A couple of points: 1) Boston had been trying to trade Courtney Lee since last year's trade deadline and eventually the best they could do was Bayless. If the chance at a star arises, there would be almost no chance to trade Lee and take back no salary. It took Boston almost a year to move him and they still had to take back Bayless. If it took Boston almost a year to get that deal then there's no reason to believe that Houston could easily move Lee for only picks or for assets that would help acquire a star. Here's an ESPN report from last year's trade deadline: In terms of those 108 offseason signees who become trade-eligible Saturday, at least three names are coming up repeatedly on the personnel grapevine: Indiana's D.J. Augustin, Phoenix's Michael Beasley and Boston's Courtney Lee. There's a reason for that, though: All three are seriously struggling. http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-121214-15/nba-top-trade-targets It's not like there was any market for Lee. 2) Lee's contract runs through 2016, there's no way Morey was going to tie up that kind of money for two and a half years. The Rockets are looking to acquire a star player any way they can. 2015 Free agency isn't the only option. Just as Orlando traded Howard, Minnesota could end up trading Love rather than letting him hit free agency. If that were to occur, Lee wouldn't be an expiring contract at that time.
Problem is that a Kevin Love deal is rather unlikely and he would prefer other places in free agency. What happens then you just wasted 2 years of Dwight? I would rather take my chances on taking 3 Courtney Lee productive type contracts than have a small chance at getting Kevin Love because we will be 1 of 10 teams trying to get him.
Solid post but keep in mind boston is BAD team now, lee would show his worth in the right system like he is now with the grizzlies, and once again we we're getting a pick from Boston. With a pick included players are easy to move especially on an expiring contract which lee would be on 2015. Boston was trying to trade him without a pick and with 3 years left on his contract. So that's a big difference. I agree somewhat with your post, because the jury is still out on what happens after feb.20th so we could out with a better deal that's helps improve the team NOW with contracts that don't go over 2015 like lee's contract would have, which would keep us flexible for 2015 free agency that you're referring to. Thanks for the reply
Absolutely right that signing Love isn't a given but he's not the only possibility. It's not like Houston has said that "it's Love or nothing". There's other players that could come available and Morey wants to have the flexibility to make a run at them if they are available. We were setting ourselves up to make a run at free agents in the summer of 2013 but because we had flexibility we were able to grab Harden when he unexpectedly became available. Everybody has their own ideas on who would be a good fit here. Maybe it's Anthony, Love, Deron Williams, Rondo or even a package including Ryan Anderson. Who knows? Whatever it is needs to be something that gives us a legit shot at a title. You don't give up that ability to acquire a star just for a marginal improvement this season. Morey's end goal is winning a title, not just making the 2nd round of the playoffs.
The bigger issue was that Lee was horrible last season. He had little to no trade value with his $5.5M contract. Here's a good summary of how his 2013 went: http://espn.go.com/boston/nba/story...tics-guard-courtney-lee-back-team-next-season Nothing went quite to plan for Lee during his first season in green. Despite starting nearly half the season, Lee never quite carved out a role for himself and shifted back to a bench role late in the year and struggled to get on the court. Lee logged two DNP -- Coach's Decisions over the final three playoff games of the season. It didn't aid Lee's cause that he struggled to thrive in one particular area, something so vital to earning coach Doc Rivers' confidence in a reserve role. Instead, Jordan Crawford and his scoring punch and Terrence Williams and his ball-handling abilities both leapfrogged Lee at the season's finish line. Lee never got much of a chance to show whether he could be an impact defender in the postseason, and he missed four of the five shots (including two 3-pointers) he put up in the 39 playoff minutes. And it really goes back to the defense. According to Synergy Sports data, Lee allowed 0.858 points per play, ranking in the 54th percentile among all league players. Inside the arc, Lee had solid numbers when he kept his man in front of him and forced to shoot over his size. But Lee struggled to defend the 3-point line (opponents shot 39.6 percent there against him) and was susceptible to dribble penetration. By the end of last season he had been bumped from the Celtics rotation by Terrance Williams, that's how bad it had gotten. He had a bad year last season and was only playing 16 minutes a game this season in Boston. He didn't have much trade value at all.
Aelliot I see what you're saying, but it's still 2 sides to that story. When it comes to getting love morey tried to send out Lin + sail + pick for d.will who is $20mill a year until 2017 and is has came off the mech for the nets the the last 3 games "see how that works"? So with dwill we would get less defense and make the bench hurt more & not have cap in 2015 or even 2016... So we can't always read Moreys mind. if he was serious about getting rid of Lin and getting something back decent in return.. Lin + NY 1st pick in a separate trade would've looked better to a GM taking on lins salary. With how Asik has been acting now we have to send the PICK with him to get anything back decent. I still trust morey so I'm hoping he can wing something. if he can get bass & rondo with Lin + Asik + pick I could live with that. But I'm sure Danny will want dmo also. we still don't have a backup center so Bynum/camby needs to be signed as soon as Asik is gone.
I would have made that trade in which would have brought Lee back to HTown. Lee would have made our bench better.
People read speculation in articles and they take them as facts. Kevin Love would be great but he's not the Rockets only target. Likewise, there was a report that the Rockets spoke to Brooklyn and that they inquired about D-Will. That's all we know, nothing more. If the Rockets did decide to acquire Williams then that would mean that they thought that he would be the difference maker that gives them a chance to win a title. He wouldn't be a means to acquire Kevin Love. It's impossible to know who will become available so even the Rockets don't know what they are going to do. I won't pretend to be smart enough to know what the right move should be. In Morey's mind a package built around Ryan Anderson might be better than an all-star. It may be something all together different. The Rockets will keep exploring all possible options but they aren't likely to make a significant move unless it's a move that makes us genuine title contenders. They might make some minor moves but not at the cost of our ability to make the big move.
Another solid game from BASS today, good defense, strong picks, 6/6 all wet jumpers, 17pts, 8reb We saw what lee is capable of past 2 games & when he was here in Houston.
I understand all that. But what blueprint are we after here where the "third best player" on our team for some reason isn't good enough? Which blueprint requires your third best player to meet a certain threshold, and how does this team not meet that currently? To me that lets Harden and Howard off the hook, as well as Morey, by insinuating that we're all set with those guys, and it's up to others to pick up the slack. It's funny how all these "exceptions" keep popping up. Was Dallas also an exception? Were Indiana to win the title, would they also be an exception? San Antonio came awfully close to winning a title without any max players - would that have been an exception? Detroit almost won a second title against SA; another exception I'm sure. Sacramento got robbed by the refs or they would have been another exception. Miami must qualify as an exception because they have LBJ - there's no way to duplicate that. The point is not that the Rockets need a Courtney Lee, it's to point out how silly the idea is that you need a "third best player" to be of a certain quality to win a championship. Sure, we have plenty of time, with one of our "stars" being 10 years in and already declining while making max money. We wouldn't want to give up any 'flexibility' that may help us win in the future since we have this enormous window. If you have two guys who are supposedly the best at their positions, and making max money, and you're still planning for the future and not trying to win now, then something is wrong.
Why does he "need" a THIRD PLAYER to compliment them? I don't get it. Why not 6 players? Where does this idea come from?
I just don't want to end up like how the Mavs are wasting the last years of Dirk's career on pure hope of getting another superstar and coming up short. You also have to account the window of time that Dwight has of playing at an all-star level. Of course it would be awesome if we could get Love, Aldridge, or Melo, but I think fans are so hyped that we got Dwight this summer that they think that getting one of those superstars is likely to happen. I would rather get some nice smaller pieces around our 2 stars than to wait for a 3rd star that might or might not happen, but that's just my opinion.
Yes. And this: Basically, Dwight is no LeBron, and Harden is no Wade. So getting a Bosh to join our team isn't going to beat the OKCs and the Heats.
What blueprint? Well, the obvious answer is the three star model exemplified by the Celtics (KG, Pierce and Allen), Spurs (Duncan, Parker, Ginobli), Lakers (Kobe, Gasol and Bynum) and Heat (LBJ, Wade, Bosh). The four teams that have won 8 out of the last 11 titles. There's no magic formula that is guaranteed to always work and it is certainly possible to win with a different model. The NBA (and all sports leagues) are copycat leagues. When something works then other teams imitate. Since the Shaq/Kobe Laker years, the 3 star system has dominated winning 8 out of 11 titles and was the model used by the 3 teams with multiple titles in the last 11 years. If you were building a team which model would you choose? Would you try to emulate the model that has won the over 75% of the titles for the last decade or would you try to model yourself after one of the approaches that was only successful once? I don't think anyone ever said that the Rockets had an "enormous" window to finalize the team but I do think that panicking after 46 games is a bit ridiculous. Miami had their 3 stars and it still took them an additional year to put the pieces around them. Miami was 32-14 after the first 46 games with their big 3. I'm sure that they were expecting better but they didn't give up on the plan after 46 games. Failing to win 60 games that first season was certainly below expectations but all it took was a few key additions to complement their big 3 and they rolled to consecutive titles. Halfway through that first season with the big 3 you heard all the stuff about how bad/soft Bosh was and how Lebron disappeared in big games. Well, a couple of years and a few roster tweaks later those stars don't look so flawed. It really comes down to what your goals are and how you feel about the roster. If you're happy just making it to the 2nd round of the playoffs or you think that an Asik for Bass/Lee trade would have won a title for us then we should have made the deal. Morey has been very clear that the Rockets goal was to win a title and I'm guessing that they didn't feel like Bass/Lee put us over the top so that's why they didn't trade Asik. Lastly, it's not a case that the Rockets aren't trying to win now. They're going to try to win and it's even possible that they could get hot at the right time and possibly win it all this year (ala Dallas or Detroit). It's possible but it isn't likely and they aren't going to sacrifice the ability to make a big move in the near future just to give them a slightly better (but still unlikely) shot at a title this year.
the trade deadline is not there yet, we'll see if Morey has anything up his sleeve. I like this thread. I get it. I understand you brother.
The Courtney Lee/Bass deal that never happened just shows us all that a solid supporting cast is there for the taking, but obviously Morey has something bigger up his sleave, and that's why if he was going to go ahead and lock himself into a well paid supporting cast, he was going to need a BadA#$ draft pick to go along with it, so he could still have the assets to make whatever bigger deal he is trying to make. At some point, I do think that Morey will give up if he can't get Option A. accomplished and trade for Lee/Bass type of players, but I still think its a tad bit too early to give up all hope of making a bigger deal for a much better player. -Also alot hinges on Morey getting out from underneath the Asik & Lin contracts. That 16 million in cap space could be used for 3 to 5 players more productive than what Lin & Asik are giving you now. I expect that alot of Morey's long term plans for a supporting cast revolve around what he's going to do about getting out from under those two contracts. So everyone just needs to calm down about the Lee trade. It sucks that another WC team reclaimed contender status overnight with one trade and their superstar center coming back from an injury but that's life. Morey cannot be responsible for other teams being good, he can only control his own teams destiny.
Please please ban this poster for life. V Max was a monster and played D every night. He could've shut down Lee with half of his skill. This dude guarded Jordan better than anyone else in the league.
