Cooper

it looked like they expected the clips to roll over after that decent run and when that didn't happen there wasn't a recovery. Disappointing loss but the clips aren't scary in staples, certainly not like having to go to the grind house or oracle so grabbing a road win or two isn't out of the question if Howard isn't the only player that realizes they are in the second round of the playoffs.

Jordan is a clear max, can anchor a defense and does everything most coaches want out of their center on offense without worrying about his shot totals. There aren't many centers playing better, marc gasol, Horford, Then? Dwights a question mark, Drummond is basically a raw version of DJ. Boguts numbers are down and he's already 30. You could make a reasonable argument for Noah. 

I don't see how the Clips can afford to let him leave cause they'd have no meaningful cap space regardless.

I think Kerr bailing on Phil and the Knicks is an indicator that melo is likely out of NY.

I don't buy into Harden being a ball hog, Other guys get plenty of shots and Harden is the one usually setting up those shots from assists or drawing the defenses attention. Sure his defense could be significantly better but he isn't a "cancer" 

Signing Gortat would make zero sense.

I would probably try and start Harden Aflallo and Parsons on the wing if they could get him. Afflalo plus picks and one of their young guys is the magics best chance to get a real star not sure they would be willing to give that chance up for lin but if the rockets were sending a pick or perhaps TJones since they don't really have a pf, it seems like decent value and fills a glaring need for them.

The bulls would love to dump boozer on anyone but thats just not a good deal in that case it would be better to roll with asik and lin.

Never know what the kings are going to do so there could be a potential deal, I don't think they can afford Thomas long term if Gay decides to stick around. 

There were several points were the rockets could have sealed the win and only one was a missed ISO play by harden. Plus he backpacked the team the entire second half, when it seemed Parsons and Howard couldn't buy a bucket. Not taking the first look he had off the set of screens to end the game might have been his biggest mistake and he still got a good look it just didn't go down. And he found parsons on a great back cut it just so happend the corpse of jermaine oneal had a little lift left in him. How many times out of ten is he able to make that play? 2-3 maybe. A OT road loss to a playoff team isn't a big deal.

Casspi shooting more than him is a fluke, and Beverly should generally have a similar shot count as Lin since they play about the same minutes. You could also argue Lin should assist more and if he can't score or assist like "elite" Pgs you mentioned perhaps he isn't.
The rockets need Lin to provide an extra scoring punch no doubt but 2 extra shots per game isn't going to make or break the rockets.

Small silver lining Howard outplayed hibbert.

Not looking good so far but it is an extremely small sample size. Still I'd be calling teams about power forwards if I was morey.

LA can't do sign and trades since they are over the tax line

No, just reminding thenit that Kobe isn't a good defender most of the time either. But I do think you're overreacting I don't expect players to always go hard during an 82 game season it's unreasonable and no one can.

Waive Livingston and Douglas, keep machado as backup send forston to dleague and call up as needed.