Due to Durant's injury, coupled with Irving can only play away games, the current Nets can only rely on Harden alone to support, after the last game to lose to the Nuggets by 6 points, the Nets have recently suffered a wave of 3 consecutive losses, currently with a record of 29 wins and 19 losses, slipped to the fourth place in the East, and this record is placed in the league, the Nets have fallen to the 8th place in the league, and the decline in the Nets' ranking is a good news for the Rockets.
The time goes back to January 14 last year, when the Rockets, Nets, Cavaliers and Pacers reached a blockbuster four-way deal, in which the Rockets in addition to the three players Oladipo, Exam and Kuruc, more important is the right to swap the four draft picks and draft picks, and one of them is the Nets' first-round pick in 2022 (the other three are the Nets' 24 and 26 year first-round picks and the Bucks' 22-year first-round picks). According to the net's current eighth position in the league, this first-round draft pick has come to the 23rd pick in the first round, and if the Nets continue to decline, the draft pick will be even higher.
The reason why the Rockets made that big deal in the first place, the main goal was not the player, but this series of first-round picks, because they want to rebuild, they must let a young player with cultivation value become the cornerstone, and it is precisely because of the success of last season, so they won the list after that, thus picking up Jaylen Green at last year's draft, it is true that this young man does have a lot of potential, But this season he is averaging only 14.2 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game, and his shooting accuracy is very bad, and it will take some time to cultivate him. So for the draft picks is naturally more and more good, anyway, they only have 14 wins and 34 losses, the first-to-last record in the West, and now barefoot people are not afraid to wear shoes, as long as they can get the draft picks of high ranks, it is not impossible to swing for a few more years.
And if you can improve the draft pick market in your hands while you are messing up, it is even more "icing on the cake". It is true that there are two players in the Rockets who focus on training, namely Kevin Porter Jr. and Jaylen Green, but neither of them has let people see much potential. Porter Jr. averaged 13.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and 6 assists per game this season, although the outside world has been comparing him with Harden, but whether it is offensive stability or the overall view of passing, the 21-year-old Porter Jr. and Harden still have a big gap, if in the next 2 years, he still can't let the Rockets see their cultivation value, and it is not impossible to be abandoned by the team.
As for another new star in the backcourt, Green, the same is true, the template is regarded as Kobe Bryant, as far as the season is concerned, it is more like a "Nick Young" who will only shoot brainlessly, and the cornerstone of the team's reconstruction is completely out of any side. Anyway, now the team does not care about the record, if they can't play, the Rockets can also give up decisively, after all, there are so many draft picks in hand, which can be used by the team to slowly select materials that can be made in the future.
Although when Harden was just traded by the Rockets, the outside world has not been optimistic about this deal, but now it seems that the Rockets are really that big winner, Harden delayed the championship, but actively "assisted" the team to win a higher draft, for the future of this Bole team, Harden is really painstaking!