Per @TheCat Ben DuBose: Rockets wouldn’t have made KD trade if they knew FVV would be out for year

Umm.... honestly, what WOULD we have done if we knew FVV was out for the year?

I think I can accept the basic premise that we don't have an NBA ready PG on the roster without him. But how would not addung KD make things better?

Basically we would still have Green and Brooks mass spamming inefficient offence. Still no point guard. Green and Brooks csn't dribble under pressure or create for others either.

So we would have written the year off as a "development year", where we have no draft pick and 2 guys taking shots that the players we need to develop should be taking.


There HAD to be an alternate to that idea, surely??

 

They would have just signed a PG or acquired one. Specifically, the money given to DFS would have gone to a PG. We have some mediocre picks for acquiring one too.

And we would have won 50+ again - exactly as much as we're doing now.

This team will be judged by its playoff performance. It just comes down to: one of the youngest teams in the NBA wins 50+ games and loses in 7 games in the first round. It trades 2 of its least favorite players for Kevin Durant - who it turns out has plenty of gas left in the tank. You also add a $12m AAV signing (DFS), Clint Capela and a 40% 3PT shooting Okogie.

Is a second round exit acceptable after these investments? So basically we win ONE more playoff game than last season's team? Of course not. This team better make the WCF or they have f*cked up badly.

P.S. Green and Brooks can't dribble under pressure? lol Not a single player on this roster can dribble under pressure except FVV. If Jalen Green was on this roster, he would be by far the best at playing PG and keeping TO's low (and that's an indictment of this team rather than praise for Green).

 

Last year, even after Jalen's playoff failures the team defended him and even went as far as to blame other players for not taking advantage of him being trapped. But everyone with a brain could see through the BS.


They are doing the same for Ime right now.

 

It matters who we lose to in the playoffs. OKC, Denver, Spurs are legit and losing to them will hurt but doesn’t mean a failure of a season. We really had Fred figured in to what we wanted to do and he got hurt. I’m not gonna freak out, at least they aren’t the Texans…

 

I listen to his podcast he has and he’s been doing a lot of coping for Ime and Stone this year. He obviously hears the frustration from the fanbase and trying to be the peacemaker from the tension between us and the organization.

if FVV is the difference maker between acquiring Kd, your FO has no clue what the are doing. FVV is not irreplaceable. They must not know about Kd

 

The point [pun intended!] that nobody on the roster can dribble umder pressure is exactly what I was saying. Green and Brooks bring nothing extra there.

Green gets turned over easily when pressured in the half court and has poor court vision.
Neither Green nor Brooks help without FVV.

We had no money to 'just sign a PG' except the MLE.
The options were slim. Not many (no?) genuine starting PGs changed teams in the off-season via straight signings

 

Nice AI slop. Looks like everyone is worshiping his balls.

 

All other things being equal... Jalen still hurt all season? Seems very likely that he's been pushed through some injuries here, same way they've pushed Sengun.

Fred still blows a tire and what's the lineup?

Jalen - Amen - Dillon - Jabari - Alpe? With Jalen out I'd guess it's more Amen - Dillon - Tari - Jabari - Alpe. That lineup is tough as freaking nails I tell you h'what. We're winning games 82 to 76 but it would still be fun to watch. And of course, we wouldn't have made a single move at the deadline.

Low key rooting for a Seattle to get an expansion team soon so we can let Durant go peacefully and perhaps get a little some some for giving the league a storyline (a la Doncic/Lakers).

 

my buddies and I were discussing different Premier league situations the other day and we kind of came to the conclusion that many of the fan bases in the Premier league are way too hindsight driven.

I think it’s become pretty bad on the BBS as well but I don’t necessarily think it’s a hugely terrible throughout sports.

I guess I would cite my own experience in being a Cowboy fan. We’ve long since given up on hindsight because we know the misery is gonna continue..

generally, I think we would’ve made the trade either way. And for all we know if there was a way to keep Dillon out of it it maybe we would’ve done that or maybe Durant Doesn’t care for the guy.

I definitely don’t think that we have a better record at this point in the year that we currently do if we didn’t make the trade. In addition to this, I would also suggest that we are a better position for the playoffs, with the caveat that we have Kevin rested going into them And we pick up somebody on the buyout market that has at least helpful inside of a nine man playoff rotation.

As far as the coaching, there have been a lot of disappointing elements.. And the thing that I blame both the coach in the front office on the most is not identifying how much Brooks would be missed.

But if memory serves, there was really no way of making the trade either way, so maybe they did know. And this makes even more sense when you figure on DFS replacing some of the productivity. But clearly the person and personality are missing.

 

This is totally false. Green never loses the ball under one defenders pressure even if full court. Reed and Amen struggle with that.

It's only if he's doubled at half court or trapped. That's a tier above anyone in the rotation right now.

The bigger problem is the rest of the team as we saw in the playoffs is incapable of converting 4 on 3 opportunities when the double teamed player passes out of the trap.

The MLE is enough money to sign an average PG and any average PG is much better at keeping the ball safe than our current guys. There's always a trade possible, just because someone didn't get traded doesn't mean no one could be traded.

 

And as it turned out, you ended up losing not only Fred, but also Dillon/Jalen (due to the salary match) and later Steven. That's four of your top eight from last season -- and four of your top six in playoff minutes -- so the whole "add KD to the No. 2 seed" narrative no longer works.

That's why, in February 2026, I think they look at this team and say its not good enough to justify asset investments of significance to salvage what's left of this season. But as you said, this is not from them and it's not their PR talking points, despite some wanting to portray it as some coordinated spin campaign. It's just me reading the tea leaves and connecting some obvious dots, dating back to last June. Folks can disagree with that thinking, if they like, but I do strongly suspect that that's the logic.

 

I agree that’s the logic, although I still think some moves on the margins would have made for a more competitive team. A guy like Alvarado probably makes an impact on this team, and the Knicks got him for virtually nothing. But I agree the org pribably thought this yr wasn’t salvageable…and it’s not. If u watch us play it’s clear we are not contenders. But it’s important to try and at least make it out of the first round and demonstrate some modicum of progress. Anyway, I don’t think u build a team around Fred, which is what this argument largely boils down to.

 

Let's assume the Rockets did view FVV as the best player on the team pre-KD trade. Now let me see if I got their logic correctly.

Premise: FVV is a short guard turning 31. He just had the worst season of his career since becoming a regular rotation player. He had not made an all-star team or come close to making one in 3 years. This is the player that we believe is our best player and the most important player on the team. He's better than our all-defense Amen, better than our all-star Sengun, so much better than our recent 3rd pick Reed Sheppard that we don't even play the guy. This guy is our new Harden.

Choice 1: Ok this team isn't really all that good. We need to keep accumulating assets and draft picks, try to find or develop a young star, try to see how to improve so we don't need to rely on an old, declining player to be the lynchpin of our team

Choice 2: Ok this team can contend. Let's trade our veteran glue player in Dillon Brooks (who in hindsight is clearly a better player than what Ime thought him to be on the Rockets), Jalen who is salary filler, and our 10th pick in the lottery for a 37yr old star. We just have to make sure both our 37yr old and our 31yr old both stay healthy. And to add to that, we are not going to make any contingency plans in case of injuries, but instead add more variance to our team by re-signing often injured Steven Adams, about to have surgery DFS, and clearly lost 90% of his athleticism Clint Capela.

So my question is, why did the Rockets even make the KD trade? Because that sounds like a terrible, terrible plan. More so when you think of the follow-up afterwards.

 

Those complaining about not making a trade for a pg have to understand any trade for an upgrade at the position would have damaged our future. The ability to contend was always going to depend on Reed, Jabari, Amen, and Tari taking the next steps

 

Breaking news:

if idiot GM knew having a competent PG was that important than why didn’t he get an additional competent PH for our BENCH which is literally the ****ING POINT IF A BENCH PLAYER for injuries and substitutions instead of having 6 wing players with the same strengths & weaknesses!?

 

The main issue someone on their YouTube channel brought up (Shootout Greenleaf Xclusives) that I haven’t heard any other person mention, not even major outlets.

is that the FVV situation is political also.
We forget FVV is the president of the player’s association AND he has a no trade clause in his contract.
Meaning he technically has the Rockets by the balls because them asking to trade him or even if they could trade him would be put a target on their back on how the league players perceive the Rockets organization so basically they CANT TRADE FVV because of his player power. FVV will retire a Rocket regardless of if we like it or not or it cripples our salary or roster.

we forget he literally has player power and influence in the league.

 

He actually doesn't have an NTC in his contract, just the same implied NTC every player gets in his circumstances.

Good point about there being a political side to this though.