#RunItBack: Klay with torn ACL, Rockets now the best team in the West?

Or NOLA doesn't trade Davis to the Lakers and Kawhi resigns in Tor...

The injuries to KD and Klay are unequivocally good news for the Houston Rockets... whether we are good enough to capitalize... yea, I have my doubts but the GSW juggernaut getting derailed is good for our chances (no matter how small).

 

He’s showed he’s not a good big stage player which is when we actually need him. Don’t talk about Utah and Minnesota we coulda beat those scrubs with anyone st center. Warriors and raptors role players showed a lot of heart and every one of them contributed more than useless capela. He’s a one dimensional choker that doesn’t try when he’s sucking. Overrated skill set and garbage intangibles and heart. Dump him while some teams still think he can redeem himself

 

The new Lotto odds do guarantee tanking teams anything. Im glad GS's core will now be pushing their 30's coming off major injuries. They won't be back to normal for 2 years and then Draymond will be gone.

 

He's not a good big stage player only against the warriors...He played well against the Spurs, Jazz, and minnesota. Also, i think his trade value just went up! teams in the west may look at him more valuable now that the warriors are done.

 

Not to downplay Masai, but he has been a gm for 10 years at this point, with Denver he didn't do **** and overpaid a guy like McGee with like a 40M contract when the cap was around 55M, with the Raptors he had no results and his team has been considered a bunch of losers for years, until he got Kawhi thanks to an asset Colangelo drafted.

 

This is somewhat the type of attitude that we have to guard against. On the one hand, you did say one good trade and a really good mid-level guy. So that's meaningful change and theoretically improvement.

But I think EVERYONE is winners here, and as the Rockets have been laser focused on the GSW, the rest of the NBA has just been focused on getting better, younger, longer more versatile players. The Rockets were the oldest or second oldest team in the playoffs. They're not immune to injury. And even healthy, weren't the second best team this year, or close.

Point in case. Rockets can "run it back", but the smart money would be on being extra aggressive now. Meaning if you weren't offering 4 first round picks for AD before, you should be now. Capela, EG, 4 first rounders. Not that, that necessarily gets it done, but that being the idea. And so on and so forth.

Mind you, a week ago I would have much preferred them to accumulate assets for the LONG term.

 

drafted Siakam late in the 1st round

traded a horribly negative asset in Andrea Bargnani for a 1st round pick and 2 2nds...drafted Poeltl with that pick from the Bargnani trade who then became the young piece included in a trade for Kawhi

 

I mean, are we going to list all the good and bad trades Morey and every other gm without a chip has done?

 

I would definately do that for AD, i said the same thing in another thread, except 2 or 3 firsts....but if 4 firsts gets him and away from the lakers, you have to do it, because if the lakers get him, we probably won't be beating them. We are definately not running it back, especially since they said pretty much everyone is on the trade block except Harden. We still need another superstar with harden at all costs.

 

A championship cancel out all the bad ones IMHO, but Morey had 9 years or more and didn't do it.

I dun think Kawhi is that much better than Harden but he was the right fit at the right moment and Kawhi plays better in the Playoffs than in the regular season which is a plus.

All the role players play better than ours and Nurse trusted them.

It happened! Masai Ujiri would look dumb if Embiid and the Sixers got the best of him.

Luck is important and Morey ain't that lucky with results, just with some trades.

 

If that’s the case I hope they trade him even more now!

 

CP0 out

 

Even OKC can shake us up at times with their explosiveness.

 

I know the chip cancels all the bad moves and makes even the biggest losers a champ in a lot of peoples eyes, so, now that Masai beat the Warriors without Durant and Thompson he suddenly becomes the best gm in the nba, well, no **** lol. And btw this is the same thing that happens in the MVP talks and is not something i agree whith but that's another argument.

The point is not that he won, is that he didn't do it without having that lottery asset to move, see the first posts of the discussion

The Raptors under Masai have been nothing special, certainly not better than the Rockets in these last what? 5/6 years? It's his Raptors that everyone kept talking about as chokers for years, then he got Kawhi by moving another all star drafted in top 10 by another gm (and same thing with Gasol). He didn't do anything special by himself.

 

Dun think he becomes the best GM all of a sudden, however the most trending GM........

I think more GMs will do bold trades for a limited time.......

I think, for example, Danny Ainge saying he would take AD as a 1 yr rental and prove to him as he proved to KG that Boston is the long term organization for him.

I think that is more of a risk even as AD is nowhere as accomplished as Kawhi was.

 

That the Warriors, minus KD and Klay, are the favourites shows how biased and unobjective the determination is. Warriors will play tough...but we already saw, in this series, what happens when Curry has to carry a heavy load...he gets tired. They will be middle of the pack in the West, at best.

8th best in the West, or overall? 8th overall I could understand...puts them top 4 in the West, and the West is always tough. Personally, I would put them probably 2nd. I'd have Denver first.

That can change depending on what happens with AD and Kawhi...but not sure that vaults either the Lakers or the Clippers into top 2 regardless. EVERYONE thought Lakers would be top 4 this year, with LeBron. How did that work out?

 

I think GS has shown it's an organization that is all about Championships.

At the end of the day they will make the best move to get the team in the best position to continue winning multiple titles .

If steph so much as tweaks his finger they will sit him out . They will show loyalty to klay and KD , because if not that would cause an even bigger backlash than outright tanking .

Now I might have exaggerated when I said top 5 pick . But it's possible , especially if Steph actually gets hurt .

I'm also saying this assuming they have their own pick next year , for all I know they might have traded it .

Regardless , GS fans can wait a year ... especially if the media plants the seed of a top 10 pick joining the squad next year with klay and KD coming back .

Klay might come back during the season , but if the warriors are off to a slow start and it's already more than halfway through the season , they aren't gonna push it .

It will still be a new arena , fans will still go to games . Curry,when playing, is still a huge draw .

All I'm saying is that taking the foot off the gas to make a better run the season after is a justifiable move .... and ones that fans would understand

Once you win championship(s) like that the fans stay loyal for a good while afterwards . Especially if guys are just out for injury .

Look , will KD and Klay be as good after injury ... In all likelihood no . But , there is a wide range of outcomes and they could be almost as good .

Do you think CP3 will be as good 2 years from now lol ? It's not like everything with us or around the league will stay the same .

GS front office proved they dont care for precedent when they brought in KD . They don't care if the league hates them for getting a top pick . **** , the lakers just did that this year .

They will do what they can to make the team as powerful as possible .

 

This team is better than the team with most wins in franchise history and went to WCF the previous year.

But other teams have improved too, notably in East.

 

I don't understand why Curry is not getting the same hate Harden does after that 4th quarter last night. What he went through last night Harden goes through every game and he actually had help until the second half.