The Pistons hit the jackpot in the lottery on Tuesday, getting the top pick for the first time in over 50 years.
They essentially flipped positions with the Rockets, who finished with the worst regular-season record, as Detroit entered the lottery in the No. 2 slot.
Pistons general manager Troy Weaver didn’t immediately commit to Oklahoma State guard Cade Cunningham, who has been considered by most pundits to be the top prospect in the draft.
Weaver blew up the Pistons’ roster in his first year on the job, so it’s not out of the question he’ll go outside the box and draft another player or trade down. But the most likely outcome is that the Pistons will select the player who has drawn comparisons to Luka Doncic, Penny Hardaway and another former Detroit lottery pick, Grant Hill.
That leaves Houston in an interesting spot. There’s three players generally considered candidates for the second spot – Gonzaga guard Jalen Suggs, USC big man Evan Mobley and G League shooting guard Jalen Green.
The most notable players on the Rockets’ roster are oft-injured guards John Wall and Eric Gordon, big man Christian Wood and All-Rookie First Team forward Jae’Sean Tate. So, there’s needs across the board and the rebuilding team could go in any number of directions.
If they want a solid two-player point guard with superior leadership skills, they could choose Suggs. If they want to a highly-skilled power forward built for the modern NBA game, they could grab Mobley. If they’re seeking a prolific scorer on the wing, they could snare Green.
That leads us to our question of the day: Assuming the Pistons take Cade Cunningham with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, which player should the Rockets select at No. 2?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.
Green’s a go
You wouldn’t consider Kevin Porter Jr to be one of their most notable players? Because to their fans he is their most notable young player. Also Tate is a little strange because he will be 26 next season already.
Yeah I’d say KPJ is their best asset next to Wood. I think Jalen green would be a nice fit with Porter in the backcourt long term. Explosive athlete with excellent defensive potential as well, huge upside.
If wall and Gordon can rebuild some value and get flipped for something, then HOU can build around KPJ, Wood and Green and that’s a nice young core.
Kevin Porter Jr Has Talent, sure. But can you count on him yet? He’s currently in the “show me” stage. He’s blown it a few times so let’s see if he can be on a roster and be a productive teammate for a full season before we count him as a notable young piece.
To me he’s still in the Wild Card stage where you take a flyer on him and hope it works out. So far so good.
I suppose I’d go with a guard and have them learn under Wall and Gordon like a rookie QB.
At the same time I have no idea what Rockets short or long term plans are because Stone has no accountability, so it’s hard to say. The good news is they all have upside so you can’t really go wrong.
With the number two pick you’ve got to go with the bigger player. I love Jalen Suggs but I’d go green.
The owner hopes to make playoffs next year
The fans think they should trade John Wallet, otherwise they don’t have chance
Breakdown Wall $45 million salary for 2 players
40+5
35 + 10
30+15
Donovan Mitchell + Clarkson
Equal salary example
Absolutely not a trade idea
So what is the point of giving a salary example that is not a trade idea? Did you want to show off you ability to do basic addition or your ability to match numbers with random players?
His point was that you could have two above average contributors for the price of wall’s contract.
What’s your point in getting mad?
this makes no sense
The Rockets made the choice to have John Wall on the roster instead of Russell Westbrook on the roster. They’re not getting out from John Wall’s deal anytime soon. Lesser of two evils I suppose is what they chose. I can’t remember but I’m sure they receive draft conversation because of walls injury history?
So yeah you could have two great players for wall money but it ain’t going to happen because the Rockets essentially gave Chris Paul that massive contract and now they’re stuck with it. In fact if they rode out Chris Paul’s contract they’d be done by now.
HOU should take Mobley.
They have #23 and #24 which they can package to trade up or take 2 more players
Most of not all of the impactful big men will be gone by #23, but this is a deep draft for guards.
Rockets are the one team that can just take the best talent available, as they see it, without any considerations of fit. They don’t have any controllable young talent that requires it. Wood is their one plus starter, but he hasn’t made it through a full season, he’s 26 and he’s not signed beyond 2 years. He’s also easy to fit around as a 4/5. I like Suggs, mostly because I know more about him. If they think either Mobley or Green is better, then they should take that guy. Also, if two of them, or all three, are equal on their board, then they should trade down 1 or 2 spots if they can get real consideration for it. It’s actually a great position to be in. If they pick right, they won’t have this luxury next year.
Agreed
Draft Picks are 9 years plan
Wood is 1 year plan, I guess
Wood may be traded this season if Rockets don’t plan to give him max
Wood does not have much trade value next summer because of expiring contract
I believe teams should always pick best player available. ALWAYS.
Funny story comes to mind here. The Portland Trail Blazers should pick Sam Bowie ahead of Michael Jordan because they already have a shooting guard named Clyde Drexler and Portland needs a center.
“Pick Michael Jordan and play him at Center.”
-Bobby Knight.
Sam Bowie was supposed to be pretty good and to be fair Drexler was probably the best SG in the league at the time. Still the Blazers shoulda traded down and picked up an asset and still got their man.
If there’s a clear separation, yes. But it shouldn’t come to that (with a competent FO). Fit has to be considered at all points in the process (not just when you’re on the clock on draft night). If a team drafts another young player’s path to PT, it will usually end up hurting the development of both that player and the draftee.
The job of a FO is to fix their “tiers” prior to the draft, and if they figure to be picking the last guy in one tier, a good FO has a deal(s) in the making well before the draft starts.
As a GSW fan, you should appreciate this. In drafts that built the team 2009-2012, they went PG, PF/C, SG, SF, PF/SF and C. No development path was blocked. With that distribution, it’s almost impossible that fit wasn’t a factor in all but the first draft (which was Curry).
DXC, love your posts. Consistently spot-on as far as I’m concerned. But may i say this.., I’m going to disagree with you here.
Always draft best player available regardless of fit but always regard fit when signing free agents. I don’t think the path to development is hindered with a like player on the roster. There’s plenty of minutes to go around for a guy coming off the bench you drafted and plays the same position as your All-Star in the starting lineup.
In two years when things are sorted out you keep the budding young player or your all star. Trades and free agents are all about fit. In the NBA draft always ALWAYS pick best player available.
The Golden State Warriors have gone against my thinking forever and have made horrible horrible draft choices because of need. Todd Fuller, Adonal Foyle, Patrick O’Bryant, Epe Udoh, and the list goes on. These guys were all high draft picks. Wasted. Perhaps Harrison Barnes was a great fit but he was the best player available at that spot.
Gary , nice post first off
I agree with the best player in most (all) circumstances
But DXC is a Knicks fan, so Im guessing Toppin will be the counter argument, and a pretty solid one at that , but to be fair there I think Rnadle was trade bait in their eyes when they drafted Obi
Cap & Crunch you always have kind words and you’ve done it again here. You’re one of the good ones that’s for sure.
I’d have to look but was Obi Toppin the best player available? Yes strange the Knicks drafted him with Randle and they’re 7 power forward centers on the team. Last offseason or before they kept signing power forward after power forward after power forward. Then Toppin was supposed to come in and be able to contribute right away. Strange roster creation. But because most of those free agents were on one-year deals it was okay to draft Obi toppin if he indeed was best player available ? I’d have to look all that up.
Bottom line is the Knicks stepped up this year and a tip of the cap to Tom Thibodeau and staff and players for their hard work..
Mobley. They really have been needing a dominant man in the paint for a while. Time to play the game again the way it was meant to be played. No more throwing up bad 3 point tries, running up and shooting without setting up a play and actually being able to block shots again.
Please link this article to the Rockets team feed.
Build around a twin tower duo?
I don’t get it. Rockets will probably draft Mobley. So, Silly Van believes that Rockets are better of trading for retired NBA players.
Curious about what Rockets fans think. I hope they take Mobley, for our sake, but I wonder if Wood is more effective at the 5 and/or if Mobley and him can even play together. They have KPJ at the SG, so do they build around that and draft a replacement for Wall at PG? Or do they make KPJ a Harden type player and draft a SG. So many questions. I love this part of the offseason.
So, you would trade for a player named John Wallet. Of course there is no player in NBA history named John Wallet. So, can you interpret Sillivan. He said that 20 – 21 = 1. Some how this important to the future of Golden State Warriors. So you need to speak English. Why do you guys like to avoid details? By be cryptic?
John Wallet means John Wall because of his massive contract. It’s like when I call Jazz guy Rudy Gold Bear because he looks so golden on TV. It’s just a little nickname, people do it all the time. Out of service Pervis Ellison is one of the all time best. Get it?
And speaking of English, what is “by be cryptic?” (we all make errors. It’s no big deal. Why point them out because we could wind up doing it ourselves.)
Pervis Never-Nervous.
“By be cryptic” is a typo … He meant to write “Buy bee cryptic” … It’s a new health food craze, found in certain honeys. Bee Cryptic is supposed to be better than Viagra and works in 15 seconds !!
Bee cryptic gets you whoever the queen is, but be careful about turning over to sleep afterwards.
Trade down to 4 sounds good in theory but I don’t think Tor has enough assets to make it work/nor would they want to pay that tax when the act of staying put is so fruitful to begin with –
Also Hou should just take who they like most in this case Imo and not get cute
I could really see Green here, all the early reviews seem like they will only skyrocket his stock the closer we get to the draft . You kinda have to just go highest ceiling here
The teams a blank canvas so there’s no {fit} hurdles to jump here. Huge decision, what a fun draft it’s going to be…I dont see any trades in top 4 tho but some activity soon thereafter
Their most open position is 3/4 so they may as well drop down slightly to a team that wants Mobley such as TOR#4 or ORL#5 where they would likely have their choice of forwards, probably Kuminga.
I do not think “Best Available Athlete” works bc, how is that determined when humans are deciding. A lot of candidates are described that way but look at the players on teams left— were they the “BAA”?— no.
Well maybe HOU plans to tank anyway.
Green is most likely to be the next Jordan. But I would trade.
Full rebuild goes by hard tanking till they own their picks (2023/24??) + Trade every assets for more…
The Rockets own their 2022 pick. Tanking actually makes sense.
It makes no sense trading down for a forward. Take the best option available, whatever that may be. Some say Mobley, in a league going smaller and smaller I say Green.
Draft Jalen Green. Go for the guy that can score and defend on the wing. Grab yourself some security in case KPJ goes loco again. And even if he doesn’t, Jalen can be the next leading guard for HOU.
As far as big men go, there are some to be had next draft as well. Or just package the #23 and #24 to move up and possibly take Garuba if the need for a defensive big man is such an issue (which shouldn’t be in a team tanking).
In any case, I just hope they don’t take Mobley in a time when small ball rules the league.
Green is a winner and young teams need a shooting guard with talent and fire. KPJ drastically improved when moved to PG. Mobley is too light and likely 4 years from being a go to center. Wood is better now and the Rockets want to keep him. There will be more traditional big men further down the first round (trade 23&24 for 15 to get Kai Jones) or Bassey/Sengun at 23. Wall has helped the younger players with their professionalism (see KPG/Martin/Tate played like pros). These guys are young and having Wall around can be the difference in failing or prospering.
I like Sengun but doubt he makes it to 23, he’s been rising lately
Take Mobley, he and Wood can compliment each other as versatile two way bigs. Wood is athletic enough to play either the 4 or 5. Wood can shoot and Mobley has a good looking shot and should develop a decent outside touch in time.
So the 4th youngest player in NBA history to score 50 points in a game isn’t notable?
Kevin Porter Jr. is also the youngest player with 50 points and 10 assists in a game.
Even younger than LeBron James was the first time he did so. Thank you Cleveland.
Great player without a doubt. We knew that before the NBA draft when he came out.
Can you keep him on your roster?
Will he be a good teammate?
Will he contribute to the overall success of the Houston Rockets for a full season?
Those are the things that are on the table here not his talent on the floor.