3 Point plan to save the rebuild. We can be good again in our lifetime. 1. Fire Silas I like the guy, you like the guy, we all like Stephen Silas. But his time has come. You could wait until the offseason but then you are wasting 4 months and 38 games to see what your players look like with a different voice in their ear. Fire Silas and promote Lucas to interim head coach. Tell him the tank is off for now (pull the plug is the team starts to rise out of the bottom 4 spots in the lottery). Let Abdelfattah handle the offense and Hollins the defense while Lucas manages minutes and egos. In the offseason the search can begin to find the next guy (Cassell or Quin Snyder are my early targets for different reasons). 2. Trade Four team deal, who says no? Hou out: Eric Gordon, Kenyon Martin Jr., and Usman Garuba Hou in: Pat Beverley, Garrett Temple, Thad Young and Chi 2023 SRP (via LAL) Why: Guys who dont want to be here for real pros who will teach the kids how to be professional without changing the winning percentage this season. LAL out: Beverley, Kendrick Nunn and Max Christie LAL in: Gordon and Martin Why: Add quality depth around LeBron and AD without sacrificing your best assets. Tor in: Max Christie and Usman Garuba Tor out: Thad Young Why: Turn a 34 year old whose timeline doesnt fit your team into 19 and 20 year olds that do. Nola in: Kendrick Nunn Nola out: Garrett Temple Why: Add a vet PG at the price of a 36 year old that has only checked in to 9 games. 3. Draft 1.6 - Anthony Black 1.26 - Jordan Walsh 2.39 - Adem Bona I think the Rockets end up picking 5 or 6 after the lottery. I think the Rockets either win their way to that pick or the NBA sees fit not to reward the tank with Wemby or Scoot. Either way, with pick #6 the Rockets select: Anthony Black, PG/Wing from Arkansas. Black slots in at the 3 but ends up being the de facto PG for the Rockets. He also brings good defense to the table in addition to his passing vision. With Black at the 3, the Rockets maximize their 2 scorers in the backcourt. KPJ will be strictly a spot up shooter and pick and roll ball handler. Things he is proficient at. With Black running the offense, Green and Jabari should get better looks and Sengun wont get neglected down low. With their remaining picks, the Rockets select Jordan Walsh, wing from Arkansas. At 6'9'' with a 7'3'' wingspan Walsh is a good athlete who is a multipositional defender and terror on the break. I think his floor is an improved Corey Brewer. Bona, I think, has the tools to be similar to the Celtics' Robert Williams. Both of these guys spend next year (along with TyTy) bouncing between RGV and Houston.
Thanks. If we stop trying to lose and most others dont we will climb the ranks. As was posted in another thread the Rockets are just a win streak away from falling out of the top 3. This despite playing the most difficult part of their season. It is going to be difficult for the Rockets to keep pace when so many of their opponents are also trying to tank for Wemby and Scoot. Again, NOLA gets a serviceable PG with playoff experience on an expiring contract for a guy who has not even gotten into 80% of their games this season. Even if they prefer Temple to Nunn they get out of the contract a year earlier with this deal. Toronto is tanking and gets 2 prospects that might have a future there for the price of a 34 year old power forward playing 17 minutes on a team clinging to maybe the play in game.
Because I watched what OKC did last year and foresee that multiple teams will follow suit to try and get Wemby. Also, the Rockets play Charlotte, Detroit, San Antonio and Washington two more times each. Those teams could very well have a middle school b team suit up for them.
Solid citizen veteran players for low money and short years to counsel the young pups for a disgruntled has been and a guy whose daddy dogs the organization in the offseason?
Giving up KJ and Usman for only vets and a 2nd rd pick is a steep price. KJ/Usman are equivalent of late 1st rd talent.
Of all the players, KJ does the best in the Alpi centric offense. If the team commits to this, then they’d be fools to trade KJ - I’d be interested to see the stats but I suspect that at least the plurality of Alpi’s assists are to KJ. And if he’s unhappy, he’s doing a phenomenal job of not letting it affect his game.
But so could the Rockets. More than half the season is over and we're still dead last. I have the utmost faith in our ability to lose to bad teams as well as good. We are a team on a mission, and nothing can stop us!
Wholeheartedly agree. But you need to fully commit to the mission, by changing your alias to bottomfive.
Hey man appreciate your take. I’m not excited about the trade u proposed, but I agree with your first point: it’s time to fire Silas. On the draft I’d like to consolidate the 2023 Milwaukee pick and some of our prospects (as well as EG) into an asset that can pay future dividends. I think we need to keep adding to our future war chest. And I don’t see anyway we have the minutes or roster space to develop another late 1st round pick. If we can dip into the lotto for 2 picks in this draft than great, but we can’t really use late 1st rounders in our current situation so I’d like to convert them to something else of value. Same with 2nd rounds too.
The KPJ experiment has failed, we need to run Sengun-Green offense (passing and cutting) but you know when KPJ comes back tonight he is going to take the ball out of Sengun's hands. KPJ is going to run his own offense and i guess some moves he been working on in practice. Silas will say, "KPJ run a pick and roll with Sengun," KPJ will say, "Nope, I want to run some stuff I been working on in practice!!!" Silas will say, "O.K., that sounds good." Silas is a nice guy, but we cannot let the players and management run him over. Honestly, I do not know if Silas or Stone is the reason why Sengun is playing under 30 minutes, why Nix is playing at all, why Christopher is not playing. Maybe its Stone is doing all of this. Stone is trying to lose and not develop the players this year, that is STUPID.
