And people tell me not to worry about what forwards we are going to have to surround Chris and James with, who are actually capable of scoring double digits every game, and not be cold as ice one game, hot the next.
To be fair, you know a guy like Lebron, who is called "King James" isn't going to want to play on Harden's team. He wants to be the star of his own team, and not jump around throwing his arms up to be thrown the ball. He's not the only star who wouldn't come play for us.
Tell me if I am wrong but . . .. . . CP3's last year will be the first year Jason Tatum and Donovan Mitchell will be available for Free Agency? 40 Million dropping off the books might be a good thing Rocket River
Maybe, maybe not. But we don't sniff 60 wins or game 7 last year without him. Harden may be the MVP, but he can't do it alone.
Sorry, I just don't get the negativity. I'm as frustrated as anyone that CP3's health didn't hold up through the last 2 games, but I think this is over the top. By all accounts we won that Chris Paul trade and had a fighter's chance of taking down one of best teams to come along in recent memory. And if Durant wasn't simply playing the best ball of his career, we would have won that series. I think we have talent. Granted, our weaknesses are noticeable but I think we've been drafting well, coaching well, and the finances have been pretty solid so far.
I doubt that Morey of all people is just sitting back doing nothing. The reality is, whether Paul signed for $20 or $40M, the Rockets were not going to have cap space. Anderson is still an untradeable contract. We don't have any real "assets" besides Eric Gordon. Moving Eric does not make any sense unless you are getting a player that is just as good as he is, which we know is not happening. No team in their right mind is going to give us a great player back for a combination of Eric/Anderson/low 1st round picks. The reality of this offseason is that it was going to be a really hard to retain all the players in our team that were free agents. Many of us knew Lebron wouldn't come here either. We have to re-sign Chris Paul because there isn't an available player out there that could help us like he can (despite his injury issues). We just won 65 games and the majority of the reason was because when Clint/James/Chris played, we were nearly unbeatable. If we would have re-signed Ariza 3 years, $30M, you guys would have been upset because he isn't worth that money. So there is no winning with unrealistic Rockets fans. I get it, we can't compete with the Warriors, but the Rockets just haven't been as fortunate as the Warriors have been the last few years regarding having their best players on cheap deals relative to the cap and having the ability to sign an additional all star when the cap ballooned. They also happen to have a need at center. I know many here are upset that we didn't pursue Cousins for our tax MLE if that is all it took, but why waste a resource on a player that may not even play half the season, may not even be the same player he has been in the past and his position is already filled in this team. Unless he was coming here for the minimum, I don't see the purpose of using up our tax MLE on him. The free agents that would be solid fits here are just not interested in making less money. Redick signed for $13M, Bradley signed for $12M, Tyreke signed for $12M, Julius Randle signed for $9M, etc. Face it, the Rockets have tax MLE and minimum money and we have to be careful not exceed the apron, otherwise we are capped. A player like Wilson Chandler would not have been available to us because the Nuggets were not interested in taking more money (or any money at all). We can't sign and trade for a player like Jabari Parker, because we don't have anyone to send out besides Ryan Anderson and why would the Bucks take Ryan when they signed Illysova to 3 years. Kent Bazemore is probably one realistic option available, but that deal will be there all summer anyways. It's not like any team is jumping at the chance of acquiring Bazemore's contract. Plus, it will cost us something additional since Ryan Anderson makes more money than him. I'm just saying, that this team is still a top 5 team in the NBA and even if Chris took less money, we did not have the assets to actually make our team better to be more talented than the Warriors. We just don't. I'd like to re-sign Ariza, but he is at that point where his play can drop off suddenly and paying him a ton of money is not giving us any more flexibility plus his contract would be untradeable. Remember when resigned Brewer and then he became absolute trash? Yep, I'd like to avoid that.
Well said, and I agree with this 100%. As you stated, even if the Rockets let all their free agents go, they wouldn’t have had the cap space to offer anyone a max contract. They also lack appealing trade assets, so acquiring anyone at that level would be next to impossible. The best and most realistic option has always been to keep CP3, Capela, Mbah a Moute and Green, move Anderson for a more useful fit on a comparably bad or worse contract (Batum, Bazemore, Allen Crabbe, etc), sign a rotation player with the taxpayer MLE and to win the Melo sweepstakes if he’s bought out. Anything else is wishing on a star at this point. Ariza chose money over being in a winning situation. I don’t fault him, but short of push this roster further above the tax line, there’s not much Morey could do there.
A coach like D’Antoni doesn’t create assets. Mostly because of his reluctance to play unproved or rookie players. Those are the type of player that have breakout years and become assets. The chandler parsons, Kyle Lowry’s and Aaron brooks of the league before hey became stars. He got lucky with Lin because of injuries.
i really wonder if CP would of agreed to less than 160 mil..... say 4 yr for 130, 140? This contract will handicapped the team in a couple of years.
He was willing to play Sam Dekker and Montrez who were used to trade for Chris Paul. When those players played, there were obvious defencies in their games that did not benefit us playing them big minutes. Dekker was an inconsistent shooter and Harrell would have defensive lapses, yet he played them just enough that the Clippers took them of our hands. This year he tried playing Zhou Qi and he did give him opportunities, but Zhou ultimately proved that he was not ready for the NBA game. Besides his good blocks, he would get pushed around in the paint easily and he could not hold on to the ball to save his life, every rebound seemed like it was slapped out of his hands. He also gave KJ McDaniels a try, but KJ was too undisciplined and could not shoot as well (although I still would of preferred him playing over Brewer). Troy Williams is the one guy he really didn't give a shot to, but it is not as if he is lighting it up with other teams. Morey really has not found another gem recently like he found in Clint so let's not pretend like Mike is holding players back. Even this year in the playoffs, Mike tried playing Luc despite Luc having a mental block from his injury and it proved to be a mistake since he was a negative everytime he was out there. Personally, I hated his short rotation in the playoffs, but I blame injuries for that happening. He even tried playing Ryno and that's when Steph went off. In the regular season, when he had healthy bodies, he did expand the rotation.
Don't try to logic with them. These people believe if he would have taken a paycut we could have signed other free agents with our non existent cap space. If he really wanted a ring he would have pointlessly taken less money.
https://www.chron.com/sports/rocket...officially-re-signs-with-Rockets-13058035.php LAS VEGAS – Rockets guard Chris Paul on Sunday squeezed in a half of summer basketball before he rushed off to another meeting with more planned, along with the celebration of the four-year, $160 million contract he had signed to attempt to finish what he started in his first season with the Rockets. He always expected to stay with the Rockets long-term, even moved to a home located better for someone that works downtown and frequently heads to the Houston airports. But when he signed the contract on Saturday in Las Vegas, he knew he would get the chance to run it back, as the Rockets have come to call the goal of reassembling the bulk of last season's Western Conference Finals team. "I mean, it's a blessing, you know what I mean," Paul said. "It's great to know where I'm going to be." He likely would have felt that way no matter how last season ended. But with his strained hamstring forcing him to miss the final two games of the Rockets' playoff series against the Warriors, losses after Paul had driven the Rockets to a 3-2 series lead with a sensational Game 5 performance, he said he was especially driven to start building toward another chance. "Anybody who knows me knows how I feel," said Paul in his first comments since the injury. "I don't have to talk about it. I'm fueled by competition. What are you going to do? I can't go back. I can't go back in time. All I can do is move forward." He described the Rockets' efforts to keep free agents Clint Capela and Luc Mbah a Moute as part of the process. Asked if he has begun talking with Carmelo Anthony, who is expected to be released by the Oklahoma City Thunder, Paul said "I talk to Melo all the time." He did not specify if those conversations were recruiting efforts should Anthony become a free agent again, leaving it at, "We'll see, we'll see." With that, he kept moving forward, having assured he would be coming back to Houston, and then kept moving. After watching the first half of the Rockets' Summer League game against the Warriors, taking a front row seat with Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta and his family, a few seats from Mike D'Antoni and Jeff Bzdelik, he had to rush off to an NBA competition committee meeting, with another scheduled for Monday morning and a union meeting to follow. His first meeting in Las Vegas, however, included putting his name on a contract, a step he always expected, but now described as part of a plan he could not complete in his first season with the Rockets. "That's the only option," Paul said, "do the process all over again and see what happens."
