ORL: EG & Chriss Rox: Terrence Ross & Simmons Bucks: EG Rox: Tony Snell & M Brogdan Wiz: EG, Chriss, Knight Rox: Oubre jr, Mahinmi, Rivers
To Rox: Tim Hardaway Jr, Frank Nktilina To Knicks: JR Smith, M. Chriss To Cavs: Knight, Nene, Rox lottery protected 19 FRP
Sure, well, clearly the Rockets would love to trade for a 3rd star player. A high ceiling player like Butler. They tried and failed. Which is frustrating because Butler is playing great in Philly. Are there other star players out there that are available? That is a tough one. How long can Morey wait on that? That chase aside, Morey can look to moves at the "margins." Moves that improve the bench. Perhaps look for undervalued players on some teams that might have more value here in Houston. If you can make those moves they have a chance at making the other Rockets players better. CP3 might be fresher. Same with Harden. So those guys play better. So if you can't get a 3rd star to jump start the team, find bench rotation guys that help jump start "what you already have" in CP/Harden etc. Really, that is all you can do here other than hope there is "internal growth" but right now that doesn't look like it is going to happen this season. Something in the "mix" needs to be added to spice up the team
Mason is small but strong. The one advantage he might have on the Rockets roster (more so than on other rosters) is that with the Rockets switching everything, his strength is important going against bigs. We see that important with CP, Gordon, Harden in the post. That exact trait is something I think the Rockets keep in mind in terms of finding a backup PG. It is probably what lead them to looking at MCW initially, but then his offense was such a net negative that it couldn't even work.
One thing I am pretty confident in, the Rockets are not going to trade their 1st round pick for an expiring contract (Butler was an edge case). Rockets are going to want team control for another year. So, it would be like when the Rockets traded a 1st for Lou Williams who had another year on his deal. Morey isn't going to want to potentially waste a 1st rounder for a player that can walk in the summer.
MKG is significantly improved and dues fit our system. Still HATE his jumper but his mechanics are better. He is a glue guy like Tucker. And he deserves props for his work ethic. I'm pretty sure we could flip EGo for him and another asset. And believe it or not, that would be a substantial upgrade for our team......as would Winslow. But alas, we're working on something bigger than that.....bigger than that. There should have been a deal yesterday. Even a small one. There were deals that could've been made with Knight without including picks and we postponed them. This fact...combined with the fact that we closed our roster spot by signing Clark early when we could have sent him to RGV to hang out a few days until the 15th......combined with the silence on Melo only to have over the last day or two that LeBron wants him....tells me there's a bigger move on the horizon. My guess is it involves Capela and probably Knight but possibly Gordon. And I'm speculating we're going to add a larger contract along with other assets that we can flip at the deadline. I don't know this to be the case. I am speculating based on knowing we could have dealt Knight yesterday without any picks involved and we could have acquired some of the players that moved yesterday. Further evidence.....we didn't showcase Knight after his stint in RGV....and we've been short-handed (and sucking) with plenty of opportunity to give him run the past week. There was no reason not to play him other than to not take any risk with him. That indicates a deal was close. Something else happened within the last few days that delayed the Knight trade. I think it will manifest itself either on the 15th or sometime within the next few weeks. Watch players that are all of a sudden mothballed...(like Whiteside for instance, I'm not saying he's coming here, I'm saying that's an indicator that he's likely already gone and Miami letting it out that they're trying to trade him most likely means they've already got a deal for him and they're shopping on behalf of the team they are moving him to on behalf of that team to see if they can improve the deal they've already got). And watch teams that could use Capela and would be willing to give up assets to have him help them make a run. Clippers/Wolves. We're going to make big moves soon.
Clippers are looking to free agency, they aren’t going to add a contract like Capela’s because it is longer than all their current big contracts
Ok. Your post made it seem like it would be one move leading to another. Improvement is improvement but imo Mason sand Skal wound just be bodies for the bench. They might get their 5 game trial run before MDA - rightfully - says not helping. Which is why I suggested a name like Blakeney. Bulls probably don’t move him. But he’s pretty similar to Justin Holiday and for Maybe 2 second round picks maybe they’d do that. Or a put in the future super protected first.
Big move or small move, I just hope Morey makes a move that will re-invigorate this team. Ultimately getting a 3rd star/high ceiling player is the goal, but moves at the margins that fill key bench depth roles might have a surprisingly big impact on this team. Both physically AND mentally. How long can Morey wait on the "big move" versus the "small move." What is that time threshold? I don't know. But it is getting late, early as they say.
Yeah, I was more talking about the macro sense than "specific players" even though I through out those players because they could be undervalued.
Pretty sure Twolves aren't gonna pay CC $80m to compete with Towns either. Another swing and a miss from Holic there
I think Capela on the Clippers makes sense if they keep some assets to dump Gallo, with his contract he's just great value, 16M on their salary cap wouldn't be a problem at all for the Clippers...again, as long as they have assets to move Gallo. With that said, i wouldn't trade Capela to the Clippers, they have nothing i like aside for Shai and i don't see why they would move him. I would move Clint only in a trade for a superstar or for a rookie scale with star potential.
Would you move Clint for Jaylen Brown? Im not saying i would.. and i would try any other combo of assets before leaning towards Clint, i just really think Brown is the guy we need AND a guy we could build around going forward. At this point hes a lesser Jimmy Butler with room to grow
I think our biggest problem is the Morey MO when it comes to trades (except his last two). This is a guy that is known for chasing all avenues and not wanting to trade unless he is clearly winning. Even if there was some great plan to execute a deal before the 7th, I'd have to guess Morey wasn't able to blatantly rape the other team. Hence it falling through. The exceptions to this seem to the be the Ryan Anderson trade and the Chris Paul trade. I still don't understand what we did the RA trade for overall? Trading a future player in Melton just to break up that contract and get out of 5 million? Chriss is withering and only Knight coming back and playing well can save this one. It was said the RA deal couldn't get worse and it did. And I understand the fear of possibly losing CP3 at the free agency bell in 2017 but we gave up too many assets. Any one of Lou,Bev,Montrez could of been the depth we needed last year and this year. I think Morey has taken us as far as we can go with him. SUcks about last year. Feel bad for us and dude. IMO, its time to move on philisophically and that starts with canning the GM.
Step One Rockets get: Markieff Morris (expiring) Tomas Satoransky (expiring) Lance Stephenson (expiring) Wizards get: Lonzo Ball Eric Gordon Michael Beasley (expiring) Lakers second round pick Lakers get: John Wall Carmelo Anthony Step Two Rockets get: JR Smith Cavs get: Brandon Knight Rockets 2nd round pick Works out for everyone. Rockets roll with... Starters Paul (30 mins) Harden (34 mins) Tucker (30 mins) Morris (32 mins) *also backup center Capela (34 mins) Bench Satoransky (30 mins) Smith (25 mins) Ennis (20 mins) Stephenson (20 mins) Green (17 mins) Clark Hartenstein Improved our depth, defense (Morris & JR), three point shooting (JR & Satoransky), rebounding (Morris), playmaking (Satoransky & Lance), and cap flexibility for next year with 4 expiring contracts (Chriss, Morris, Satoransky, Lance) & JR's tradeable $5 mil guaranteed salary due next yr. And, we still have our 1st round pick to make a move if we want to.
I don’t know how but trade for Joe Harris. Take on money if you have to. He could be our starting small forward.
I would try and trade Gordon for Joe Harris and D’Angelo Russell. I have no idea if the numbers work. Add picks if needed, but the Rockets need a quality young point guard to groom and take over for CP3.
