Craig Canepa

@BiasedHouston Well first you have to ask, can our young guys grow into top end talent or are they the complimentary players a star needs? Im leaning towards the latter. If we can find a disgruntled star for salary and our cache of picks then might as well try

Star hunting when we have the worst rotation in the league just isn’t wise. We need depth that compliments each other, not top end talent.

@McCadeP8 Even more so to save your potential for the #1 pick. A bad team like Brooklyn for example has every reason to be as bad as possible this year to lower their chances of getting the #1 pick to ensure they have a chance at it next year

Random point for tanking…..if you are bad and have traded away your pick, you are now incentivized to tank to the relegation zone so that your pick is less likely to get a top 5 pick, so that you save your top 5 pick potential for the next year when you own it

@BiasedHouston It pays having 10 legit guys who are a threat to score. Of course having the MVP helps but things would be much harder for SGA of he didnt have the support around him

Games 1 & 2 it was Alex Caruso. Tonight it’s J-Will.

@BimaThug I always think about this when people give Stone a pass for getting zero rotation players in his late 1st round picks

Former second rounders & UDFAs playing rotation minutes for OKC in the Western Conference Finals right now: Alex Caruso (UDFA) Lu Dort (UDFA) Isaiah Hartenstein (43) Isaiah Joe (49) Ajay Mitchell (38) Aaron Wiggins (55) Jaylin Williams (34)

@PauloAlvesNBA I agree but before they do that the front office needs to try and figure out what kind of player/team they need to build to beat Wemby/SAS. Like the '17 Rockets being specifically designed to beat GSW

Watching the WCF the immediate takeaway is “maybe the Rockets need a step back rather than forcing a step forward”. Both of these teams have 99th percentile guys surrounded by good role players. Our only guy with 99th percentile ability and potential is Amen Thompson. Our only projectable elite role guys are Eason, Jabari and Adams. Maybe Reed.

@JamesPiercey11 Its gonna have to be some Michael Jordan take a year or 2 off while Hakeem peaks at the right time type of shit 😂

Increasingly believe the best route for Houston is just keep drafting and evaluating. Only title we’re getting is during a random Thunder are exhausted, Wemby is hurt type of anomaly season. So just keep that window open as long as possible. Tinker with roster, don’t go all in

@BradeauxNBA Maybe people were talking about him having MVP potential in the future but no way they were talking this season. Just a Blasers fan trying to cope

“Prior to the season starting Amen was put in discussions of possible MVP candidates” I have never in my life seen Amen Thompson put in MVP convos. Using that as the reasoning for him being overrated is hilarious 😂

@AdamSpolane Buzelis was projected as a top 5 pick for most the draft cycle but then people started getting weird about Ignite prospects. Sometimes these scouts and GMs over think the little things

It's definitely trending towards 2000 and 2006 territory. I think Buzelis might be the second pick in a re-draft

@ByVarunShankar This was super cool. Also good to see something like this from someone that is in the scene to help temper expectations. A lot of people are expecting some massive trade. In your talks at the combine did you hear what it would take to trade up into the late 1st round?

After canvassing the NBA over the last few weeks, I went through the key decisions the Rockets will make this offseason. Should HOU re-sign Tari Eason? What will Amen's extension look like? Who should the Rockets trade for/sign/draft? Watch to find out, link in replies:

@asoukuptx @NateDuncanNBA Im fairly consistent with my FVV hate but I disagree with the takes that FVV is going to come back worse. ACL's arent career damaging like Achilles. As long as he trusts his knee he'll be fine. Him taking a year off for this recovery could actually help him at this age

“I don’t think he’s going to be starter level coming back at this point..for his age 33 season.” - @NateDuncanNBA on Fred VanVleet. Thoughts?

@GormanChristoph Ya im going to disagree with this. Having redundant players, that are also 1 dimensional is easy to gameplan against. Mainly having 3 centers that almost entirely operate in the paint but also too many 3&D wings that are missing the 3 part. Stars can be redundant, not the bench

"...I do think your 95% of the time better off having redundant strengths than you are having a guy who fits,but isnt as good of a basketball player, there's trade-offs..." - Raf Stone on free agent fits via The Ryen Russillo Show 🚨🚨🚨 ♨️♨️♨️ Thoughts? #Rockets #Allfire

@GormanChristoph I would do that in a heartbeat! Especially when you consider how much the salary cap is projected raise over the next few years

@MittyData @ByVarunShankar If they plan on waiting until next offseason then Cameron Williams would be awesome. If they are looking this offseason id like to see us spend some money on either John Collins or Myles Turner

This is intriguing and would be a nice wrinkle to the current offense. Sengun has played best with another center in international play + NBA and his teams are successful. per @ByVarunShankar

@ftank58 I thought the same thing but I didnt realize he's shooting 37% on 5 3pta a game his 2 years in Chicago. Im not a Giddey fan but its not the worse i guess

Rockets starting 5’s spacing with Amen Giddy and Sengun sharing the court

@fyrebear Variety is a big thing here. We dont need 3 centers that can only function in the paint. I really hope we get a stretch 5. John Collins maybe?

Ime wants "variety" and "shooting" added to the roster/rotation. Along with the expected growth of the young core. #Rockets

@Jeff_Shull Im not a huge fan of trading Sengun but if we were this is the kind of trade I would want to see. I don't think Boston would go for this tho. I could see a 3 team deal sending Giannis to Boston, Sengun to Milwaukee and Brown to Houston

Did I cook chat?

@UofBasketball @KalshiSports @KalshiHoops Rockets bench let the team down

Most played Lineups so far in the 25-26 Playoffs… What stands out?

@BiasedHouston The Milwaukee trade I want to see is for Turner, not Giannis. A double big lineup of Turner AND Sengun would be great plus Turner would spread the floor for Amen to attack. Wing defenders can play significantly more aggressive when they know they have a top tier rim protector

This Rockets roster has sooooooo many issues, I just cannot justify giving Milwaukee a rightful return (Sengun/Bari + 3-4 picks) for Giannis and thinking I’d have enough left over to win a championship. We couldn’t beat Luke Kennard. We are NOT a Giannis away.

@dilfgirl0 @mshap2 That's kinda the point. They arent the PGs Stone was describing that he didnt want. They are self creating guards that can score from 3 and the paint and can handle the ball which is exactly what the Rockets were missing.

@craig_canepa @mshap2 ayo and coby aren’t pgs. it was also pretty clear the rockets called to get them at the deadline but seemed like the bulls wanted tari or more assets

Rafael Stone offered a lengthy explanation on why the Rockets didn’t aggressively pursue a point guard after Fred VanVleet’s season-ending injury: “What I don't believe in philosophically is just going to get a point guard because they're a point guard.” Full quote ⬇️ “Just because somebody is a good ball-handler and good passer but they can't defend and they can't shoot, I'd rather just cobble it together rather than, ‘hey, we can get into our offense, but no one guards them after they make the initial pass and on the other end they're just a sieve.’” “And those players do exist in the NBA, there's quite a few of them, and they're available. But I didn't think that would make us better on the whole. So I do think there's an opportunity cost. ... Our team this year was very big and we were very physical, and when Fred went down, we made a conscious decision to just lean into that.” Stone notes there were trade-offs to not acquiring a new PG. Added the “timing” of FVV's injury created difficult scenario to make short-term deal.

@DreamShakeSBN I must've watched different games from yall. How do yall watch the games and come to the conclusion that KD was a problem? There is a long list of reasons why this season was a disappointment and KD getting "grumpy" doesn't even make the front page

SB Nation Reacts results: Do you want the Rockets to trade Kevin Durant in the offseason? thedreamshake.com/rockets-game-t…