Jul 13, 2013 The Houston Rockets sent Royce White in a trade to the Philadelphia Sixers. Isaiah Canaan signed a multi-year contract with the Houston Rockets. Robert Covington signed a multi-year contract with the Houston Rockets. Jul 15, 2013 Omri Casspi signed a multi-year contract with the Houston Rockets. Francisco Garcia signed a multi-year contract with the Houston Rockets. Jordan Henriquez signed a multi-year contract with the Houston Rockets. Jul 16, 2013 Reggie Williams signed a multi-year contract with the Houston Rockets. Jul 17, 2013 Aaron Brooks signed a contract with the Houston Rockets. Jul 22, 2013 Marcus Camby signed a contract with the Houston Rockets. Aug 27, 2013 Ronnie Brewer signed a multi-year contract with the Houston Rockets. Oct 17, 2013 Troy Daniels signed a contract with the Houston Rockets. Oct 30, 2013 The Houston Rockets exercised their Team Option to extend the contract of Terrence Jones. The Houston Rockets exercised their Team Option to extend the contract of Donatas Motiejunas. Feb 20, 2014 The Houston Rockets sent Aaron Brooks in a trade to the Denver Nuggets. Jordan Hamilton was acquired by the Houston Rockets from the Denver Nuggets in a trade. Apr 15, 2014 Josh Powell signed a multi-year contract with the Houston Rockets.
This team's problems extend WELL past the mythical 3rd star. Anybody that says otherwise is in some serious denial.
None of you guys are concrete -- what would you have wanted to do this year, assuming you even agree with the Howard signing? And please use the budget we had to sign the people we signed.
And if we don't get a third star, then what? Just being realistic here. We're not getting Aldridge. He's gonna stay in Portland after what just happened. Melo is a long shot and may cost the Rockets a lot in return. Kevin Love is also a long shot with the Lakers having a ton of cap space(and the lure of playing back home), plus he can't be signed for another year. And there frankly aren't many other stars left out there that are likely to wind up here. Does Morey have a backup plan? Remember, he tried for years to stockpile assets in order to land a star and the Rockets wasted several seasons before a player like Harden finally landed in their lap. Is that what we're facing again this time around? A bunch of wasted seasons because Morey has Plan A and nothing else?
The problems I am referring to are the ones concerning our offensive philosophy and coaching. The transactions Freak references are intertwined with that due the fact that Morey believes 3pt chucking wins championships and any NBA player that can hit 3s will be serviceable. However, the most damning mistake Morey can make is sticking with McHale as opposed to a guy like Hollins, Karl etc.. because they don't buy into his bull**** philosophy, and for good reason I might add.
So you're saying it wouldn't have made a difference in this series? We can sign a third max outright after this year if we don't land one through trade. That ability goes away if we sign marginal vets at market value. I would expect more moreyball base hits outside of that effort...
So basically it's my worst fear realized. The Rockets are going to stand pat in 2014. From the head coach on down. Wonderful.
We had two players that are the best at their respective position. You let me know how much more slack you want to give this team and if that 3rd star would cause give us such a big boost defensively.
exactly. we used our capspace on dwight howard. that's the downside of signing max free agents. that doesn't mean you don't sign max free agents. it just means you need another season to really fill out the roster. like the heat when they had to let bibby and ilgauskas and eddie house play important playoff minutes for a season. then they added better players and their team became better. our whole plan has been to add stars and fill out the roster later. ideally, you add a 3rd superstar and have a 3 or 4 year window of being really really good and hopefully winning a championship. limiting that potential intentionally doesn't make much sense. trying to win a championship is the goal. trying to be good enough and young enough to win several is the even bigger goal. that's what we're going for. sacrificing future flexibility to just be a little better with some slight outside shot at one title maybe one year where everything breaks right isn't the ideal course. if ultimately you can't get a 3rd star and that's the route you have to take, then you take it and hope for the best. but plan A is get a 3rd star and go for multiple titles. until that plan can't happen, we should follow that course and hope the current seasons go as well as possible and if we get a series where the close games go our way, maybe those seasons go really well.
Last year we only had 1 star and we were 1st round exit. This year we have 2 star and every player improved (Bev, Lin, Parsons, Asik, Harden, Jones, Dmo) and we were 1st round exit. So PLEEEAASSEE tell me how it woul be different if we had a 3rd star.
Out of curiosity I know it's not going to happen but What would we need to do in order to afford Melo? I'm not very good with the cap stuff, who would need to go out and would we have money for a bench?
The budget? That's hilarious. What was the budget when we got Scola? Lowry? Courtney Lee? Trading guys like Budinger for 1st-round picks? Morey is a magician, apparently, unless it involves pushing this 54-win team to the next level this year. Why is Asik still on this team? We only knew since the summer that we no longer needed him. Trading him for ANYTHING would have been better than what we did. I've been saying that since we signed Howard. Even national media was laughing from the beginning at Morey's posturing about playing Howard and Asik together. EVERYONE saw through that. It was clear from the beginning that we had a hole at the 4 spot. That reality finally slapped people in the face when both of our PFs rode the bench in the playoffs. Face it. Morey prioritized "flexibility" over winning now. And he ended up paying for it. Well, not really I suppose, since Le$ is probably still happy.
There are two realistic ways to get Melo. The Rockets find takers for Asik and Lin in order to clear space to sign him. That's unlikely, but possible. Or Melo tells the Knicks he's coming to Houston no matter what and essentially forces them to take some sort of package from the Rockets in return(likely Asik, Lin, and other players and picks). Also unlikely, but possible.
Our 24 y/o lead dog scorer got outplayed by Wesley freaking Matthews. What more is there to say...3rd star or not, the biggest improvement this team can make is if Harden matures as a leader. Like it or not our wagon is hitched to Harden and Howard.
Awesome thanks for the response I appreciate it! I think its going to be another interesting off season again