79 replies to this topic

[rockets best fan]

that's what people said b4 the harden trade

[Steven]

Are you sure they will match? Everyone thought the Knicks would match, heck Woody said they were matching and then, Lin is a Rocket. You sign them and make them match.

[phaketrash]

Are you sure they will match? Everyone thought the Knicks would match, heck Woody said they were matching and then, Lin is a Rocket. You sign them and make them match.

 

I am SURE Paul George is getting matched. Pretty sure about John Wall as well. Keep in mind, a large reason why we could steal Lin was because we could employ the poison pill. If not, Lin would still be at NYK. We can't do that poison pill contract w/ any of the aforementioned players. They're also much more important building blocks to their respective franchises than Lin was to the Knicks, as he was sort of an inserted replacement who caught fire. Melo was their building block.

 

LBJ coming to Houston is...not happening. I see absolutely no reason why he would. Bosh is a real possibility, and one that I hold out hope for in 2014. But at $20M and the wrong side of age 30, I am still a tad hesitant about him. 

[rockets best fan]

@ Steven

If we elect to wait till 2014 I believe our best target is cousins. I know all the drawbacks on him, but believe him to just need rescuing from sac to start moving toward his potential. Yes he is restricted, but we may be able to get sac to trade him at that point.

[rockets best fan]

I am SURE Paul George is getting matched. Pretty sure about John Wall as well. Keep in mind, a large reason why we could steal Lin was because we could employ the poison pill. If not, Lin would still be at NYK. We can't do that poison pill contract w/ any of the aforementioned players. They're also much more important building blocks to their respective franchises than Lin was to the Knicks, as he was sort of an inserted replacement who caught fire. Melo was their building block.

 

LBJ coming to Houston is...not happening. I see absolutely no reason why he would. Bosh is a real possibility, and one that I hold out hope for in 2014. But at $20M and the wrong side of age 30, I am still a tad hesitant about him. 

all of this may very well come to pass. however should we not at least kick the tires?

[phaketrash]

that's what people said b4 the harden trade

 

But everyone saw the new cba/Ibaka and Harden situation coming. People just thought it would not have happened so soon (or which they would choose). Everyone thought they'd keep him for this season, or at least to a trade deadline or something. The speed and suddenness w/ which it happened is what shocked people, not that it did.

 

None of the players are in the same situation as Harden and OKC. Pacers and Wiz can easily re-sign their future building blocks, who these players are. Paul George leaving Pacers is like Harden leaving Houston. Why would they give up their best player who is young and a restricted free agent and a lock to be a future all star? Wiz also have no one but Wall -- why would they let him walk for free when they have a TON of cap space that yr?

 

Like I said, Bosh is possible. Cousins is possible too but not via free agency. If Maloofs still in charge, who knows, but they won't be by then, and if the new owners are even semi-competent, they won't let Cousins walk for free.

 

And if Cousins is not walking for free, our cap space really not that important. Cousins stands to make $6.5M. Doubt we can't get within 125% of that when giving up young assets/pieces that they would want. We won't suck enough where our 1st round draft pick weighs that much by itself.

[phaketrash]

all of this may very well come to pass. however should we not at least kick the tires?

 

Depends what we're giving up to kick the tires. Probability of it happening (P) times the benefit of the event ( has to be greater than the X positives that we get by going another route. I am getting less and less excited about the BP route over the X route, mostly because I see the P as pretty small.

[rockets best fan]

Depends what we're giving up to kick the tires. Probability of it happening (P) times the benefit of the event ( has to be greater than the X positives that we get by going another route. I am getting less and less excited about the BP route over the X route, mostly because I see the P as pretty small.

if we are unable to sign d-12 or cp3...then we move to plan B. your plan B is j-smith....my plan B is wait for 2014. so the only thing we are giving up is a chance to sign j-smith. small price to pay for waiting till the smoke clears(IMO)

[phaketrash]

if we are unable to sign d-12 or cp3...then we move to plan B. your plan B is j-smith....my plan B is wait for 2014. so the only thing we are giving up is a chance to sign j-smith. small price to pay for waiting till the smoke clears(IMO)

Yeah that sounds about right. I prefer a Plan B w/ JSmoove @ $14M, but not enough so where I would not be okay w/ a Plan B where we get Pau for 1 yr and then get rdy for 2014 FA, or even the backup to that which is not give up anything to get Pau (through amnesty or trade) and instead just rent out cap space and wait for 2014 FA. That is probably the order for me, but they all sound pretty good.

 

Hmm...somewhere there I need to fit in Millsap + OJ Mayo or something along those lines, but I haven't decided where I would put that in my own line of preference yet haha.

[rockets best fan]

Yeah that sounds about right. I prefer a Plan B w/ JSmoove @ $14M, but not enough so where I would not be okay w/ a Plan B where we get Pau for 1 yr and then get rdy for 2014 FA, or even the backup to that which is not give up anything to get Pau (through amnesty or trade) and instead just rent out cap space and wait for 2014 FA. That is probably the order for me, but they all sound pretty good.

 

Hmm...somewhere there I need to fit in Millsap + OJ Mayo or something along those lines, but I haven't decided where I would put that in my own line of preference yet haha.

had to laugh on that last part  ........we have so many options kinda hard to sort through them

[thejohnnygold]

RBF you're 2014 plan is neglecting one aspect.  You keep pointing to what we "don't know"--much like the Harden trade.  And that is just it.  We are talking free agency and you are talking trades.  Via free agency which you continue to insist we are "not kicking any tires on"...(when in reality we have repeatedly explained our reasoning for presuming those dogs won't hunt and moving on and assuming Morey will kick the tires for us--do we really have to say it every single time or can we start to presume that if there was a sniff of Lebron going on the open market all the teams in the entirety of the world immediately pick up their phones?  Your repeated insinuations are somewhat insulting to the people you are debating with as it infers fear, weakness, and a lack of well-thought out opinions.  Surely you wouldn't mean to do so, but this is how it comes across--especially when followed by the self-echoing decrees of how you never "settle" (another loaded word) and on and on...)....getting back to the point, via free agency most of us believe there are not going to be very good options on the open market.  Now, if you want to talk trade scenarios that is a different thing all together.  We won't know who is disgruntled, what teams have panic attacks over luxury taxes, etc.  Now, bearing that in mind--having trade pieces is important.  We were fortunate to have one of the most efficient shooting guards in the league on an expiring to get Harden... 

 

Think of it this way: if we don't have someone like Josh Smith signed, then odds are we have to trade one of Lin/Asik plus some of our promising young talent to acquire whatever crosses our path.  We might get better, but not as much as signing someone outright and retaining both of those guys--I think they are both under-rated.  Now, if we have Smith it's easy (believe it or not he is trade-able) as we can box him up and send him out for whatever amazing offer comes our way.  Now, you have repeatedly countered this with, "well, if you didn't want to keep him then why did you sign him in the first place?"  Which is the dis-connect--you're way of thinking is not my own--I do want to keep him.  I am only offering this up to assuage your feelings against him and it limiting our 2014 options.  It really doesn't at all--especially regarding the mysterious unknown of the 2014 trade market.

[Sir Thursday]

Slight digression: whenever I read the title to this thread the following video pops into my head (not that its contents are at all related to how I see this situation):

 

[thejohnnygold]

^That is funny...and weird...and now I think we will all have that same vision.

[rockets best fan]

RBF you're 2014 plan is neglecting one aspect.  You keep pointing to what we "don't know"--much like the Harden trade.  And that is just it.  We are talking free agency and you are talking trades.  Via free agency which you continue to insist we are "not kicking any tires on"...(when in reality we have repeatedly explained our reasoning for presuming those dogs won't hunt and moving on and assuming Morey will kick the tires for us--do we really have to say it every single time or can we start to presume that if there was a sniff of Lebron going on the open market all the teams in the entirety of the world immediately pick up their phones?  Your repeated insinuations are somewhat insulting to the people you are debating with as it infers fear, weakness, and a lack of well-thought out opinions.  Surely you wouldn't mean to do so, but this is how it comes across--especially when followed by the self-echoing decrees of how you never "settle" (another loaded word) and on and on...)....getting back to the point, via free agency most of us believe there are not going to be very good options on the open market.  Now, if you want to talk trade scenarios that is a different thing all together.  We won't know who is disgruntled, what teams have panic attacks over luxury taxes, etc.  Now, bearing that in mind--having trade pieces is important.  We were fortunate to have one of the most efficient shooting guards in the league on an expiring to get Harden... 

 

Think of it this way: if we don't have someone like Josh Smith signed, then odds are we have to trade one of Lin/Asik plus some of our promising young talent to acquire whatever crosses our path.  We might get better, but not as much as signing someone outright and retaining both of those guys--I think they are both under-rated.  Now, if we have Smith it's easy (believe it or not he is trade-able) as we can box him up and send him out for whatever amazing offer comes our way.  Now, you have repeatedly countered this with, "well, if you didn't want to keep him then why did you sign him in the first place?"  Which is the dis-connect--you're way of thinking is not my own--I do want to keep him.  I am only offering this up to assuage your feelings against him and it limiting our 2014 options.  It really doesn't at all--especially regarding the mysterious unknown of the 2014 trade market.

this is where you are wrong........we are not just discussing FA...we are discussing options whether that be FA or trade. assuming a dog won't hunt b4 you even take him into the forest makes no sense. I keep echoing the same thing because you fail to absorb my point. we have better options than j-smith. just because you love him doesn't mean he is the best option (behind plan A of course). that my be your opinion and I respect that, but trying to prop him up as the only clear cut good decision should plan A fail is where the fork is in the road with us. I only discussed the other options to show you that their are clearly better and more options available. j-smith plays a position of strength for us ......ie you want to run him at SF.....well guess what .....we already have a pretty good SF in parsons. the way for this team to get better is not duplicating positions of strength, its to shore up positions of weakness

[rocketrick]

Yeah that sounds about right. I prefer a Plan B w/ JSmoove @ $14M, but not enough so where I would not be okay w/ a Plan B where we get Pau for 1 yr and then get rdy for 2014 FA, or even the backup to that which is not give up anything to get Pau (through amnesty or trade) and instead just rent out cap space and wait for 2014 FA. That is probably the order for me, but they all sound pretty good.
 
Hmm...somewhere there I need to fit in Millsap + OJ Mayo or something along those lines, but I haven't decided where I would put that in my own line of preference yet haha.

I'm going on record here that LA LA land decides to make Dwight Howard their cornerstone piece for the foreseeable future and will blow up their roster (and quite possibly their coaching staff) to convince Howard to sign there. Howard is no dummy, he knows how successful the Lakers organization has been the past couple of decades and with a clean start next season and the fact Kobe is out for a good portion of the season, it's not that difficult an argument for the Lakers to make to Howard.

Remember when the Lakers jettisoned Lamar Odom at the start of last season to Dallas? I wouldn't at all be surprised that the Lakers do something similar with Gasol, perhaps even amnesty him to free up more cap room for signing players better aligned to play in sync with Howard going forward. Morey and the Rockets need to do all they can to be at the front of the line to get Pau Gasol. He would be the perfect fit at PF for the next couple of seasons here in Houston as things play out with our youngsters and Morey continues to position the Rockets for additional free agent or trade acquistions these next couple of seasons.

[Richards]

I don't understand why some of you wants bad apples like Howard and Cousins.

Look, Cowboys got those type of players and didn't make the playoff.

[rockets best fan]

I don't understand why some of you wants bad apples like Howard and Cousins.

Look, Cowboys got those type of players and didn't make the playoff.

the cowgirls don't play basketball. besides environment can make all the difference in the world sometimes

[Richards]

the cowgirls don't play basketball. besides environment can make all the difference in the world sometimes

sometimes? Is that mean less than 50%, 30% or 10% 

[rockets best fan]

sometimes? Is that mean less than 50%, 30% or 10% 

depends on the person

[phaketrash]

I'm going on record here that LA LA land decides to make Dwight Howard their cornerstone piece for the foreseeable future and will blow up their roster (and quite possibly their coaching staff) to convince Howard to sign there. Howard is no dummy, he knows how successful the Lakers organization has been the past couple of decades and with a clean start next season and the fact Kobe is out for a good portion of the season, it's not that difficult an argument for the Lakers to make to Howard.

Remember when the Lakers jettisoned Lamar Odom at the start of last season to Dallas? I wouldn't at all be surprised that the Lakers do something similar with Gasol, perhaps even amnesty him to free up more cap room for signing players better aligned to play in sync with Howard going forward. Morey and the Rockets need to do all they can to be at the front of the line to get Pau Gasol. He would be the perfect fit at PF for the next couple of seasons here in Houston as things play out with our youngsters and Morey continues to position the Rockets for additional free agent or trade acquistions these next couple of seasons.

 

I would be SALIVATING if we somehow got Pau Gasol off amnesty. My gosh, that would be awesome. Then we could still use the bulk of our cap space on either another very good player in the $12M range!!! or rent it out to get more assets. Very, very nice. 

 

I don't think they'll amnesty him though, now that Kobe is out. They'd rather trade him for young assets. I agree that LAL might be willing to blow the team up for Howard; just now sure how they'll go about doing it THIS upcoming season. They are locked down pretty hard w/ difficult to move (for equal value) contracts. 2015 though they have pretty much NO guaranteed payroll. That is what they'll be selling Howard on -- 2015 and on.