If Melo panned out the way we hoped Olympic Melo would, most of us would be on our knees kissing Morey's toes right now. It didn't work out and Morey quickly moved on. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ As for MCW, I would say he shot about as well as LMM did after he got hurt. The big mistake with Ennis, which didn't pay off at all. He had his moments, but ultimately was too undisciplined to due a defensive glue guy behind Tucker. What hurt the most was our desperation in getting rid of Reno, which came at the cost of our resources and chemistry IMO. Say what you want about Ryno, but he was an asset during the regular season and before he was hurt, he was actually starting to be good for us again.
We traded a pick to get rid of the last year of Knights contract. 24 million dollars of salary and @Carl Herrera favorite player, luxury tax savings
Those numbers are garbage and honestly, almost any numbers on defense are going to be either flawed or limited. For example, those numbers do not paint a very flattering picture of Chris Paul, even though I would argue he is the Rockets best defender. It isn't coincidence that the Rockets defense overall greatly improved once Paul was healthy and playing bigger minutes. He is a very good team defender, often times pulls guys aside that are not playing within the frame work of the defense. He also is an under rated post defender and can get steals. Still, a lot of other things were going on around the Rockets at the same time. The Rockets added depth, the team had possibly knocked off any rust from the let down last year.
This is an advertisement for how bad those advanced defensive stats are. Trevor Ariza - regardless of how bad he might be - would one of our best defenders and would be starting for us right now. That's how bad we are defensively. These stats clearly overvalue blocks, steals and undervalue how much other people are helping the player. Before you @ me with some fury, look up the NBA rankings for those stats. I guarantee you will not agree with a big chunk of the top 20-30 players.
The so-called Olympic Melo was just a pipedream by a few deluded fans. Some of us never expected Melo to be a positive asset, let alone a star quality guy. But I think most people were in the middle, cautiously hoping that Melo could provide something similar to what Ryno did before his confidence fell of the cliff -- an offensive spark off the bench. I don't think Morey himself had very high expectations for Melo. That's why he was quick to pull the plug when things weren't looking good.
Everyone hoped that Melo would be a positive stretch 4 to replace Ryno. It was just different degrees of optimism on whether one expected it to actually happen. Olympic Melo was just what we were calling a Melo who took open 3's from the 4 spot and passed to the open man. Seriously, if you aren't always hoping for the best on any transaction or signing, you aren't a real fan.
Not sure I understand your reasoning on Ariza. I'm not saying he is actually worth $15 million, or even $10 million, but if it's only for one year and the team is operating as an over the cap team (which they aren't and weren't, but that's my original point), there isn't much opportunity cost. He would have contributed to Rockets as long as he was on team, and at the trade deadline the Rockets could have offered his expiring contract and a pick to pick up someone better than what they ended up getting for Knight's 2 year contract + Criss + pick. For House, I see your point, but I guess I still think, if Rockets weren't so fixated on luxury tax, there was room to offer him a little more money and/or a 2 year contract with team option on third year. From his perspective, since he's already 25, he probably sees a 3-4 year deal as a hard sell given it would go through the end of his 20s, i.e. when most players are at their peak, and he'd probably only have one multi-year contract opportunity left. But perhaps you're right, especially given he has come back down to earth in recent days. The downside to my reasoning is if he underperforms you're stuck with him for another two years at least.
I personally do not think he made the right move, but he has always been great at recognizing his mistakes and cleaning them up fast, ultimately leading to a better overall team. It is that humility, that I admire the most, his ability to be self aware and fix things......in an expeditious manner. DD
Atm. 16-4. #2 in both offrtg and defrtg. just need some fine tuning these last 5 games and get locked in for this playoff run coming
1. I think you are severely overestimating how desirable a $15M EC. While it's useful for teams trying to shed salary the following year, you forget that we are one of those teams trying to shed salary already. Any trade of Ariza's hypothetical EC would involve us taking at least 1-2 multi-year contracts back. You can't just trade it in for nothing in return. 2. Even if we were fixated on the LT, it's hard to imagine us shelling out a contract that was more than what we offered for a player in House's position. He might have seen it as a hard sell, but countless of other players in his shoes would have taken it in a heartbeat. Patrick Beverley is a perfect example for instance.
For an aspiring contender against the Warriors, we have been bad even after the All Star Break. You are correct that we haven't been bad vs league average and seem to be improving. Still, Ariza would be a major contributor if he were available to us and those stats are widely recognized as being garbage indicators. Have a look at the rankings yourself.
