3 players leveraged their desire to play elsewhere into trades this season. How are we doing CF.net? Harden wanted the Nets and everyone knew it. Used the Force, gets traded to the Nets. Story goes we could've had Ben Simmons, I think maybe Morey did Tilman a solid for not just ****-canning him over a tweet. He let Tilman drive up the price for Harden using another offer. We were lucky to get Allen, Prince, Kurucs, Levert and all the picks. With fabricated leverage we actually got an ok return, considering no return would ever be good enough. We managed to throw that away for Oladipo, who wanted the Heat and everyone knew it. He uses the Force as well, gets traded to the Heat. With no leverage (comfortable with the combo of 1st round picks/young players return, indeed lol) Stone managed to get older and worse, totally having his bluff called by Shark Riley who laughs as Stone accepts his scraps. I guess no long-term money acquired. Total miss, a draft pick swap with the Heat 2022, are we expecting to be better than the Heat next season??? Bradley, Olynyk...and Exum. And as long as I've rattled off a conspiracy, why not include that maybe KPJ was sent here for "nothing". PJ Tucker used the Force and just didn't care where he got sent, as long as it wasn't playing for Tilman anymore. That's a good sign for the future. At least an actual trade was executed, since there was a single ounce of leverage in the fact that there were actually multiple teams desiring his quality as a player. Look at a young player who can't break the rotation and a useful pick swap. And DJ Augustin why not, it's not like Eric Gordon can stay healthy. Aaron Gordon also used the Force in not ending up here lol... boy that's a great sign for the future. Regardless if you think he would've fit or not or whatever, good players stiff arming the Rockets as potential landing places isn't nice. Leverage for free agents... fading, I guess. It's hard to have low expectation and still be disappointed. But it's fair to note, it's hard for a rookie GM to take down Riley over the rights to a player that literally everyone knows wants to play for Riley only. It's fair to note but also damn. Also having 4 known commodities taking hard passes on the franchise. Damn. It wasn't going to be pretty. And it ain't. And now we leverage our hopes and dreams on the 52% or less chance we get our top pick, and the even slimmer chance he becomes a legitimate player sooner than later, if at all. Oy.
I'm impressed by Oladipo's stance... Made it known ... Turned down 50 mil... And got his wish... Now that Super max **** he thinking needs to be wiped clean via Winter Soldier tactics...
We all know this game is rigged. Maybe Stone is playing the game. He has greased the wheels of the NBA elite. Rockets have also made the East more competitive within the conference and when it's time for the Finals in Adam Silver's league. Maybe, just maybe, Stone is playing 5D chess and is about to get a kick back when the Rockets are in the lottery. hopefully.
Reputation around the league matters for signing guys. Us doing right by players that wanted to leave and trading them to the exact place they wanted to go means that we're the type of team you can sign with and if it doesn't work out, the franchise will do right by you. Also, the Holydipo trade hedges our bets next year as we get the better 1st round pick between Miami and Brooklyn. That's not nothing. It's potentially very little, but you never know. It, at the very slightest, moves us up one place in the draft. And that's a guarantee.
I always thought it was a superstar’s league. I was wrong. It’s a players league....even non superstars get their way ( Tucker Gordon and Dipo) bright spot is at least when players do come here they’ll know Stone will send them exactly where they want to go when they’re tired of being a rocket.
