1 month ago, it seemed like the Rockets would have the best starting lineup in the league with : Bev Harden Parsons Bosh Howard Now, they're rolling with : Bev/Canaan Harden/Daniels Ariza/Kostas Jones/DMo Howard/Dorsey I'm sorry, but this isn't a championship lineup/roster. Its as if Morey is fine with wasting away 2 years of Dwight. Is it possible for the Rockets to make moves to further improve their roster? IF so, what? I don't see any trade pieces, aside from the NOLA pick, that the Rockets could use to get someone decent to help them out.
Replace McHale. With all due respect, as nice a person he might be, I dont think he cuts it as a head coach. Mainly, I dont like the following things: * player time management. eg Harden averages > 38 mins per game * an 8 player rotation. * lack of game strategy (I dont consider "play harder" as a valid one). Cant think of anymore right now... but will come to me.
I think the lineup is pretty solid, however, the bench is probably the top 5 worst in the entire league. I also feel like Bev/Jones are both better suited as backups on a championship team. Maybe not Bev since he made the all NBA defensive team and its great to have 3 elite defenders in the starting lineup, but something needs to be done about the PF spot - especially considering the Rockets need to go through the likes of Griffin, LMA, Duncan, Dirk, ZBo, etc in the playoffs.
While I agree - what exactly should Morey have done? The only real arguable thing is match Parsons. I'd have done it, but this roster with Parsons instead or Ariza isn't a championship lineup either. We betted on Bosh and it was a worthy bet - but we lost. What is Morey thinking - he is already thinking about the next moves. We still have a very valuable pick with NOLAs, we have some young talent and we have some cap space. If any real player gets available, Morey will be there. It sucks having been so close and now having a roster full of questionmarks - but there really isn't much we could've done differntly.
Get Lowry and go home. Maybe you could have brought with him other FAs previously available, like lets say, Patrick Patterson.
Does the BAE have to be for 2yrs? If so, can we make the 2nd yr a team option? And who would be a realistic option at that price/structure?
Good thread topic. I do think Hollins coaching this team would have improved the team. That aside... I think we need to add a solid PG. We need to add a solid PF. Andre Blatche is who I'd be going for. Extremely talented player who can dribble, pass, and shoot from mid-range. I think he's an undervalued player. His defense is terrible. Still he can space the floor in a way the matrix can't. Ramon Sessions is another undervalued player and should be our PG target. We need to get that done stat. So that would leave us with: Howard/Dorsey/Capella Jones/Blatche/Dmo Ariza/Kostas/Covington Harden/Daniels/Johnson Bev/Sessions/Cannan That's 15, but what this roster is missing is a defensive stopper at the 4. Marion? It's a deep team, that could win as many games as last year. Don't think it's a championship team though.
I agree, getting Lowry would have made this team way better. Get Lowry, extend Parsons, that team could compete for a championship... BUT: we had a very legitimate chance at getting Bosh. We were so close to signing him, it took a last second hail mary by Miami (that will bite them in the ass later on) to stop it. I don't blame Morey for going for the homerun here, he had a very good chance of building a dynasty team here. I think Lowry made a mistake signing so early - he could've made a lot more money if he'd been patient. But that's the story of his career so far.
Unless Howard or Harden go megastar this team isn't winning a title this year. Rockets had a favorable matchup to make the WCF and they blew it, now they are relying on too many unproven talent to all step up at the same time in a 7 month is too much. Just need to focus on enjoying this season and seeing if the players actually get better and who to keep as 90% of the players signed this Off season won't even be on the team next year.
Yeah, that's pretty much common sense right now. But this team is definetly good enough to make the playoffs (and even to get HCA in the first round) and there is a lot of time left until the playoffs start. Morey has several tradeable assets and some capspace. He will be very active at the trade deadline. He promised we will have a better roster next playoffs, than we had last playoffs - and though I believe it when I see it, it is definetly possible.
Trevor Ariza is an upgrade of Chandler Parsons Nick Johnson's D gives the Rockets perhaps the best 3 deep group of SG's in the NBA (Harden, Johnson, Daniels) Who knows what the Rockets have with Capela, Dorsey, etc Cap Flexibility next season, Lin TPE, NOLA Pick, MLE, BAE. Just continue and add the best talent around the two star system that you can get.
We have trade pieces (canaan, johnson, daniels, dmo, capela, NOLA pick), and the lin TPE gives us flexibility. but we don't have any contracts large enough to facilitate a trade for a high priced player such as rondo, dragic, etc... papa's contract at $4.8M is the highest we have. if we start with that we would have to include like 4 or 5 of the other trade pieces just to get in striking range of rondo's contract. i would propose using the lin TPE to take on a large expiring contract from a team trying to get under the LT. maybe we score a pick out of it and can add that to the stash of trade assets. of course that would be exactly what we had if we didn't do the lin trade. that's frustrating but i blame bosh backing out last minute more than morey for making room to sign bosh. i think the best move going forward is to offer our NG contracts of gee, hopson, powell, and covington ($7M total) for a large expiring contract. the other team would do it to cut that cost this season rather than wait for season's end to be out of that contract. we would do it because we have 18 players and need to cut 3, most likely those 3 will be the NG contracts, but we might as well use them (and covington) to get a large expiring contract which can facilitate a trade this season. the same can be done by using the lin TPE, but it might be better to save that.
