Making a move that reduces your talent level to avoid luxury tax can have its downside. Especially in the locker room as it signals something to the players about your owner willing to pay to go all-in. I know TJ is a villain to the fans, but to the players, he seems to be very well thought of & trusted. If there was as reason that has the Rockets avoiding the hard cap then I could see some reasoning as it would heavily restrict the Rockets this year, but as far as I'm aware, the hard cap issues have more to do with their use of the MLE if I'm not mistaken. If a team offers a protected 1st for TJ, and you can sign Boozer for the minimum, then I have to admit that its intriguing. Even though I sort of want to throw up thinking about Boozer on the Rockets where a coach like McHale would "trust" him based on his past above playing the guys he really should be playing. As I've said before, given Morey's past moves last season, I don't see him being that concerned with TJ's free agency. Keep in mind that he gave up FOUR 2nd round picks for essentially rental players in Brewer and Prigioni. They even made Brewer give up his player option so its likely at the time they had intention on viewing him as more than a rental. Because of this, If TJ is the better player of him and Boozer, then I personally don't think it should matter. Yeah... if there is a pick out there that could help the Rockets facilitate a bigger trade in the future than I'd be down for discussing if I was Morey, but at the end of the day, if TJ is the better player, they should keep TJ even if they don't think they can keep him AND D-Mo next Summer. A TJ one year rental is probably better than a one-year Boozer. You could also end up getting a bargain on one of D-Mo and TJ in free agency next year as well. Who knows. That's a prospect nobody here wants to entertain taking a chance on. Everyone is still caught up in 2012 Morey-flip mode.
Are there no concerns from the fans about McHale having too much "trust" in Boozer and playing him over players that need those minutes? Back to the comfort foods argument that has been a hot topic with McHale, and Adelman especially before him. I'll say this. The Rockets would certainly get better at the "Yell-flop"
yeah but his name boozer as in boozer, the only thing better would be if his name was smasher. I pitty the fool that doesn't like boozing and smashing.
I think fans are also giving too much value to what players think of their ownership. And even if so, I am sure in this case letting Jones go would be perfectly fine with everyone, understanding that him and DMO need more minutes than Houston can give.
Morey wants to recoup that 1st. Jones for a 1st and TE makes sense. Hayes/Boozer backing up DMo makes sense. I'm fine with it. I prefer defensive rebounding consistency over Jones' sporadic weakside shot blocking. I just hope it's one of those fancy reverse-protected lotto picks Morey is so fond of.
Yeah, I don't see the luxury tax as a driving factor in a trade. The apron, however, could be. I agree on renting TJ vs renting Boozer. The only reason you move TJ and sign Boozer is if you're getting someone or something good for TJones.
As much as I'd like to see insurance help on the front line, I don't know of any player on the Rockets that I'd trade for Boozer straight up. Now if he will sign for the vet min he'd be better than Hayes IMO as far as a player goes. Hayes is only good as a teacher with very limited playing time.
I know everyone says this, but I've never really observed it. We've had multiple young guys get minutes for us during McHale's tenure. I have no doubt that if TJones, DMo, Capela or even Harrell are the better players, they will get the minutes.
Yes, I can see that argument. On the flip side, teams might not be willing to pay much for a half-season on Jones before he hits free agency. A full season is better value. It also gives them more time to figure out how he fits on their team. And finally, other teams can see at least as clearly as we can that we probably won't be keeping both D-Mo and Jones in free agency -- so why trade much value if you know we'll lose him in free agency anyway? And though fans quickly forget how players' value, I doubt GMs do. They know his potential. I think we can get some pretty good value for him now. In the Twilight debate of Team Motie vs Team Jones, I'm on Team Jones. I'd rather not give him up. And I'd love to him both of them. But, I see the writing on the wall. And I think we can get value for him. Maybe another Lowry-style collared first round pick that we can put in a trade package later, or use ourselves to keep feeding the pipeline. Avoiding the luxury tax wouldn't be the primary motivation for doing it, but it could catalyze the action this summer. If we did it soon, we could sign Harrell to a Parsons-style contract. I wouldn't let a second rounder drive the action if we thought it best to wait to the trade deadline -- I would just sign him to the standard second rounder min deal. But, if we saw benefit in trading Jones before the season, I'd do it before signing Harrell.
Carlos Boozer, at age 33, is still a better rebounder than anybody we got not named Howard or Capela and he'd instantly be the best free-throw shooting big on our roster. Not to mention he's battle-tested in the playoffs. Boozer is waiting on us. He wants to sign here because we are closer to winning a championship than any other team that has shown interest in him. Boozer is waiting on us and we are waiting on something else. By the way, Morey is not worried about the luxury tax this year. This is the year we are most likely to pay the luxury tax.
The good news is yes, he does. The bad news is that Okur still does too probably. And he cant even get a workout anymore.
Don't forget Matt Harpring. Dude was a WWE wrestler in a basketball jersey. A nice complement to Kirilenko's ballerina work.
It's possible Morey is working on a deal. It's also possible he's still trying to work something out with Montrezl. Hard to tell at this point. One point I'm not sure has been made......if we force Montrezl to take the QO, then your talking about all 3 of our young PFs being free agents next year. I don't like that from a negotiating standpoint.
I'm a Jones fan, and believe he is underrated by many on this sight, but all in all, if Jones produces at his normal level next season, he will be demanding a 10+ million dollar contract, as well as Dmo if not more, if either make improvements, where looking at the max. We cannot afford to save and keep Dmo and Jones beyond the trade deadline. I would have no problem with the Rockets trading Jones for a 1st and signing Boozer as a one year replacement. People can hate on Boozer all they want, but he's still a good rebounder and has a reliable offensive post and mid range game. While I would take Jones over him every day, he's not going to be a huge drop off. He's still averaging like 14 and 8 over the last 3 years, he's been healthy and has never really relied on athleticism for his game.
