It's all about shooting with Taylor. He can definitely get to the rim. If he can be a credible long range threat, he will be an offensive weapon. This is obviously a move about adding a potential prospect, not helping us this year.
He has played off ball with the Vipers some this season (not that it really matters with the Rockets system). He is certainly capable of playing the two on offense in a Rockets system. Most of his assists come off of penetration. He has worked very hard on his shot with Paulis and Johnson and the Rockets are optimistic that the change is long term. They did something similar with Beverley, signing him after concluding that his shot improvement was real.
I will make the assumption that the Rockets organization knows what they are doing. I would rather they look ahead and take chances on u[side players that will cost little if he can play in the NBA.
Why "weird signing" if we want to protect him, and his agent told us other teams are calling. Then what's a weird signing becomes "Team X just stole our starting guard from the Vipers who is shooting 42% from 3."
*Giving away young guys that aren't good for young guys that are good and have potential to be better. (they also have 1 to 2 more rosters spots available for vets. Sorry Bobby Brown).
Thats surprising as hell lol. Based off what i saw in college, he is crazy fast and explosive. He definitely was a streaky shooterin college, so his success thus far in the d-league should be taken with a grain of salt. If he has truly developed a shot, then he has a lot of upside. Also hes a pesky defender. This could be Morey looking at a Bev replacement? Given that Bev is wanted around the league, maybe Morey is thinking he should get a replacement now. I'm not sure how i feel about that idea.
In other news. A sea gull took a crap on the sand in Galveston.... About the same number of people were impressed.
lol at the people who are judging this as if it's the lone consequence of the previous trades. There's still money (and a spot) to use on a vet. There's still another spot to clear with Brown if someone unexpectedly becomes available. Continue to be patient and see what shakes out, vs. judging as if it's over.
I'm curious if one of the teams seeking buyout players called Taylor's agent to offer a contract just to force Rockets to decide between losing him or using up some of our capspace on a prorated minimum deal for him, right before the buyout market opens. Probably thinking too much into it. If his agent did get a call, it was probably now simply because it's after the deadline and teams (even non-playoff teams) are exploring post-deadline options.
Looks like he put on some much needed muscle. If he can develop a decent shot, think he can be a serviceable backup. Really quick off the dribble and can finish.
Geez... with a lineup of Bev, Lou and Isaiah, the opponents will even be more confused on who's whom.
He played for UT, but did you guys know he is a Houston guy? Went to HS at The Village School. It's a pretty new high school (back when I went there it only went up to 8th grade) They had a homecoming football game this year and he had just signed with the rockets, he came out, did the toss, signed autographs at half time, all around pretty cool.. I hope he makes it in the big leagues.
Yep. The Rockets spent approximately 4% of the cap room created by their deadline deals in order to sign Taylor (maybe a little more IF they paid him more than the prorated rookie minimum). I think they'll be able to manage with the 96% of that cap room still remaining for a buyout candidate without the Taylor signing having adversely impacted anything. Jonathan Feigen tweeted earlier today something to that effect:
That's possible. My thought is this signing is about sticking an extra 300k in Taylor's pocket and controlling him for next season. It could be the fulfillment of a promise made to Taylor to get him to stay stateside. Or it could be a way of Morey showing Taylor and his agent how we treat these undrafted kids so that they will be more willing to sign with us and let us stash them over here. If it's a 3-year deal then it's not a "minimum salary contract" since those can only be two years. And it has to be guaranteed for the balance of this season since its is after Jan. 10th. So that's roughly 300k added to our cap. And if what you said is correct then another team would likely pick him up if he were waived (As long as they have cap space). I have a tendacy to believe if there was an offer, it was likely a non-nba team and we are giving Taylor this money to keep him in our system. Probably paid him enough to trump some two year offer that would have taken him away from the organization next season. I say this because there are many PG's better than Taylor that are available and would be way more viable to us in a playoff run than Taylor is. So there's not much reason to have him on the roster other than to control his rights. All that being said, I don't see Taylor being more than a second string backup pg at the nba level. He lacks the length to ever be a decent defender. And I don't see him as being anywhere near as explosive as a guy like Pierre Jackson, another mite with incredible explosion and a much better developed game. That's why I believe this could be about paying Taylor back for staying stateside this year instead of going overseas. When we originally heard about these deals for Payton, Taylor, and Wiltjer, they were supposedly 3-year deals. Well if that actually was the case then I think it's possible that we are telling these guys we will give them x dollars guaranteed to get them to agree to a deal on draft night and then later we are piecing their money to them. Remember, Taylor got, I think, around 75k from us this summer before we cut him. Now we're giving him another ~296k plus the chump change he made at RGV. We also gave Payton, I think a full 543k, and of course Wiltjer stuck and got his 543k. That's a pretty good salary record for undrafted kids from one team. When you compare that to the other teams in the league I would bet nobody else is even close. So before draft night this season I'm sure Morey will have sold that story to every agent with a kid in the draft and convinced many of them to wait for his call, if he notifies them towards the end of the draft that he wants to sign their kid if they go undrafted. Granted the two extra roster shots are going to be there for everybody. But it's the record of paying these kids that's important to keeping them stateside. This is a small thing.....that adds up to a big thing. We may have plucked a future rotation player out of the undrafted pile already in Wiltjer. The only downside is when you know there are kids out there that are future NBA players that are available but we leave them on the talent pile for somebody else because we are taking care of our own. Of course the upside outweighs the downside and attracts players and agents into our system with RGV.
