Harden and Gordon
Over the past 8 years, the Rockets have launched a strong charge for the championship, but the results have not been satisfactory. If you have to take stock of the Rockets' success over the past 8 years, I think it should be their vision of the trading market and the contracts they signed. Hugh City snatched "Warcraft" Howard from the Los Angeles Lakers, made a big deal in exchange for Chris Paul, and formed a "ghost blowing lamp" combination of "double MVP"; similarly, they have also renewed many quality players with very cheap contracts: Gordon, Tucker, House, Capela and so on. Judging by Houston's successful sell-off this season, their ability to accumulate chips in the past is evident. However, the last era has passed, affected by the epidemic, the already "miserly" Fertita is almost about to start the "scratch music" team building model of the small ball city. But I think the Rockets have taken the first step right now — Kelly Orique!
Oriìnick
Speaking of Olynyk, this dude's appearance in everyone's eyes may have to be traced back to the first round of the 2014-15 Eastern Conference playoffs - Oritic let The Luck season reimburse. Olynyk has always been a small role, but I think if it wasn't for his pull, maybe the championship that season would have been the Cavaliers. From a certain point of view, Olynyk's pull directly changed the ownership of the championship. So why is such a small role the first step in the Rockets' rebuild?
Predatory Celtic
First, let's review two teams in the NBA — the Celtics and the Jazz.
The Celtics are called the "Green Shirts" by fans, not only because the Celtics' logo is an old man in a green jacket, but also because the team has a tradition of "iron blood". Since the big three of Pierce, Garnett and Ray Allen, we still have a "hard" feeling when we look at today's Celts. Angie himself has spoken about the Celtics' signings, and he believes the team will only choose players who fit the team's spiritual culture. I think we can still see the Celtics in Smart and Thompson today.
Stockton and Malone played the block
Again, I must mention the Utah Jazz. As a rocket team fan, you must not forget the opponents of the Yao Mai era who were restrained by the lineup and had no ability to fight back. But did the Jazz really just restrain the Rockets in their lineup? I think it is not entirely true that although the Rockets at that time sat on the Yao Mai combination, they obviously lacked a kind of toughness from the spiritual and cultural level of the team, and this toughness was vividly reflected in the opponent Jazz. Since the era of Stockton and Malone, the Jazz have always been known for their "one inside and one outside" model in terms of core choices, and the choice of role players and play styles reflect Sloan's "iron blood" and "stability". Even when the old coach went to the west, the Jazz never changed their criteria for selecting players - they were not cold to superstars, but they chose players with good professional attitudes and tough play styles. To this day, we can still point out players such as Ingles and Bojan, who have a jazz heritage of team culture.
Jerry Sloan
The Celts and jazz, as evergreen trees in the east and west, have their own foundation. Although the Jazz have not touched the championship, and even the division finals have not entered the ground in recent years, they have to say that they are regular visitors to the Western Playoffs, maintaining the top eight level in the highly competitive West all year round, and also have their own unique team culture and team building ideas.
Finally, I'm going to talk about why Olynyk was the first step in the Rockets' rebuild. Olynyk is a very tough player, and the 30-year-old Olynyk, as a role player, will inevitably not be able to become the core player of the team's future tactical level. However, Olynyk can bring team culture to the Rockets, and only by determining the team culture can the team's future reconstruction road be clear about which players are needed.
In fact, the Rockets got Olynyk for another purpose, which was to try to find a partner for Wood. The Rockets were rumored to be hoping to get the Magic's Gordon before the trade deadline, but ultimately failed to do so. In the trade to send Oladipo, the Rockets are also willing to eat Olynyk, which shows that they have a certain demand for inside players. Given that the Rockets are now in a rebuilding period, they are interested in a not-so-young interior player for one reason only, and that's to try out what kind of interior pair Wood is suitable for.
Wood
Wood is 26 years old this year, from the offensive end of the performance, he is very suitable for the Rockets to play, in the days of lack of Wood, the Rockets win less and lose more, indicating that Wood's role on the offensive end can not be replaced. However, Wood, who can bomb opponents on the offensive end, is not satisfactory on the defensive end, especially in terms of guarding the basket. The Rockets had previously partnered Wood with Cousins, but the two did not form a synergy between them, mostly in their own positions. Of course, if the Rockets had won Allen, using Allen to partner Wood may be a more powerful combination of interior lines, after all, the offensive and defensive ends have the ability to rebound, space, and guard the basket, and this combination is absolutely trustworthy.
Of course, for the Rockets, the most important thing now is to set a cultural benchmark for the team like Olynyk, who will roughly look for players with the spirit of "Desperate Sanlang" according to this standard. Rockets general manager Stone believes that there is no need for the team to make a large-scale mess, and he believes that the reason for the Rockets' poor performance is mainly due to injuries. However, I think the Rockets are mainly carrying a 40 million Wall behind their backs and are embarrassed to say that they need to mess up on a large scale. Of course, they can also use Walter's ghostly starlight to step up their search for the next "Harden successor"!