Rockets meeting with Looney on Sunday

I've gone down that rabbit whole ever since we signed Anderson. I don't care much is barnes was overpaid, so was Anderson, but barnes fit our system much better. he's a scorer and plays better D than Ryno (who doesn't). I think 2 years ago we still keep ariza even in his last year just for depth. Moute was backup C and PF. barnes would've covered backup PF/SF behind tucker and ariza and given us big time scoring off the bench. not 19ppg but he's put up that much in Dallas. he's a capable scorer! unlike Ryno. without Paul in game's 6 and 7 we could've used his scoring and probably won.

last summer coming off of a championship I would hope that we could pay the tax to really run it back. bring ariza back on the same 1yr/$15M deal. let Moute go because his career is over. now with barnes and ariza do we win 4-5 more games at reclaim the 1st seed? probably. we face the warriors in the WCF with no Durant, no looney, hobbled Klay, etc... we have home court. we only lost by 6 points or less each game to a full power warriors roster. now deplete them with injuries and give us ariza, barnes, and home court. I think we win back to back championships. not to mention if we had barnes and ariza in the offseason, do we say f*ck it and pull the trigger on butler for ego/tucker/pick before the season? I think we might. even then with less depth I think butler-ariza-barnes rotation at forward with Paul-harden-rivers at guard, and capela-nene at center still get 1st seed and still beat the warriors on the way to b2b titles. in fact that butler/barnes/ariza team is better suited to beat the raptors.

so this summer we'd probably have to beat things up because of the tax bill. we have to resign jimmy to full 5 year max. we probably have to let barnes walk (he opted out and will resign with the kings for far more than we could've paid him in this scenario). we probably have to let ariza go for a more lucrative offer. I think we probably spend the TMLE on a PF like JaMychal Green, carroll, Mike Scott, or toliver worst case. so steep decline in depth this summer. however, we would've have traded melton, cash, and a pick to get rid of ryno. say we use that cash to buy an additional pick like the warriors do. either low 1st or high second. draft 2 guys, upper classmen, ready to step into some minutes. i'd have us starting this year with Paul-harden-jimmy-tolliver-capela and a bench of melton-pick-pick-clark-harty and probably a couple of ring chasers for the vet min who may or may not contribute. we're definitely thinner and weaker, but depending on who the lakers and clippers get, and how our young bench steps up, we might've been the favorites again.

see this is what happens when you're up all night with a newborn with nothing to do but think!

 

But he needn’t worry about a player being allowed to jump into his shooting space when he’s (never) at the three point line. So there’s that.

 

Not sure if this has been mentioned...

But I think Looney is a solid option even if we miss out on J-Butt (shoutout PMT for that nickname).

Boston will still need a Center. In stead of getting picks pack to send to Phili, would Boston do Jalen Brown for Clint straight up? Or even for Clint and a 1st maybe...

Improves our front court scoring while also not depleting our depth. I know Boston values Jalen Brown pretty high, so I may be off base in thinking this could happen, but I think it makes sense.

 

He's UFA I believe … no matching rights for GSW.

The other thing is GSW , assuming they keep Klay and Durant (who knows) are going to be deep into the tax and be in the repeater tax. They aren't likely to offer Looney more than the T-MLE as he'll cost them 5x that in tax.

The Rockets wouldn't pay Ariza 1:1 tax much less the repeater rate.

I think its likely Looney is somewhere other than GSW next year.

 

A cheaper Capela

Rocket River

 

The Rockets aren't currently over the projected tax threshold, they would have the entire $9.2M MLE to use.

 

Let’s beat the warriors at something

 

I did. He had 12 and 7 in per 36 stats. Capela, who played very poorly by his standards, had 12 and 12.

Have you watched Looney play throughout his whole career? Because there are actually far more games that he has played in than the 3-5 playoff games where you saw him grab a few boards and have a few putbacks.

The internet exists. The numbers and clips are there for you to see if you wish to see them. He is not good.

 

Get a 4 with the cap space left by Capela when he's traded for a pick like JaMychal Green / Thad Young and then Looney at the 5 with Tucker sliding to the 3. I'd take that over keeping Capela with Tucker at the 4 and Ego at the 3.

 

9.5 more hours till free agency

 

I've said all along Capela is replaceable with a lot of athletic centers out there.

They may not be AS good in the team sense, but that is only because Capela has been doing the same thing for years.

Looney is a great fit, and if we can trade Capela for other contributors, even without getting Butler back, I say go for it.

 

Is this true? IF so, is it because of Nene declining his $4ish mil contract to get us below the tax threshold? Don't teams get a BAE too for being a "non-taxpayer"? If so, this would open a whole new world for us but then I believe the team gets hard capped?

 

same here. plenty of centers that do what he does, maybe a little worse but at half the price. DAJ, Dedmon, Holmes, would be my top choices, but looney is also a good fit.

 

He isn't that easily replaceable man. I don't understand why you guys are underrating Capela so much. Yeah, he had a bad series against the Warriors, but man he had so many great games during the regular season and played well against Gobert.

Looney has never consistently played more than 20 minutes per game. I know his per 36 numbers look attractive but we don't know if he can keep up that effort for a full season plus playoffs.

Capela has grown up a lot and despite the unwarranted hate towards him, he has turned himself into a really good center in this league. He may never be an all star, but he is a waay better than your typical role player. If replacing him was so ****ing easy, Marquis would of made a name for himself this season.

Javale and Looney together will not make up for the loss of Capela in my opinion, but I think they should keep us from going backwards too much if Morey decides to ship out Capela. At the end of the day, if Jimmy does not choose Houston, Capela is an attractive asset that could net us another good wing.

Make no mistake, I rather keep him around.

 

Not saying he isnt valuable, but imagine Looney in our system after four years of doing nothing but screening and rolling...

He'd probably be pretty good at it by that point in his career.

Capela hasn't always been as proficient at the PnR as he is now. He struggled for the first few years he was here.

The fact is, Capela will never be anything more than he is now. He'll never develop a handle or a 3pt shot. For the money he's getting paid, I'd rather have a cheaper C (even one on a min deal) and use that extra cap space to bring in other floor spaces and shot creators.

 

Solid plan B

 

6 more hours till free agency

 

This meeting still happening? Or nah?

 

Maybe we can get him on 4 year deal worth $24 mil using the rest of our MLE? Better than the Warriors can offer since they can only do 3 years as BIMA pointed out.

 

I just don't see the Warriors willing to let assets walk now that KD is out and they have a much reduced lux tax bill. Would rather us focus our attention on other possible wings if Capela i staying and BAE to McGee