There’s still a lot of quality players left. Not going to list guys like Marcus Smart, Jabari Parker, Wade, IT etc cause they’re long shots. Not listing guys like Greg Monroe and Okafor cause they don’t fit and or suck. With that said I see SEVERAL potential good targets. Here’s what we need, can use and what’s realistically available (IMO only of course) Backup PG help: Tyrone Wallace (defense), Yogi Farrell (offense) Shooters/instant offense from bench: Wayne Ellington, Jamal Crawford Wings: Rodney Hood, Patrick McCaw, David Nwaba Frontcourt help: Dante Cunningham, Trez Harrell, Bebe Nogueira, Alex Len I think we definitely need help at frontcourt with or without Capela and you can never have enough athletic wings. I’d love to have Rodney Hood or McCaw the most as far as wings go and any 1 of the big men I listed.
I dont like any of those targets for the MLE over keeping melo for potentially 2 years. Cunningham doesnt deserve MLE money, Harrell isnt coming back. Morey is looking more at young guys to backup capela most likely. Long stretch type guys. Not lane cloggers that cant be used vs GS. Alex Len sucks Mccaw, nwaba are both minimum guys. I dont like rodney hood. We dont need guard offense. We have pgs. We have harden, paul, mcw and melton looking good. So no I think all the players left arent worth MLE money. Maybe take 1 or 2 with vet minimum. Id rather just go young with a couple of these summer league guys who look for real. Dont be short sighted. Just because you recognize a name doesnt mean we should be using our ONLY higher salary resource on them. If we use that MLE I want it to be for a benefit for the future. Not just a stop gap player this year. It makes all the sense in the world to use it on melo and a small portion to melton to get him locked into a longer deal.
You will save a LOT of time making this list if you instead focus on instances where he actually WAS about winning.
Agreed that Cunningham isn’t worth MLE money but he’s a long athletic vet that knows how to play and he can help us similar to what Luc gave us in the reg season last year. Contrary to popular belief I don’t think Alex Len sucks .... at all. He’s stilll young same age as Capela, mobile, athletic big man that can produce a double-double night in and night out if given minutes/opportunity. Looking at players that can only play against GSW would be short-sided. Speaking of GSW Capela was pretty useless against them as well. It’s an 82 game season and we lack big man depth. Our best big man after Capela IF we retain him is a 6’5 PJ Tucker. He was a BOSS for us in the playoffs but banging nightly throughout the course of a whole season will absolutely wear on him and he ain’t young no more. Nene is done and Anderson you already know. Again, we definitely need and can use help at frontcourt whether it comes at Min or MLE I don’t care but we must have it. GSW are purposely saving a roster spot for McCaw and I’ll tell you it’s not cause of charity. They see something in the guy and in the few times I got to see him play as well he looked good. I like Rodney Hood cause he’s young, has range, scorer, creates for himself (decent handles), good size & athleticism, decent defender (potential to be even better imo) but most importantly if he pans out he make Ego expendable (fluid topic around these parts) and that’s key because as much as I like Gordon he’s our best trade chip in terms of realistically being moved and getting good value back. Again I’m Pro- Melo but I’d like to see how things go for 1 year before committing to 2 and my original point is that he’s made enough in his career and (Thunder money) where taking a Min deal opposed to MLE isn’t going to make or break him. There’s well respected posters on this board that are afraid to commit to having Melo on the roster period. 1 year at a time... if he really wants to be here in the future he will be.
You cant plan like that. If you sign melo to a vet minimum, you arent likely signing him back. If we need to improve next year and keep melo it is going to be hard to do if you then have to give melo the MLE. He will play on a low contract this year because hes getting paid, but other teams most likely if he has a decent season will offer him Non taxpayer MLE type money. We will have to be competitive with an offer. He isnt just going to play on Vet minimums the rest of his career We dont need Rodney hood. We have if we get melo 4 players that create their own shot. Harden, Gordon, Paul, Melo. We dont need a hood. Its exactly why hood didnt work in cleveland. He doesnt do well when he isnt a higher usage player. He is not a spot shooter. Horrible fit Not wasting MLE on a Mccaw. And yes Alex Len is not NBA talent on a contender. He is inconsistent and cant even stay on the floor for a phoenix suns team giving him every chance int he world to run away with that center job. They have so little confidence, they drafted Ayton and said Peace Out Len. We still have nene on the roster. He is the backup center. He is fine during the season. He was only useless vs Golden State. Who we dont play a second big versus them anyway. Tucker is the backup 5 vs. GS. Our 3rd center will be Zhou Qi or Hartenstein So after all this analysis. The MLE going to mostly melo and locking down melton to a 3 year deal with a portion is the clear right way to go for the future. The only way this team improves now since we are probably getting melo and signed ennis is via trade.
Anyone who criticizes morey for giving melo most of the MLE are ignorant to what that means. It means we plan to keep him beyond this year just incase he succeeds. That way we keep the MLE next year for a quality addition which there arent any left worthy this year anyway. So give Melo the MLE and have a competitive 2019/20 season offer to retain him.
Melo is going to be 35 years old this time next year. I’ll take my chances with 1 year first. We WANT playmakers that can create their own shot. As explosive as our offense was last year it also looked quite shitty at times when only one of Harden or Paul was on the floor. Hood can spot up and shoot but he can also get buckets in so many other ways. Who doesn’t want that? Why in the world would you strictly want a spot up shooter and say they’re a bad fit for us if they’re not? You know who was a spot up shooter? Ryan Anderson. Worthless. Trevor Ariza... spot up shooter. When his shot was off he was worthless cause he has no other offensive game. The Suns didn’t give Len a fair shake. They decided to play Russian roulette on a nightly basis to see who would play and which 2 would get the DNP between Len, Chandler and Monroe who they had no business in acquiring anyways lost Bledsoe for nothing basically. They’re a dumb****ing organization as evidenced by paying an Ariza on clear decline $15 Million dollars a year. Oh and when Len did play as I mentioned he actually produced. You keep mentioning Golden State like they’re our only competition. We kinda have to go through the grind of a whole season if we want to face them again. Nene turns 36 years old in a couple months. He wasn’t fine during the regular season last year and he sure as hell won’t be next year. He’s done. If you honestly think we’re fine rolling with Nene as our primary backup Center and only big man aside from Capela I got nothin else to say.
I understand how bird rihts work and why they are important, especially to teams about to be significantly over the cap, like Houston. I just dont understand why having Melo's bird rights are that important.
Melo is probably finished switching teams at this point. I think wherever he goes is where he stays the next few years.
You don't like Rodney Hood? Wayne Ellington can shoot his behind off. If all we got is Hood & resign Capela, with the addition of Ennis, I'd say this offseason would be somewhat okay. If we get Melo while signing Hood, Capela w/ Ennis, then we're actually BETTER than last year
Morey loves Melo. He wants to keep him for more than one year. If we sign him to the minimum this year he'd have to play for the minimum basically again next year OR we'd have to use our MLE on him (which will be smaller than other offers.) We already will have to use that MLE if Ennis performs. Let's be real about the rest of the guys out there. If we add Melo and Ennis and everything goes the way Morey thinks it will go, there are not minutes to be had for someone like Ellington. Morey expects CP3/Harden/Ego/Gerald Green/Ennis and probably Melton to soak up all of those minutes. We can disagree with why Morey is targeting Melo, but if he's right about Melo and wants to keep him than the MLE is the best bet.
I completely understand that morey has been fixated on melo for years (just like he was fixated on anderson for years) and is look for an opportunity to keep him long-term ...even, apparently at the expense of Luc, who played a pretty important role for this team. My contention is that letting Luc walk because you want to have the option of 2 or more years of Melo (at 35 years old) is not, in my opinion, a wise decision. We are trying to win a championship next year. Nothing is guaranteed in the future. Of course you want to plan for the long-term, but hey ...let's just focus on actually winning the title.
This, pretty much. A couple of clarifying points: (1) Carmelo Anthony will NOT be paid $28 million this season if he is waived or bought out. He will make $9.3 million (or likely less, depending on how much money he gives back in a buyout) in each of the next three seasons. If OKC waives its right of set-off, the salaries Melo can get over the next three seasons could materially impact his total earnings during that time. Hence, he'll have legit interest in getting paid as much as possible during that time. (2) Keep in mind that, if things go really well with this season's team, the Rockets may have to use the Taxpayer MLE on James Ennis next summer. If they sign Melo to the vet minimum, then both of those players may have to compete for that MLE, with the other walking in free agency. By using the MLE on Melo now, the Rockets can re-sign Melo to a deal at around the Taxpayer MLE-level *and* re-sign Ennis to the MLE. Otherwise, they risk losing one of those guys. There is also the (unlikely) possibility that Ennis exercises his player option, opening up the MLE to use on yet another player, in which case the Rockets would not need to spend it on Melo instead.
Ughhhh . Did you even see hood in cleveland last year? Hes not good playing alongside high usage players!! We have paul harden, gordon, mcw, ennis, tucker, melton, potentially melo at our 1,2 and 3 There are no more minutes for impact. You are wasting you mle on a player that maybe sees the floor 5-10 minutes. Think longer term that one flippin year. Yes nene turns 36. Hes a backup that plays half the games. They jerked alex len around because he sucks and wasnt consistent. If he was worth a damn hed be on their garbage team.we are probably going younger at 3rd center. You dont waste your only only contract offer tool to improve the team longterm on a backup /third string center
Why is it that we couldn't do that with Luc this offseason? Was it because he was a minimum player last season. If you sign a one year MLE deal, that team can sign you to another MLE deal along with a fresh MLE deal to spend on another player?
They probably wanted luc to sign another ver minimum/ non bird deal so then the next year wed be able to sign him with early bird rights i think. Morey probably values the idea of melo for more than one year over an injured moute for more than minimumin 2019. Had to make a tough future decision. Probably also felt good about ennis replacing luc
