I think he's best utilized as a big guy on offense and a perimeter guy on defense. That's easier said than done, of course, because it likely means we need a unicorn playing alongside him (tall guy who can defend the rim and shoot from 3), but I think that's how you'll get the most out of Simmons.
There nothing wrong with James Harden being a rockets for life. But who will come here to get them further. It exactly like Carmelo Anthony in Denver in 2009, great team not good enough.. When Harden leaves his prime and regresses. The rockets will not resign him. So you see 3 more years. But if Westbrook stays for 3 years, and this is the team they have is, deadly but lacks in overall agenda against the Stack West. You just get a 1st or 2nd round fodder for 3 more years. That's how tinman and baby like it, and that's what you get for 3 more years. So you see this for 3 more years, until the 2023 rebuild, enjoy the seasons being a good team, but not good enough, and getting mocked by the bspn for James harden style of play cant win etc... Also you have ton of cap, no draft picks, and they will probably resign old harden just to be .500 for few years til there picks in 2022-23 pan out, but there so late they wont. Enjoy being relevant for few more years, with nothing to look forward to in the future. Rookie coach, slim nothing roster. I see years of first round picks that will be going to okc lol.
If that's the case, we need to just stop talking about trading him. That's not in the same planet of equal value. I've seen Philly trades comprised of Simmons plus others plus THREE draft picks. That could be enticing. Simmons plus crap shoot? HARD pass. Hang up the phone. Don't answer call backs.
Agreed. Nothing is more depressing than having a bad team and not having your pick. Plus being terrible and helping OKC build a dynasty will sting even more. If we run it back and fall short maybe you could consider nuking it after next season since we'll have our picks in 2022 and 2023. I guess if we really wanted to tear it down and be Philly process bad enough to have a shot at landing top 4 and keeping our pick, maybe. But if we're trading for Simmons and anything other than draft assets that's probably more like mid-lottery rather than top 4. The trade would more need to be for pretty much nothing but draft assets. Then we'd have to clear the rest of the roster, which with EG's and Russ's deal I'm not sure you can even do without attaching assets.
Ben Simmons and Devin Booker on the Rockets would be better for the future. Westbrook, Gordon, should be moved because of age and being more injury prone. Tucker has value. Harden I want to keep.
You can't win in this league without going over the cap i dont think and nothing we do will matter if we don't do that. Imagine Marcus Morris on our roster last year, would we beat lakers for sure? No. But we would have a much better chance.
Best place to start is Square 1. I think there's mounting amount of evidence from the last 6 years that Harden cannot be your No.1 player if your goal is to have a championship. Heck I don't think he can be a 2nd best player for a team with championship aspirations. 2b at best. He's in a tier below than how he is actually perceived. Start over instead of continuing in this treadmill of mediocrity.
You guys need to get away from the Simmons pipe dream as well. That guy's weaknesses can be easily exploited in the Western Conference.
No doubt many people would agree YOU CAN get into Harden's head. That is his biggest weakness, and it is a serious one. I hate Lebron and Curry. But you cannot get into their heads. Winning a championship is not just a physical journey. Harden is no leader. He's mentally weak. So is Westbrook. Physical greatness can only get a team so far. Many examples of that. Honestly everyone needs to wake up to that fact. I love the Rockets, but it is time to rebuild. Simmons is not the answer either.
I don't see any way we do a Process with this owner, unless he figures out a way to do it without losing revenue. (There may not be crowds anyway, but I'm assuming the Process still impacts other revenue streams...haven't given it too much thought). The only thing I can imagine is some sort of extreme pandering to a non-US market by loading up with non-NBA quality international players from China or elsewhere. I think pride would probably get in the way of that, but I suppose it's possible.
Don’t know why some are so eager to jump headlong into a rebuild. It’s really not that fun, and you’re not guaranteed to come out of it better, or even come out of it at all. Many teams, especially ones with cheap owners and bad management, are stuck rebuilding permanently. Meanwhile we have a hall-of-fame player already on our roster, signed, who guarantees competitiveness and playoffs every year. Why are we in a rush to ditch that to go back to being in the lottery again?
Patience i dont think the rockets ever rebuilt properly. If they did it might of been astros potential like we seen in miami.
If you're Giannis and can choose between Houston (Harden) or Dallas (Donic), just which team would you pick?
You know, that makes all the sense in the world..wish we could swing a deal involving OKC to get some of that back. We'd have to suck pretty bad. I don't know..thought about it, but plowed forward anyway.
Right. I assumed we wouldn't do a Process because of the revenue hit. But you bring up a great point about not having crowds (or having reduced crowds). There are other revenue streams that being terrible would impact. But if you were going to do it, this would be a good year to kick it off without taking a massive hit at the gate. Even if the players and owners reach a deal that would keep the cap at the same level (not a certainty at all) going from projected payroll to the team minimum payroll would save around $35 million I think. Unless we get pretty big crowd sizes back I doubt tanking next year would lead to $35 million less in revenue. And yeah, tank with some Chinese players to get some of that revenue back.
I agree, Rockets can rebuild AND still compete for a ring. But the only way to do that is by keeping Harden.
Agree. Now THIS is a rebuild: LAC: Russ Westbrook PHI: Paul George HOU: Ben Simmons Present this to Morey and he'll turn it into this: LAC: Russ Westbrook, Enes Kanter, Ben McLemore PHI: Kemba Walker, Gordon Hayward HOU: Ben Simmons, Marcus Smart BOS: Chris Paul, Paul George, Pat Beverley OKC: Tobias Harris, Romeo Langford, Zhaire Smith + Celtics FRP + 76ers FRP 6'3 Smart (26) 6'5 Harden 6'8 Josh Jackson (23) - MLE 6'7 RoCo 6'10 Simmons (23) Bench: EGo, PJ, House, Nwaba, Bruno (min), Broekhoff (min), TJohnson (min) *EGo, House, PJ are trade deadline options.
