Also, it's a bit belated, but I'll just go ahead and talk about the James Harden trade.
First of all, we own Brooklyn's draft future. That's a W in and of itself.
Secondly, I will miss Harden and appreciate what he did for the franchise in his 8 seasons, even though he left in a really sour way. I think we reached our ceiling with him; it isn't like the Texans' FO deliberately trying to fuck with Watson's future (which, btw, I am very close to disassociating myself with that disgusting dumpster fire of a franchise; I'm now a Deshaun Watson fan, not a Texans fan). Only part I'm bitter about is we had battles with the Warriors for so many years, only for their arch-rival LeBron to end this run. Irony, amirite. This trade was necessary, even though I stand by my opinion Tilman Fertitta is an asshat and probably had something to do with his discontent and leaving. Which, btw, doesn't excuse his behavior in the last month with the franchise.
Thirdly, we are in for a GRUELING rebuild. But, there's an upside I can see to this. The Rockets, like the Lakers, are not exactly known as a hub of player development (basically, polar opposites with San Antonio and Toronto). Our flaws in that respect are more bared because we don't have 17 championships to our name lmao. But, we have a chance to change that. Stephen Silas is a development-oriented coach from his history, and I'm seeing some nice flashes of talent from some of our young guys like JaeSean Tate and Mason Jones. I don't know how much of a future we have with Wall, Oladipo, and Tucker, but if I were the front office, now is the time to tank for a good lottery pick in next year's draft (it's a toss-up, but we'll see), and trade 2 out of 3 in the combo of Wall/Dipo/Tuck for draft picks. In the meantime, focus on improving the confidence and skill-set of our young guys (perimeter shooting for Tate, defense for Jones, transition for Sterling Brown, etc.)
Fourth, DeMarcus Cousins is a shell of himself. We need another big man ASAP.
Fifth, Christian Wood is my guy.
