That is a strange way of looking at a team that exceeded expectations by a lot last year even with injury issues. It was basically a lost year from Eason. Amen missed significant amount of games early but really started to click late in the season. Whitmore was a total steal and looked great. Jabari Smith improved significantly from year 1 to 2 and barely turned 21. Then they drafted Sheppard who is basically the perfect fit for them as a guard that compliments everyone.
Forecasting the future of the Western Conference
- Thread starter Ferguson_Mellochill
- Start date
Ive never seen a Jazz fan throat the Rockets so skillfully and passionately
The Rockets had a late-season run last year, but were otherwise a slightly sub .500 team. They aren't looking like a team that will ascend to the upper echelons of the Western Conference. Their foundation of Jabari Smith, Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson isn't good enough. Thompson is the only one with some All Sar potential, but he'd need to play on the ball a lot more. Sheppard is going to need to hit in a big way to change their outlook. I don't think you can compare them to OKC and SAS who already have All NBA-level talent.
All these fun young teams that are deep w/ talent will have tough choices coming up. OKC is protected for two more years because of how incredibly fast Chet/Jalen developed, but what the hell is Houston going to do when they have to max both Green and Sengun and make contract decisions on FVV/Brooks?
But yes, the Rockets have a lot of potential, but there are still a ton of decisions to be made and development that needs to happen before they are even a playoff team and the slower/less clear development of a guy like Green, combined with what seems to be some level of uncertainty in Sengun as a focal point of the offense/defense, doesnt give me a ton of confidence in their ability to take the team from fun young development team to actual contender anytime soon. Combine that all with an impatient owner who is also cheap, yeah, I dont think they will stick the landing. I think they probably peak out as a 5th seed at best before having to rework the roster because it becomes to expensive in 3-4 years.
Haha, that's a good one. The jazz can't even sniff the Rockets young talent.
You know damn well they aren't maxing Green and there are no contract decisions to deal with when it comes to Fred and Brooks. They already have FVV's replacement on Sheppard so he either leaves or signs at a more reasonable price to be his backup. Either way the rockets won't be sweating it. They are in an incredible position right now and will be positioned next offseason to have max money to go after someone of they choose to go that route.
If they arent maxing Green they better trade him because someone will give him an offer sheet if Houston is waffling and he has a promising season....
And again, do they want to compete or just be a treadmill development team? They have an impatient owner who wants to compete. They arent going to manage this well because there arent clear answers to what they have.
Like, can we really say Houston has this great undeniable future if they arent even sure they want to max out a 22 year old who averaged 20-5-4? Not to mention he finished the year averaging 23-6-5 post-ASB. That sounds like they have a cheap FO who are already worried about making wrong financial moves.
Why wouldnt Utah give him a max offer sheet?
Why wouldnt Utah give him a max offer sheet?
Again, I have no idea how Sip can glaze the Rockets so hard when his whole thing is that you need to tank for "the guy". By Sip's own definitions/team building theories, the Rockets should still be tanking and making themselves worse to secure that player.
I just want to add that if the Jazz properly tanked during the last two seasons (which would include not signing Collins and trading away Sexton) they could quite likely be going into the next season with a core of Lauri, Kessler, Brandon Miller, Sheppard , Keyonte, Brice, Furphy, Filipowski + even more future picks that they have now. Or Lauri, Kessler, Ausar Thompson, Castle , Keyonte, Brice, Collier, Filipowski.
A top 5 team in the west and a contender are 2 very different things.
What was Dallas last year?
Better than Memphis
Why do you post stupid things? The rockets tanked hard to get some nice pieces and then the goal turned to getting competitive so that the picks and swaps going to the thunder weren't nets esque. They have an amazing stable of young pieces to build around plus the suns future picks and the last nets swap. Don't make the same mistake you did before last season when you had a hissy fit when I had the thunder projected to finish 2nd in the west and you were saying no way they would be better than the jazz.