Uhhhhhh Sengun was the 16th pick and we identified the talent and traded with the great OKC. Eason was also outside of the lottery is inconsistent but he is a NBA level rotation player. Just FYI..... Mr. Debbie Downer....
After Cam Whitmore turned out to be a bust, and Tari's various issues that I think will prevent him from being a starting-caliber player moving forward, I'm not sure how good I feel about the track record outside the top 4 anymore. One fringe all-star and one bench player out of six first round picks isn't anything to write home about. I don't this front office is outright bad at drafting, but I don't think they're gaining a significant edge over the rest of the league either.
Beat me to it... I agree the development is a big concern. Ultimately that falls on Tilman spending the money on more staff and better staff.
It is hard to find guys outside the lottery if you don’t play them. Hell Reed couldn’t play because of mistakes. If Kennard was in rockets he wouldn’t see the floor but ime failed to stop him. Maybe our guy was Davison maybe someone else. We just can’t know
Whether Tari Eason is a starter is debatable but he is certainly a NBA rotation player. We've had 5 picks outside of the top 15 since 2021. By all means.... please list where the Rockets rank among teams drafting outside the top 15 picks since 2021 so we can try and quantify this. I was mostly just correcting the incorrect information put forth, that you responded to.
Ownership is the ultimate edge. I think a lot of y'all are still a bit spoiled and have that entitlement left over from the Les era..... Even though he didn't spend on the luxury tax but once.... He spent on coaching staff and front office.
a lot of of our young players will continue to get better. We need to trade a couple of them in my opinion, but even Sengun is likely not at his ceiling. Again, I rate Amen behind Cade, Victor, Cooper but I am still glad that we ended up with Thompson. If we were sitting here with Henderson, I would be truly disturbed.
the concern is our player development. So I worry if we don’t have a massive change on that front none of are picks or prospects will maximize their potential.
I feel and agree with you. However, if we were to build a system around Thompson, I think some of the development stuff would naturally expedite itself. but yeah, I’m not really depending on the coaching staff for a huge impact there. But, maybe it isn’t as bad as we make it out to be. A lot of these players have improved so I don’t know. I generally feel like they have improved on their own accord and we don’t put them in great positions but it’s hard to say.
In my opinion the issue isn't player development. It's a talent issue. How many ex-Rocket draft picks during the Stone era have turned into productive players on other teams? Draymond Green said a while ago there are 82 game players and then there are 16 game players. Right now we have a bunch of regular season role players, but no stars among them that can do battle in the postseason. I think we have a competent coach that can get a team of role players to 50+ wins in the regular season, but in the playoffs it's a bug to windshield experience where a more experienced and talented team will eliminate us in the 1st round when the opponent can tailor a gameplan to us and exploit the well-known flaws of our roster. This is why I say the rebuild clearly failed. Stone put all his eggs in the tanking basket and walked away with lemons. I'm not saying he drafted terrible players, but none of them are franchise cornerstones that you would build around. I think Stone realizes this and it's obvious they are gearing up this offseason to double-down on Durant by going 'star-hunting'. I'm disappointed because I thought the purpose of the rebuild was to draft one or two stars that we could build around. I think if you told anyone in 2021 that in 2026 KD would be the best player on our team by far you'd consider that an abject failure.
I fully expect Udoka to target James Borrego if New Orleans does not make him the permanent head coach. He's not Mike D’Antoni, but his offensive philosophy fits exactly what Houston lacks: pace, spacing, ball movement, and easier reads. His Charlotte offenses finished top 10 in offensive rating multiple years and posted his squads achieved the best offensive rating in franchise history. The issue for him was defense, he got fired for that ****. That matters because Houston already has the defensive infrastructure under Ime. They need someone who can loosen the half-court offense. I also would not be shocked if Splitter came back if Portland does not promote him permanently.
Borrego might be a good add, but why do you expect Ime it do it? To me it seems like Ime is a narcissist, and neither wants nor takes advice from others. I can see Tiago, because of history with Ime and Sengun.
Ime already tried to hire James Borrego as his lead assistant in 2023. The Rockets interviewed him for the role, but the Pelicans stepped in and gave him around $4 million per year along with the associate head coach title. I do not know exactly what Houston offered, but reports have suggested Ben Sullivan, Ime’s current lead assistant, makes somewhere in the $1–1.5 million range annually. Ime and Borrego never actually coached together in San Antonio, but both served as lead assistants under Popovich at different points, so there is definitely overlap in philosophy and coaching tree influence.
I sure hope you're right, Borrego would definitely be a good addition. I don't like that they're blatantly stating they don't expect to change the coaching staff, but they could just be lying to us.
What is interesting about the Borrego development is that Borrego is now the Short term Messiah. Teams hire him as an Interim only......
While Alpe is almost an elite talent, he is definitely pained by his tweener being.... Having to undergo the wear and tear of a Center while stuck in the body of a Power Forward.
