Unwaivering patience and playing the long game after trading for a 37 year old and playing him 2nd most minutes in the NBA is hilarious
if we are going to do that then should we trade Thompson and Smith? I am actually just curious to see what you think.. I think that those guys are kind of come into their prime over the next three or four years. We have assets and we can make moves. if I didn’t believe in Thompson, I would be advocating for us to take a couple pretty significant step backs for the future, but I just wouldn’t vote that way. I’m not trading the Brooklyn 2027 pick unless the return is incredible but other than that, all of the draft picks are on the table along with most of the players. There is a way to build around Thompson. I fully concede that the coach in the front office might not be smart, smart enough to do that. He certainly won’t be able to lead us to the promised land playing 44 minutes a game.
It is more than that, you don't have a 1B as well or a 2A......we hope Amen or Sengün can be that guy but in reality they might not. This goes beyond just shooting....at least Sengün showed a lot of fight going down. And star players would not let you dig a 0-3 hole in the first place. I agree you need to take steps back to take steps forwards but that is just the general talk.....the organization is more concerned about being relevant in the regular season ....I am not sure how to even manipulate them into the right mindset...... First step would be to assemble a valid bench and stop keeping players like Holiday, Tate, Unc just to keep players.
Any move they were making was probably cost prohibitive - and depleted assets. A shortage of assets could stop them from doing something bigger in the offseason. At the deadline, they weren't working from an equal starting point with expiring contracts going out, their matching power was the DFS contract - it's bigger and has an extra year - and he was literally useless. It was gonna cost them to move that contract, teams aren't just willingly going to take on extra years. Also, most thought Tari for Dosunmu was a total overpay .... the natives would have had their pitchforks out with that trade, and it wasn't just Tari, it took another minimum salary to match, which complicated matters. That would have left them with only 13 filled roster spots. They'd have 10 days to fill the 14th slot, but their free cap amount wouldn't have equaled the prorated minimum in that time frame - another complication. FVV's no trade clause (or the complete unwillingness to trade him anyway) was a real thorn in the front office side too that's $31.35m in salary matching power they couldn't (or wouldn't) use. The real f**k up was signing DFS instead of a guard - or nobody and saving that MLE for a trade later.
"height and physicality" was a big theme for the front office it sounds like. and then they saw curry-potential in reed and forgot about height for a sec (they did need a shooter - hence DFS). I wonder if this single minded focus on talent (height and athleticism is a NBA's foremost talent) instead of constructing a balanced roster (that works when one or two vets are down due injuries) is probably what did us in this year & possibly next year (if one of the vets inevitably goes down again). this is of course assuming that we're non-development team anymore as Stonedoka claimed.
Stone traded for KD, but I sit back and think about how if Booker had been available, he would’ve went and given up the farm for his overrated ass instead we’re screwed with this dude at the helm
They already did that when they traded Jalen Green and a lottery pick for a 37 year old. They also traded the likely first pick in this year’s strongest draft in a decade. The only future real potential star player we have left is Amen and he ain’t going anywhere.
Look at the probable final 4 teams, OKC/SAS/DET/NYK. Their 1A guys are all internally built. Either drafted or traded for before they ascended into stars. Same thing last year, and the year before that. It’s not a coincidence. In the modern NBA with the current CBA, that’s the only way to do it. Any external 1A star is already damaged goods and/or costs you too much in trade to build the right team. Just gotta keep drafting or trading for young players and developing and churning them until we have a 1A guy. That’s all there is.
been seeing some talk about how the Rockets need to take 1 step back in order to take 2 steps forward fumbling our multi-year tank job due to bad luck and bad decisions has been devastating one year the 3rd pick gets you Jabari or Reed Sheppard, and another it gets you VJ Edgecombe who is much better prospect than either of them and it’s not even close taking Jalen 2nd overall…something tells me if Masai had the #2 pick, he still would’ve “reached” for Scottie Barnes…long, athletic, 2-way wings are his wet dream Masai also had good development staff: Norman Powell 46th pick, Siakam 27th pick, FVV undrafted…they all ended up way over-performing their draft slot and now he’s in Dallas with Cooper Flagg and another top pick in this year’s draft…don’t be surprised if the Mavs pass us by pretty soon Spurs already did so in just 1 season
To each their own, but for me, I am keeping Amen and Jabari as core pieces. I don't want to trade guys for a full rebuild. Just a strategic step back. I'd build around Amen and Sheppard, Jabari and Tari in support. And keep drafting in '27, '28, '29 to see if you can get a North Star type player.
Makes too much sense, but I’m sure Ime and Stone are thinking they will need to take a large step forward next year to keep their jobs and will gamble away the future for Giannis, Mitchell, or Brown if any are available. All will take mulitple frp’s. I actually think the best fit for Giannis is Miami, but I can’t find a way for Houston to make the numbers fit to facilitate.
I think it's less about numbers tbh, if Giannis wants Miami I'm sure they'll just take the players we want in Milwaukee rather than gifting them to us for our trash.
Giannis, KD to Heat Sengun, Herro, Jaquez, Jakucionis, Heat UNP 29/31/33 1st, and UNP 30&32 swap options to Bucks Wiggins(OPT-in or S&T), Kuzma, Jovic, Ware, #13 to Rockets Rockets trade Sengun for Ware, KD for #13 and stop gap wings in Wiggins/Kuzma/Jovic It may seem underwhelming at first look but if you believe in Ware its very hard to find a better fit for Sheppard and Amen, and if we’re trading Sengun/KD this offseason, they are highly likely being traded for 50 cents on the dollar.
So Miami is giving up 6 players (5 of which are rotation players) and up to 5 unprotected picks for 2 old guys that they will have to replace without any draft capital to do so and have to fill 4 roster spots while carrying over 100m in salary for two players. The Bucks and Rockets would be all over this. Riley not so much, lol.
I want to add onto this something else: It is a bit less common, but certainly not unheard of, for a player to break out into superstar status in their mid 20s rather than earlier. A lot of stars don't take their biggest leap until age 24 to 27, and they often continue to improve after that. Generally there are some signs they're probably going to be very good for a long time before they have a huge breakout (even that's not universal though, see: Jalen Brunson), but I'd argue that's also the case for some of our young guys, especially Amen and Sengun. My point being, don't discount the possibility of further development when your guys are still in their early 20s, like age 23 and younger. We are all feeling down on the so-called "young core" right now, but the book on them isn't fully written until they're at least age 25 or 26.
It can easily be adjusted to be less if that’s what’s fair. Take out Jakucionis, a 1st and a swap? Giannis is only 32 and a 2-way MVP caliber player, he won’t be cheap. Ware, Jaquez and a pick package is pretty reasonable. KD for #13 seems and filler seems ok, yes he’s old as balls but he is giving allstar production and a late lotto is a reasonable price to rent an allstar for 2 years. Tyler Herro is expiring and his player build isn’t very valuable, especially if he’s well paid. Wiggins is a potential FA this off-season, Jovic is a negative contract. These guys don’t hold much of any value.
