Podcast: Rockets Draft, Omer Asik, Eric Gordon and Dwight Howard

I really enjoyed the podcast; i'm looking forward to more in the future.

 

Same here. Except I am thinking 3 way with Orlando. Send Noah to Orlando with Lowery, Martin, Morris and Patterson/Jones plus future first and 2nd. Chicago gets Asik and rights to Furkan. Houston receives Howard.

Straigth swap of Asik and Morris for Noah works too.

 

Terrific job! I enjoyed it very much.

 

Can we get a link to the song at the beginning? Has a Satriani esque feel.

As Fake Clyde would say -- "I like it!"

War Satchmo

 

Enjoyed very much. Thanks Bima for explaining bird rights situation for rockets involving Asik and Lee.

 

Daryl realized after listening to the podcast, that he had to renounce CLee's bird rights. Bima, next up is a job with the Rockets! Great work, thanks.

 

Bimathug, you are a good basketball analyst

 

He is a great capologist - and understands the nuances of the CBA.

That is vastly different than basketball analysis.....though he is pretty good at that sometimes too.

DD

 

Sadly you guys talk but the decisions or non-decisions are made by others

 

well fat boy morey just let gordon go. he doesnt take chances. stupid gm

 

Gordon was never coming here.

 

How magnanimous of you.

 

Getting Gordon was a long shot anyway. Plus, offering a MAX contract to an INJURY-PRONE player and an UNDERSIZED shooting guard is just...bad. Gordon is good but he's not worth all that money especially with his injuries. I'm glad we didnt get him, tbqh.

 

What a douchey comment...

 

Do you ever listen to yourself?

Huge credit to BimaThug for nailing the Courtney Lee situation. He wasn't slinging mud against the wall, he just figured it out.

 

Really enjoyed the podcast and Nike's right; Bima nailed the Lee situation. Just wish they wouldn't keep calling T jones an "undersized power forward" when he's 6'9.5", with a 7'3" wingspan.

 

Thanks, everyone, for the kind words about the podcast. We did it REALLY late Sunday night and were a little loopy. I was worried that we wouldn't make much sense when we played it back. Credit to Dave for putting it together and overcoming some technical difficulties to get it out on Monday.

My thoughts on random issues hitting the BBS over the past few days (sorry, been busy at work and then went out for my anniversary last night, so I won't even try to catch up on all the pages and pages of threads on the BBS):

On the Courtney Lee situation: While it was very gratifying to be the first (to my knowledge) to comment on the likelihood of having to let him walk, sometimes I hate it when I'm right. Lee is one of my favorite Rocket players, so I'm going to hate to see him leave.

While it was explained well by Carl Herrara and NIKEstrad in another thread, the Rockets HAD to pull their qualifying offer for Lee, since Courtney was free to accept the offer during the July Moratorium (literally, at any moment) and would render the Rockets incapable of signing Asik to his agreed-upon offer sheet on July 11. The reason this took place now (and not simultaneous with the Rockets' agreement with Asik) was likely that the Rockets were trying to make other trades (possibly an Eric Gordon S&T?) to open up the room in order to keep Lee's QO/cap hold amount on the books and still make the Asik offer. When nothing materialized, they had to pull Lee's offer or risk the Asik deal falling apart. Again, Lee's cap hold is still technically on the books, and the Rockets still retain Lee's Bird rights until they likely renounce his rights on July 11. Plus, if the Bulls match on Asik, the Rockets can rescind their renouncement and get back Lee's Bird rights.

On Eric Gordon: Was VERY disappointed to see the news of Gordon agreeing to an offer sheet with Phoenix. While I appreciate Gordon's desire to go for the absolute best, most preferred fit for him (in his opinion), I found it remarkably short-sighted of Gordon and his agent, since New Orleans was ALWAYS going to match, even a max offer sheet. So, as long as a team like Houston was a preferable destination to New Orleans--and Gordon's agreement to meet with Houston at least indicated his openness to leaving the Hornets for the Rockets--he would have been better off cooperating with Houston's efforts to put together a trade package for him in a sign-and-trade arrangement. Instead, Gordon will be unhappy in New Orleans, and the Hornets will be at least a little uncomfortable having Gordon playing for them on a max contract. Again, very disappointed about this. Poor strategy by Gordon and his agent.

On the Dragic/Lin storyline: I agree with those who think bringing Lin in may be a negotiating tactic with Dragic in order to get him to lower his contract demands. Despite what the media is saying, I'm still holding out hope that Goran will at least give the Rockets another chance to match any offer he actually receives that is lower than his initial contract demands. I also am skeptical that the Rockets could structure an offer sheet for Lin that both (a) is financially responsible for Houston and (b) will not inevitably be matched by the Knicks.

On the future of Kyle Lowry: Through all of this offseason turmoil, I find myself in the minority of those Rockets fans who actually think that Kyle Lowry is still a valued member of the organization who may very well return as the starting point guard for the 2012-13 Houston Rockets. I still hold that Lowry is the Rockets' single best player. If he cannot be traded for an All-Star caliber player, I just don't see the benefit in dealing him for the sake of dealing him or for the sake of "organizational peace". Tiffs like the one between Lowry and McHale happen all of the time in the NBA. Things like that are relatively normal. Lowry and McHale are both big boys. They can get past that stuff, especially if Dragic isn't coming back, starting and making a lot more money than Lowry. But maybe that's just me.


Again, I hope to do more podcasts in the future with Dave. He does an amazing job putting them together, and all I've had to do is talk. As others have suggested, perhaps the next one we do will involve answering questions from ClutchFans posters (although it would heavily involve our own speculation and fan opinions). I also look forward to listening to podcasts Dave does with Rockets team officials (if Dave can successfully book them) or with other ClutchFans members who might be able to offer a unique perspective in which the rest of us are interested.

P.S. Lay off DD for his (allegedly back-handed) compliment of me. I actually took it as a genuine compliment; and he's CORRECT in saying that "basketball analysis" is not necessarily the same thing as salary cap analysis. DD and I are not on the best of terms right now, but he doesn't deserve the criticism he's getting for that post.

 

Morey said that the Rockets had one of the top 5 cap situations in the league.

I would be interested to know which other teams have more cap room availalbe, ie whom should we look out for?

 

Please note that having a favorable CAP SITUATION is not necessarily the same thing as having the most cap room.

As Dave and I discussed on our podcast, under the new salary-matching rules of the new CBA, it is largely beneficial to have some combination of cap room and large expiring contracts (like Martin's) for big trades. It gives a team the flexibility to EITHER sign free agents OR make trades.

The Rockets don't have the most "maximum possible cap room" in the league. But they do have great flexibility. I think that's what Morey is getting at with his comments.