The frustration in Houston has increased as of late, with the Rockets‘ losing streak reaching 15 games, as Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle writes. The Rockets didn’t enter the season expecting to make the playoffs, but the goal was to be more competitive than they’ve been so far — the team has an NBA-worst 1-16 record.
Head coach Stephen Silas wants his club to keep its collective head up, telling reporters that when the Rockets eventually end this slide and look back on it, they’ll see the character they built by fighting to end the streak.
“We have 19-year-olds on the floor,” Silas said, per Feigen. “We have a young 21-year-old point guard (Kevin Porter Jr.) We have a second-year player (Jae’Sean Tate) playing the three. Christian Wood is still a young player. We’re looking at other teams that have gone through this, and we’re staying positive. And we’re keeping the pressure on as far as coaching the guys and making sure we’re at least attempting to do the right things as much as possible.”
Here’s more on the Rockets:
- Eric Gordon began the season as the Rockets’ sixth man, but has started the last three games. As Feigen writes for The Houston Chronicle, head coach Stephen Silas‘ hope is that playing alongside Gordon will make it easy for rookie Jalen Green to create off the dribble. “Being out there with Eric helps him because Eric is a vet and he knows what he is trying to do and what he’s trying to get to,” Silas said of Green.
- Feigen of The Houston Chronicle and Kelly Iko of The Athletic both recently published mailbags examining several Rockets-related topics, including how much patience the team will have with Silas. Feigen suggests Houston should give Silas “a leash that is years long, not weeks,” while Iko says he remains confident that the team’s current coach can be the one to successfully lead the multiyear rebuild.
- Veteran point guard John Wall, who is being held out of games until the Rockets can find a trade partner, may be getting a little restless. As Dan Feldman of NBC Sports notes, Wall agreed on Monday night with a tweet that said he’s “getting punished for something (he) can’t control.”
Wonder why no one gives Green the old “bust” talk nonsense.
Because labeling a 19 year old a bust after 3 weeks of games is only something that people that know nothing about basketball or sports development would think. Now I dont think he is in the convo for RotY.
It would help him to have a competent veteran PG, like Wall for instance, instead of a combo guard like Porter that will never be a NBA PG leading his unit. Young players need to play with a mix of vets so that they learn from people with experience.
Exactly yet there were masses of fools labeling Cade a bust after 1 game I was trying to root out were the double standard came from. My guess jealousy vs. Jocking
The only thing I will say about Cade was that the end of that Lakers game he looked really rough. I thought he had a little more wiggle in ISO. They are all still super young, and the only one so far who looks like an almost complete package is Mobley. Evan looks good everywhere he was supposed to, and much better than expected in several defensive areas. Dude is just insanely long. Cade seems like his game still hasnt caught up to NBA speed yet.
Jalen Green is similar to Edward in MIN, and he came around (except for efficiency), later on in his first year. Neither had a successful team to grow up in.
Are both FO and HC this clueless, or are they putting lipstick on the tanking pig? Nothing good happens, not winning, not development (other than developing bad habits), with a bunch of clueless kids on an NBA court together. The group needs a coach, not an apologist. Nor does anything good happen by giving a HC a long leash. I guess if one thinks a HC’s job is to win games, then it’s rational to believe that a HC needn’t be accountable for his coaching if his team isn’t good enough to win many games. If his job, on the other hand, is to coach, then he can be held accountable regardless of W/L record. A quality HC can coach any roster and make an impact, even if the talent isn’t there to win many games. Haven’t see a hint of that from Silas.
Except Jalen Green, most Rockets players are fake talents
Trade Wood and Gordon right away
Rockets need to talk about one thing:
Five Years from now
Wood is a fake talent? I don’t even know what that means. Christian Wood is going to bring a nice package to Houston when they trade him.
Right? Plus Sengun has been a nice young player so far. Just assuming who is talented or not off of 16 games. We haven’t even hardly seen Christopher or Garuba.
I don’t think you’ll see much of Garuba soon. Very raw and what he can bring right now, KJ Martin does the same but better. Christopher should be playing more though.
Wood is an empty stats on a bad team player, he isn’t gonna bring any type of notable package after the start to this season he’s had, Houston needs to look at Jalen Green and Sengun as their future and put vets around them, KPJ is not the guy to lead Green at all, KPJ also needs vets around him, tanking creates long term issues in young talent, don’t trade Gordon and play Wall, give these kids a chance to learn
Garuba is looking great in the G-League so far, he’s a legit talent.
I don’t think Wood returns much in value, tbh. He’s had a history of questionable off and on the court attitude, and he really isn’t that good of a player, particularly defensively. They might be able to get a protected 1st and salary match, but that’s it.
Wood only has two years left on his contract, including this year. I don’t see him going anywhere. He hasn’t looked very good so far in their first 17 games, but they will give him the rest of the season and probably next season as well to show what he can do. So unless they get a huge offer, they’ll either re-sign him or let him walk in 2023.
Wood is ok, good weapon offensively and absolutely terrible defensively. So he needs to be a primary offensive weapon to have value to a team so he isn’t right for everyone.
The team is tanking. If anything, they should try tearing it apart some more and seeing what they can get for guys like Gordon who have no place on a rebuilding team when they can offer a winning one something.
If anything, Josh Christopher, Alperen Sengun, etc. should play more minutes.
This is worse than tanking. This is getting buried alive. Lol
Trading Wood and Gordon since they could have real value would be good, but you need some vets for the kids to learn from.
The Spurs are doing the rebuild right. They are competitive enough to be in games and playing meaningful minutes, but losing enough to be at the top of the lottery odds.
The Spurs are doing anything but doing it right. They continuously give garbage vets like Bryn Forbes and Rudy Gay minutes over younger players, and have like 40 million guards. They haven’t even started their best young player in Vassel, yet. I wouldn’t look to Pop’s Spurs as a model for tanking. Boring franchise.
So you want a few veterans to be around but keep their mouths shut and not take the court. That only works if the youth are Curry/Klay/Dray. Most of the time no.
The Spurs have not fallen far and nobody cares if they entertain you… the Rockets have.
When did Gordon all of the sudden have so much value? All I saw here last season was how he had one of the worst contracts in the entire NBA. I’m sure if he keeps playing well over the next month or two, the Rockets will try and trade him to a contender. Of course they’d love to trade Wall too.
Maybe they could send him and the remaining $92M on his contract to OKC to get them above the salary floor. It worked out well when CP3 went there.
Xctly! Gordon is a theoretical player, ppl who actually watch NBA games now he has been awfull last two seasons
I know they want to develop their young guys but why not give Wall some burn. Guy can help lead some of these youngins and be a good influence.
Gordon is a nice vet but Wall has played at a high level in the league for a long time.
A key part of player development is developing winning habits.
The fact that Silas believes Porter is a PG just shows you how bad of a hire Silas is.
That has nothing to do with Silas. Management wants to play Porter at the point. Silas is actually a decent coach, IMO. Unfortunate he has to deal with this dumpster fire of an organization.
Why isn’t Porter a PG? He is the youngest player in NBA history with 50 points and 10 assists in a game. He has barely played 40 games at PG.
Shaq had 10 assists in a game…Porter is out of position at point if you are a team with title aspirations.
How is Wall being punished for something he can’t control? He doesn’t want to play. Of he wanted to play he would play.
We dont really know how much of that situation was him being fine going along with something the team wanted, since he thought he would eventually be traded. He also may have thought it sounded good, but now traveling with the team and not playing is starting to grind him. On top of that the kids arent learning, or in some cases playing, and so he feels its not working and is itching to get on the court.
He could decline his player option and the team would probably then think about buying him out. But he’s got 47 million reasons not to do that. It’s an impasse that’s likely to last.
Of course he wont. The team should either play him or get what they can in a buyout and let him roll. They could get him to take all the money off next season so they have more payroll flexibility. I mean the odds of his contract having use in some salary dump trade are impossible since only like 10 players even make what he does. Westbrick for him is the only trade that could possibly happen this season.
Who steps on the court to play first this season? Wall, Simmons, or Irving?
Hopefully none
Klay
Wall
#FreeOptimusDime
I really hate teams that waste the careers of players!
Wall has had a very rough time of it with injuries, he is healthy now, he must play, don’t see how the team can decide not to, simply they haven’t the right!
Optimus Dime is one of the top guards of the last 40 years, & we are being robbed of the enjoyment to watch him!
Get your team to trade for him then.
Why can’t people (like Don, for instance) make up their minds?
I must have been the only one on here last season who had anything nice to say about Wall when the Rockets were playing him.
Now that he’s being forced to sit out we see a whole bunch of people supporting him, saying how he’s still an elite talent. What gives?
I don’t think anyone on here is saying wall is elite. They are saying he is a veteran with skill and experience that can help this team. Don’t confuse useful with elite
I’d love it if they would, but FO’s suck, dude!
OkC and Magic even Pistons have more W with not so much talent every so maybe Silas is not a rebuilding coach … and putting Wall out of the rotation does not help this team who clearly need a PG
The goal was never to be more competitive. If it was, they wouldnt have done what they did with John Wall, and they wouldnt be doing what they’ve done with the multi big lineups, and they wouldnt be using certain guys while people like KJ Martin sit on the bench
Of course, but they could play Wall, fire Silas, and STILL probably be a bottom-3 team. Stunting the development of the young players due to lack of playmaking and poor coaching is unnecessary.
KJ Martin isn’t sitting on the bench, he’s one of their top three backups.
19 yr olds aren’t winning in the NBA. Sitting Wall was the dumbest move. You need Vet leadership to pass on knowledge. How to act like a professional. Rockets FO are cheap and clueless. This is all on the owner. Wall should be playing and showing the rest of league. He still got plenty. Next they should have a vet PG to play if not Wall. To run an offense young players can grow with. They deserve everything they get. Better hope you don’t kill the growth of young guys. Green is the next Kobe. You can’t see that. Then wait for MLB. This yr is gone. Move Wood and Gordon by TD. And go all in on next yr. With another two top picks. Get some vets around young guys and go from there. It’s going to take 4-5 yrs to see a competitive team 10-8 seed. And go from there. You need strong character now. To deal with the losing. Gotta believe whats on the other side. You need vets that want to be part of solution. Not that want out or get paid. No growth there.
The only reason Gordon started the last three games is because Kevin Porter Jr has been out with a left thigh contusion. KPJ is expected back tomorrow versus Chicago.
The problem is stone the general manager he want KP to be the next James Harden because he’s left-handed I understand that but when you watch him play he’s not a point guard you could put them at the two you can even put green at the three John Wall should’ve been playing