Snapshot of the Current Roster. Where we are now & what's next...

We could give Sac every last cent short of Harden and not get close on Cousins.

I'd love to get him, but just don't see it until free agency.

 

Best of health to you, thanks as usual.

Cdrive you got everyone I got except possibly korver and Tyson Chandler . Really love Demarcus but I can't see us having enough unless he demands to be here

 

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The Phoenix Suns reportedly talked with the Atlanta Hawks about Paul Millsap, and they come armed with prospects galore, extra point guards and two future Miami picks.
[ESPN] Shooting for the stars
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A three way trade to facilitate moving Millsap to the Suns? Are Tyson Chandler and PJ Tucker available in that firesale? Beverley sounds like a better backup option to Schröder than Bledsoe, Knight, or Goodwin.

 

Love would be great, but what would it cost? I know they need to move him if they want to sign Wade, but how much can they take back? A signed Dmo, Capella and picks? Pretty steep when you are already paying Anderson $20M. But you probably still need to do it.

 

*we're not worthy, Cod! we're not worthy!*

All in...I'm assuming this includes a bunch of future 1sts, Capela, etc?

 

I just don't see any evidence that this team is anything other than first round fodder. No team in NBA history has ever been a serious competitor while sharing the Rockets' lack of defense, rebounding and discipline.

Harden will get his points against the crap teams (and occasionally the good ones) during the regular season, which will be enough for a low playoff seed. Once the playoffs start, however, he will be shut down more frequently as teams realize that pressuring him stalls the offense and leads to easy turnovers. That, combined with his tendency to pass a few beats later than ideal, will lead Anderson and Gordon to have career lows in shooting the 3 (as they'll be more tightly covered than they were in the past).

This team is built upon the idea that Harden is an elite creator but he's not. He's willing, but he doesn't have the court vision to make the quick pass when someone is briefly open. He's another in a long line of talented combo guards (Iverson, Francis, Ariza, Westbrook) who can win a lot of games by themselves but whose limitations also create a ceiling on the team's success.

Golden State showed how you can compete with a combo guard - take the ball out of his hands and let someone else (in their case, Draymond Green) run the offense for good portions of the game. The Rockets have never allowed anyone to do that since Harden has been here and it's led him to develop some really bad habits (a complete indifference to defense being one of them). None of our additions this year full this need and so I expect the results will be something between last years' debacle and the previous year's success. But we won't be serious contenders.

 

I agree with you 100%. We need a true point guard and a good or decent center. Are we at all looking at Greg Monroe for the center position? Are their any good PG left in free agency and are we looking at any at this point?

 

Just want to point out that this team made it to the Western Conference Finals without a single person who could dribble and breathe at the same time outside of Harden.

Skepticism makes sense and I can even get on board with some negativity, but the odd doom and gloom mentality is baffling.

 

I don't know anything about the kid from China. But his frame looks like he can pile on at least 25-30 more pounds, half of which being muscle.

 

I don't necessarily see his position as "doom and gloom" per se but rather an understandable pessimism with regards to their chances. And to be honest, I really can't fault him given the events of the post season thus far. Teams can either sell their fans excellence or hope. Right now the Rockets are selling the latter. But in order to have hope, you must first have faith that this organization (a) Knows what it's doing and (b) Has a plan for success that will work. And that's why you see the lack of excitement here because many folks don't have faith that this organization will get things right...this time.

 

We need to do everything in our power to trade for Westbrook and sign his ass to an extension.

 

We'd have our own splash bros and Beasley would be our KD

 

Based on Codman's post, it sounds like the reason Houston has been so quiet since the Gordon signing is that they're working the phones and trades at this point, which I expected. Of all the options mentioned, I'm all for targeting one of the Suns' point guards. Bledsoe and his tenacious defense seem like a better fit, but I have no clue what Phoenix's asking price is for he or Knight.

Love would have been great before the Anderson signing. Now acquiring him seems really redundant. And I'm not really a fan of Lopez or Cousins on this team as I don't think they fit what this roster needs from the position defensively. If they're going to trade for a center, I'm still a fan of acquiring Noel, but Codman seems convinced that Okafor is the target.

I'm glad to hear they're working potential trade angles right now. At this point, I think that's the best avenue to improving this team as the free agent market as gotten pretty picked over and they're running out of cap room.

 

God I HOPE Morey pulls off some blockbuster trade soon.

 

Let's rewind to that playoff run.....

In the series against Dallas, we faced an aging team with the following strikes against them:

1) Best wing player (Parsons) was injured;
2) PG (Rondo) went mental and sat the 2nd half of the series
3) An aging PF (Nowitsky) who was completely helpless to defend the puck and roll.

Harden had a good series, but the difference was the devastation that Josh Smith created in the pick and roll with Dwight. Any other team would have defended that at least competently, but Dallas couldn't do it.

In the series against the Clippers, Harden disappeared and was bailed out by career performances by Josh Smith and Corey Brewer coinciding with career choking by the Clipperd. It was exhilarating but Harden had little to do with winning.

Against Golden State, Harden not only disappeared but he choked away a potentially winning possession in Game 2 by fumbling the ball away. I saw Lin justifiably given all kinds of hell for his choke job against Portland, but Harden got a pass for some reason in his performance against Golden State. The Rockets were slaughtered by Golden State and that series was never even remotely competitive.

I know it's heresy to say this, but the Rockets' western conference appearance was a fluke. In every other year, this team with Harden as the focal point has been first round fodder (including a series where we were the clear favorite). So given the incontrovertible evidence, there's no reason to believe this team - a team that has still not significantly addressed its wretched defense and rebounding and continues to ask a talented but flawed scorer and introvert to be the focal point and floor leader - can be anything other than first round fodder.

That's not doom and gloom - that's the facts.

 

Tax Threshold and Salary cap are two different things

Cap is 94.1 million
Tax Threshold is 113 million
Apron is 117 million

 

There have been several players signed in the last few days to reasonable contracts that could help the Rockets and easily could have fit into our remaining cap space. I think no moves indicates that Morey is indeed working on trades that will take our remaining cap space.

I was also wondering if teams that have secured a commitment from free agents might be working on sign-and-trades with the player's former team while the moratorium is still going on. Would that be beneficial in the Rockets' case? In years past, while a team might have the cap space to sign a FA, it would take all of their room so they would do the SnT to offset some salary and give the other team some picks so both sides benefit. With so much cap space available to teams this year, many of them still have room even after handing out huge contracts. So do you think we will see many SnT's? Are there any situations where that would even be beneficial to the teams?

 

Ahh thanks!! Morey getting some Suns or Hawks guys would be amazing. Have faith CF