Oh no someone said a mean thing about the Rockets so lets amplify the comments and feel bad for ourselves! The next time one of these "serious" ex NBA scrubs actually mentions the totality of the situation will be the first time.
Respect JJ not sure where the hate comes from, prob most knowledge BBall media guy out there but did not agree with this take...Sent him this response... "Normally agree w you but Rox had just won 3 in a row(beating Bos), hired a coach the media said they HAD to & as an Org have had more playoff appearances the last 10yrs than Orl/OKC/Spurs/Char/Det whom all are using the same draft capital & tanking to rebuild strategy"
Funny how nobody talks about the SA/Josh Primo thing, as if the franchise ignoring complaints that the dude was flashing a team therapist wasn't a sign of a flaw in the team culture. But the Rockets--who pretty much announced when Harden left that they were tanking for the next few years--are a team in chaos. Amazing.
Everyone all gangster about how the culture isn’t that bad won’t be so boastful when Silas gets an extension.
I think you are right about the team not playing "the right way" - I think the problem is to fix that means we win more games than what our management team actually want and that's the leadership vacuum that we are really talking about here. The management team ultimately is knowingly building value on the back of the dysfunction - we get better talent in the org from the dysfunction the longer we bottom out... True organizational alignment can't be had in this scenario because management doesn't want us to get better (yet) - and that's why we are "a mess" as most observers put it because I believe the management team(Stone/Tillman) sees Silas is a poor coaching fit, they see the obvious lack of supporting pieces on the roster(meaningful vets for development, complementary pieces real teams have off the bench for situational plays), they see KPJ's warts but they can't come out and say "these players are too good for us to help them win games so the front office is actively undermining the players and coaches to tank the right way"...and they ultimately think that the quickest way to rebuild the team is to accept those warts to gain maximum value while they are being bad - and to be honest, they are right. That IS probably the best way to maximize your value as an org by getting the highest draft picks possible in relatively strong draft classes....but the realy question is whether they will be hurting the value of their players by essentially punting on the first few years of their development. ...and again - I'm basing this all on the concept that Stone and Tillman can't be THAT stupid to not see how their efforts have undermined the coach and players. In my mind they have A LOT of trust to rebuild starting this summer and I think that means they have to bring in at least a few decent vets, maybe even throw some money at a Myles Turner type, nail the draft, and find a worthy successor to Silas. I just hope I'm right and Stone and Tillman aren't really that stupid to think they are actually doing a good job supporting this team.
I get the argument, and I agree with you that this is probably not incompetence, it's the outcome of a plan that aligns pretty closely to what you described. Stone and the front office are not dumb people. Talent acquisition is central to the plan and we've done a fine job on that front. It's the rest of the plan that seems poorly executed or considered. Like, if they think that a three year rebuilding period is 100% only about talent acquisition I'd just strongly disagree with that. Having young guys learn how to play professional-brand, NBA-level, team basketball has to be priority #2 right? And we just have a history of not doing that. I think honestly it comes through from Morey's philosophy. I don't think Morey and his front office disciple Stone values that stuff. I think they think whoever puts the most talent on the court wins, and "playing the right way" or "playing team basketball" is just BS fluff. That perspective is self serving because it makes the GM or transactions guy the center of the team's success, instead of coaches or culture. The NBA and NBA media is full of basketball lifers who have the opposite view and that's partially why they call us out all the time. I also disagree with the premise that we're constrained from playing the right way because it would mean we win more games and lose out on picks. They're pretty much orthogonal IMO. We could absolutely being playing more organized, systematic, team basketball and losing by more! It'd be a better platform for the future though, that's the point. Like for example KPJ possessions where he brings it up, never passes, and iso's for 10 seconds then hits a stepback 3 are actually relatively efficient offense for us and help us win, but if we eliminated them completely I think the team would be better off going forward.
He's not wrong but I've never seen media people so openly not wanting a draft pick to go to a specific team.
I guess they look at our intentional sucking (by rolling out Silas, KPJ and Nix, and reducing the minutes of the franchise player Sengun and of fantastic pick Tari Eason) as blatant cheating.
Can't blame them though. Not a lot of joy, or fundamentals, or teaching, or coaching, or significant improvement over the last few seasons. Why would you want the next "it" player for the league to go to that situation, if your living depended on the health of growth of that league? I'm not saying I'm smart-- far from. But I heard a sports talking head I like in the Bay Area complaining about the baseball Giants and their analytics-focused nobody roster. "When fans don't care about them, they care less about this radio show, and I'm closer to out of a job. So yeah, I really care about the team and how they build it." Kind of an interesting and honest take. And could explain why average NBA hangers-on don't want Wemby to be hanging around with his hands on his hips while KPJ and Green volume shoot for another year.
I’m sure I’m missing some quotes… • Nikola Jokic said he thinks that the Rockets should be playing through Sengun more and that they get stagnant. Using Sengun more as a fulcrum should help that according to Jokic. Cool moment considering Sengun models his game after Jokic as he told @msinger. Kevin Durant on which young players he really enjoys watching play: "I would say I was going to give some love to Alperen Şengün. I like Sengun. He was dunking on a couple of people. I didn't know he could get up like that. He's nice. I like him." • Nicolas Batum calls #Rockets Alperen Şengün "Baby Jokic" (0:49 mark). "That's what I call him because he's kind of like him." • SiriusXM guys: "The reason why I don't like to watch (the #Rockets ) play is because I think Şengün should get way more touches and he doesn't. It's a bunch of guys going one on one. I think they should use Sengun like they use Nikola Jokic. Other guys would really benefit from that." Austin Rivers on Alperen Sengun from the latest episode of The Ringer NBA Show: “His skill level & his scoring level? He could make an all-star game. He’s really good. Should they be playing through him? Probably…Jalen & him are the two guys they gotta continue to play through” Sam Vecenie: It was genuinely interesting tape tonight to see Alperen Sengun more as the hub of an offense as opposed to what the Rockets typically do with him, which typically involves a lot of overdribbling from the guards. Tonight was awesome proof of concept: let him be the initiator more Sam on Alperen Şengün: "I think he's the most misused player in the NBA." ________________________ • Doc Rivers on the Rockets: "They’re brash. They’re young. They’re athletic. They don’t quit. It’s amazing watching them last year to this year. Same group of guys. But you can literally, visually see the progress. They’re still young but there’s been a lot of growth.” • Devin Booker on the #Rockets: "(They have) a lot of young talent. They play hard... they play fast, they play scrappy and they play together." If anybody knows what it’s like to turn a rebuild around, it’s De’Aaron Fox. His advice for the Rockets: “For guys like Jalen, Şengün and Jabari, it’s really about staying patient.” ________________________ • Eric Gordon: There’s no improvement • Spoke with Austin Rivers postgame tonight. He had plenty of thoughts on Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr. and the Rockets’ rebuild. “Somebody needs to teach KPJ and Jalen how to play the right way. … They need those vets.” • John Wall says he told Jalen Green and Kevin Porter Jr: "This sh*t y'all getting away with here (with the #Rockets), if you go to any other teams, you would be out of the ****ing league. You wouldn't play. I'm trying to explain it to them because they think it's sweet." • John Wall explains his side of his exit in Houston. He says Stephen Silas called him and asked how he'd feel coming off the bench, explaining that Kevin Porter Jr. being the starting point guard was what the #Rockets front office wanted. "This is what the GM wants." • Kendrick Perkins on John Wall's interview: "I'm bothered by John Wall's comments towards those young guys and the [Rockets] organization... Veterans matter! You need the right vets in those locker rooms to be an extension of Coach Silas" • John Lucas’ twitter latest like is… “Some say tanking masterclass, I say coaching incompetence.” • David Thorpe & Henry Abbott: "I asked an agent who's very well connected, 'What's going on with Houston?' He said, "Oh, it's a clown show." -Thorpe • Lowe & Givony
• John Hollinger: Look, we gotta talk about the elephant in the room. Ask anyone in the league who is the worst-organized, least-sound team in the NBA, and they will tell you it’s the Rockets. They’re selfish with the ball, they don’t run back on defense, and Gordon wasn’t lying: Most of their key players’ worst habits haven’t improved. Even the Rockets’ good moments are mostly a triumph of energy and athleticism over solid fundamentals. They play like an AAU team, except they’re in the NBA. Look, this wasn’t the job Stephen Silas signed up for, but it’s hard to say he’s done much with it. It’s his third year and he’s won 24 percent of his games, which is an average of 19.7 wins per season, and they’re on track to have the league’s worst record for a third straight season. To put this in context: No other NBA team failed to win 20 games in either of the previous two seasons, even when they only played 72 in 2020-21, and no other team is on track to fall short of 20 this year. People will tell you he’s not the right personality to rein in wild players, on or off the court (I’ve heard him compared to a substitute teacher) … and, to be fair, others will tell you the organization never empowered him to do so and has looked the other way when it comes to player discipline, especially regarding Porter. For the moment, a coaching change might not be in the Rockets’ interests, especially if they don’t know who they want to hire. I just don’t see any way they can come back to training camp next year with Silas at the helm and expect anything to be different. Again, the organization probably needs to look a lot deeper than just Silas. But the Rockets can’t be anything more than the league’s most exciting bad team until they clean up some of the very glaring fundamental failures on both sides of the ball. Sam Vecenie: - Setup "not conducive to development. The way the #Rockets play basketball is not helping any of these guys develop on the court." - "We can point to the front office." No vet leaders. -"I do think it's time for a coaching change." • Here's Jonathan Givony saying the #Rockets are a hard team to watch and he's not a fan of KPJ -- that Houston's style of play hurts both Jabari and Tari. • ESPN's Jonathan Givony says a new GM could turn the #Rockets around quickly by firing the coach and getting rid of Kevin Porter Jr. "Just cut him. That's it." He hears awful things about the Houston locker room and culture. People *on the team* have told him, "We are a mess." • The audio of JJ Redick blasting the #Rockets as a dysfunctional organization right now. "There's a difference to me between building towards winning basketball and the opposite of that, which is what the Houston Rockets are doing." • Draymond talking about "bad habits" when it comes to the Rockets. He praises the coaching staff but says there's no veterans in Houston and sometimes you need those to relay the coach's messages. • Draymond Green with some extended thoughts on Houston’s rebuild. “It’s very easy to build bad habits. But habits are hard to break. You build bad habits and it kind of becomes who you are. It’s important to try to play the right way.” “I do have a culture in my company. I have 25 VPs that have been with me 25 years. The culture of the company is when times are bad, we do better than everybody else. We survive tough times. And anybody that deals with us will tell you Tilman Fertitta companies have a different culture. You either love working for us or you don’t because we drive harder than other people. We’re not a lifestyle company. The Houston Rockets are not going to be a lifestyle team.” “We’re here to win. We’re not here to be just OK and make it to the playoffs. We’re going to do whatever it takes to be a championship-style team every year. I will make moves to always extend our runway. I’m not a rebuilding guy to go collapse for three years to get draft picks. I want to keep us at as high a level as we can. I have a good management team. We’re in the city of Houston, which is soon to be the third-largest city in the United States so we should always attract our good share of free agents. “Right now, the Houston Rockets as a brand are one of the top brands out there and we’re going to keep it that way.” “I’m a fighter. That’s my culture, and I think the longer that I own this team, they’re going to pick up more of my culture. We’ll pick up a few Tilman-isms along the way in the next few years.”
Thanks for this compilation, amazing job. All these guys >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> @maj21, @rocketchamp, @Verbal Christ, @Houston77, @DaDakota and whoever else the few KPJ stans/Sengun haters are. We are literally talking about a handful of hateful and/or delusional posters. @Bobbythegreat is a KPJ stan, but at least not a Sengun hater (Green hater instead, also wrong). With the other guys, it's a weird correlation between being pro-KPJ and anti-Sengun. Every single person with a brain sees pretty much the same thing - Silas and KPJ must go, Sengun should be featured a lot more. I know @Clutch rightly says it will not happen with the current coaching staff, but looking at what the REAL experts see - and what the data says (Sengun was actually in the top 10 in PER at some point in the season, until Silas started treating him like crap again, and Sengun is still by far the best Rocket in advanced analytics) I am confident that the next coach will do the right thing. Sengun, Jalen, Tari, Jabari are our core. A great young core. We might add a top FA (I only really see one out there, warts and all) and a top pick, a proper coach/coaching staff, and I maintain we will not only fight for the playoffs, we will fight for a title.
See, this is why I don't think you know much about basketball. I've found that the most ignorant fans have a binary thought-process. Let me spell it out for you, since you tend to chase ghosts: Just because I think KPJ is over-hated does not mean I am a KPJ stan, and just because I don't constantly heap praise on Sengun does not mean I hate him. I like KPJ, I love Sengun, and I hate narrow-minded "fans" like you.
