The Rockets New Plan Isn’t What We Thought…

The Rockets New Plan Isn’t What We Thought…

the Houston Rockets were the biggest mystery team going into the NBA offseason coming off of a breakout season with a ton of young players great assets and a clear path towards contention in the West for years to come which of course led a lot of people to believe that they would accelerate their timeline by trading for a star durant Giannis Booker at least one of them seemed to be destined to head to Houston this off season however a lot of that momentum is slowed down it makes me wonder if the Rockets are actually going in a different direction this offseason let’s go through each of the players first the Kevin Durant momentum at least towards Houston has slowed down pretty significantly we just talked about the fact that the San Antonio Spurs appear to be the favorite some people believe that the trade is actually already done they’re just figuring out some of the smaller details and they’re waiting to announce it as we get closer to the draft and frankly I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that Houston is just not all that interested in Kevin Durant or at least not all that interested in trading away a bunch of stuff in exchange for Durant the way that the Spurs might be the Spurs might be willing to put together multiple contracts someone like Deon Vel and a pick and Houston doesn’t seem as excited about that and I can understand that when you’re talking about the fact that Kevin Rant is going to need a new contract extension he’s got one year left on his deal there’s conversations around a 2-year 1101 120 $120 million contract extension for 37year-old Kevin Durant who seems to have injury issues every single season it’s still KD but I can understand that perspective from Houston and even though for a lot of the last six to eight months it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Katie was going to end up with the Rockets right now it doesn’t seem like they’re all that interested that could always change but that ticks one name off the list for Houston next is of course Jiannis Doopo someone that every team around the league would love to try and trade for if they could houston has plenty of assets to make that deal happen if for whatever reason Milwaukee did want to trade Giannis or Giannis decided he wanted to leave Houston would be near the top of the list because they have a bunch of assets they can send to Milwaukee and they still would have enough of a team left over that Giannis could still contend but as of right now as of this recording Giannis has not requested a trade from Milwaukee and there is momentum towards him staying with the Bucks and if he doesn’t request a trade the Bucks are not going to go out of their way to trade Giannis which again could cross him off of the list for Houston the next name on the list would be someone like Devin Booker which I’ve talked about in a bunch of videos this off seasonason essentially just saying I can’t understand why Deon Booker would want to stick around in Phoenix given how dysfunctional the team has been how many different head coaches he’s had throughout his career how badly the team has been run since Matt Ishbia took over but it seems like he’s just committed to being a one team kind of guy wants to play in Phoenix for the entirety of his career and it’s similar to Giannis the the Suns are not going to go out of their way to look to trade Devil Booker so unless he asks out he’s not available either so if you cross off those top three names then you’ve got to go and look a little bit further down the list if you’re Houston and all three of those guys just are not an option we talked the other day about Darius Garland being a possible option in Houston because having him as a creator and as a setup man for guys like Amen Thompson guys like Alper and Shenun would be really intriguing for Houston they obviously have Fred Van Fleet but they are waiting to figure out what to do with his team option they have pushed that decision down the end of the road down towards the end of the month so they kind of still have that out there but if they bring back Van Fleet Garland isn’t a great fit obviously alongside him especially defensively so unless they figure out a situation where they trade Van Fleet as part of some deal that brings them Kevin Durant and then they go out and get someone like Darius Garland as well right now it doesn’t seem like a great fit for the current roster that they have i still would be really looking at that option if I was Houston even though you’re worried about some of the injury stuff with him and it depends on how much Cleveland would want in exchange for Garland if you’re talking about we want a point guard we want a a setup guy that fits along our timeline that’s young that’s going to be able to continue to grow with our young players darius Garland is perfect for that but maybe they don’t want Garland and then you get to an option that I think is under discussed at the moment and that is Jaylen Brown we talked about this in a previous video as well where the Celtics could be open to the possibility of moving on from Jaylen Brown and essentially just taking a gap year next year while they wait for Jason Tatum to come back from his Achilles injury they can dump Christoph Sportzing Drew Holiday’s contracts they can get a ton of assets in exchange for Jaylen Brown and then in a year or two be right back towards the top of the Eastern Conference as Tatum comes back from his injury and they can just kind of take a gap year maybe try and have a decent draft pick next year in addition to getting a bunch of assets for Jaylen Brown and he has history with Emma Udoka who’s formerly his coach with the Celtics there’s a lot of things about that situation that would make sense for him he could be the main guy on the team he’s a great two-way player just fits really well with what the Rockets do and again isn’t necessarily you know on Darius Garland’s timeline but he is younger it’s not like he’s Kevin Durant at 36 37 years old he’s someone that is in his prime and not past it which again would fit really well with what is happening there in Houston the problem is well really there’s two problems one Jaylen Browns had knee surgery so not necessarily someone you’re excited about trading for at least the amount of assets they would have to trade for him and the Rockets would have to give up a bunch of stuff to get the Celtics to consider it this isn’t something that the Celtics are looking to do they’re not pursuing it but if they were given a crazy offer in exchange for Jaylen Brown they would have to at least talk about it and if I’m Houston I’m not really all that excited about giving up a ton of future first round picks and multiple really good young players in exchange for Jaylen Brown it’s possible there are ways to make it work but that’s just not something I personally would be excited about and if you don’t get any of those guys if Durant Giannis Booker Garland Jaylen Brown are not options for Houston and they don’t get any of those guys all of a sudden you’re looking at can we add Drew Holiday can we add Cam Johnson like those are the kinds of moves you’re looking at for Houston which is just not where we thought that they would be going into the off seasonason which puts them in a position where they could just be making the choice to run it back next year with this group it’s a team that was just the two seed in the Western Conference has a ton of room to grow has a ton of flexibility moving forward and all the moves that they could make this off season are still going to be available to them next offseason from a contract salary asset perspective the problem with that in my opinion is that we kind of know a lot of stuff already about this Rockets roster we know that they have too many guys we know they have a bunch of guys that should be playing but aren’t cam Whitmore should be getting minutes to develop reed Shepard should be getting minutes to develop whoever they pick with the 10th overall pick in this draft should be getting minutes to develop but there’s just not enough minutes to go around right now because they’ve got plenty of veterans like Dylan Brooks and Van Fleet that are taking up a bunch of minutes they’ve got good young players like Shenoon and Amen Thompson there’s just not enough minutes to go around and it feels like a team that needs to not only consolidate their players but also that kind of already knows that they don’t have that Durant Giannis level guy on this roster i love Amen Thompson i think he’s going to be really good i really like Alfred Shenun neither of those guys in my opinion project to be absolute number one options on a really really good championship level team and so if you have an opportunity to bring in one of those guys this offseason it is a chance that I think you should certainly take or at least try and go and get someone like Garland or Jaylen Brown that’s going to help you enough to get some real playoff experience for these young guys cuz if you run it back next year with this same team even with internal improvement from Jaylen Green and Alfred Shangon and Men Thompson I don’t project Houston to do that much more than what they already did in the postseason this year yes finishing as the two seed in the Western Conference is an accomplishment but you need postseason reps and postseason experience and this roster just isn’t built for that right now specifically centered around someone like Jaylen Green we know who Jaylen Green is there’s still some youth and still plenty of development there but ultimately he’s not going to be the guy that they need he’s not going to be the primary offensive creator initiator in the back court he’s not going to be this great perimeter score at least not in time for Houston and in my opinion he’s probably just never going to be that guy and so if you have an opportunity to move some of those pieces and make an all-in move or something close to an all-in move this offseason I would find it strange if the Rockets just decided to run it back next year and not take a chance on one of these star or superstar traits and it’s not that I can’t see the logic behind running it back and hoping for internal improvement it’s just that would make a lot more sense if there were unknowns here if you thought that there was a guy on this roster that could be one of the three or four best players in the entire league and he just needs time and all of a sudden you just have to wait for that guy to get there i don’t think that player exists even as much as I like Amen Thompson even as much as I love Shenun and this is just a direction for their offseason that I did not anticipate but the bottom line of this could just be that the circumstances have dictated to the Houston Rockets that they are not going to take a chance on one of these guys kevin Durant is too old doesn’t fit their timeline they don’t want to give him the extension they don’t want to give up a ton of stuff for him giannis just doesn’t request a trade they can’t get him deon Booker just doesn’t request a trade they can’t get him maybe they don’t love the fit or the injury issues with Darius Garland and they don’t want to give up enough assets to be able to actually get the Celtics to trade them Jaylen Brown off of a knee surgery knee procedure and there’s still plenty of options for them as we’re about two weeks away from the NBA draft they’ve got the 10th pick in this draft they can go and get potentially an elevating kind of role player like Cam Johnson or Drew Holiday to really help them but it’s just an interesting pivot for them so far cuz I really would have guessed that they would have ended up with at least one of Durant Giannis Booker Garland Jaylen Brown one of those guys would be a rocket and right now the momentum is definitely more towards them ending up with none of those guys and running it back next

The Houston Rockets were THE biggest mystery team going into the NBA offseason – coming off of a breakout season with a ton of young players, great assets, and a clear path towards contention in the West for years to come. Which of course, lead a lot of people to believe that they would accelerate their timeline by trading for a star – Durant, Giannis, Booker – at least one of them seemed destined to head to Houston this offseason. However, a lot of that momentum has slowed down and makes me wonder if the Rockets are actually going in a different direction this offseason.

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