Stephen A Smith: "Harden and Butler have been communicating"

This is my dream scenario. That makes us the favorites. Incredible defense with shooting everywhere.

 

Only in your dreams, my boy. These guys aren't going to give us discounts. Horford might be possible. I don't think Houston has the assets to acquire Butler.

 

I'm sure he said the same thing about Dwight/Harden a few years ago too.

"They just want to win so badly. They're so competitive. Tension is great. Nothing really to see here. Please move along."

I'm surprised we don't see more team drama across the NBA. Competitive guys! Just want to win! Want it so bad it burns!

 

Because Harden is a crappy basketball player who needs to be traded.

 

I think there’s enough smoke here. Reminds me of the rumors around CP3 just before he was traded.

Maybe it’s just me, but I do think Butler is one of those guys that will sacrifice (some) money for winning. Everything we’ve heard about him is that he’s obsessed with winning, and he’s already forced his way off 2 teams because they couldn't advance far enough. He will definitely want the promise of a full max deal, but I don’t think he would be dissuaded by the lower salary of the opt-in if it gets him where he wants to be.

Butler needs the threat of leaving to force Philly into negotiations. IMO, signing with Brooklyn is that threat, as they would be direct competitors with Philly in the east.

If I’m Houston, I’d be exploring every way possible to move Capela in a 3 way rather than including Gordon. Gordon can go if you can get someone like Reddick committed.

 

@justtxyank talked about this a while back. Ideally, you add Butler while keeping EG this season. That's what would make us scary. but I'm doing this for EG either way

You let EG expire next year and walk while giving JB his 5 year max

 

I'd be ok with this too, but the Rockets need to know what Gordon wants to do in the future, if he's willing to extend and we can get a solid replacement at center i'd be ok with moving Clint over him, but what if Gordon plans to bolt in a year and we can't trade or sign a solid center? I mean, we could still move Eric during the season but that's kind of a jump in the void, and we might end up scewed.

 

I will go for that

Rocket River

 

Here we go @rockets13champs ... he was blaming other teams for "leaking" they had drama!

Other teams try to paint us in a negative light.
Our players are just so super duper competitive & want to win so badly.
What will he say next time?
BTW, are we sure more teams aren't trying to paint us in a negative light again?

https://www.espn.com/espn/now?nowId=21-0517828026164056788-4

Rockets GM Daryl Morey said unnamed NBA teams put out negative information about his team to hurt them in free agency. He downplayed the chemistry issues the Rockets had this season.

https://www.thescore.com/nba/news/1017905

"It's smart for other teams to paint us in a negative light," Morey said, according to Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle.

"All the articles you see out there are all other teams trying to, very smartly, paint our situation as negative."

Morey specifically tried to downplay the team's purported chemistry issues, and the notion that players don't like playing with James Harden.

"James Harden, I don't know who wouldn't want to play with him," Morey said. "He's a top-five player in the league."

Morey also chafed at what he seems to feel is a media bias against his club.

"There are teams swept out of the playoffs and we're not hearing about how they have a problem," he said, after noting that no one wrote positive stories about the Rockets' chemistry when things were going well last year.

"The reality is it's the same group of guys. They had good chemistry. We just didn't play as well."

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php...lames-other-teams-for-negativity-espn.274555/

“It’s smart for other teams to paint us in a very negative light,” Morey said. “It’s a very competitive free-agent situation -- all the articles you see out there are all the other teams trying to, smartly, paint our situation as negative. But I think any free agent that looks at us, they’re going to see a history of winning. We have the third-best winning percentage in the league the last 10 years, almost no losing seasons. We win at a very high level. There are very few teams that can put their track record of winning against ours.”

“I think that’s very smart, strategic positioning,” Morey said. “I had to address some of that last year when a certain owner [Mark Cuban] was painting our team in a bad light. This year is no different. I think it’s very smart that other teams are trying to paint our players in a bad light. It’s going to be a very competitive free-agency situation. James Harden, I don’t know who wouldn’t want to play with him -- a top-five player in the league, unbelievable passer, unbelievable scorer, a guy you can build around. Everything we hear is everyone wants to play with him.”

“It’s smart, it’s a very competitive free-agent situation coming up and being kicked while you’re down is a smart strategy by teams leaking things or trying to put things out there to make us look bad,” Morey said.

 

Almost certainly no.

 

Safe to preorder the Butler jerseys yet?

 

That's what fans are supposed to do.

 

Need Kellerman to confirm..........

 

@mockster all but guaranteed that this would happen. You're feeling better about this now I bet

 

Spoiler: Jimmy

On his way somewhere (probably Paris) notice the hand

 

If Jimmy Butler wants Houston like Chris Paul did, we don't need assets. Gordon is more than enough.

 

What's up with the hand? Really can't figure it out

 

He's throwing up an H.

 

How does he do it?

Hey bro come here so we can play together and you can stand in the corner why I ISO. But when you ISO I'm just guna chill coo?