Is the difference between us and Detroit really the #1 pick?

This Detroit team would struggle to finish 2nd in the West last season and our team from last season would easily win the East this season.

No difference whatsoever. They’re going to look for their own KD after these playoffs. Knicks and Thunder will just pack the paint using Ausar or Duren’s defender. Two non-shooters won’t work and I hope the people who believe it can work are watching.

Every Bickerstaff, Udoka, JVG, Mark Jackson team starts strong and then the effort is not sustainable and actual offensive coaching is required.

If you’re going to be jealous, be jealous of teams that have actually won it without a generational player (i.e. Mazzulla’s Celtics Championship).

 

If by no. 1 pick, you mean a bona fide franchise player like Cade or Wemby, then yes. Is it possible to draft someone like that without the no. 1 pick, also yes. Were any of the guys who got drafted below where we picked during one of those years when we had a high pick, the answer is kind of no? (I guess the closest would be J-Dub and Scottie Barnes.)

 

No, they're actually just a better team. They're actual defensive specialists, we're not actually a specialist at anything other than mediocre basketball and riding an overplayed vet to wins.

 

Cade is a top 7 player and MVP candidate at age 24…he is so much better than any player on our roster it’s not even funny

that is a major difference

the Rockets are also dumb AF while the Pistons are all connected on the court

 

The difference between us or the Spurs or Detroit is a # 1 pick. In the NBA you either have a top 5-10 player or you are a non contender.

 

The Pistons also got smart and fired their GM, Troy Weaver.

 

yes of course. It's a superstar league and the Rockets haven't drafted one yet. Cade and Wemby were slam dunks. Rockets had no chance at them.

I believe truly that even if Paolo fell to #3 instead of Jabari and we built around him, we'd be in a much better spot.

You need an alpha on offense. Jalen was the only guy drafted to be a #1 option and they already gave up on him.

 

Dude what? that Celtics title team was absolutely stacked. I don’t see it as some huge coaching accomplishment, I would have coached that team to the finals also. lol

 

Honestly, Paolo is getting paid almost as much as Sengun and Jabari combined moving forward, and I would definitely take that duo over him for the same money. If you dig into Banchero's scoring efficiency numbers, they're horrific; we talk about Sengun being inefficient, but Paolo actually makes him look great by comparison.

Getting Cade instead of Jalen would have basically fixed the whole rebuild though. Imagine ending up with Cade, Amen, Jabari, and Sengun right now. There are still some fit issues with Amen and Sengun, but you don't necessarily have to rely on them playing huge minutes, you can play them less and stagger their minutes like Detroit does with Ausar and Duren.

So, to the OP's point... yeah, I think if you want to pick one inflection point for the whole rebuild, the 2021 draft lottery is as good a place as any.

 

it's #1 or bust... and that prob works out less than half the time - sometimes u get Kwame'ed! lol

Which is why I've always thought hanging future's on the draft was absurd - its a total crapshoot...

One could argue that out best asset from tanking was Alpi at #16 - the "treadmill of mediocrity" pick... lol

 

Another point to consider is that we probably take Castle or Clingan instead of Reed if we get Cade in 2021.

 

Jabari has all the tools to be an All Star, but I think our player development crew sucks balls...they should be working with Jabari on his strength and developing a post-game...there are too many times when he gets a switch on a smaller player and Jabari shoots that bullsh!t a$$ fadeaway...Just look at LeBron when he gets a smaller player he punishes them inside.
Jabari is 6'11" and soft a$$ f■ck

 

He’s not soft mentally. Many of us have been imploring him to put on muscle since he has been here. Up until last off-season, he concentrated on Yoga like strength training. Finally this last off-season, he put on about 10 pounds of muscle. He has the frame to sustain much more and could become a really impressive stretch center with both his 3 pt shooting and a more developed post game. This is another failure of the Rockets’ development staff and philosophy. He wants to be Wemby, but he needs to be Mourning with an outside shot.

 

We’d still be in playoffs if we were in the east. I’d be willing to bet we’d make the finals in the east and then get swept.don’t even waste your time watching the east. It absolutely doesn’t matter who comes out of that side,

 

Yes. Cade is better than our best player. More importantly Cade is an elite playmaker.

 

Cade’s career playoff stats:

28, 6, and 8 on 44/34/84 splits

and it’s not like his team is stacked or he plays with good spacing

 

Who do we take instead of "PG" Amen Thompson if we already have a real one in Cade? Probably his brother I guess haha

 

Because the Pistons fired their shiit coach and GM.

We will spend more years to make it.

Our front office and owner just suck.

 

I'm still in disbelief Stone didn't draft Cade.