[BS Report] 03/09/15 - Kevin Love to Houston, Harden MVP

Let's look at what we have at PF NOW and AFTER

DMO/SMith/JOnes - honestly not a bad line up. They all do different things. The issue is that they don't do all things
BUT Put them all together . . .they still won't make as much as MAX KLOVE

IMO Dmo has the ability to be a KLOVE type player
a poor man's KLOVE

Defensively it is a wash
Offensively KLOVe has experience and skill advantages
But I don't think the difference between him and DMO is as strong as some make it

My Point is .. . how much do you move the needle acquiring KLOVe
cause if we do . . . 2 of the 3 above will probably be gone

Rocket River

 

While it sucks to lose Ariza (Although I think you can make it work while keeping him), if you have an opportunity to get Kevin Love without losing Harden or Dwight, you do it without a second thought. You can always find role players off the scrap heap. Its almost impossible to get star players.

You don't look at what the roster looks like next year, you look at what it will look like 2-3 years down the line.

 

maybe KJ would fit there….but our D is already full of holes……and love is a subpar defender…..so not warming up to this move all that much...

 

It's tough to do a sign and trade without including Ariza for a max-ish player. Papa is $4.8MM next year, everyone else (besides Harden, Howard, Ariza) are well below $3MM, so it'll be very hard to salary match. Now, it may be possible for us to acquire an unguaranteed contract for the 32nd pick, someone like Alonso Gee last summer, which then gets packaged to acquire someone, but would get pretty complex.

 

I'd agree with this ONLY in this sense.

The article linked notes the Rockets could make max cap room. They can probably get close.

So if the idea is to trade Ariza+ for Kevin Love... AND then "replace" Ariza with another Ariza like contract, then that makes sense. I say replace in quotes, because I mean find other Ariza quality player(s), whether at SF or otherwise.

Otherwise, I wouldn't just trade Ariza+ for Love.. because you do become way too weak defensively.

 

Losing Ariza would hurt but we could probably sign a guy like Al Faruq Aminu for 3 years 15 mil.

 

If we get a playmaker PG , he would have to play with the 2nd unit because harden is the point guard on this team. He's only active when he has the ball. That's why OKC had him come off the bench as the main playmaker.

 

I don't think it has to involve Ariza if I remember correctly but if it doesn't we have to get rid of almost everybody else on the team.

 

The elephant in the room is Love's health. His body is breaking down and he may end up being an anchor rather than a sail.

 

A true point guard is a more pressing need than adding another PF. Love is a weird character and I do not see him meshing with either Howard or Harden. We would sacrifice depth and cap flexibility for a PF who is extremely overrated on this board by some. The guy is also injury prone and his current team hasn't skipped a beat since he went down.

 

Dmo's potential is such that he could be just as effective as KLove and much less overrated.

I don't want any part of Kevin Love on the Rockets. Motiejunas is a great project and Smith is a great spark.

I want to see us move Jones for a defensive 4.

 

i'm all for that……would CLE actually have a need for ariza though, are JR and shumpert already locked up there?

yes, i'm leery about adding another oft-injured player to our rotation. we need a player at the 4 spot who can hit the 3, play D, rebound, and do it for 82 games. paying the MAX for the 4 spot when we have nothing at the PG position is just misallocating of salary cap $, imo.

 

When talking about roster upgrades, we should keep in mind the issue of Harden.

We can see when he plays with Josh Smith, who is a playmaker and looks to score the ball (no no no no no YES), Harden becomes very passive. In fact, almost any time he doesn't have the ball he becomes passive. Part of this is Harden's outook, part is the absence of any offensive system where players without the ball have any responsibilities or direction.

If another playmaker/player who needs the ball at times is added to the team, the Rockets have to implement some semblance of a system where the playmakers play off each other and keep all involved on each play for maximum effect.

 

No and no, there will be no Love in Houston. I already said this last year during the free agent season.

 

I don't think you do anymore. I think for now you look at now. We are in the WCF and are a couple small steps away from being able to win it. We lost game 1 and 2 by 5 points combined. A bounce the other way and we could be tied or leading this series. I bet the winner of the West wins it all. We are close. I just don't think blowing it up so we can be there 2 or 3 years later is a good idea, especially considering Dwight might be gone and Harden will be at the end of his contract. We are in win now mode.

 

What the hell do the Rockets need Kevin Love for? D-Mo has a great postup game, can hit the 3-pointer, and is under contract at a fraction of what Love makes(for now anyway). Love is a far better rebounder, but I'd much rather stick with D-Mo and use that extra money left over to address other needs.

For God's sake, I hope Morey and Les learned their lesson after last summer's big name free agent whiffs. In retrospect, losing out on Melo and Bosh was the best thing that could've happened to this franchise(although getting Lowry would've been nice). Stop with the superstar obsession. Just focus on depth and defense.

 

If I were the Cavs, let Love go, create money to bring LMA. But if Love doesn't like playing with LeBron how's Harden going to be any different?

 

You mean like a pick and roll?

 

Love has proven to be a great player on a bad team and an underachiever on a good team. Not exactly the guy you want to bring in as your third piece of the Championship puzzle.

I get the feeling he would rather be the top dog on an average team than be second or third fiddle on a contender. Lakers anyone?