Talent Evaluation and Talent Development If the Rockets have two major problems that are organizational These are them. They find good second round talent where the expectations are low but Their first round talent drafting is not very good to me. Sure we have not had any picks in the single digits but they could still do better If we got a Diamond in the rough . . . they either leave here abused into bad habits or the same as when they came I just don't see the Rockets developing talent like they should IMO I am open to be proven wrong. These being the case. . . Building through the Draft or Free Agency is going to be hard hard hard In the draft we have to get into the top 5 in a CAN'T MISS DRAFT or PAY THROUGH THE NOSE for a proven talent because we cannot take marginal talent and make it better Rocket River
Now that this team has been created, it's pointless to try to win and contend anymore for the near future. We should focus more of our resources in player development. For example: What's going on with KJ McDaniels? Why has he gotten so little playing time and what's up with the coaching staff? I havent seen any improvement in last year which was crucial year of his development. Capela. Has he put any weight? I hope he has been watching every day film to learn how to defend the PNR. What about Dekker?
We haven't really drafted high enough. We traded one pick for Harden. Marcus Morris over Kawhi was the big miss.
Yeah, it's really difficult to be optimistic about this organization's ability to evaluate talent. When everyone was screaming for Kawhi Leonard, they decide to take Marcus Morris. Then, of course, there's the whole Royce White thing. Terrance Williams, Thomas Robinson, they trade for KJ McDaniels, don't play him, then re-sign him and STILL don't play him. I mean my goodness...
This team has a lot of players we've developed. Dmo and Capela. Now we have Dekker, Na-Nu, Payton II and Gentile.
resurrecting this dead thread... Not a major question, but what does Houston's decision to keep Onuaku over Troy Williams mean? Like, does Morey think Williams was just the worse player, or does he still believe that Onuaku could be a cheaper Tarik Black next season? Also, we now have three frontcourt players in development (Qi, Hartenstein, Onuaku) which seems like a bit much unless the hope is that just one of them shows promise enough to become an NBA player. I actually think that Hartenstein could end up becoming the best of the three, but Qi has the highest ceiling/marketing potential and thus will be given more chances.
Skilled bigs are rare and are notorious for taking longer to "raise" than guards and wings. Players like Troy are are dime a dozen in this league. Could he actually become a good player? Well, he has the athleticism but his BBIQ is holding him back a LOT and that is hard to fix. You can teach skills, but not brains. Onuaku on the other hand is a legit big sized body and he has shown flashes of court vision and intelligence, but the NBA game is just too quick and aggressive for him right now. The same applies for Qi and Hartenstein. As for the intention of the draft, drafting outside the top 10 is hit or miss and Morey had previously been drafting for a player that could turn out to be a home run but fell out of consideration due to various issues, whether it be personality, circumstance, or whatever. When that is your aim, you are going to miss, a lot. With the 2nd round, he was drafting support players or specialists typically.
the thing is, good wings are straight up more valuable than bigs in today's NBA. It's why we all were excited about K.J McDaniels and then Troy Williams as projects. I think you're right about skilled centers, but this move does not seem to line up with the ethos of Morey-Ball. Maybe my evaluation of how high the 3&D ceiling of Troy Williams was just wrong
Good is key here. Troy is NOT good. He is not even mediocre. He has physical talents, yes, but his BBIQ makes him a fringe player on a bad team. If he was good, he wouldn't be signing a 10 day contract with the Knicks.
Rockets seems to bank on assets that have a history in the league. They use that information more than the info on College players They don't seem to evaluate College players as well as known NBA players Rocket River