add some solid role players. That can still be a competitive team in the near-term.
When you look at KD’s shot chart, he was above average everywhere on the court except one spot. He was 34.1% from there. So Ime decided to make him go ISO and initiate plays from that spot all season. #OnlyIme
We would have benefited from a healthy FVV more than anything else. We did not have a PG1. So run it back.
I’d like to move on from Udoka, but everyone in the front office apparently disagrees. The geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads - they adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude.
I wish we could just relive the Alexander years one more time. That was a fun time to follow the Rockets.
Those two didnt even make the playoffs together. Then if we keep perpetually unhappy KD its a recipe for disaster. It would be a miracle if it worked and even if it did, It would work for a season or two and would result in a chip anyway.
I say run it back with some tweaks. If Fred is the point guard then go get a good 3 and D shooting guard, move Amen to the wing with Durant and Sengun at Center. That gives us Tari if resigned, Bari, Steve and Reed. That is a pretty good bench. Can still trade DFS at deadline if he improves for more shooting. Sign some young cheap guys for the bench. No more Tate, Green, maybe Holiday.
Here is what I would like: Micah Nori, or James Borrego as the assistant head coach to run the offense. Back up the Brink's truck, Tilman.
