Houston making Ryan Anderson, Lou Williams & Patrick Beverley available

Elite spacing of the court all the way from Conroe some days and Victoria on other days.

 

I'd give up a super late first for Lou Williams every single time. Not a panic move at all, IMO.

 

Definitely some sign and trades going down.

 

That's why i don't think that's happening. It would require 65 million in cap space which is doable, 12M as today, add Anderson (20), Ariza (7), Lou (7), Pat (6), Gordon (12) and we're there, but we would've to play without bench and without a starting SF...it doesn't make any sense.

What we are trying to do imo is trade for a cheap star (George) and than get a free agent. That would let us keep at least one between Gordon, Ariza and Beverley.

 

Let's look at the players rumored to be on the trading block:

Anderson - Who the hell wouldn't deal him? The guy no-shows for home games, gave the Rockets virtually nothing vs OKC in the first round, and not much vs San Antonio. He's not worth 20 mil a year. You dump that contract if you find a taker.

Bev - I love the guy and his contract is very reasonable. But he's injury prone(although in fairness, he was healthy most of last season), and he's got offensive limitations. I would however hold onto him unless we absolutely had to dump his salary to land a big-name free agent.

Lou - I'm torn on this one. He was somewhat disappointing during the regular season after we acquired him from the Lakers. But we probably don't beat OKC without him. Like Bev, he has a very reasonable contract that'll make him appealing to other teams, but I do not get rid of him unless we know for certain we're using that cap space to sign someone even better.

 

Right. This is the corner that Les and Morey have painted themselves and this organization into. Time is their enemy especially with the D'Antoni experiment entering it's make or break season. He's got demonstrate that his system and approach can work in the playoffs. If not...It'll be (yet) another reboot.

Well Morey's been star chasing for how many years now? And just how has that worked out for them? Oh yeah, we got Dwight Howard. We also got rid of Dwight Howard. The problem with this approach is that you get caught up in the chase and then one day you look around and years have passed and you still are without that "star" player. I have watched this play out since 2011 up here in Dallas where the Mavericks have chased hard. Same thing with the Rockets since 2009. The tally so far: The Mavs got Harrison Barnes - The Rockets got James Harden. Unfortunately (thanks to LBJ) that's no longer good enough. It is what it is.

 

Which is why its even more important to sign Gay.

Gay is a SF. You can sign him, and another star, and another solid starter.

 

Going after George is stupid. He wants to be in LA in 2018(if not sooner). Don't waste assets on a rental who likely won't even play hard the one season he's here.

And I don't wanna deal all those guys to land a couple of marquee names like Paul and Griffin. I'll take the greater depth that actually won more games than the Clippers last season and advanced one round further in the playoffs.

 

Gay is not a star though :/

 

This may be true from a productivity standpoint, but Anderson's contract is 19m+ while Brewer's was 7m+. I'd love to think that our #43 or #45 could do the job, but my gut says that it might take a late 1st rounder. I'd love to hear an opinion from @Clutch or @BimaThug on this.

 

Some people think late 1sts are more of liabilities than assets for a team like the rockets anyway.

Guaranteed cap hit, wont get playing time, might never really make an impact on the court or be valuable enough to trade. In fact trading a pick of that status before the player is selected can be a way to get the most value out of those kinds of picks sometimes.

I mean most late 1st round picks decrease in value once they are selected. I mean how many people are trying to trade for cj wilcox? (Drafted late 20s like 3 years ago)

 

Fair enough i guess, personally i'm all for taking a risk at this point though, Paul is also just one of the good point guards available this summer, Holiday, Lowry, Hill are good players, if we end up with Millsap and Holiday it would still be a very solid upgrade.

And even if George leaves next season we could go after someone else with that money...i mean, at this point you either try or you just enjoy staying in the middle of the pack and get your ass kicked by the Warriors for the next 5 years.

 

I'm not too keen on gutting the roster for a 1-year rental of Paul George and then hoping we sign a big free agent to replace him next summer. That's way too risky.

 

once teams strike out on millsap and other FAs and realize they have a lot of room that wont matter they will inquire about anderson.

 

No, he's not.

But he'd be a great 3rd option, and he can be had at a price that still allows us the ability to get a star.

 

Well I hope that means we can dump him to one of the "higher bidders"

 

Exactly, the tanking "trade harden" crowd wants us to win by hoping for long odds to go your way. Entering the lottery is the ultimate risk.

My message to them is that hoping to pair harden with another star or hoping that harden 1 man shows us to a series win over the warriors is a more realistic way to try to win by hoping for good fortune/long odds over the next 10 years. If you tank and dont ever go all in then you could suck for 30+ years. Honestly, whens the last player that was drafted that has surpassed harden?

No matter what path you choose, winning a championship is gonna require luck, good fortune, and overcoming long odds. (Win lottery and get lebron type once a generation player, draft curry then underpay him while you build the team due to his ankles, shoot 40% from 3 against warriors in a series with harden averaging 30/11/8) these are all examples of lucky things that could win you a championship.

I mean what would you rather do:

1) Keep harden and try to trade for george only to lose george the next year and begin losing a lot of games in 2019-20

(Pretty much the, keep harden, stay flexible and risk sucking by trading away valuable assets for cap space plan)

Or

2) give up and begin the losing a lot of games process immediately (the same situation that wed be in, if we fail at option 1)

The way i view it, it is either purposefully suck and tank or try to be good by taking so many risks that it crashes and burns so you end up sucking and tanking.

It all either leads to winning or tanking. Why are so many in a hurry to stop thinking about winning and start rushing to tanking?

 

Eh, i definitely get what you're saying. I hope Morey knows something we don't at this point.

One thing i guess is, let's say he's not sure Paul is coming, maybe he's still pretty confident about getting a good player anyway, and i think that's kinda easy to believe at this point, not many teams out there looking for a pg, and between those which are maybe a better enviroment than us (Boston and San Antonio), only one needs a pg, let's say the Spurs get Paul, we would be left with Holiday or Lowry which wouldn't be that bad tbh...

 

Looks like bev will go by tomorrow night. anderson we will probably hold onto until we think we need the space for a FA. i doubt DM moves him without knowing he's signing someone like blake or milsapp first.

lou is a good fit and if we can't get that second max FA we don't need to move anyone but ryno for cap space and bev for 'fit'

 

I agree completely. A player like gay would have got us past SA IMO.