The Rockets don't need to get marginally better, ie Russell for Van Fleet. They need a top 20 talent. They don't have a top 50 talent currently. If I'm doing a trade, it is to get a high first round pick that could potentially be that impact player.
We are better collectively than we are individually. We only need health and consent play. Small moves that set us up for the future is the right way to rebuild. Teaching and learning was happening. We witnessed rookies push the starting lineup for playing time. Then and only then Green stepped up his game. Remember he was on the cusp of being replaced in the starting lineup. (Next logical move after the benching of closing games). Hopefully all players come back stronger and better next season. Our problem is not talent it’s player development and playing time. Remember we cut several FRP’s and still have to many players needing playing time. Smaller moves to keep the keepers because we are not going to be able to keep them all. Timing matters on getting the highest value for our players we have to move as we progress towards a championship.
FVV is definitely a Top 50 talent. Sengun probably is a Top 50 talent or close to it. The Rockets didn't win 41 games with most teams on average having 2 better players than the Rockets's best player. I agree that the Rockets aren't a marginal move away from contending next season or the season after that.
But if you can get marginally better or stagnant while adding assets, you still have to say that’s a win. I think the focus has to be on the Lakers. LeBron’s agent saying he has two more years was done to apply pressure for a move. FVV fits into that timeline perfectly. If you can use him to extract a pick or picks from the Lakers, you have to consider it. Reaves or Russell + Rui for FVV and picks. Amen could be a point forward and either of Reaves or Russell could also run point as well. This would make the Lakers better for Lebron’s final push. While it might not make us significantly better, it leaves our core intact, it adds a draft pick (or two) that could be used by us or added to the BKN picks in a trade, and it leaves us with enough expiring contracts to match a max player in a trade. Sometimes you have to look a move or two ahead.
If Houston can get lucky, they might end up with a good role player. I'm not looking forward to this draft, even if they get the 4th pick. Only Saar looks like a potential star.
If you actually can improve at the margins, you do it. Though, it depends on when the margins are and what is given up. I think the Rockets will be very deep next season such that it will be hard to improve next season by much. I think the likely paths are A) either getting a star or close to it or B) trying to push some assets to the future.
It doesn’t make us better at all, it makes us worse. FVV is better than Reaves, Russell, or Rui. Rui is a bad contract. The broader point is that the Rockets have 6 prospects who will play significant minutes, and two very good players in FVV and Brooks who fit around them. There are almost zero “marginal” improvement scenarios because we’re not trading core 6 for less than a star, and the number of players who are not stars, available, and are upgrades on FVV or Brooks is very small. The only one possibility I see is upgrading Brooks to Bridges, but even that’s really unlikely as we all know.
I agree that the trade may mean our record is not as good next year. We need to be concerned about the long-term. You say Rui is a bad contract, but most people would say FVV is a bad contract. And they are correct… for most teams. We needed FVV, and he filled that need like a champ. But we need to start turning these roles over to our core players. Rui may be overpaid, but he is better (and younger) than both Jeff Green and Jae’Sean Tate. If the Rockets were to swing a trade that brought Rui here, he could easily take the minutes of those two. So, now if you need to make a trade for all of your expiring contracts (Tate, Green, Adams, Jock), you already have someone in place to eat most of the minutes vacated by Green and Tate. You are now getting better production from one roster spot rather than two at roughly the same price. That turns a “bad contract” into a positive. A contract is only bad if it’s preventing you from adding better players. While FVV might be better than any of them individually, the draft picks he could bring back will be better for this team than he ever was. We’ve got to keep moving forward, and anyone who thinks FVV was part of our long-term goals is a fool. And FVV knows that. He signed a contract that will be tradeable to a contender. These are the types of moves the Rockets need to be looking at rather than staying status quo just to try to make the play-in next year. For what? To drag us to a 45 win season? We make the play-in, or maybe 7th seed? Then what? Any progress we make needs to come from our core. FVV was here to show us the way. He is not our long-term savior. Do you remember the uproar here over his contract? We had nobody else to spend our money on. We had to bring him here with a ridiculous per-year salary, completely front-loaded, but tradeable. If we can trade him for a future first, we need to do it. If that means we take a step back next year, so be it. One step back to take two steps forward. That extra pick could be what gets us a true difference-maker. A FVV trade is probably the stepping stone to get that done. Trade of FVV for Russell that brings back an additional pick or two may not improve the team immediately, but package those picks with the BKN picks and we might get that top 20 player. The idea that we have to hold onto FVV (or anyone else) until we get that immediate upgrade is misguided. Continually set yourself up for the future.
So misguided. There’s one thing that’s necessary for championship contention: a top 15 player. The Rockets have two paths to that — develop one of the core 6 or acquire that player via trade. Trading FVV for three worse players from LA does not add to the likelihood one of the core 6 develops into a superstar, it significantly detracts from it. By all accounts FVV has been the ideal developmental leader for our young guys, not to mention playing as a top 50 NBA player this past year. So your suggestion hurts path #1. Meanwhile, acquiring an additional Lakers ‘29 or ‘31 pick does next to nothing for our ability to trade for a top 15 player — we already have more than enough assets to make any trade; the constraint here is not the number of our assets, it is the availability and desire of a top 15 player to come to Houston. If one of those guys was available and wanted Houston, we could make the trade tomorrow with our available assets. An additional pick in the far future doesn’t change that. Tbh, losing FVV and being out of the playoffs next year makes it even less likely because a superstar wouldn’t want to come to a 35 win team. So your idea hurts path #2 as well. That’s not even getting into the Rui contract being significant negative value (FVV’s contract is now a 1 year deal w/ a team option for a very very good player; it is positive value).
Lol. Russell is going to decline his PO and leave the Lakers no way to replace his value. Maybe LeBron will want to play with Brooks as he's more in their salary matching range.
The problem is, you have to get Russell to opt in to trade him for Brooks. If Russell walks, the Lakers are still over the cap and can’t come close to matching his production on the open market, unless Chris Paul is waived and decides to sign there for whatever scraps are available. That’s a real possibility that will bail the Lakers front office out immensely.
Can anyone educate me on how to post Fanspo trades in a reply. I use an ipad. Anyway I posted this in another trade on how to potentially take advantage of the Lakers panic. To Lakers: FVV To Nets Hachimure Russel Vincent Nets 24 pick via Rockets Rockets 27 pick Lakers 25 pick Lakers 28 pick To Rockets Bridges
I keep looking at that, too. They have kind of painted themselves into a corner. FVV and two picks seems kind of steep for Bridges, but I certainly understand the strategy.
Go to Fanspo and make the trade Take a screenshot on iPad (top button + one of the volume buttons) In Photos app or other image editor of your choice, crop picture as desired Upload picture to whatever image hosting site you like (I use imgur)
