I'd cut Ish Smith and Garcia from that group. Canaan can move into the back-up role and actually fits next to Harden's play-making. Nick Johnson can spend some time in the D-League working at PG and his shot. Ish just didn't impress me this pre-season, he's like a faster Lin with no shot... poor decision maker. Garcia could be a coach, then play if we need during season... if that's still allowed.
Given that Garcia is almost 100% about defending a player who could well miss the full year, I have a feeling they cut him and tell him to keep in shape for a mid-year pickup.
trade DMo+Canaan for Nate Robinson cut Ish Smith keep both Black & Adrien Howard, Black, Dorsey Jones, Adrien, Capela Ariza, Papa, Garcia Harden, Daniels, Johnson Beverley, Robinson, Terry
That is a 17 man roster. Limit is 15. 13 on the active roster, 2 in the d-league and/or injured reserve.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Revised count - 456 players under contract, 405 guaranteed - at least 6 need to be cut <a href="https://twitter.com/BBallInsiders">@BBallInsiders</a> - just 1.3% of league</p>— Eric Pincus (@EricPincus) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricPincus/status/526319356263686144">October 26, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ish gets cut...that's the easy one. then one of black, dorsey, adrien. that's the tough one. black has the most upside, dorsey is the most expensive to cut, and adrien has the most nba experience. my guess is dorsey is the odd man out.
The roster seems pretty set beyond the Black/Dorsey/Adrien trio Starters C Howard F Jones F Ariza G Harden G Beverly Bench F D-Mo F Papa F Garcia G Daniels G Terry G Canaan D-League C Capela G Johnson That leaves 2 spots. Black appears to have far too much upside to simply cut, so I think he's safe. Morey saw something in Dorsey to bring him over and give him a guaranteed deal. Dorsey certainly looked bad, but it was preseason and injury shortened for him. I think he stays and Adrien is the last cut. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I think that's how it plays out. Aside from veteran presence, Garcia give us swingman depth. If anything happens to Ariza or Papa we will be in big trouble. Everybody else is either too big or too small to guard NBA swingmen.
or they could just cut Capela. is his contract the same as Dorsey? trade production now for later. or they could trade capela to say Philly for a pick?
I see what you're saying but don't colpare Harris to adrien. harris wasn't a defensive athletic player. did he ever crack an NBA roster? I would rather try to trade capela for a pick than cut adrien if it came to that and neither black nor Dorsey are similar to chuck Hayes defense. they can not play post D like him. and Hayes couldn't block shots like them.
Capela gets paid about $200k more. Not a bad idea if the FO isn't high on Capela but would have to sell for pennies on the dollar. Bad move from a confidence standpoint though. Wasting a 1st round on a guy they just end up trading to keep a guy that's not showing much in preseason.
The advanced stats crowd was VERY high on Clint Capela this past spring, and so is the Rockets front office. He isn't going anywhere. The fact that Houston still has not made final cuts tells us that Morey is attempting to make a trade, either a) quantity for quality (2 for 1, 3 for 1) or b) player for a draft pick (or picks). I say Motiejunas is being shopped hard, Canaan, too. Also, someone may trade "future considerations" for Garcia, or Smith. "Future considerations" is a fancy way of saying "nothing." But two important things are accomplished: a) Garcia will have some say over where he winds up (doesn't happen if he is waived), and b) Houston owes the traded player $0. If you waive the guaranteed contract and nobody bites then you have to pay them all of their guaranteed $.
Very logical take on the current decision making. D Mo is obviously a very polarizing player right now but he would make sense to move IF Clarke shows up today and looks like he's ready to drain 3's. I would have to think that if he shows he has range they can rely on as a stretch 4, they might be thinking that he might put DMo on the bench which won't be good for anyone. Of course that's thinking that Clarke shows up today as a world beater which is probably not going to happen. But no doubt Morey is probably re engaging teams from last year about DMo in the case they feel like Clarke would beat him out.
Huh? Stat guys do well with guys playing in high level leagues overseas. Stat guys have problems with guys playing in low level leagues overseas much the same way they have with college guys playing at small schools. I've not heard stat guys like Capela outside of the Rockets drafting him. The French League is not one of the top leagues ( not bad though) so I could see stat guys having trouble grading him. He does have 254 minutes in Euro League and Eurocup, but that's still not a lot. His stats look to me as someone very active defensively, very efficient around basket, and huge rebounding potential. His stats show poor shooting and watching him shows he needs to add strength and technique for defending post.
Based on the preseason and the summer, this is the lineup the Rockets should be taking for the start of the season. C: Howard, Black and Dmo PF: Jones, Adrien and Capela (D league) SF: Ariza, Papa and Garcia SG: Harden, Daniels, Johnson (D league) PG: Bev, Canaan and Terry. The interesting situation is that they have guaranteed money to Dorsey. Dallas waived someone with a guaranteed contract, the Rockets may have to do the same. Some say Garcia should go especially since he did not play much in the preseason. The FO would have seen him in the FIBA world cup and will probably hold on to him to make sure we are not too thin at the SF position.
Guys like Morey and Pelton have said in interviews & podcasts they're still trying to figure out translating international numbers.
