Stephen A. Smith: CP3 is the biggest loser of the offseason. Thunder is better than Houston.

I agree. I called Donovan the exact same thing to 1 of my boys yesterday lol, he's their Kevin McHale. They'll win a lot of games because they have a lot of talent, the same way McHale won a lot of games here or Marc Jackson won his fair share of games in GS. Will he design an offense that utilizes these 3 guys effectively? That remains to be seen, and I have my doubts. I think their defense could be crazy tho. PG and Roberson on the perimeter with Adams down low is no joke.

 

SAS rides what ever ship is sailing. Westbrook smoked Durant out and know you add two more stars he has to share shots with LOL. Everyone knows PG is out after this season and I see this not working at all. They are smaller now without Kanter

 

They ain't even that good bro.

 

How much help does Westbrick need?

 

From the Ryno quote about trade having "low probability" and CP3's tweet below, it's clear to me Paul and Harden rejected including more players in the Melo trade.

CP3 understands the importance of chemistry. And he's set to prove 3 < 8

 

This is the narrative now until HOU starts to have a better record than they will say that HOU has better players than OKC.

 

Alls I know is I gave Morey crap for years for constantly star chasing. Now he's apparently passed on a (fading)star in order to preserve depth and defense. So I praise him for showing restraint. If healthy, the Rockets will be as good as anyone not named Golden State.

 

First off, yes roles are important. Carmelo is better at getting you 25 inefficient points on 22-23 shots on a bad team. The Rockets do not need that, the Rockets already have high usage players in Harden and Paul that are vastly more efficient. However, when you start looking at the advanced statistics, they show that Anthony wasn't a good player last year. He has been declining for 3 years and had his steepest decline last year. The Knicks were -4 with him on the floor and -2 without him on the floor. Defensively he was abysmal as well and that is supported by all the advanced statistics. His VORP, WS%, TS% and on/off all were average or below.

So is Anthony better than Eric Gordon or Trevor Ariza? I don't think so. The player in the NBA with the closest advanced stats is Dwayne Wade, who was awful for the Bulls last year. Don't confuse inefficient bulk numbers with being good.

As far as needing players like Carmelo more for the playoffs, Anthony hasn't been in the playoffs in many years. He isn't the same player he was 2-3 years ago either.

The Rockets were willing to deal Anderson's longer contract for the shorter contract of Anthony, and gamble that Anthony would become more efficient with a new role, less shots and in a D'Antoni offense. However, Anthony already failed once in D'Antoni's offense; and has never had a lesser role. Not to mention he tends to be a ball stopper.

The reality is that this Carmelo Anthony hasn't been a good player in a few years. While Gordon and Ariza are role players, at least they are very good role players.

 

Rockets hands down the odds on favorite to get 2nd seed and added CP3 and solid vets.. clutchfans flips out over Melo..

 

This.
It is why trading a mediocre defender like Anderson for another mediocre defender (Anthony) with a shorter contract was palatable.
When pieces like Ariza or Gordon come into play, the equation changes. The Rockets need 3 point shooters and swing defenders.

 

I hear you. Don't fully agree but that's fine. But I'm just a basically saying with Melo if things click or go our way, we have a higher ceiling (albeit with also taking a bigger risk) than if we have EG and Ariza come playoff time. With our current team, I personally see us taking Golden Stats to 6 games in a best case scenario. With Melo I saw us having a small chance of beating them. Obviously that's not something we'll ever find out now but just me personally felt it was a high risk high reward scenario that I really wanted to see unfold.

 

Exactly, CP & JH's inputs must have been a big part of the process, which, from all info we have gathered so far, has indicated to be transparent among the players. Had they insisted on upping the chips, Morey would almost certainly have reconsidered and therefore couldn't have informed Ryno of the "small" likelihood of the trade being completed. All of this, including the frankness of Anderson during the press conference, is a product of the openness of this organization.

 

Do you watch his show? If so, why?

It is worse than reality TV.

 

I feel many on here underestimate EGO's abilities. His catch and shoot ability from the parking garage is not exactly a skill set that grows on trees when coupled with his play making ability and pretty good defense.

EGO is a "borderline all star" with his efficient production and role on the Rockets. With CP3 on the roster now, Rockets are a lot better now with that alone.

 

And that's where they will lose no bench no rest.

 

Westbrook and Durant had the 73 win Warriors team at a 3-1 advantage. That team lacked depth, and handled a lot of positions by committee. I'm not saying it's a lock that the Rockets will beat the Warriors or Thunder, but damn, let this play out.

Also, who knows who will be available come deadline time. We need to peak in May, not October.

 

It's why they lost to us in Round 1 last season. Gordon, Lou, and Nene killed them. And 2 of those guys are back along with several new additions.

 

Did any of you guys want to give up Gordon, Ariza, or Capela in order to get Melo? Because it seemed to me like we were pretty much united that Melo wasn't worth losing one of those guys. That means he would have been our 6th best player, not our 3rd. None of us here wanted to give up the pieces Morey would have had to have parted with to get it done. To say he failed when we almost universally agreed he shouldn't give up any of those three guys (the only way to get it done after exhausting 3rd/4th team options) is revisionist history. They would have taken any of those three guys for Melo. We, quite rightly, didn't think he was worth that. OKC is scary, I agree. But unless you were FOR trading one of those three guys you can hardly fault Morey for what went down.

I love our lineup even if we don't have a three-all-star team. The last time we did it was when we traded away the core of our team to get Barkley. That was on the heels of winning with one all-star and then two. When we got our third we gutted the team to get him and it never worked out.

I understand that the board has been obsessed with Melo but I don't recall anyone arguing we should give up one of those three (Gordon, Ariza, Capela) to get him. The board was behind Morey 100% until OKC made a better offer. Morey wasn't willing to and neither were the vast majority of posters here.

To criticize him now for not doing what we almost all agreed he shouldn't do feels fishy to me.

 

George is a forward, not a guard. LOL

Screamin A Stiff is out of his element.