Windhorst: Rockets still looking at Giannis

The star players I would trade Sengun for, to make this topic somewhat more interesting since I think most of us agree Giannis isn't the move, would include:

Definitely, but 110% absolutely for certain not going to happen
Luka
Wemby
SGA
Jokic
Cade

Definitely, but almost zero chance of it happening this offseason
Ant Edwards
Tatum
Maxey
Jalen Johnson
Chet

On the fence*, still extremely low odds of it happening
Jaylen Brown
Donovan Mitchell
Bam
Booker

Giannis ain't on the list. Note also that every single one of these guys is in his 20s except Jokic.

I think the fact that none of these guys feels very plausible for us to acquire right now for a 23-year-old 2x all-star even if we include a couple of draft picks shows how difficult it is to acquire a "franchise player" via trade in today's CBA.

*because these guys are all about to turn 30, on huge contracts, and none of them is 100% for certain good enough to be the #1 option on a championship team

 

If you can get a top 5 player in the NBA at the age of 31, you would be crazy not to move forward. Does a duo of Giannis/KD push the Rockets into the Thunder category? Who knows. In the regular season, probably not. In the playoffs over a 7 game series? The Thunder were almost taken down by Denver and Indiana just last year when they won 67 games.

The Spurs have had tremendous luck in the draft and won a franchise player and then another number 2 pick as a consolation prize last year. They are now considerably ahead of the Rockets if the Rockets stay put.

The current Rockets team is not going anywhere. Let's see what they do in the playoffs, but would anyone be surprised if they don't make it past the 1st round again? They are not contenders but if you can replace Sengun and some future picks for a top 5 player in the NBA, it can potentially get them there. A 31 year player going on 32 still has a good amount of years left to be effective. 27/9/5 is certainly not washed up. It's top 5.

 

Unfortunately, Sengun isn’t worth that in a draft either an elite top 3

 

This team isn’t a Giannis away from a title and we’d probably have to gut the roster to get him. The end result of a Giannis team might not be much better than what we have now.