cyberx, As outlandish as it might sound, curious is Anthony Davis' name ever comes up inside Rockets circles. Asking because there is a lot of online chatter about Houston being a dark-horse trade partner for Davis and because, outside convincing Kawhi Leonard to sign with Houston, I don't think there are other major additions on the market worthy of moving Chris Paul's salary unless the intent is to rebuild now (while avoiding luxury tax). There's Leonard, Davis, injured Durant, then a large drop off to the likes of Jimmy Butler, Kyrie, Tobias Harris, etc.
I’d imagine we’re 50-55 wins with the same group, Bev and everyone relatively healthy and our old guys aging another year. Maybe I’m underselling us a bit, but either way, yeah, not good enough to consider ourselves elite like last year. The way to potentially get there, IMO, is to acquire a reliable secondary scorer to make us less dependent on Harden. Someone that can carry us through stretches and also defend at a sufficient level. Easier said than done, though, I realize. That’s my singular focus. I’d rather preserve the MLE for a potential EG or CC replacement that we might have to surrender via trade to get there than to spend it on someone that individually doesn’t move the needle much.
Fun fact: Sportrac has Patrick Beverley as one of the Rockets' free agents (listed with Iman, Nene, Chriss, Rivers) Lulz https://www.spotrac.com/nba/houston-rockets/yearly/cap/
Rockets/Morey is interested in anybody he thinks he has the possibility to get below market value... For Morey its like collecting basketball cards - the book value on this card is $10, but if he can get it for $2 - he's all over it! Meanwhile we are woefully undersized, lacking in athleticism and can't box out or rebound... this is where analytics are inferior to actual understanding of the game... imo... and I love Bev... but the back court is not a priority...
You're correct. Morey hasn't played a lick of ball. His high school experience doesn't count for any thing. He didn't play on a big team. Ujiri has played college basketball. He has a better understanding of the game than Morey.
What if the Rockets offered Chris Paul for Bev, Lou Williams, and Montrezl Harrell? How many draft picks would we have to give up do you think?
Clips would have no interest in this deal - even with draft picks included... c'mon, why would they gut their team for an aging vet on the downturn on a huge contract? lol
I don’t know why you have to do it. You know for an absolute fact that analytics doesn’t tell anyone specifically to take undersized guys lacking in athleticism that can’t box out or rebound. In the Harden era, we have been a high end rebounding team once, but generally have been in the middle of the pack range. This year is an EXTREME outlier in terms of how poorly we rebounded compared to the rest. Let’s not act like this has been something that has plagued Morey rosters every single year. I mean seriously guy. I would pay big bucks to see the reaction on Daryl Morey’s face as you explained to him how his fancy numbers have blinded him of the need for tall athletic guys who can rebound.
yep... I can always count on jordnnnn to tell me I'm wrong... lol Dude, Morey has notoriously undervalued size and length... He's always loved tweeners... When you look at the analytics of certain players - as opposed to the actual situational play - there can be many misconceived beliefs. For example, an undersized guy playing next to prime Shaq could have good rebounding numbers - because Shaq is pulling all the attention... or if other bigs are boxing out and allowing for the undersized guy to grab those boards... or if they're just blocking defenders and leaving the rebound so Westbrick can falsely inflate his rebounding numbers... Point being - numbers dont always tell the whole story... you gotta use common sense and realize size matters... What you call an 'extreme outlier' seems to be a continuation of a downward trend... as far as our past good numbers regarding rebounding... followed by mediocrity... followed by falling off a cliff... just the further we go down the 'too many 3s/MDA' rabbit hole.... as we double and triple down on 3s and offense we give up ground on defense and rebounding... I know I've said it enough times - it's about balance! But let's go ahead and extend MDA's contract... let's get a few more years of small ball and ill-advised chucking while our defense (without Bzdelik) reverts to how we started the year... but hey, I'm sure there will be some impressive offensive numbers that we can all cherish - instead of a championship... smh...
ORRRRRR something has to be given up. Not every player available checks every box. Sometimes you have to pick and choose. Cap limitations set forth by owners has been something Morey has had to deal with his entire tenure. When we have made draft picks we have taken PLENTY of long athletes. The majority of the “tweener” love you speak of is pre Harden era when we were drafting 14 every year and likely just going with who we believed would be the best guy not the best athlete rebounder. And your characterization of our rebounding is just wrong. Last year alone, when we had plenty of athletes who could rebound, we were an excellent defensive rebounding team. Our overall rebounding % was 50.3 and the league leader was 52%. One year freaking outlier dude. That’s it. Last year we shot a **** ton of 3s, rebounded extremely well and played very good defense. All these things are possible with the right players. Morey didn’t all of a sudden change how he valued players when he put together the 17/18 roster and then all of a sudden change his views again this year and decided well hell I will just change it up again. Nonsense. You again are just complaining to complain and once again throw out some bull crap that isn’t based in reality to dump on analytics. Edit some light reading if interested... https://www.itworldcanada.com/article/toronto-raptors-unveil-a-digital-war-room/380686 https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-stats-guys-vs-basketball-guys-rivalry-is-overblown/
I think you and I will get along just fine : http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php...a-pat-bev-reunion.299385/page-7#post-12462669
Just two people crossing paths on the internet making the same reference to a musical in a basketball forum, that's all.
it is a lot different this system to that. Way more threes and way more iso than back then. Beverley's defence is over rated as well. People mistake his tenacity of good defence, easy to drive past him and get to the rim
