Ric Bucher: Rockets hot and heavy after a PG upgrade; don't count out Deron Williams

Ugh, I just remembered that we lost out on signing Lowry because we were waiting for Melo.

We literally could of had Lowry and matched Parsons, and still had the Pelicans pick and TPE to get Brewer. That offseason makes me sick.

 

What minutes are you giving to Prigioni though? He's not replacing Beverly even though he's a better offensive player.

He's bad on defense and he certainly can't hang with quicker players. Harden was dancing him out of his shoes last night.

I do like Prigioni as a bench player, but I don't see any real minutes for him here unless you are giving him Terry's. I don't see how he's a big upgrade over Terry though.

 

I don't think we could have done all of that actually.

In order to sign Lowry we would have needed to clear the cap space by dealing off Asik and Lin. By then signing Lowry we would have had to renounce the TPE.

You can't have cap space to sign a player AND keep the TPE.

 

Well it's pointless to get in detail about the past that never happened but I believe we would have only needed to deal one of Asik or Lin to sign Lowry, so getting a single TPE in return wouldn't of hurt the signing. Also even if not, it probably would of been easy to get Lowry in a S&T as well, by shipping Toronto a couple seconds in a 3 team deal where we dumped Lin or Asik.

 

Completely agree.

 

Spot on!

Morey uses the media. We have seen a lot of Rockets related Woj and Amick stories. And we have seen Morey drum up "time related" auctions for players and/or deadlines. Morey will use all options at his disposal for leverage.

 

what am I missing here? Why give up assets for Dragon now.... is the main fear that some other team will trade for him then sign him to an extension? I'd much prefer to just sign him to a nice contract this summer, keep the NO pick, and not make anymore changes in-season.

 

I think the Big concern this year come playoff time is...."will the Rockets have a dependable 3 pt/mid range shooter" we can rely on consistently when teams try to take away Harden. All we need is a consistent outside shooter that can knock down open 3's consistently and all of a sudden our offense looks unstoppable. Ariza/Beverly go hot and cold so if they get hot during the playoffs this issue gets resolved. This is the key in my opinion. The other option is start Brewer if he continues to stay hot benching either one as we roll into the playoffs.

 

I just hope we find a pure pg. I love Beverly but we need those dimes dished especially with Howard.

 

The Rockets don't have the money to sign him in free agency.

 

The best we can do is about $7.5 million this off season as a free agent unless we make some major changes. And even that comes at a heavy cost.

But I get your point.

 

Rockets cant really trade for Dragic right now. Morey wants to use either Shved or Brewer as part of package to get him. I wouldn't be surprised if Morey gave TJones, Pelicans pick, and Shved for Dragic. The Suns surely wouldn't turn that down, but it will have to wait a couple of days before the trade deadline.

 

It is 9mil from what Bima mentioned, but yeah, still a ways off from offering Dragic even close to what he would want.

 

The Suns aren't trading Dragic until the trade deadline and that's if they are a long shot for the playoffs (doubtful) and Goran wants out. I am sure they want to keep him. They love hoarding poing guards for some strange reason I will never understand. Maybe they signed Thomas to trade him. What they fail to understand is the demand for NBA PGs isn't that high as you can always sign one in the off-season or draft one in the first.

Let me explain. If Morey wanted Deron Williams, then the Rockets would have Deron Williams.

 

This trading Tjones talk continues to be so funnny. I don't think any team would trade for Tjones with out seeing him play at least a full two weeks straight after a nerve injury. It's going to be interesting to see if Morey can pull a rabbit out of a hat though. If we do make a trade for a legit PG it's going to hurt for who we are going to have to give up, but the closer it gets to Feb trade deadline though the more I think you can take Tjones off the table as far as being a trade piece.

 

The Suns are getting Brandan Wright. It looks like they are pushing for deeper playoffs run?

How will that affect the chance of getting Dragic?

 

It means it isn't happening. It was always a pipedream and now we can all wake up realize it isn't happening.

 

Lawson is a stud. I don't expect them to trade him for any of the options you're throwing out. Teams don't make deals to try and get worse.

 

I would have been happier if Morey got Wright instead of Smith, but it probably would have cost us the Pelicans pick. That would be too much.
Dragic's chances of coming here are very remote now. Wright will fit in nicely with the Suns.

 

Surely the Suns arent going to be able and afford giving Dragic max this summer and also giving Wright at least 10mil/yr. Which is why Dragic is the one that is going to be traded.