Woj on Sportscenter "Rockets are recruiting Jimmy Butler hard and might have a deal with him"

He looks like Dikembe Mutombo and a horse had a love child.

 

Nice. Very nice.

 

When did he make Dorsey a legit starter?

That never happened.

Black was never a legit backup he was a playable 3rd center who you could not play in the playoffs due to defensive liabilities.

Being a good C on this team takes more than being able to say catch lobs.

 

How does Harden make it easy for them with rebounds and defense?

 

If we add Butler at the expense of Capela and Gordon while getting hard-capped at the apron, I'm confident that we will not progress much further than we did last year. I think the Rockets would be a 2nd or 3rd round out at best. I'm willing to die on that hill.

Capela has become so ridiculously underrated. Not just by our fans, but the league too. Are we seriously talking about Javale McGee being our Capela replacement? Our lack of front-line defense and rebounding will be such a glaring issue in this scenario that it will weigh heavy on our new big 3 since they'd be the ones who have to pick up the load. Since we'd be hard-capped, we would have no way to actually FIX that issue without trading our only movable asset remaining - PJ Tucker. And let's not forget either -- the same way Rocket fans are down on Capela for his playoff performance, fans are high on Tucker for his. PJ is NOT reliable offensively for large stretches of the regular season.

Daryl Morey. If you're reading this... please think long and hard before hard-capping yourself AND moving Capela in the same deal. Our (aging) Big 3 will be crawling into the post-season on dead legs if you do this.

 

what? Joey dorsey was never able to average more than 12 mins a game. he started a whopping 17 games in his most recent stint lol. tariq black sucks. harden couldn't even help him

 

I'm with you 100%. If Butler really wants to be here, opting in with a promise for a max next year is the route we need him to go. If not, we are going to handcuff this team into being a borderline contender.

 

Someone reminds this fella the Warriors are gone.

 

Yesh we saw that during the playoffs with Capela. He turned out to be fool’s gold

 

Everyone talks about how Butler and Harden and Paul will clash.

The thing is...... all three of them are the same in many ways.

All three are opinionated, all three are not above being petty, all three are very strong willed.

However, what no one seems to get is that they also don't care if they like a teammate........ all that matters to them is if they RESPECT a teammate.

All three have very strong work ethics. All three have above all else want to win and all three have made sacrifices to win.

Look at the situation around the "issues" all three have had...... Harden and Howard did not get along..... why is that? Why did Kobe and Howard not get along? They all had ZERO respect for Howard's lack of effort and competitiveness. Why did Chris Paul have issues with Glen Davis? He thought he was a clown that didn't give effort...... why did Paul and Griffin have issues? Griffin didn't always give effort. Why did Butler leave a huge amount of money on the table in Chicago? He had zero confidence in the Bulls being of the mindset that they would win at all costs.

Why didn't Harden and Paul flip out when Irv Roland left? James Harden said it when the season ended....... "I just want to win and anything that takes."

Why did Chris Paul not flip out when Carmelo was let go? Same reason.......... why didn't the Lakers add Carmelo? LeBron wanted to win.

This is a job and a passion to these types of players...... they all make enemies, they really don't give a damn.

Will some of the younger role players get treated poorly? Hell yeah, until they show that they have what it takes.

 

The Warriors aren't gone. They will still have the same core that beat us last post-season, albeit with Klay Thompson coming off an injury. But he WILL be back in time for the playoffs.

Besides, the West is wide-open and with KD gone, teams will be just as aggressive as the Rockets in their quest for a Finals birth. The only difference is we will be sitting idly on the sideline while our conference competitors are wheeling and dealing at the trade deadline and picking up contributors on the buyout market. If we don't come out of the gates swinging, we are screwed. Denver, Portland, San Antonio Golden State, and BOTH LA teams are threats in the playoffs. It's no longer a 2 man race.

Not to mention, Butler and CP3 are highly prone to injuries. If they get hurt and we're hard-capped, you can kiss our championship hopes goodbye.

I'll reiterate this again. If we trade Capela in the same deal that hard-caps us at the apron, the Rockets will be in huge trouble.

 

So we are going to just forget his total playoffs performance and harp on one series.

makes sense.

 

Are you assuming KD will be back and healthy? People forget that KD played in every single game except game 6. He was hurt late in game 5, but still played 32-33 minutes. I know the narrative is to say otherwise........ but pretty sure having no KD in the first 5 games of that series would have made a different........ not to mention there is a real possibility that Klay Thompson may not be the same player (if he is back at all). Andre I is on his last leg, Cousins and Looney may not be back..... Annnd lets see how healthy Curry is having to carry a MASSIVE offensive load for the regular season at age 32 with dainty ankles.

 

I am a huge Capela advocate (my past posts on him proves this), but I would trade him for Butler in a heartbeat. I rather trade Ego though.

 

If we are hard-capped with a roster consisting of:

Paul
Harden/MLE player
Butler/Edwards
Tucker
Nene/Hartenstein (or a replacement using the MLE instead of additional help in the back court)

then no, I have little confidence that this team can beat the non-dynasty Warriors. And even if they do, I think Denver would stomp us. They have the right mix of depth, front-court presence and young talent in the back court (that will torch CP3 if he even makes it to the post-season healthy) to beat us quite handily. If the Rockets did make the Finals, they wouldn't be talented or deep enough to beat Milwaukee, Toronto and especially Philly. The two most important factors to building a championship team is starpower and balance. We have the starpower in this scenario but we would have virtually zero balance. Toronto won a championship because they had enough combinations of lineups that were able to step up in key situations against the Warriors. Hell, even the Miami Heat dynasty fell apart against Dallas because their team was rail-thin outside of their big three. Then they add Ray Allen, Shane Battier, Rashard Lewis and Chris Andersen and they win a couple of championships. If we are hard-capped, we wouldn't be able to do that. And by the time we do have some flexibility to make some moves, CP3 will become a non-factor on an albatross contract and both Harden and Butler will be saying goodbye to their primes.

Keeping Capela out of any Butler deal should be an imperative for Daryl Morey and his staff.

 

that's pretty much what he was with philly, or played like.

 

What sport were you watching? Butler was a star and their best player in the playoffs.

 

Well WOJ actually said they might have an agreement with Butler, so i will believe him on this front. now the sign and trade
might be difficult, but i dont doubt Butler has given the rockets the green light to explore this option.

 

Personally I am not willing to go that far.

All WOJ has said is the Rockets hope to get Butler........ they think they will get a meeting with him....... the Sixers really want Butler and don't want to lose him for free.

 

First...... I don't think Butler is going to the Rockets.

However, hypothetically there is no doubt that the Rockets will push extremely hard to have Butler opt in and then trade for him. That will save the Rockets assets and the MLE. However, IF Butler says he will not opt in..... but will go to the Rockets in a S&T, the Rockets have to take that risk.