He's a good asset? Morey could sign him and flip him later down the line. Maybe trade deadline. My train of thought is same as yours though. There not be enough minutes.
Fine, he's an asset. But why not use that money to sign someone who could actually contribute now? We do still have a hole at PG that needs to be addressed. I'm glad Bev is back on a reasonable contract, but he's not the answer as the starter. It's also worth asking how big of an asset McDaniels would be down the road if he never gets to play. Teams won't know how good(or bad) he could be.
Because Dekker will be spending time in the D league basically all year. McDaniels brings another athletic body with good defense. NBA body. I really hope we can keep him and Smith. Trade jones for a point guard. (collision)
I agree! But I don't know if there's any starting PG's available right now though. Only way would be to trade for one. Personally I don't think we resign him just bc we don't have the need to. Kinda sucks that we basically let Canaan go for virtually nothing. I'm sure Morey has in the back of his mind that Harden asked for help and he has yet to get it. So hopefully he can get that done. Gotta keep your star happy.
He is a 22 year old 2nd your player with All-NBA Defensive player of the year potential. He is probably the most athletic player on the Rockets and one of the most athletic players in the league. He is very good taking the ball to the basket and if he develops just an average outside shot he will be deadly. Never think the roster is complete. KJ is probably already the Rockets 2nd best wing defender behind Ariza and ahead of Beverly. He is definitely a better wing defender than Brewer. He creates trade opportunities at the deadline for the Rockets much the someway someone like Aaron Brooks did when he was on the team. It was Aaron that gave the Rockets confidence to trade Rafer Alston for Kyle Lowry. What if the Suns decide that they are ready to trade Eric Bledsoe sometimes during the season. One of the positions they need is Small Forward. If the Rockets trade Ariza or Brewer then that very much puts KJ in the mix for rotation minutes. Also look at it this way. Dekker is very likely to spend most of the season down in RGV along with Montrezl Harrell. Both Harden and Ariza played too many minutes last season in most posters opinions. Brewer could spend most of his minutes on the floor backing up Harden while KJ could earn his minutes backing up Ariza.
Great points! I guess for a lot of Rockets fans it's hard to evaluate him and see his value when he never played. It's easy to forget the dude is a freak athlete. Maybe there is more need for him than I thought.
if by reasonable you mean his max (the full mle) then I doubt it. Because you can bet that he will have it offered.
Nick Johnson is a better wing defender than KJ and got some minutes in the playoffs where KJ got nothing.
If McDaniels gets to play(and can contribute obviously), then I'm fine with resigning him. But I have a bad feeling he'd be 4th in the rotation behind Ariza, Brewer, and Dekker. Which means no minutes unless it's garbage time and those are meaningless anyway. Hell, this team still has Papa on the roster at the moment, so we'd be 5 deep at that position. I just don't see a future for McDaniels here given the length of the contracts given to Ariza and Brewer.
IMO it is probably somewhere in the ~2.5 million range. I certainly doubt that it would exceed 3.7 because that would activate the hard cap. But here is another way to look at it. If there are teams out there willing to offer him the full MLE then his trade value must be pretty damn good. Not so sure that Daryl Morey would just let that type of asset walk for nothing when the contract was no more than the MLE.
yes but it is futile to argue this because it is a given he will be offered the full mle. One team who is extremely interested to , is already leaked. The Knicks. Definitely he is a good trade asset. And that's why other teams are willing to give full mle money. He has potential and is a good investment.
McDaniels is not worth the full MLE. He is a guy with a lot of athleticism who can make some nasty dunks. He can't shot and hasn't shown the ability to play smart d. I would like to keep him to see if he can develop but even half the MLE is overpaying. There is no guarantee he will be anything more than a circus act.
Nick Johnson can not guard 3s for any stretch unless the other team plays small ball. KJ is just as good or better than Nick on defense IMO. Nick got minutes in the play-offs because he is part of a position of weakness. We were starting Jason Terry and bringing in Pablo Prigioni. There wasn't on ounce of defense being played between the two of them. So of course Nick should have played some minutes. KJ plays the 2 & 3 spots. With Harden, Brewer and Ariza he was never going to get any minutes in the play-offs. Not to mention that KJ had a non-displaced elbow injury going into the play-offs. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Nick Johnson as a player. I think his defense is better than Beverly's defense and he make fewer mistakes on offense when on the floor. Nicks problem like KJ's is that he does not have an outside shot. And like Beverly he is not a play maker. If Nick develops an average 3pt shot then I think his ceiling is higher than Pats for sure . A 2nd unit defense that included Nick, Brewer, KJ, SMoove & Capela would be pretty damn good IMO. The offense would be reliant on transition points in most situation I think but defense would be outstanding.
It feels like the big money contracts have already been given out and I don't expect KJ to get anything too ridiculous especially with the small body of work he had. Of course I will probably be completely wrong tho
I wonder if Josh were to leave 50% money on the table and sign $2.5m with us if DM would give him a no trade clause. Smith would be taking a discount to stay here to play with this team. It'd only seem fair given the size of his contract to give him control over the team he plays for as compensation.
most teams still have their mles. that's the max he can get. it's also a perfect opportunity because even though he's restricted houston is in contention and it's a serious question if they will think to match. He and Biyombo are two of the best investments of the mle for teams looking to add young talent.
I agree that he isn't worth the full MLE at this point. But that might not deter Daryl Morey. All DM has to be convinced of is can he move the player if he needs to. I disagree with you about his defense. The games that I have seen him play he has been absolutely outstanding when on the floor. players drafted in the lottery don't pan out half of the time either but they still get paid. I think if you redrafted the 2014 draft KJ would go in the lottery. I think teams will continue to value him. And if he develops then he could make an older player expendable in a trade or he could be part of a trade package himself. At this point I think he is much more desirable player for the team or in a package than Pablo Prigioni or Joey Dorsey or Jason Terry.
