Woj: Butler Willing to Expand List if Wolves Can Make a Deal

LOL, sure.

 

If he's not ultimately destined for Houston, I would love to see this media circus.

 

I really wonder how strong the offers have been for Butler. If Miami is being the most aggressive then the market can’t be that strong considering they don’t really have a ton to offer that benefits Minny. I think if we are willing to do a Dieng/Knight swap and then Ego, Nene, pick for Butler then it can kind of make sense. Dieng is overpaid but he fits the team’s needs better than Knight and his contract would be tradeable in the final year.

I’m going to just think it’s a done deal and get my hopes up!

 

i think a reliable backup pg that can actually play is more of a need than someone like Dieng. There's a reason why better backup pg's dont sign in houston and that's bc there isn't a true role for them here. Very tough to find one that isn't in the bobby brown level and BK isn't in that

 

Thibs never changes..... there is part of him that really believes that Butler will just show up, play and do his job until/if the Wolves find that Thibs finds agreeable...... which would be like one of a dozen players. Watching this all play out will be interesting, will be shocked if Taylor and Thibs remain solid through this whole thing. I think at some point Taylor is going to have to push harder.

 

The advantage of Dieng is that he is a better player than Knight and is healthy.

The disadvantage is the length of his contract.

Knight hasn't even been an average NBA player in years, and has had some serious recent injuries. There is no reason to believe that he will be a good player.

It is hard to sign a solid back up point guard.... but the Rockets can always trade for one.

 

Rockets can always trade for one yet they haven't for how many years now? Sure Dieng's healthy but his role on his team wouldn't be more valuable then an actual pg on a team where their guards have questionable health

BK is not this fringe NBA player some people are making him out to be. It's funny how people want to make MCW into some valuable player but when they look at BK he gets 0 benefit. MCW is the player that hasn't been average in years not BK.

 

The Rockets could have traded for a back up point guard, but have not felt it was worthy of trading a #1 draft pick for or an expiring deal for one on a longer deal. The Rockets have attempted to get one for the minimum in free agency or to develop one.

Would Dieng's role be more valuable than a back up point guards? Well, we know that the Rockets spent money (and decent money) to keep Nene and they have not on a back up point guard. So I get where you are coming from, but I don't know that it is as stark a difference as you think. Regardless, there are ways to fill the position of PG.

MCW and BK are two separate players and situations. MCW cost the Rockets the minimum, so there is no real expense if he fails. What he can do, is defend and he has size. At this point, no one knows what Knight can still do because of injuries and really poor play the last few years. He could bounce back and play like he did before he went to Phoenix, but it isn't something that the Rockets are counting on. If he does great.

There is no reason to be overly confident about either Knight or MCW to be honest. The Rockets will take some chances and hopefully one of them pans out like Gerald Green did last year.

 

The rockets have been getting the Bobby Brown's of pg's. those don't even matter.

How much a player gets paid isn't really a standard on whether you can play or be bad. The money aspect is a FO issue at the end of the day. If MCW sucks as hes shown for the past several years, he just does no matter how much he makes. The "minimum salary" is just a bad excuse for someone who thought highly of him beforehand.

It looks like the Rockets are counting on it, cause they actually traded for him

 

How much a player gets paid show how important a team believes that player is at the time they sign them. The Rockets have prioritized signing a back up center over the last few years, but not so much a back up point guard.

How much a player makes is certainly relevant, because it reflects how much the Rockets have invested in that player. If MCW sucks, the Rockets can simply release him with minimal consequences.

Yeah, if you believe that the Rockets traded Anderson for Knight and Chriss because they are counting on them to perform well, I have some nice property in the West Houston flood plain you may be interested in. The Rockets made the deal because Chriss operates as an unguaranteed trade piece before the deadline and at worse gets the Rockets out of $5,000,000 and the luxury tax ramifications in 2019. Knight was included because the contracts matched up and because he is easier to move than Anderson. If Knight provides them anything, that is great, but it is foolish to count on it.

 

I guess PJ isn't that important then. Again at the end of the day its a FO issue. For a poster on this board its a bad excuse

And by the comments today on media day several emphasized depth, I guess all the guys from Morey to Harden are foolish. maybe they'll invest in that property in the flood plain

 

They don't actually need to send Knight and Gordon out. If the Rockets involve Atl or Sac they can send Dieng there for 2 1sts and solve a major part of Minny's issues. This to me has always been the only conceivable path the Rockets have to beating other superior offers. I would have started with this offer and Knight instead of Gordon and then upgrade with Gordon. Still don't think it is enough. We are still horribly outgunned.

 

I love to think we can rely on Knight, but he has only had one decent stretch in his career. He seems to be injury cursed as well.

So let's do more fantasy dream trades and do Butler, Dieng, Tyus Jones for Gordon, Nene, Knight, and Chriss

 

Morey doesn't like to give out firsts like candy. A 2019 and a 2021 first rounders is a lot to give up to not take Dieng's contract imo. I agree that the ability to do something with Dieng works significantly in the Rockets' favor here. Plus it gives us 2 francophone big men.

Paul/Harden/MCW
Harden/Green
Butler/Melo/Ennis
Tucker/Melo/Dieng
Capela/Dieng

 

You missed the whole point. 1sts were always required for this trade whether it involves Dieng or not. I think our only shot is the ability to find Dieng a new home and save them the luxury tax. What other reason do they have to trade with us? We don't want Dieng or his 3 YR deal. We just went through this with Ryno. We cannot trade Knight and Gordon. Now with the news of Knight's recovery we cannot trade Knight until he is back on the court. This trade is happening now. I would have have offered Knight and the 1sts and Minny would have likely hung up the phone. Gordon and the 1sts enables us to keep Knight to fulfill Gordon's role. Otherwise this is a stupid sideways trade. I still think this doesn't happen and never believed it would. We are so outgunned by any team that makes a real offer. The idea of this trade is Butler+Knight >>> Anderson+Gordon or effectively Butler>>>>>>Anderson. If I could have made it Knight in effect we traded Anderson for Butler. On any level the idea we have a shot at Butler is unbelievable. The idea that a couple of late 1sts are the sticking point in a deal is not realistic or credible. He saved those 1sts in the Ryno trade for a reason and it wasn't to draft players for our team to develop. If you think Morey would walk away from the final piece to a championship team over that then you haven't been following him.

I'll also address the money issue. Dieng is a dead stick on our roster. It's worse than when Asik was here. We would still have to spend our MLE to find a substandard guard to replace EGo's 6th man contribution. It's a lot easier to justify salaries when there is no weakness in the roster salary wise and we are more flexible in trade. As soon as we get Dieng we are going to be looking at moving him for other pieces again that will cost draft picks, taking on more salary, and likely not be as easy and probably worse than Ryno. That's a 3yr contract. If we cannot move it now where is the belief we can move it later? Minny couldn't. If we help Minny move Dieng we earn Butler. Our roster is clean and so is there's and we are in better luxury tax position as the cap rises. We can add a TP MLE player next year as well as this year and next year we get the BAE back. Moving both Gordon and Knight creates more holes for us right now. You are also throwing away Chriss who could be a CHEAP option for our backup C role. His high side is becoming Capela light for 15-20 minutes and he fits our roster and scheme. If you add up the MLE player we get at the deadline over multiple years, the Ryno TPE, more buyouts, and the exceptions we have next year we have far more flexibility in trades to keep our depth and perhaps trade up on some of our assets without having 1sts to use. That's a lot easier to justify to Tilman than I want to spend more money but first we have to get rid of or sign Dieng's checks. If we keep Knight and add other assets and Knight reforms we recover most of EGo's contributions and he is an asset to us or some other team that has a better asset. We have to think a couple of steps ahead after a trade like this. If we don't want Knight, who do we prefer and how would we get them? What players would we want for the MLE, buyout vet min, or player we can trade+Ryno's TPE. Who does that get us/why?

 

Tyus Jones would be a nice get but is he easily included? He has potential but I don't know that I want to dump Gordon and Knight to find that out. Right now for 96 minutes a game we have the guard position on lockdown with the best we could ever hope to have. Essentially 96 minutes of all-star play from an area on the team that is always the most important and drives the course of the game. Do we weaken probably the strongest area in the league to bolster a weakened area when we could do so and avoid it at another cost. How much do we value that other cost. How much do the 1sts we have mean to us from a development perspective? What players are we going to draft there that we cannot acquire by other means?

 

Aggressive better not mean Tucker.