Yep. The Rockets need to quit trading their draft picks away. That’s what Morey did and it set the team back years. Look no further than the Spurs and Thunder if you want a roadmap to being a contender. Both teams traded away aging players for either young talent or draft picks. Obviously, a little luck played into the draft but still.. both teams are loaded with young talent, and they continue to build through the draft. Bringing in injury-prone over-hyped players without being back young talent or draft picks is idiotic. Fun fact: AD has never played a full season in his entire NBA career. He played two seasons where he only missed a few weeks but he’s averaged just over 56 games played (82 game schedule) in his 14 year career.
If this front office trades for Davis then blames a failed season on injuries, they are truly idiotic.
I believe my statement was that IMO, he is as close as the Rockets can get to an alpha over the next 1-2 years. I don't see another path to get that player right now. As such, trading KD this summer probably makes this team worse, not better, for the foreseeable future. I also stated that KD's talent was misapplied. I want to see him with legit guards around him. I'm not mad at you for your perception of KD and you may be right. But his lack of leadership is, at least in part, a situational thing so context matters. I want to give him one more year.
Here's an AD trade I would make. Essentially we send KD, DFS, and Clint for AD and Tre Johnson. KD returns home for his final two years and combines with Trae to give the Wiz vets to go with their young and talented cast. KD is perfect player (won't say role model) for AJ to develop under. DFS and Clint add to their vet presence and could help fill out their bench. If AD can play, he's a great fit with Sengun and gives us some defensive presence inside. His time has to be managed carefully and that will be tough for Udoka. The real prize is Tre Johnson. We need a true SG and Tre is it. Fits perfectly with our timeline and needs. We may need some draft picks somewhere in there, but I'm not adding any unless I have to. We shed DFS and Clint, and take a shot AD can contribute more than a handful of games. Ok, I know it's likely not going to happen, but a fan can dream!
I could go for this of course the real plus in this trade for the Rockets is getting rid of the Dickerson cancer. Even if Davis or Johnson never played it would still be good for the Rockets to jettison KD.
I have thought about that with regards to the '84 Rockets. They didn't know what they didn't know but everyone can look back and say the Sampson to Portland for #2 and Drexler would have been the greatest trade in NBA history and to add to it, the Rockets had Lewis Lloyd (Year 3) 17 ppg that they probably could have snatched an additional midrange pick which they could have taken Stockton (pick 16) with. What could have been: PG - John Stockton SG - Michael Jordan SF - Clyde Drexler PF - (who cares) ..C - Hakeem Olajuwon
The question is who ends up getting busted for cocaine in 1986... eliminate Jordan from the NBA timeline instead of Lloyd, Wiggins, and Lucas...
Why isn't this one locked up and the key thrown away. The idea never should have been given any serious thought .... unless they are sending us their #1 to cover the $120m cost for 2 years.
$58m and $62m over the next two years .... wreck your cap for what exactly? Yeah, there's a lot of desperation for a star on this team .... but chasing has been's isn't the way.
...therein is the problem - if the result of our "Alpha Searching" has led us to a 38 year old KD who is the second oldest starter in the league, then we aren't really built for the foreseeable future anyway. He can tear something literally at any moment and his career will likely be over for good. He just finished a full season which was amazing, but ultimately it screwed the team because we spent the whole season building an offense that leaned heavily on KD and all of a sudden the Rockets had to figure out a new 'offense' in the playoffs. I agree with many of the KD criticisms and agree with your point that context matters - KD still does a valuable NBA thing well(can get a bucket by himself against even the best defenses) but the larger point is KD isn't a leader and never was much of a playmaker either so he while he is most definitely a high level scorer, he isn't "an offense" on a winning team because you need more than 30 points to win a game he doesn't help the Rockets consistently put up 100+pts because he doesn't playmake or be used as a decoy enough to get others buckets. To some extent the offense flowed better with Jalen Green because we knew we didn't want to build an offense around him and he ended up being a late clock shot taker and don't leave that guy open decoy. We need to use KD that way. Giving the ball to KD early in the shot clock is another way of saying "everyone else clear out and stand still, our offense this possession is just KD dribbling a lot".
