The bottom teams in the East and West this season are last season's pick picks and table pick winners , the Pistons and Rockets. The former topped the league with a record of 6 wins and 28 losses, while the latter finished third from the bottom in the league with 10 wins and 27 losses. Rebuilding teams like the Pistons and Rockets, the record is not the primary goal, and developing new people is their ultimate goal, but there is one thing that any team should pay attention to, that is, the locker room atmosphere. For the fish belly team, the atmosphere in the dressing room also affects the growth of rookies in the team, and it is not a problem that can be ignored. And yesterday, the Rockets erupted with the NBA's worst locker room problem of the season.
During the halftime of the Rockets game against the Nuggets, Kevin Porter Jr. and Wood lost control of their emotions after being criticized by their coach and had a heated argument with assistant coach Lucas, according to rocket reporters. After the situation calmed down, Potter drove away from the game, and Wood refused to play in the second half. Although Porter apologized to the coaching staff after the game, the severity of the incident was not something that Porter could have given up with an apology. Follow-up reports said the Rockets will hold an internal meeting to assess the incident, and it is expected that the Rockets will choose to abandon Porter Jr. and choose to trade Wood. This time it was arguably a choice for the Rockets, a decision that plagued the Rockets for a season.
Porter Jr. is the first potential rookie to be cultivated after the Rockets bid farewell to the Harden era, and to some extent, Porter Jr. is also an experiment in the success of the Rockets' management rebuild. Because Porter Jr. was a player that the Rockets traded with a second-round pick, everyone thought it was a robbery deal at the time, and although Porter Jr. was only a second-year rookie with a 30th pick, he clearly had the strength of a lottery rookie. Porter Jr. then responded to the Rockets' management's insights last season with 50 points and 11 assists in a single game, and it seems that he is already one of the cornerstones of the Rockets' reconstruction.
The Rockets then selected Jaylen Green and deliberately transformed Porter into point guard, so that the prototype of the Rockets' double gun in the backcourt appeared. However, contrary to his wishes, Porter Jr. is not suitable for the first position, and his functions obviously overlap with Green, which hinders Green's growth to a certain extent. So there are 15 consecutive losses this season, but the Rockets still refuse to give up, because they do not want to easily veto their ideal blueprint. With the accumulation of time, this is bound to affect the growth of Green, to know that Green is the draft of the big year of the list of the show, for a knight abandoned son to delay the growth of the list can not be worth the loss.
Potter had the strength of the lottery, but fell to the 30th pick, largely because of his personality problems. This is also the only reason why he was swept out of the house by the Cavaliers, and I thought that he would change his mind after coming to the Rockets, but he still did not change. The Rockets' assistant coach Lucas is a respected coach in the league, Harden and Howard both respect him, and Porter Jr. is just a nobody who dares to be angry at the coach, and can only say that he takes himself too seriously. Porter Jr. is only showing a qualified rotation level at the moment, coupled with a succession of locker room problems, if the Rockets choose to give up on him, then he will only face the end of being laid off, and no team is willing to accept such a player. As a data brush, Wood has long been put on the shelves by the rocket, and it is only a matter of time before he is traded. Jaylen Green's performance after his comeback is remarkable, and the strength he has shown is also worth cultivating for the Rockets, and the Rockets can only create a good reconstruction environment if they show the determination of the lone ranger to clear the obstacles for Doncic.
After two seasons of exploration, the Rockets' team building ideas are still not clear. Harden didn't block his way back after he left the Rockets last season, and if he can win the championship during his contract period, then returning to the Rockets after the contract will still be one of his options. Seeing that Harden's contract will expire next summer, but the Rockets are still in chaos, recruiting Harden in this situation, if not surprisingly, Harden will not look at the Rockets' contract at all.
Once Harden's contract expires, the Nets will not hesitate to offer a 5-year contract, retaining Harden is the Nets' primary goal in the offseason, and it seems that whether it wins the championship or not, returning to the Rockets will not be a wise choice for Harden...