Fred VanVleet will be the worst FA acquisition in Rockets history

So, you are upset with Stone for bringing Fred to the Rockets? This is all the fault of Stone.

 

I never wanted him, at all. I said that if we signed FVV we would be essentially giving up on making the playoffs. If we aren't making the playoffs, we would have been better off punting the season and trying to get that top 4 pick.

 

Okay. So this thread isn’t about Fred, because Fred is basically putting up the same numbers he has for years and years. This thread is about the incompetence of the Rockets management.

 

I actually can't even blame Stone that much. Him signing Harden would have put us in a much better position IMO. FVV was Udoka's guy. Same with DB. Both of them horrendous signings with FVV being more tolerable given the nature of his contract. If we had successfully signed Lopez, this season might have been a different story. I do blame Stone for signing Landale however when we couldn't get Lopez. That was just a terrible, terrible signing.

 

Kale salad, are you not entertained?!

 

Fred is overpaid, but you cant just completely tank a full year intentionally from the start in hopes of retaining a top 4 pick. At some point you need to focus on the development of the people you drafted and do something about the culture in Houston. The team was starting to get bashed around the league and it would have been difficult to attract free agents down the line if we showed that we are OK with losing for that long. If you listen to the players interviews, when they mention improvements or learning on court, they tend to mention Fred as being the guy they learn from. Our best young players have all mentioned Fred. You need to learn on the court from vets who can still play, coaches and end of bench vets can only do so much. We also had to spend money to meet the min cap.

 

Fred is only here for 2 years, I think the bigger problem is how to get rid of Dillon Brooks who is also regressing.....mind you.

Ideally he should have been given a 2 year contract as well.

 

This is also an indecisive management without a clear head making a fool out of themselves when it is not even April 1st.

Hired Udoka, splashed the money, and still played like inconsistent shet .....give in to the tank.

 

FVV is still a good signing, contract wise and we needed the veterans who are selfless. Harden was not the answer. FVV is not our future, he's only here to show the rookies how to handle themselves and help them improve, become better players etc. So he's fine, even if he's very frustrating lately.

 

The fact that FVV signed for max, threw literally everything out the window in the FVV vs Harden discussion

Harden is clearly the superior answer when the rockets decided to over pay FVV who is no where near a max player.

Harden gets you in the playoffs. wins games therefore every game is much more meaningful. He has a relationship with much of the young guys on the team already. Harden wouldn't be the future either. He'd do what FVV was brought here to do only at a much higher level. All that stuff about well harden would have the ball in his hands too much is discredited when FVV spends most of the time with the ball in his hands

Harden/Sengun PnR's would be a nightmare for teams, not only scoring wise but generating different looks off that itself

 

James Harden wasn’t taking a two-year max deal like Fred VanVleet did. Also, VanVleet signed for the max only in exchange for taking a two-year deal from the Rockets. He could have gotten something along the lines of 4 years, $100-120M from other interested teams. VanVleet’s contract isn’t negatively impacting the Rockets’ short-term financial flexibility, either. The only other player making more than 20 million on the roster is Dillon Brooks. Every other important piece is on their rookie contract, and VanVleet’s contract expires before their expected extensions will begin.

The Rockets cared most about having a short-term veteran at the position for the development of the young guys and didn’t want to be stuck with a long-term contract. Udoka also is the one who nixed the idea of Harden coming back. Considering he was brought in to overhaul the Rockets’ culture, it makes sense Stone would listen when Udoka says he doesn’t want a certain player.

I’m sure the goal is to have Amen Thompson up to speed by the end of next season to have him be the long-term point guard for the team.

 

Amen regularly airballs wide open shots still and that's not going way in 1 summer. A flaw that horrendous takes multiple offseasons at least

Folks really better hope FVV doesn't make it to year 3 and plays on max still or else that talking point also gets thrown out the window

 

Regardless of whether Amen Thompson is ready after next season, I’d put the odds at less than 5% the Rockets would consider picking up VanVleet’s team option at that price. There will be better players/ways they can spend that money at that time.

 

I actually think the odds of FVV playing that 3rd year pretty high. He's extremely coveted by not only Ime but clearly the FO.

 

Season Leaders | Stats | NBA.com

Do you think we'd be better off right now with Harden? The Rockets had four viable options:
A. Stand pat (TyTy Washington, Daishon Nix)
B. FVV
C. JH
D. Dennis Schröder
E. Other (you name it)

FVV and JH have materially identical stats this season with FVV outperforming (barely) JH in a number of areas.

Not sure what you were expecting. Given that Harden has blown up a number of teams already, I don't blame them for passing on him with a team of youngers.

Most of the team isn't even old enough to get into strip clubs ...so where would they do their bonding?

 

Posted this in another thread but this is not the problem you think it is.

$19m salary which Brooks will be making at the end of his deal is a reasonable mid level NBA salary cap allocation.

This is the same as paying Ariza $8m last decade

 

But Ariza was not blocking younger players.

The whole situation is a different one, I get that Brooks helped the team getting some toughness back but that toughness only makes it to 12th place.....

It is not a game changing element the way people think it is....

It only works if you have a transcendent superstar which we have not.

Maybe Dillon and 2nd year Wemby your darling.

 

It actually doesn't matter what Ariza is doing or even what Brooks is doing .

The argument against Brooks that he's way overpaid for what he is and his contract thusly makes him impossible" to get rid of" like you said.

This is mostly because people focus on the raw $$ figure and compare it to their own experience or how much things "should" cost.

He's not overpaid and his contract is pretty moderate by today's standards for a role player - and if you judge if as a % of cap, it's literally the same as it's always been. The price for a starting 3&D player in his prime used to be 8. Now it's 20. The cap more than doubled in that time, so it's just fine. People need to get their heads around it

 

When you know you know

 

It was great when he was making shots now that he cant its a problem.