Houston Rockets HAVE DONE IT AGAIN!

[DarkXaero]

OP never mentioned that the Nets are more likely to implode. Kyrie is a goofball and might leave the team. All it takes is one KD injury and the Nets big 3 are all gone. Rockets own all their draft picks.

A lot of wishful thinking there...

[JB2]

Now imagine had Fertita gone and gotten Simmons/Thybulle/Maxey instead of trying to screw Morey.

[abark]

Should have gotten Caris Lavert instead of Oladipo in the trade..... I don't understand why....

Yep

Levert is worth way more than a Brooklyn/Miami pick swap

[Upperclass]

Great job by the Gm but they didn't need Green ultimately and prob shouldve drafted Mobley.. he's in the way of Christopher and neither can run point or SF

[TdotRap4Lyfe]

I think the choices are moot. Both answers could be correct, it looks like a good core, but they'll still need a few years to mesh and add pieces to actually make the playoffs then compete.

[Winsome Gerbil]

Wait..what? This is the same kid who scored 5pts with 7TOs a couple of nights ago, right? Now we're starting threads convinced he's the next James Harden?

[Anticon]

Interesting collection of talent. I was hyped on Green before the draft but am a little less sold on him now.. it we'll see.

[penggemar]

Right now most of them are individually promising but they need to be coached to play unselfishly and cohesively as a team. Based on these few preseason games I'm not sure Silas is a right coach for these young players, they need a system builder, strong type of coach, but let's see at the end of this season how much they improved as a team.

[TravisScott55]

Jalen Green might be the next Clarkson, slow down.

[BallerTalk]

OP never mentioned that the Nets are more likely to implode. Kyrie is a goofball and might leave the team. All it takes is one KD injury and the Nets big 3 are all gone. Rockets own all their draft picks.

Don't kid yourself Rockets fan, virtually everyone on RealGM has already told you how worthless those picks and swaps are...even though Harden and Durant will both be nearing 40 years old (38 and 39 respectively) when the deal completes.

The fact that Harden has declined to sign an extension past this season and Irving apparently won't even be offered one (meaning they both could be gone next summer) doesn't change that one bit.

Also the Rockets were clearly idiots to go all-in on their rebuild. Who does that?
Instead they should have followed RealGM's advice by acquiring middling talent, losing their picks, and treadmilling as a 7th - 10th seed for the next decade.

And all this just to spite Morey.

[floppymoose]

Wait..what? This is the ame kid who scored 5pts with 7TOs a couple of nights ago right? Now we're starting threads convinced he's the next James Harden?

side note: Harden holds the record for most TOs in a playoff game.

[God Squad]

Wait..what? This is the ame kid who scored 5pts with 7TOs a couple of nights ago right? Now we're starting threads convinced he's the next James Harden?

Facts. Let the kid get some real NBA games under his belt before declaring a Championship contender has been formed in a few years.

[zshawn10]

I mean I am glad people recognize this but let’s pump the brakes. I am also glad we have all the nets unprotected picks too and not Simmons

[RoyceDa59]

Having a 19 year old Green on your roster has to feel nice.

He may win scoring titles one day, he shows that much offensive potential already.

ROY 2022 for sure Jalen Green.

[Capn'O]

Sengun is gonna be a very good player. I can't believe he dropped there.

[slicedbread2]

I have to give Rafael Stone his props. He's done well in the face of dealing with a heavily in debt owner who's forced him to turn water into wine on a shoestring budget. The key moves he's made are pretty interesting:

1) Trading Russell Westbrook for John Wall+ WAS 1st(heavily pro.). Russ wanted out and Wall was injury prone with a higher cap hit. Getting the 1st was a way to cut his losses on the blunder that was the CP3 trade made by the owner.

2) The Harden deal and the aftermath. Honestly I thought he'd have been better off dealing Harden to Philly and then flipping him to Minnesota for Anthony Edwards before last year begun considering that the Harden era Rockets had run out of steam. As it proved out in the end tightwad Tillman was adamant about not dealing with Morey and Harden ultimately got his wish to go to Brooklyn after coming into camp looking like the Michelin man and disregarding all health and safety rules. That deal proved that the owner wanted to save face for the failure of the Russ trade and all the other blunders:

a) Picks+swaps. There's no cap hit on them till they are made. They ended up with 4 1sts(3 Brooklyn 1sts(22+24+26) and a Milwaukee 1st(22)) and 4 swaps(21, 23, 25, 27). The first swap wasn't exercised but it's not too shabby.

b) Cap relief. The Rockets were trying to get relief as quickly as possible. They used Jarrett Allen to get out of Taurean Prince's deal and got the Bucks' 1st+Dante Exum's expiring out of it. Caris Levert was an injury prone player and wasn't in the Rockets long term plans so sending him+2 2nds(originally it was 1 later 2 after Levert's cancer diagnosis above his kidney) for Victor Oladipo.

c) Kevin Porter trade. Stone did the Cavaliers a favour in giving them Allen who's a solid starting C in this league. Porter Jr. is talented but troubled. His numerous off court problems started in college which led his stock to crater. Then he had an incident with the Cavs GM along with having a guns charge under his name not helping. Those incidents led to him being given away for a top 55 pro. pick. Maybe a fresh start will help him and it was worth the risk for Stone. Hopefully Kevin stays out of trouble and matures.

3) Trade deadline. In Stone's 1st deadline, he did pretty well in the following deals:

a) Victor Oladipo trade. Yes Olynyk and Bradley were gone at the end of the year, but they gained the opportunity to swap the Nets 22 1st with the Heat's 22 1st(lotto pro.). Worse case scenario they get the lower of PHI/DEN 22 2nd.

b) P.J. Tucker deal. They ended up having to eat D.J. Augustin's deal(expiring this year as the last year is guaranteed for $333,333)) and D.J. Wilson's deal but they managed to return the Bucks 22 1st in exchange for a 23 1st plus they gained the option to swap their own 2nd for the Bucks 21 1st which was huge. Tucker got his ring in Milwaukee and the Rockets got an additional 1st.

4) The Draft. He had 3 1sts in this draft(2nd, 2 via POR+MIL). He flipped the heavily protected 1sts he got in the Wood S&T plus the Wall deal to OKC for the rights to Alperen Sengun who looks like a nice steal and got Usman Garuba and Josh Christopher. Jalen Green is interesting so we'll see how he plays.

Honestly this team will have a lot of growing pains to go through and it'll be worse before it gets better. The positive is they have their 1sts in 22+23. They don't owe OKC any picks until 24+26(25 is a pro. swap that's unlikely to mean much). If the Nets self combust then those Nets picks could be far better than anticipated.

[celticfan42487]

I think RealGM posters need to be banned from watching or reading about preseason results.

These takes are worse than old school Skip

[rand]

lol at this poll construction, according to which you either have to think Houston will be a title contender in the next four years or their talent is overrated and they'll be terrible for the next three years. No room for anything in between title contender and terrible.

I didn't vote because I both like their talent and think they won't be a title contender in the next four years. If it happens I think it'll be more like 6+ years out. They need to tank again this season and add another top talent.

[shangrila]

You can tell the posters whose teams haven't gone through extended rebuilds before.

I hope the Rockets have done what they need to and are building a contender. But I'll believe it when I see it. Far too many rebuilds amount to nothing, even if you do everything "correctly".

[UcanUwill]

To say they came from this draft like bandits is not doing the justice.