box score casuals will ignore everything other than scoring and scoring efficiency when calibrating player worth. Did our team get better with Kd? Did our team get better on offense with KD? Did our team get better on defense with KD? Jalen, Dillon and the 10th pick were the same on offense and better on defense. Who knew our older declining pg would get hurt? Since he has missed a significant number of games most of his career, it was not beyond most people’s comprehension that he might be suspect in that regard. Who would’ve thought that an aging journeyman with an injury to start the year might not be a good idea. Sure, run it back. I’m positive KD, FVV, oft injured Adams, and DFS will help us compete in the West. The self-delusion runs rampant in Rocket land.
It's so odd to me to want to be the Warriors of the last few years, or the 2023 or 2024 Lakers... teams with ancient stars who you know are declining, and you know have no chance of keeping it up over the course of a full season and playoff run. Teams who knew they had no championship equity and were gonna lose in the first or second round, but sold tickets and got their playoff revenue and did right by Steph and LeBron for their pre-retirement seasons. Those teams punted those years instead of doing the obvious, because Steph and LeBron were franchise icons who won titles for their city. What do the Rockets owe KD? What relationship does he have to Houston? None. It's frankly embarrassing to stan for him. Let him go co-opt a franchise to sit in mediocre first round exit land while he turns into a fossil accumulating career points and live ball turnovers somewhere else.
Point of order: KD is literally 37. True, he will be 38 at season start, but he ain't yet. Anyway, on with the debates. Personally I see the pros and cons both ways [trade KD / don't trade him] - I think we probably have until the trade deadline to maximise our return on him. Do NOT want him for his 3rd season.... too much risk. But I also admit there is a reasonable chance he scores 20+ in that season
Feels like you are being a bit dismissive of the current level of production and how even a 25% reduction in PPG is still very good. You have players like Jrue Holiday and Jerami Grant making ~20% cap vs KD's 25% for the next two years. I am not dismissing the injury risk, I'm just saying KD playing 70 games (NBA missed game average now is around 15 games per season) and scoring 20PPG on 41% 3 pt shooting is some pretty good production. Lastly.... just because we don't move him this offseason doesn't mean we won't move him at all.
Just stop...... LYING about how we should have known FVV would have blown out his ACL in the offseason because he is 32 years old with no previous major knee injuries. You have consistently been WRONG about FVV because you keep mixing up cause and effect. Jalen Green would still be a Rocket if it wasn't FVV playing outside of his role because Green couldn't do it. If your boy Amen was soooooo good at running the offense he would be doing it. He had the perfect chance this season to take a leap and he didn't. That's not on KD or FVV. Tired of this dishonest narrative about FVV and KD. The vets are not holding back this team.
The Warriors don't have a young core... They don't have a bunch of 24 and younger players getting the bulk of the minutes on the roster so I'm not sure where the Warriors come into this aside from having KD at some point. Donovan Mitchell and Jalen Brown are 6 years younger than Draymond and Butler. We traded for KD to be a scorer, not to be our franchise player. The Rockets don't owe anything to KD, it's not about that. It will be hard to match that type of production if we trade KD and Tilman wants to compete.
