What is Giannis doing over there in Milwaukee? ....with all them shooters surrounding him, and you want to drop load half this team for that dude? Makes no sense for a possible 2 year window with having 110 million on 2 players, when both them could be riding the bench injured all year! Dumb trade!
Oddly enough, this season is reminiscent of last season with respect to Jalen starting every game last year and KD starting all but 3 out of the 68 games they've played so far this year. And 2 of those that he missed were due to personal matters, not an injury. That's not to say I'm in any way wanting Durant to get hurt. But we never really got to see how the team played last season with a starting lineup that didn't feature Jalen. We DID see how the team played without him during the games and the stats certainly bore out that the Rockets were better when he sat. I think Jackson Gatlin even raised this issue with Stone and Ime in the post-playoffs press conference which they quickly dismissed. As for KD, the Rockets are 3-0 without him this season. All 3 games were on the road. All 3 had Reed starting in his place. And 2 of those were impressive victories at Golden State and Phoenix(the other was at Indiana). I really wish we knew for sure if that's just a small sample size and an outlier or there's something to this team playing just fine without Durant in the lineup.
Honestly idk. My biggest concern is that the organization decides to do nothing and blames the flame out on missing FVV and Adams. A run it back approach with Fred and Steven being another year older and coming off of major injuries is a recipe for disaster. I'd like to know if there is/was any tension between Ime and the front office. I can't imagine Ime was cool with keeping the roster as is given the glaring holes. I also can't imagine Stone being too satisfied with Ime's philosophy of doing the same thing over and over.
Worst thing we can do is go old star chasing. The second worst thing is just to run the same team back with Fred and Steveo. Both of these are unacceptable to me because they will waste time and/or assets without progress towards a championship. KD has been as advertised, but we are not gonna contend next year with this group. So we need to acknowledge that KD doesn’t fit our timeline and we need to recoup some assets for him. That’s the best thing for the long term success of this team. We need to identify a future star and start making a plan to acquire them. That could be a Halliburton-type trade or getting in position to draft a star. We also now have a lot of data on our own prospects and how they fit together. We need to consider who we want to move forward with and who might best be used as an asset in service of acquiring a star. Don’t trade Amen. This is the way.
This. Running it back with Fred & Adams would kill my vibe before the season even starts. I’d probably cancel league pass for first time in 6 years lol
If you don't want to run it back with FVV and Steve, you are talking about wasting resources to get rid of vets. KD is really only one that can be moved for picks. I'm skeptical trading Durant adds meaningful picks unless the Rockets go to the blow up the team route. I'd say spending future resources to build around a young player that isn't good enough is much worse than saving resources for the future.
"Blow it up this offseason." To be fair, feels like this team already blew it up when Adams went down, as the "just grab the boards" mentality had to shift with no real Plan B. And not getting a PG the trade deadline because we had to keep DFS's corpse (maybe as a future trade chip, essentially an expiring in the summer, but why did we get KD if we're not going to try and compete?) I know, I know.
I’m telling yall Murray gonna be available for trade this summer. Pelicans aren’t even hyping him up for next season. Trade FVV for him
Not sure how you read my post to say anything other than identifying and acquiring a youngish franchise star should be our 1st priority and of all the guys on the roster, we should hold onto Amen, as he likely has the most potential. no one is talking about spending resources to get rid of vets. But let’s not fool ourselves into believing we are going to contend with KD next season. In which case, why not move on at age 38? if you are suggesting that it’s best to run it back with Fred and Steveo we’ll just agree to disagree I want to build a sustainable long-term contender the way SA, OKC, Detroit, Boston...basically what all the top teams have done. And what teams like Charolette and Atlanta are in the process of doing.
Personally I think the writing is so clearly on the wall for the soft reset this summer, that it is my assumption that it will happen. I'd bet Amen/Jabari/Reed/Adams/FVV are here next year, with the latter two as low usage veteran leader floor raisers. Everyone else I assume is gone, except maybe Tari on an MLE-or-below contract and potentially Jeff Green lol. If any other path happens (trade for Giannis, run it back) I'd just update my prior to our organization being straight up dumb and broken. Currently I do not think Stone/Witus/Patrick are dumb, I think they are pretty sharp. Not perfect, but not dumb. Once you have that in mind, thinking about the future of this team is much more fun. Makes watching the games bearable. My current agendas: KD staying in pristine health for trade purposes Sengun finishing the season strong statistically so we maximize the return for him; the back injury thing is good bc it gives an extrinsic reason for the defensive regression Amen/Jabari/Reed progress is important bc they will actually be on the team in the future Monitoring possible KD trade partners: GSW, NYK, MIA, MIN Monitoring possible Sengun trade partners: CHI, MIL (post-Giannis trade), TOR Scouting the middle of the 2026 draft; I think it's somewhat likely we end up with a pick in that range Lottery reform rule changes coming later this month, will have a huge impact on our access to a future franchise guy via the draft
Lol So whats our window with amen, reed, sengun and jabroni? As if they will be anything but first round b****es for okc and san antonio
What sucks is that this team is going to be stuck as long as the chemistry is as it is, or in other words, if KD is still here. But we clearly lack offensive firepower, even with him, so if we dumped him for pennies on the dollar, we're stuck with a roster of supporting pieces (at least they're mostly young). But the cat's out the bag -- other good teams who would normally go after an efficient old star like KD to push them over the top aren't going to take that risk after seeing how he's tanked this team's chemistry. We need to strike gold on a young talent, but we have no high picks in the 2 most stacked Drafts of this generation (2025/2026). Seems like the options are: 1) Trade KD for another old, expensive star, and hope they work better (Harden? LeBron?) 2) Package him in a deal for a disgruntled star whose value is down (Ja?) 3) See what you can get from a desperate team like the Kings/Wizards etc.
I think we can recoup the equivalent value of the #10 pick we gave up for him. Jalen Green was a negative contract. The thing important to remember is that we really didn’t give up too much for KD. We may have tanked our chemistry but the asset value wasn’t a ton. I think it’s worth recouping value for KD in service of accumulating the assets we need to find a young star. KD still has significant value to teams. He’s still a top 10 player. He’s just not on our timeline. But honestly I think the front office will sadly stay the course. Not as optimistic as @carl_herrera about the org being willing to do a soft reset.
I generally agree with you but I see KD's impact on chemistry differently. He's a sulky prima donna kind of guy, like Harden and Kawhi and Lebron and most of the last gen stars to be sure. But losing Fred and Brooks had the most impact on the chemistry. GM waving the white flag at the deadline also probably had some impact, as well as the young players all plateauing and having major cold streaks. The team doesn't have much to feel good about. They're not losing games because of chemistry, they're losing games because of dumb. They're just not good enough and they are realizing that. Earlier this season he was engaged on D and body language was fine on the bench and with the other guys.
We gotta sprinkle in some veteran leadership.... maybe getting Adams and FVV back will help... KD is a superstar - but not a vocal leader.... Idk if Ime isnt giving good direction or if guys are just low key r*****.......
Assuming the Rockets can't contend next season based on your assumption, any resources spent devoted to next season is a waste. If you don't want to waste a resource, you basically have to run it back. Trading KD is really the only thing you can do to recoup assests without dealing a young player. I would laugh so hard if all the whining about how Stone set the rebuild back in the 2025 offseason only to short-sell Durant and improve the long-term assets. Essentially, the team would be run back FVV, Adams minus Durant unless future resources are wasted to not run it back. I don't think trading Durant nets premium picks. I'd laugh if Stone trades KD such that the whole whining about changing directions becomes Stone masterfuly acquiring a depressed asset in KD and then flipping him for a couple of non-premium picks (this isn't much, but it is a lot more than the big deal people make out of what Stone spent last offseason). It still would not net the Rockets a Top 10 player. The big difference between Houston and SA, OKC, Detroit, and Boston is those teams have Top 10 players. None of which were available by the time the Rockets drafted or have been traded during Stone's time as GM in the last 5.3 seasons. Trading Durant does not solve the not having a Top 10 player. If you want to be like SA, OKC, Detroit, and Boston, the Rockets really only option is run it back with FVV and Adams, trade KD, but also trading at least 2 of Amen, Sengun, and Reed. It is unlikely any of the Rockets' young core ends up a Top 10 player, and the picks the Rockets have are unlikely to yield a Top 10 player unless the Rockets tank or get incredibly lucky.
We'll be a #3 seed if we would've traded for Harden. Ime loves his forwards who can't dribble or shoot, but they can surely hustle though
Again, I’m not advocating wasting any resources on next season. I’m advocating accumulating assets in service of finding a young star. That should be our top priority IMO. You convert KD into assets and package a chunk of our assets to get a young star via trade like Halliburton or draft. You try to keep our best prospect, which is Amen. Figuring out how to do that is literally our GM’s job unless the mandate is just to be a playoff team that can’t contend. In which case u are right, running it back with Fred and Steveo would likely meet that objective.
I'd agree if OKC and San Antonio weren't the two deepest rosters in the West. But they are. And they have that guy. Yeah. Agreed. Blow it up. Figure out which young guys you want to keep and trade damn near everybody else for as many picks as you can get. I think you'll also have to pick which guy you want out of Sengun and Amen because I don't think they'll ever fit well together. I would pick Amen, personally. I think a center who is a defensive liability is just too hard to build around. Especially when they can't shoot either. Now, of course, a blow it up and rebuild strategy is likely to look very different now that Silver is planning to take action to further discourage tanking. Likely, we're looking at taking what's left of our team and trying to make the play-in every year and hoping for the best with the more level top pick odds. So hopefully it won't be quite as painful this time around.
