THat was the deal breaker to me. Dickerson hit some big shots his rookie year. He would end up having career ending injury I believe with the grizzlies. But back then I would’ve rather included Mobley than Dickerson
New salary cap update (my first in nearly two years) should be coming out in the next few days. Still trying to finish it, but work comes first.
Looking forward to it. Try not to give away anything too clever the Rockets might have under their sleeves.
Hey everyone, I watched about half of the presser. Can anyone tell me whether the Game 6/7 officiating was addressed and if so, what they had to say? Thanks!
One of two things will happen with DJ. 1. In spite of his love for Houston.....money talks. If he gets offered an extension worth an extra $50-60 million for an additional two seasons or an extra $80-90 million for three seasons added to the back end of his current deal.....he'll take the money and go play wherever they pay him. 2. Short of that, he's not going to opt out. Because......money talks. He'll play on basically an expiring deal next session and hope he gets bought out mid-season so he can sign in Houston at the minimum and make a run with the hometown boys or hope another team wants to trade for him with an extension negotiated for big money. Money talks. DJ is turning 30. We're not signing him to a big dollar deal. And we're not trading for him UNLESS.......unless somehow all our other off-season plans fail and we actually get down to about the 10th option....which would be moving Anderson and a pick for him while simultaneously making other moves involving a signed-and-traded Capela.
Daryl Morey on ESPN's draft show: There are a lot of what-ifs in NBA history but if you guys were at full strength, do you feel like you figured out how to beat the Warriors? They're the best team. We feel like we're right there. We were up I think 15 in game six & seven to knock off the Warriors & go to the Finals. Figure them out, no. I don't think anyone has. We do feel like we gave them one of the best series since they started their dominance. I'm sure you've heard the sound bite over & over again, saying your obsessed with beating the Warriors. Coming so close to beating them, where is the obsession level right now? 10. I don't understand the teams that aren't obsessed with beating them. To win the championship, you have to beat the Warriors. Every team should be figuring out how to beat the Warriors. That's all we work on. Obviously there's other very good to great teams in this league but the Warriors are likely on their way to winning 3 of the last 4 titles so we're gonna have to load it up and knock them off next year hopefully. You were able to get Chris Paul last summer without going into free agency, doing an opt-in & trade. Can you imagine a scenario this summer where a superstar free agent wants to play with your stars in Houston where you'd tear apart this roster to create the salary cap space? We're always aggressive upgrading the team. We'll do that again & look at the major names that should hopefully be out there to try and upgrade the team. Whether we do it by trade, classic free agency, whatever, we'll look at all those options. Clint Capela's growth, is a RFA. Do you feel you have a big three now because of his evolution? We feel extremely good about...we're obviously aggressive but if it ends up being we bring this group back, we feel like if injuries or 3pt shot luck goes our way, we could easily be playing the Cavaliers right now. We feel great about bringing this group back. At the end of the day, we're a team. We like this group. If we brought it back, we'd feel very good. My job is always to try & do better. Anything you learned about Harden this season? He can hit step back threes at a rate no one has ever done. We learned a couple things: One, how great he is to play with. There were maybe some doubts. Not internally but externally about how it could work with another mega star HOF level player like Chris coming here. As a destination for free agents & trade targets, players are looking around the league & saying 'They have great stars to play with who are unselfish, share the ball, a great coach who makes every player look great. Hey, I want to play down in Houston.' That's our key edge going into this off-season. Now that time has passed since that game seven loss, the season as a whole, where is your personal level of pride looking back? Some day when I don't have this job, which will happen some day I'm sure, you'll look back & say it's a hell of a season. Right now, it's a little hard. You get thrown right back into the deep end. We're in near 24 hour prep for draft, free agency & trade right now. You don't get a lot of time to reflect. Some day when I'm telling the grand-kids I'm sure I'll feel like this was a hell of a year. _______________________________________________ Should they reboot or run it back with the same roster? Woj: If they're able to do a sign & trade where they can get Cleveland or OKC to take back some of their players & potentially draft picks, which is what those teams would want, yeah you'd do that to get a Paul George or LeBron James. That's very unlikely. They don't have young players or draft picks that would make it worth it to those teams to take back a lot of salary. They'd dare those free agents to leave. They have a team here that's balanced and a roster with great role players. Sometimes it's great to have 3 great stars but the PJ Tuckers, those are the guys who evolve that group defensively. I think they can keep that core together & try to run it back. It's a far bigger risk to gut the roster. Bobby Marks: If you have a player like LeBron or Paul George, you owe it to your franchise to go out & explore every possible option to go out & get them, either in free agency or opt-in & trade. This roster will be expensive. Chris Paul 5/205, Capela will be a RFA. He'll generate close to Steven Adams & Rudy Gobert. Ariza, Mbah Moute, there's names out there to try to keep this team together. Woj: What you're seeing around the league, OKC is facing it, Houston is facing it, the price to compete with the Warriors is throwing teams into $100M+ of luxury tax. That is reflective of trying to catch the Warriors. How much should they be investing in CP3? Bobby: One thing you don't do is get cute in free agency. He gave up $10M last year by opting in & forcing the trade. Years 4 & 5 are a concern. Can they figure out some protection on the back end? The one thing you don't want to do is let Chris Paul get into free agency & start taking meetings. He should be your priority, as well as Clint Capela, on midnight July 1st.
I love Morey's candor, but sometimes I think he should say things a little more diplomaticly. All GMs should be rational and work towards high performing goal, but if I was some dumbass NBA lifer, I'd probably avoid Morey out of spite even if a trade served my interests.
I would think 3 1st rounders, unprotected, should be enough for LeBron. If the Cavs don't want Anderson they can dump him for 1-2 of those picks and/or some other assets. And since they'll be in the luxury tax with him that's probably a likely scenario. I think from Cleveland's standpoint, having the 2 1sts in 3-5 years is a good bet since our team is going to be old with very high risk for injuries. The one 5 years from now will almost certainly be a high lottery pick. Better the trade to the Rockets than see him go to the Lakers or the Sixers for no compensation at all. Of course this is all predicated on LeBron wanting to come here. But if he does I think the Rockets can make it work. Give the team a 2-3 year window of contention and then some terribly dark times. But that's the price you have to pay.
Didn’t Reddck say he didn’t sign here cuz he’s uncertain with the moves we make? Like basically we flip so many a year?
