Well, I think Clint Capela and Dmo(if healthy) can be our Ibaka's and Steven Adams. And if we get a hidden superstar through free agency that could pan out that no one notice, we'll be fine. But it first starts with a great coach.
Dmo in the playoffs 17-10 per 36 this year. Kanter would have been flipped - that is the point. Sometimes you have to pay your role players more than what you think they are worth because they FIT with the team and make it better. DD
Kanter was flipped -- to the Thunder from the Jazz. Like we did with Corey Brewer last summer -- he fit in well with the second unit last season and made us a better team. Whoops.
Not when they just sustained a serious injury and the team is rebuilding And they traded for Kanter instead of developing the scrubs they drafted
I think it's the fact that you can't copy GS for obvious reasons and you can't copy SA without POP system and drafting. The only 2 good teams we can try and copy are the Cavs and Thunder. Getting length and rebounding and solid role players seems easier than drafting 3 studs with late lottery picks like GS and 2 of which turn out to be the GOAT 3 point shooters. Though the Cavs build is more realistic since we don't have a Westbrook and besides LeBron, Harden is the other guy who has the ball in his hands at all times and carries his teams. But, we didn't have #1 and #4(2011), #4(2012), #1(2013), #1(2014) draft picks to develop or use as assets.
That involves Batum who will be 28 next season so not the same as resigning a 24 year old player you drafted and though i'd love Biyombo(23), i believe in Capela(22) developing at the same position. What you want me to admit is that it's okay to give 28-30 year old free agent near "all stars" max money. I already said in my last paragraph that if it involves 2 year deals to align with Harden's free agency, then yes. That's okay. But to give Conley and Horford maxed out contracts for the full years, and we end up being no better than Grizzlies level that past few seasons, why would Harden resign with no room to change the roster. He'd be forced to be stuck with a pretender roster where 3 players combined salaries will take up most of the cap. You do that for Durant and 1 of those kind of guys like Miami(LeBron + Bosh), you don't do that for 2 Bosh's.
I'm not trying to get you to admit anything, just want clarification on your position. As I've pointed out, it seems like you take both sides of the argument at times. I understand your fear of giving Horford/Conley both 4-year deals and Harden leaves after two years, leaving us with a non-championship roster with big money players. That said -- Morey (probably a new GM by then, thanks to Les and other unintelligent posters here who think its funny to misspell names) would easily be able to flip those contracts for picks/young players. a 31-32 year old Conley/Horford would be very valuable to a team going all-in for the championship. The reality is that star players generally do not accept 2 year deals -- they want max money for max years. Recent exceptions to this were LeBron (he wants to be able to get a bigger raise every year) and Wade (Heat refused to give him big deal so he took a one year deal for huge money). If we could get Conley/Horford to line up with Harden, that would probably be ideal. But if they demand a four year deal to sign with you, I feel they are talented enough to not risk losing over two extra years. I believe at the core you are worried that Harden leaves to LA in 2 years -- surrounding him with developing KJ and Capela over bringing in talent through FA will only expedite his departure, IMO. We need to show him we are committed to winning with him and winning now -- not that we want to waste two years of his prime developing bit role players like Capela and McDaniels.
What championship team will have valuable pieces? Were going to end up with late first round picks and early 2nd rounders. Oh, i understand and so i don't even bother thinking about Conley, and Horford on 2 year deals. That thought was with players like Pau Gasol, Rajon Rondo, Derron Williams, Loul Deng type of players who might be more willing to accept 2 year deals. This is the tough position the Rockets currently face. If you go all out on building through this summer and next, you end up not developing your current young players to use later as assets or retain if they end up really good and at best you go through years of fighting for the 8th seed or 14th pick all over again after Harden's departure.
And then EXTENDED by OKC - as a role player off the bench. I don't care if they are drafted or obtained, but when their contract is up, and they fit, pay them. Yeah, well, if you want you can search my posts where I said this was stupid - I guess it all boils down to talent evaluation and I am not certain the Rockets under Morey have been all that good at it. DD
Problem 1: Our expectations after reaching WCF a year ago compared to our disaster of a season just now. Problem 2: Whilst I agree with developing youth ie KJ etc I agree 100% with LTF that by surrounding Harden with juniors won't keep him past his current contract. What we're seeing now is a result of poor decisions 3-5 years ago. Flipping these young players to land Harden may not have been the best decision in hind-site. Look at the names we flipped from Dragic, Lowry etc and how many have managed to become top players elsewhere. I just hope there are smarter people than us making decisions for the upcoming season and beyond.
