A brief count of the remaining alternatives for Rox going forward

Get Rondo ASAP!!!!

 

Rondo is terrible and a terrible fit with Harden.

 

Well there are several things we can do.

1. realistic FA options:
- Deng
- Ariza
- Stephenson
- Pierce
- Turner

2. RFA that we might snag (problem with Parsons of course)
- Bledsoe
- Monroe

3. Possible trade targets
- J. Smith
- Millsap (probably costly, but he has only 1 year left)
- Taj Gibson (if Bulls need the capspace)
- Ryan Anderson
- Dragic (if the Suns won't to go forward with Thomas and Bledsoe)
- Rondo (again costly)
- Ilyasova

4. Pipe dreams with a possibility of <1%
- trade for Love
- sign Melo

I probably missed several players and Morey will probably surprise us, but those are the main options in my mind.

 

While I see you are trying to be positive, this actually made me feel worse.

 

I'm disappointed about how things turned out, but honestly I wasn't that enthusiastic about taking Bosh&Parsons in for 36 million per year.

The thing the Rockets were missing last year was leadership on the floor and a passion for defense from all 5 guys; it wasn't due to lack of talent.

Paying Parsons Max dollars, to me, is a mistake. He's a good player, but its not clear to me that he's even an all-star caliber player. I did not see significant progress from him between his 2nd and 3rd years. Let him go.

The Rockets should pursue proven veterans who know how to play smart and will keep the egos of certain players on the team in check.

 

It's not neccessary about being positive - it's about not looking back but forward. We've got b****slapped by Bosh, now what do we do. The outcome won't be nearly as good as getting Bosh, but we can still get a better team together than we had last season. And that team might actually contend for a title.

 

Can we eliminate JSmoove pls? In the playoffs we needed 3 pt shooting along with good Defense.

 

I'll settle for Bledsoe, Deng or Ariza. Love and Melo are indeed a pipe dream.

 

Good summary.

I would add:

The bolded names

 

There would appear to be a lot of promising trade possibilities that, if pulled off in time, would make matching Parsons worth it. Ersan, Dragic, rondo, Milsap, Gibson, and even Josh Smith are all intriguing. In Morey we trust?

But I'd be willing to walk away from Parsons period if we locked up Bledsoe for 4 years and filled out the rest of our roster with our exception money.

Either way, I still think there are viable options out there for Houston that will get us to contending status, despite the disappointment of the last few days.

We should have offered $13 to Lowry and locked him up with these crazy prices

 

On a good note. Between the Rox and Cavs, I think Rox have a very good chance to sign Love. But Love like Melo and Bosh understand the incompetence @ the helm known as McHale. Bosh's ultimate decision was the callous no defense of Harden coupled with the incompetence of McHale along with that $30 million extra on the table. His family likes Miami so yeah.... Love is probably aware of McHale and that makes it a tough sell. I don't understand why Morey doesn't fathom getting rid of McHale to have a better chance of acquiring championship minded star free agents?

 

Unfortunately, I think Bledsoe is a pipe dream as well.

I'm leaning towards Ariza or Stephenson plus a backup center like Okafor, then matching Parsons.

Ariza has become deadly from 3, and is really solid in a complementary roll.

My concern with Stephenson is fitting him in. Would he accept coming off the bench? Not so sure about that.

 

Love has a very good relationship with McHale - as most players seem to have. He is well respected around the league and not nearly as much critiziced for his coaching as on this forum (or by Cuban). Personally I fault McHale for our first round exit, but I don't see him nearly as critical as most others.

@Beardsanity

Thanks for the additions. I'd like to add Okafor for the vet minimum when all the other dust has settled.

I would do it this way:

1. Sign Stephenson. Him, Harden, Parsons and Beverly form a 4 men rotation at the 1-3 spots. Maybe add one more player (Daniels, Canaan, Johnson) during the regular season. Stephenson adds a lot of toughness, great defense and playmaking ability when Harden is on the bench. Plus he is young and has plenty of playoff experience.

2. Trade for Millsap. I'd hope our TE, NOLA pick and DMO could do it since he is a FA next season. If not we might have to swap DMO with TJones or add one of our first rounders. Millsap is basically a lesser version of Bosh. Great spacing, pretty good defense, good rebounder. He would fit this team like a glove.

3. Match Parsons

3. Sign Okafor for vet minimum. I always liked him, though he was always overpriced. He should still be able to rebound and block some shots, nice, cheap backup center.

That would leave us with this rotation for the playoffs:

Stephenson/Beverly
Harden/Stephenson
Parsons/Harden
Millsap/TJones (or DMo)
Howard/Okafor

A starting 5 with two stars and 3 almost all-stars. Beverly brings energy and defense of the bench, TJones brings offense. Okafor gives Dwight a little breezer and protects our rim. To me thats the best team in the league - but I'm a homer, so what do I know...

 

Monroe, eventhough a long shot could be a blessing in disguise. Can play 4 and 5, decent midrange shooting.

 

Love likes McHale...McHale coached the T'Wolves from 2008-2009 and is one of the best PF's of all time. Why wouldn't "championship-minded" FA's want to sign with him as coach? He was won 3 NBA titles, he was a 7 time all-star, he was 3 time all-NBA defensive first team and 3 time all-NBA defensive second team. He played alongside Larry Bird. He was the third pick in the first round of the 1980 draft. The man has had an excellent basketball career and has championship pedigree.

 

There are still a ton of guys that we can sign or make offers too and make this off-season a mild success:
Melo - pipe dream I know but he is still a FA
Greg Monroe
Eric Bledsoe
Trevor Ariza
Pierce
Deng
Lance Stephenson
Andray Blatche
Chris Douglas Roberts
Brandon Rush
Ed Davis
DJ Augustin
You could probably afford to maybe even pay at least two of these guys. Any of them would be great additions to the team . I especially am interested in Monroe and Bledsoe. I know they are both RFA but still we could do a Sign and trade with the Pistons or Suns. We could even make a trade with the Celtics or some other team to get another star. Morey is a good GM and knows what he is doing. We just have to have a little faith