I'd like to hear your reasoning. Jalen has barely played this season, sure we miss Brooks but not that much and he's likely out for the year with a broken hand. KD is playing great, playing big minutes, shooting 50/40/89 and even plays decent defense all while trying to run the offense much of the time because no one else can (that Ime hasn't hamstrung). Jalen was not gonna take this team anywhere, we got the far better player.
If GSW is in the lottery, they get top 3 for sure. Not sure why Silver would cheat for Utah, but they have a ton of assets and a pretty good young roster. Lauri’s insane contract will make them hang on to their draft picks I believe, unless they can find some idiot GM to take it on. I think Utah stops trying to lose next year. Dallas has a ton of cap space next year and another lottery ticket this year. Is Silver through paying off the Luka debt? Portland has a pretty decent core, but not much draft capital and they have Clingan so that takes them out on Sengun. I think the Dallas pick in 29 will be pretty worthless. In summation, we better hope Amen gets a shot, we get lucky with the 27 Nets pick and fire Ime or we are going to be relegated to mediocrity for a long time.
I'll be happy with the next Kevin Durant trade. I barely care what the return is. He's a chemistry destroyer.
I agree with this. I just hope it’s not for another albatross contract. Expirings and a pick would be ok. It’s just a dream though. Durant, FVV, and Ime are here to stay at least through next year.
Loud contingent here think you cant build around Amen but offer little else in terms of alternatives. Ime has been bad this season but I actually dont think he's our biggest issue necessarily. Just saw that the Board is voting for expansion next week which means two more teams in Seattle and Vegas. Vegas is important to the NBA for obvious reasons. Theyre going to be the Lakers 2.0.
FVV isn't playing this season. The narrative that he was holding this team back is just a myth. If the Rockets have no chance to win a championship, that is on Amen, Sengun, and Reed not being good enough. On war chests, the Rockets war chest is just fine unless one has a poor opinion of Amen. Sure, not as good as the tanking teams, but the Rockets have a lot of value still in Amen, Reed, and Sengun. if the Rockets decided to tank (i.e., trade away Amen and Sengun), the Rockets could likely get a war chest greater than anyone else. Granted, I'm much lower on the Rockets going forward, but that is because the 5 young guys as a group have performed worse than last season even with Reed improving a lot. Odd how the young guys have had a step back despite the myth that FVV was bad for player development (other than Reed, he wasn't hurting the development of anyone, and even in Reed's case, there were other players that should have lost minutes before FVV).
I’m not going to argue about FVV again. Just curious of how you rate Amen’s performance in February and March? Still think he is regressing or neutral or do see an inkling of optimism going forward? It is unlikely to happen, but would you trade Durant and/or Sengun in the off-season?
Amen's defense has not been close to as dominant as last season. Still great, but not dominant. This is where Amen has lost value. Offensively, he was horrible in February (may not be total month, but he had a period after his hot streak in January and last few games that stunk). He had some dunks so efficiency was likely okay. March, in the games I've seen he's scored well, but not been much of a creator for others like he was in January. He's made some wide open threes, but does not have much perimeter gravity. For the most part, I've been watching Sengun a lot trying to figure out what is wrong with him lately instead of focusing on what Amen is doing. I'd guess he's off ball a lot more the past two months than he was in January (granted, this is eyetest so I could be wrong). Overall, Amen getting better as a guard on offense is overshadowed by not taking out the opposing primary ballhandler. I operate under the scenario of wanting to improve the Rockets. I rarely look for trades because I want a player off the team. I'd be fine with a trade that improves the Rockets that involves KD or Sengun. Unless it is as part of a package for Giannis, I'm doubtful there will be a trade I would want for Sengun this offseason, but would be open to one. For KD, I still have hope that Amen and Reed play better next season. If one says Amen and Reed have no hope for next season such that trading KD is fine, that says to me that the Rockets need to be looking at trading Amen and/or Reed as well. I'm not there. Also, I'm usually not the one that brings up FVV. If you don't want to discuss FVV, don't bring him up. When someone attacks him for no good reason other than to spit on him, I'll respond.
