This. I mean I wanted Horford as much as the next guy but at 30M? Not worth it esp. at his age Boston can have him lmao. I'm pretty sure Morey could've juggled contracts to get Bazemore, Gordon and Anderson here if Bazemore had signed with us but oh well. IMHO the best deal out of this entire summer is Harden renegotiating his contract. Loyalty I feel is so underrated nowadays, even when Dwight chose Houston he deliberately signed a 3 year deal so he can opt out if things don't work out. I feel like this sends a clear message about Harden being with the Rockets for the long haul, esp since Harden will miss the timing for the new super teams" to form.
If Bazemore was one of our offseason superstars, then you could kiss a Top 4 spot in the near future goodbye.
Harden has a little nash in him? Except nash setup guys 1st vs when doesnt have a choice. Plus Nash was a 2:1 asst:to guy.
The grand plan was KD. He wasn't interested, this was plan C (after Horford and Bazemore). I think this was a pretty good fallback option it's not like the league ends tom, after the midseason the Rox can still make moves depending on what happens, we have approx 21M sitting with Bev, Ariza and Brew all of whom are extremely movable right now. Have you been living under a rock? You know which team KD signed to for the next two years? Unless you're GSW, Spurs or Cavs you better be satisfied just making the playoffs smh.
That's obvious about the super teams. So we can spend the next few years just satisfied making the playoffs, or we can build for the future, hoping that in a couple of years we have a place among the new emerging elite. Teams like Minny, Milwaukee and Utah are on the cusp of being very good for many years. If we remain on the mediocrity treadmill, just satisfied making the playoffs, we'll miss out on a chance to be a truly great franchise again. We should be taking risks, betting on the next young Dragic or Lowry, not signing $20 mil Ryan andersons under the delusion that we are doing anything other than just trying to stay competitive. It's not a long term strategy for getting back to a championship!
Or sign the up and comers like Giannis, KAT, Noel, etc instead of going after the superstars like Melo, Durant, Lebron, etc.
If they had actually tried to get into the Top 5 draft pick sweeps, there would be more hope about the future and a young star.
It wouldn't be Anderson and Gordon vs Bazemore., Anderson and Gordon got 133 million It would be Anderson and Gordon vs Bazemore + 15 mill in cap space. I would take Bazemore + M.Williams/Deng for example over Anderson and Gordon, even Bazemore and Teletovic might have been a better duo. Just not a fan of adding 2 injury prone one way players.
No i'm just saying if Bazemore would of chosen to come here, I would have preferred him over getting Anderson and Gordon. Not saying we should have offered him more, what we offered was already overpaying him IMO. I personally would rather invest a large long term contract in a healthy, athletic 2 way player(+15mill in cap), over two, injury prone, one way players. I know I will like Gordon and Anderson, but I also know their signings will limit this teams success due to their lack of defense and injuries. The two biggest things the Rockets needed to focus on this off season (outside of fixing chemistry) was getting healthier and better defensively and we obviously didn't do that with our off season moves.
I don't think so, most his defensive stats are awful, he's too slow to guard PG's and is undersized for a wing. His injuries had to have to slowed him down a bit. I can see one hoping to call him a neutral defender, but I definitely wouldn't say he's a good defender, until he shows me otherwise my opinion based of his stats, injuries, size and fan reviews of him is that he's a below average defender.
You have to admit and you could finally see it at the end of the season that the Rockets franchise has the wrong owner now. Personally I would have taken the 12th pick in the lottery instead of making the playoffs to play against a team that just broke the NBA record with 73 wins.
Our biggest problem IMO is the offensive burden harden is carrying is the heaviest in the league Dwight 'I only want post-ups or I won't give my 100% on both sides of the court' Howard's minutes being replaced by Capela and Nene instantly made us better offensively while replacing Dmo 'trade rescinded because of a bad back' with Anderson as a starter made us healthier too pbev and ariza can still go back to be elite defenders in their position especially now they have a center which will give 100% defensively and a Pf which will miss fewer shots which lead to fast breaks And i think this lesser offensive burden on harden may just get him back to 2015 defense
I certainly would have at least traded Jones and Dwight at the deadline to get a young talent or picks.
I think the only reason the Rockets held on to Dwight is because it would have sent a bad message to players around the league. It may have shown that the Rockets will even trade their "stars". Could the Rockets have gotten something in return? Probably, or maybe they didn't get an offer that they liked because teams knew it would most likely be a rental. In the end I think the Rockets showed they were loyal to Dwight even when things were not working out. To me that would be an important message sent to players. Now, I also believe that the Rockets did not want Dwight back and were saying all the right things, but secretly hoping he didn't opt in. It is what it is at this point.
