Which is exactly what is going to happen. The big FAs won't come and with Harden there is no way Leslie accepts mediocrity.
You cant even overpay most of these guys because they will get max offers by multiple teams. Theres no overpaying Conley Batum Whiteside Horford or even Barnes . Only maybe someone like Fournier Anderson Bazemore but there will be competition there as well. Just too much money for too few players.
What I meant was giving someone like Barnes the max IS overpaying. He's not worth it. He was bad in this first round asskicking. My fear is that the Rockets will be so desperate to sign anyone and make it look like they made a splash in free agency that they'll offer 20+ mil/yr to Harrison Barnes. The much wiser move would be to maintain that caproom(or as much as they're allowed to given there's a minimum cap threshold they have to meet) and if no one will come here, just punt on next season and get a high lottery pick. There's no sense in wearing Harden out trying to eek out 35-40 wins.
I dont think even Barnes will receive a max offer only by us. As stupid as it sounds for teams to be lining up to give 22 per to someone like him its very likely to happen.
Nah. That's not a Morey roster whatsoever. All we can do is guess what is going to go down, but I can give it a try. Also please note this is NOT a wet dream scenario. There are a great many things I want with blowing up this roster but they just aren't going to happen. Draft night moves - -Include Ariza in deal to move around and acquire picks on draft night. Will likely get something like one of the late 1st rounders from a team like Philly. Give back at least 1 of their 2nd rounders in the deal. -End up drafting 2 players. 1 late first rounder. 1 second rounder. July 1st - 15th moves- -Dwight signs elsewhere (I'll guess Dallas for less than max... 20 mil per for 3 years) -Jones I actually think might be a QO candidate and be back at least for the first half of the season. -D-Mo I think will get an offer that the Rockets do not match to save cap for free agents. -Terry signs with the Mavs or Spurs -Josh Smith signs with Memphis Cap space - 43.695 mil wrapped up in 10 returning players against a 92 mil salary cap leaving 48.30 million in salary cap. -Rockets miss out on Durant, Conley, & Horford & Barnes -Sign Festus Ezeli for 3 years 35 million to be their starting center - Sign Shane Larkin 2 years 8.2 million (sort of this years Lin & Asik undervalued bench player signings) -signs Karasev for min contract -signs Gentile for BAE offer to come over this summer -Sign Christian Wood for min contract -Sign 3 more D-league level players on min contracts Go into training camp with 19 contracts. 16 guaranteed. Someone guaranteed will be getting cut obviously. Maybe Jones. Basically the gameplan here is while missing out on Durant, Morey puts himself in position to acquire a max contract player at the deadline in trade with cap space & put himself in position to PG: Beverley, Larkin, Goudelock SG: Harden, McDaniels, Karasev SF: Gentile, Brewer, Dekker PF: Beasley, Jones, Harrell, Wood C: Ezeli, Capela +2 rookies, + 2 non-guaranteed signees +32.6 million in cap space to acquire players in trades this season. ................ I think this is a pretty Morey-like offseason where they miss on the big fish scenario. I think this team is drastically more fun to watch and root for, and Ezeli I think is poised to be a good fit at the 5 to fill in that role that Dwight vacated where he doesn't need touches like Asik before. This team here is all about undervalued players putting Morey back into asset mode. This is what I expect since I DO NOT expect Morey to strike a homerun this offseason. More like a double with Ezeli & a single Larkin. Thoughts?
We need a team constructed to compete with GSW, which means someone off the bench to play against AI and Livingston. Hopefully, we wakeup and offer Barnes some money!
i totally agree with the festus azeli signing...we need a center that rebounds, plays good defense, and cleans up on the offensive boards and doesnt need the ball but plays off the ball. signing a backup shooting guard like dion waiters who can is a 3 and D guy. Harrison Barnes would be a hell of a pickup for starting SF. Since Harden is pretty much the pg/sg you need a beverly type player that is better at creating their own shot and playing perimeter D. Power forward really needs an upgrade and I dont really know of anyone but whoever they get they need to be a rebounding force.
I think that a) ariza potentially can bring a better pick than Phillys through okc or miami back. B) ezeli cant stay healthy and its not a good investment for 10+ to take that gamble. C) i would be really dissapointed if we had Larkin as our backup pg. Hes very bad defensively and not that good in anything else. I would prefer Morrey targeted other players but your plan is certainly plausible. I also believe than instead of Ezeli Morey will want to get Pau.
i think it should be a requirement moving forward to give each player a mental aptitude test before they sign them. Among other very poor abilities, this team was weak mentally.
A few thoughts: I'm scared to sign Ezeli. He hasn't been exactly durable. Also I don't think he'd be enough of an upgrade over Capela long term to justify the price he will fetch. Why do you think Morey would position the team to trade for a superstar midseason as opposed to late offseason? What would even have left that other teams would want? The pick we get from trading Ariza? I understand you said this isn't a wet dream roster, but I have a hard time seeing how this roster would compete with the top teams in the NBA, even with an unnamed max contract added in. Using your scenario, that Rockets miss out on big names and are forced to go after undervalued assets, I would hope the Rockets would also target: -Shaun Livingston (if he opts out, would complement Beverley well) -Allen Crabbe (good shooter, young, good defense) -OJ Mayo (had a bad year, maybe change of scenery would help) -Jared Dudley (has expressed interest in Rockets before, could be leader we need) -Dwight Powell (young athletic big who still has potential) -Zaza Pachulia (I know, another Mav, but he was really good first half of season and could provide good minutes in tandem with Capela). -Bismack Biyombo (player option, can you believe he's still just 23???? Can never have enough athletic big guys).
Good list. The problem is that even some of those guys wont be undervalued anymore. Especially biyombo and crabbe and livingston. Pachulia is too old so not sure how much he will get paid anymore. Mayo btw left in a very strange way supposedly fell off the stairs and broke a bone. Even Kidd pretty much said that was a lie. Dudley last season wanted 8 per at least for three more years guaranteed. And he was about to have surgery. Now he proved hes healthy. I think we need to search for more undervalued guys. Like Galloway, Solo Hill etc.
Obviously the Rockets are going to go after all of the big name free agents. You know they have Durant first on the list. I think he stays in OKC, especially if they beat the Spurs in the next round. They should heavily pursue Horford and Gasol, they probably don't wind up with either but you have to try. We are losing Terry, Jones, Smith, and Goudelocke in free agency. We probably try to move Brewer or Ariza in the offseason to clear up some cap space. We also need to go hard after Mike Conley and Rondo as well because Beverley just isn't a starting caliber PG in the western conference. I know we don't get all of those guys but if we can get even one I would be pretty happy. If Dwight does leave and he most likely does you have to find a center to replace him. Whiteside is a free agent and would be a great replacement. Other than that you're looking at Mareese Speights, Gasol, Horford (rather have him at the 4), Mahinmi, Al Jefferson (almost traded for him this season), and Joahkim Noah. There are really two ways we can go about building our roster this off-season. We can go the cheap route and hope to pull off some major trades in season or we can put all our chips on the table and pursue as many free agents as we can get our hands on. We definitely need to fix our bench and we can do that by going after guys like Arron Afflalo, Courtney Lee, Waiters, Ryan Anderson, Jared Dudley, Chalmers, Teletovic and some other minor role players. We have one draft pick this year in the 2nd round as well so of course we are gonna bring in at least 1 rookie. Seriously hoping our roster looks like this next year though: PG: Rondo/Beverley/rookie SG: Harden/Lee/KJ SF: Batum/Ariza PF: Horford/Beasley/D-Mo C: Mahinmi/Capela
I'm in favor of bringing in any or all of the above four players [Alessandro Gentile, Jared Dudley, Ryan Anderson, and Ian Mahinmi].
By far our biggest need is an elite coach. The Bazemores, Fourniers, and Crabbes of the league are scrubs playing for a bad coach, and plus-starters playing for a good coach.
I think my point is to look at the blueprint and type of players (and I think its the right thing to do to assume Morey strikes out on Durant & Horford). In my "mock" scenario, I targeted Ezeli as my "Asik-type" of center, and Larkin as my "Lin-type" of PG/scoring guard. I would certainly hope that Morey could do better than this (as I mentioned before this is NOT my dream scenario. I'm just looking at Morey-type of acquisitions), and I like Mattz's list of players although some of them like Pachuilia and Livingston I just can't see Morey paying for since they will not either be "younger" guys who were backups that could explode with a bigger role, and are coming off of seasons where they are likely to be overpaid. Your point about Pau is taken, but I disagree. I think he's going to focus on spending on younger players that can turn into assets. Pau coming in would be a wonderful talent upgrade, and offensively would surely open things up more than Dwight ever did, but I just don't see Morey making that investment at this stage of his career. He makes the most sense in San Antonio to take over Duncan's role, and SA can pay for him & not sweat it. Oddly enough the Asik & Lin acquisitions fit right into the same need the Rockets are likely to have this year although its possible the Asik big could be coming off the bench backing up Capela. And the Lin role would likely be a cheap backup rather than a guaranteed starter who thinks he's a superstar.... but the roles are the same that are in need.
Pretty much I still think Ariza has a place to start under the right coach. Bev is no starter, but definitely a bench player I would like to keep. Would like to leave Beasley, DMo and Capela. Everyone else can go...
