Why do we treat it like the other GMs don’t know the age and upside of our players. It’s not a secret. Don’t sell anyone at a discount ever. Bake the age and upside potential into the trade value and if you can win the trade and it makes us a better team than do it.
Yeah, it seems like Stone really operates to keep his job, first and foremost. I am not worried about Stone BS-ing the fans as much as I worry about him being truly delusional, or too cautious to adjust plans on the fly. The Rockets under Stone have been good at managing the cap and rectifying a lot of the Morey era problems of completely ignoring chemistry. I just think the franchise needs more real world basketball minds in the front office and coaching staff. If Stone and Ime are not on the same page regarding Reed after FVV's injury, who can bridge that gap? If the Rockets keep blowing big leads because of ball pressure in the 4th on Durant, what strategies, or player options can we look at? We need more basketball brain power and the people at the top- the Fertitas and Stone- need to recognize that.
The Rockets adding Giannis minus whatever we have to send out doesn’t get us past the current versions of OKC and the Spurs. Our best hope is injuries to Wemby or free agency chipping away at OKC core.
Hopefully they do it - but I imagine there will be a lot of internal and external pressure to not take a step back. I know it isn’t ideal but it’s the best way to eventually compete at the highest level
It is a difficult conversation. You'd have to hope that the same line of thinking on how to accumulate young talent with the rebuild could be applied here, but it takes faith ownership sees the vision. And when I say ownership I say Tilman and Patrick. Don't discount Patrick's ability to sway Tilman. He did with the rebuild. The Rockets FO has to have hard conversations about where they see the "Core 5" going. What are each player's ceilings. The way I see it, Sengun, Amen, Sheppard have the 3 highest ceilings. Can either of those 3 be a "North Star" talent? I don't think so. They each have fatal flaws. I do think Amen and Sheppard at least have "elite skills" that can scale. I can't say the same with Sengun who mostly adds a high floor. So, if you don't have a "North Star" in the pipleline, you have to keep drafting. You have to be patient. Lower the expectations. Keep developing your guys. Also, look at the competitive landscape with OKC and SAS. Getting "older" is the wrong path. You need to maintain youth and upside.
Both Amen and Sengun are 3 pt shots away from being elite offensively. Amen is already elite defensively. It is foolish to give up on them becoming 1a, and/or 1b guys. Especially at their age and with an idiot coach.
Keep FVV for 20 minutes off the bench on a 1 year veteran minimum contract, only if he’s fully fit by the start of the new season or trade him for a future 2nd round pick. Trade KD for expirings or 2 year contracts and a 1st round pick. Anything else for him would be really nice, but unrealistic. Trade Tari for 2 future 2nd round picks, eg Whitmore, or let him go as a UFA. Steve O should retire along with Uncle Jeff. Offer them assistant coach positions. Tell Tate there’s no role for him on the Rockets. DFS and Capela will be harder to move. I think they Stone should try to move them for future seconds. Aaron could be useful as a 3 point shooter on a 1 year veteran minimum contract. Amen should be made an RFA. Sengun’s trade value can improve with a better off season as long as he doesn’t play for his national team. He should be retained until the next February trade deadline. Keep the rest apart from Okogie and try to acquire Grimes as a free agent.
Hell yeah. I think the best answer at the end is Jabari for VJ Edgecombe. Make your North Star pipeline bigger, stay young, calculate the landscape with OKC/SAS, and role player fit with the other guys in the pipeline.
Also look at the end of rosters like OKC - that have too many draft picks and can't pay everyone.... DD
I agree but think of it as a thought exercise place holder. If that’s a theoretical team you could be excited and optimistic about in the short term and long term. Play out the matchups, play out how your high upside guys mix together. Play out what’s missing and what’s left over to fill it. Then you can work backwards. If you’re still in star searching mode and need runway, if you’re role player power forward isn’t equity in that, isn’t tying it all together, isn’t serving as an irreplaceable matchup solving issue versus the best teams, if you’re keeping Kevin Durant, if they have high trade value, the Rockets can’t be this heavily invested in the role player power forward at this point in time.
The only player they would consider is Amen and I don’t think the Sixers would do that because of the age difference and contract status.
You are most likely right, that we don't have a north star, but there's just no way Tilman is allowing for a rebuild so soon. If KD wants out, then we will trade him but we would still be trying to compete in the playoffs in the aftermath.
Sengün has the 'most elite heart' out of the 3 .....I think that comes from growing up as a chubby kid.....you can imagine the ridicule. He is also ridiculously young going pro.....only trailing Luka Doncic, I think he was 16 and was a pro. Some of the decent habits going pro early would never fade, and he understands it as a business should he ever have to leave this city. Him never really developing a consistent Shot is the only major bummer here career wise growing up on a Continent full of shooters.
I was one of those who wanted FVV upgraded last season - didn't happen, didn't get another guard just in case either. Stone gave Ime the guys he wanted instead (DFS). I think that's a lesson learned the hard way for Stone, in regard to roster construction - you just can't not have a contingency plan for the point guard position. There will be no leaning into Amen as the point guard this coming year, that experiment is over. I think they come to the conclusion that Reed is a combo guard and not force him to be the point, he likely is a bench / 6th man at least for now. I don't think Stone is dumb enough to make the same mistake twice in a row when it comes to such an important position - we'll see the team sign a competent point guard. I do think they need to somehow shed some salary because there just isn't enough space between them and the 1A to improve the roster. I'm thinking they have Fred decline his option to lower his cap hit, something like a 3 year deal at 15m per to give the team a little wiggle room (Not that I like the idea of Fred on a 3 year deal, it just free's up cap space). Maybe they can approach Philly about Grimes or Tyus Jones on the cheap?
