Punting the season without dramatically improving the roster long-term is wasting the year. If the Rockets actually do a rebuild this offseason, trade KD. Trading KD does not help the Amen window. KD is not getting traded unless he asks to get traded. As much as my opinion is the minority here, teams just don't give up on 2 seasons for a late FRP while having young players that may have a breakout and the assets to make a big trade. While I don't think Amen is at a point to build around, I am willing to risk a late FRP to give Amen a chance.
It's just a cut off your nose to spite your face move with KD. The earliest KD will be traded will be the mid season deadline. The FO will: First try to pair KD with Giannis/Jaylen/Mitchell/Player X in exchange for Amen/Sengun + picks. Then try and fill in the gaps in the roster. If that doesn't work, they'll upgrade around the edges and use cap tricks (Eason S&T) and/assets Stone has made mistakes but he's also kept this particular window pretty short so he has a lot of ways to go this offseason. With the ownership wanting to compete in playoff runs, I think the FOs moves will point to marching forward.
I'm not, but I do think it's the most likely outcome that he sticks around until the mid season or next off season. If KD wants out and Miami strikes out on Giannis then I think they would become front runners.
While I wouldn't pay that price for Giannis, I get why Sam thinks he'd be a good fit. But that's not happening, so whatever. If I was going to trade Sengun to the Bucks, it'd be in a 3 way where we get Miles Turner and a guard from the new Giannis team. We're probably better off giving Sengun one more year to develop a 3. I do like dumping DFS into space for 39 and a future 2d that might not convey. And, at this point, I'm wondering if we should be asking around the league to see if anyone wants KD for expirings. Though I'd want to get a guard worth taking a one-year flyer on. Unfortunately, there's no way to make KD to Denver for Cam's 23 mil expiring work without Murray or Gordon be included.
I will agree with you on one thing, KD will not be traded unless he wants or, at least, agrees to being traded. I have no idea what the “Amen window” is. If he is extended 5 years, then I guess it’s five years. I think our biggest disagreement stems from what I perceive Amen’s future to be which is the main offensive facilitator and at least the 2nd most proficient scorer. Having FVV and KD, slows down that progression, because of Ime’s mindset. You think FVV is good, I think he sucks. I think KD and Amen could fit, if KD was willing to play off ball (he will not be willing). I respect your opinion, just don’t agree with it. If losing 10 more games next year, moves Amen, Jabari, and Sengun further along in their development, then it is a win in my book. If playing FVV and Kd to another 52 win season and a first round exit, with Amen and Sengun relegated to off-ball role players, that is a loss in my estimation. Trading KD and, maybe, Sengun is the first step in re-setting our roster.
I think a lot of us around here, myself included, are wanting to go down a path that the front office and ownership are not going to take. That is to say, a soft reset where we continue to prioritize draft capital and finding young players who might break out and become a star. It seems more likely at this point that this owner and this GM and coaching staff are likely to seek to go down a New York Knicks path where they just try to trade their way to success. If that's going to be the case, it might be better to think of ways that could actually have a chance of working, however low those odds might be. For me, Giannis is not it. I don't like the roster fit. We don't have a stretch 5, Amen fits poorly with Giannis and is already basically the poor man's version and I don't like Giannis' injury history or his position on the aging curve. I think trading for Giannis is trading into a very narrow window with very low odds of success. I also don't think he wants to play here for the exact reasons that we shouldn't trade for him; we don't have the right roster to emphasize his strengths and hide his weaknesses. If we're looking to do it the Knicks way and open up a championship contending window with mostly the same core (minus one key player and some draft capital and salary filler), here are some of the players, both stars and roleplayers, that I'm looking at this offseason. We need guys who can take and make lots of threes, handle the ball and create offense for themselves and/or others, and ideally who are in their 20s so that we can open up a 4 to 5 year window, which I think you really need if you actually want to have some chance of winning a championship. And, of course, having a stretch 5 at all would be beneficial even if it's a bench guy. Jamal Murray Donovan Mitchell Trey Murphy Naz Reid Nickeil Alexander-Walker Donte DiVincenzo Ryan Rollins Onyeka Okongwu Ty Jerome Quentin Grimes Coby White Ayo Dosunmu Myles Turner Keon Ellis Luke Kennard I still don't think it will work if we go down this path, but the odds could at least be non-zero if we had a better-built roster like the Knicks do. And, we should still be willing to trade KD, but I think the front office only considers it if it's a destination he wants to go and it gets us an all-star caliber player back. That might necessitate a three-team trade in many scenarios which makes things more difficult.
Here’s the thing about the Knicks “trade your way to success” path: the Knicks already had a team that achieved some actual playoff success before they made any trades. Just based off draft picks and young free agents. They proved the concept by winning in the playoffs in 2023 with a team of Brunson (young RFA), Barrett (draft), Randle (young FA), Quickley (draft), Robinson (draft), Grimes (draft). Cost them no assets to build. And then they traded away bunch of assets to get them over the hump at the highest level. If you’re trading away assets to try and get over the big hump of… winning in the first round, you’re a loser org. (I know this isn’t what you want to do, just your guess of what the FO does. I’m describing what that would make this organization into.)
I think that's probably right--the odds of success are low. I would try to mix in some guys I thought had at least a slim chance of breaking out into a star (like NYK did when they acquired Brunson) because that's the only way I think it could actually result in a championship. That's why I listed some of the players I did; they're good now, but there also might be more in there.
Uhhh … we already have done this. We traded the former #2 pick and a lottery pick for a chronically injured 37 year old on his 4th team…. Because we couldn’t get past the first round as the #2 seed. Even Durant couldn’t cover up the lack of internal improvement by the “young core.”
Or he can play the role on the Suns 2 years ago ....... carrying the Offense for much of the season, injury at the end of the season and then play his passive aggressive style.... Sounds familiar.
I like your list and I think we could acquire Grimes (MLE) & 1 other (Murphy? Turner?) via trade. Fingers crossed. Go earn that $$$, Stone!
Correct. The Rockets had a ton of internal improvement by the young core in 23-24 and 24-25. 25-26 was negative in internal development that had massive regression in Sengun, stalling in Amen (development on offense, regression on defense likely from overtaxed on offense), slight improvement in JSJ, stepback in Tari, and big improvement in Reed. Getting nothing from the vets in the playoffs, and nothing from the vets besides Durant in 2026 portion of the regular season compounded on this issue. I still have my reservations on the Rockets ability to win without a star in the playoffs.
Chronically injured..... misses 45 games in 3 seasons + a bad luck knee injury in practice. LMAO Tune into tomorrow to hear how Stone cut Nook off in I-10.
Are you seriously claiming that Kevin Durant is not a major injury risk? He is going to be 38 years old next season...... and he has missed over 350 games in his career and just missed most of the playoffs this season. Kevin Durant is one of my favorite players in NBA history, but he has a lengthy history of injuries and he is extremely old in NBA terms. He has had his entire season ended multiple times because of injury.
You said "chronically injured", which he isn't. I have provided evidence multiple times. BTW, the average games missed is 18 per season in the year of our lord 2026. This was a no brainer move before the season and the reason why you don't hear the greater NBA media/podcastery lamenting it is because it's still a no brainer move. Vegas had us as better team in light of the KD trade with us in that bottom contender tier.
