I would've believed more in the Jalen Green redemption arc if he didn't revert back to his usual self in April.
He really didn't. He just had tired legs. His processing on offense and defense was sill significantly improved compared to earlier in the season. A player in their first year playing with high energy on both sides of the court while also starting 82 games might take a toll and thankfully that problem can be solved from Green just getting used to it through conditioning. Younger players are less injury prone than vets. They however have less conditioning than vets. Also April is the real "March inflation" many people used to dismiss Green as we had entire quarters with Boban playing on close games and guys like Jalen playing reduced minutes while the rooks increased their usage but I'm sure you loved Amen's triple double. When the Rockets were still playing for something Green was amazing. He flaked out and defeated more in April because the season was over and tired legs.
The Rockets have so much talent that has just barely been unleashed. I’m talking about Cam, Amen, Tari, and our next lottery pick. The Rockets are ready to blast off next season.
Quality discussion. 1. Regarding Green/Sengun extensions, they talked being "delicate situation" and not wanting to "offend". That’s not right. Healthy relationship between a team and its stars is one that’s based on being straight and open. What I’d do is, just say things straight in their agent’s faces. “We absolutely love your guys, both had flashes of brilliance, more extended for Sengun, but the body of work is not sufficient for us to offer MAX. That’s just a fact. Here are the offers: Sengun gets JJJ-type deal, Green gets Dillon Brooks-type deal. Maybe go a bit higher for Alpe, but not for Green. If you don’t like the offers, no stress whatsoever: have a great Yr4 and we’d be happy to up the deals and get them the MAX" Over-coddling just doesn’t work. Morey, such a repulsive and shifty slime ball, thought he had "relationship" with Harden by over-coddling him, and then ended-up with the nastiest split ever. A healthy relationship is based on being straight and open, not on being slimy. To me what Vecenie suggested is far, far more offensive: trying to explain to them that Rockets want 2025 cap space. F that. If I am the player, I get super pissed. You’re not offering me a fair deal now because you want to manipulate the cap table, I’d be super resentful. 2. Embiid and Spyda. Obviously huge upgrades over Green/Sengun, however, both have had scary injury history and neither have had the type of a defining playoff run. It may sound crazy, but I’d hesitate and even lean towards PASS. Kinda glad that it’s just a hypothetical, it’d be a very difficult decision if it ever presented itself for real. 3. Londale/unc/Adams/Boban vs. iHart via opening cap space this year. That was interesting. I’d be a bit wary of the history of Thibs guys never living-up to the same performance under other coaches. I mean, do we want another Reggie Bullock situation? The list is quite long: D.Rose, Taj Gibson, etc… I’d say PASS, but is an interesting possibility. iHart has been tremendous…
Why would you trade Sengun? He's a top 4-5 center in the NBA right now and probably top 3 next season. If we are going to give up stuff to get a name player, why wouldn't you trade for a position that is not currently in the top 10? In other words, you'd have an (arguably, theoretically) improved center playing with less talent than Sengun is now because you'd need to give something else up to get an Embiid. Makes no sense. That's not where the greatest weakness is. Giving up two wings to get a really good wing makes some sense, but who moves the needle and is available? Standing pat and betting on growth makes the most sense as of today. Also, on the argument that Sengun will be unplayable in the postseason--I think we are too shell-shocked from the Warriors run. Not every team is going to be like that and also, in that Dame game, a lot of it was on the guards and horrible coaching that gave the players no sense of team defense. It's a bad reference point. The coaching has changed and team concepts are here. Keep in mind too, that in a playoff game, the other team has to guard Alpi and our offense on the other end.
Thanks for the recap ..... As for extending Sengun right now - that's a No and the reason is cap space after next offseason. Sengun's cap hold will be $7,621,639. Sengun's getting near $40m in salary. The difference is $32.4 to spend before you go over the cap to resign Sengun.
It was a Recap and not really a Preview which would only have been feasible if they had known the Draft Outcome, Free agency and trades.
Sengun's outperformed Stone by quite a bit and Stone just got extended so....yeah I get what they're saying but you set a better precedent for Jabari/Cam/Amen by extending Sengun this offseason.
Exactly. The NBA, more than any other league, is player dominated. Teams that are known for taking care of their players tend to attach better FAs, do better in negotiations, etc. That is what wins championships, not a perfectly clean cap sheet.
It doesn’t make sense to basketball nerds like us, but I think folks are just warning us basketball nerds to not say you weren’t warned if you hear about potential trades in the near future. I think nba people think Embiid looks like the most likely superstar to ask for a trade (still very unlikely though imo) in the near future so that’s why you hear them bring up Senguns name as a potential centerpiece. The fact is we have to come to grips that Tillman doesn’t really care about the diehards and nerds. He will want to market the team, get on nationally televised games, have more corporate sponsorships, etc. This isn’t just me warning this too so don’t shoot the messenger. Kelly Iko and Clutch too have said multiple times the Rockets are focused on going “star hunting” when all of us know from a basketball perspective in the long run it makes no sense to gut the farm. To us it would look like the Astros in 2014 trading a 24 year old Altuve, the rights to Carlos Correa, and the draft pick that would become Tucker for a declining Alex Rodriguez or Derek Jeter. It’s silly to think the Rockets should go star hunting this Summer. 100%. Especially with the league stars in the West 2 to 3 years from aging out where your best window is when Sengun, Jalen, Jabari, etc. are going to be moving into their peak years. However it’s a business and it’s Tillman Fertitta who will call the shots, and Stone is a GM who has an ego the size of Texas. Everyone in the know seems to be warning us fans that this is a reality if they get their way, and we cannot say we were not warned.
What is your take on the likelihood of Star hunting actually happening, I think the urgency is still at 20%.....I treated this during the whole season even when Green had his worst stretch of basketball......I never really believed they would or could pull it off. But yeah, it is the Offseason and they seem to have more time to ponder.
wait what am I missing about Josh Hart; one of my favorite players in the nba and a favorite of the rockets front office? Is he available or something?
Who's even going to be available that's a highly marketable star to sell tickets? I never get the impression Donovan Mitchell pulls in the numbers. Trae Young is almost a joke around the league and certainly doesn't move the needle given how mediocre his Hawks have been. (We're already a better team.) Lauri, again a guy where I like him and like the fit on offense, but still mostly unknown to mainstream audiences and his team is worse than ours. I think if an opportunity to acquire a guy like Embiid presented itself, I might worry Tilman would do it and it would blow up in our faces given his injury history. Or Giannis also jumps to mind, though with Giannis, I'd be more willing to nod along with the reasoning. But I don't think this front office and ownership group is quite dumb enough to sell the farm for a B-tier non-superstar.
I think it depends on what they consider a superstar. If they think are open to trading the farm for Trae Young, and Zion then I’d say it’s probably 20 to 25% as a guesstimate. Embiid is probably even more desirable for the front office too given how much more he swings your variance, and his star power. Iko and others though have mentioned Zion quite a bit for some time. He’s the “star” that probably scares me the most because the guy cannot stay healthy/in shape to save his life. The Pelicans imo have a lot of reasons to trade him as well. I think the only reason NOLA would most likely not though is because they are so deep already with talent at nearly every position that Zion is just sort of their upside longshot factor to contend at the highest level. They want to keep him for the same reason that Philly wants to keep Embiid. But yes the odds are not great and you have to consider the fact that OKC has more to part with in a trade and are another team probably willing to take a high upside superstar with health issues because they have such a deep roster already to manage low usage seasons with that star in the regular season. So it’s already a low likelihood and intense competition. So I wouldn’t get too worked up about it, but yeah… you cannot say we were not warned if it does happen.
True, if you look at him, Zion seems to be the product of a lab experiment gone wrong even more so than Wemby. I would still go for Dejounte if I were the Thunder, dude is probably the most 'durable' among those mentioned. Ideally someone better than Dejounte but this seems to be all over the news.
iHart aka former Rocket Isaiah Hartenstein, not Josh Hart. Why do some want a center (whether it’s Claxton I’ve seen mentioned or Hartenstein or whoever) Sengun, Adams, Jock, Jeff(SB5), Jabari(SB5), Boban
Zion scares me too with his body type and injury history if he becomes available. I think he showed signs this season of doing what they want him to do though, lost weight and got in better shape and all that, so I'll bet they keep playing out the string and hope for the best.
Yeah I think along the same lines. Honestly as I mentioned it’s Zion that scares me the most. I agree Trae Young and Mitchell don’t make much of a difference in marketing and national tv games. I just hear this “star hunting” phrase used so much with the media that it tells me they are pretty desperate to get a big name and we all know what happens when new NBA owners are desperate to get relevant fast. You end up trading picks that would become Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown for a nearly forty year old Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.
