Rockets trade D-Mo, Thornton to Pistons for first round pick

Harden got fat and tanked the season, it is right to look to the next year and beyond.

DMo is a broken down free agent to be who at his best doesn't put up great stats, and his rebounding sucks.

I'd rather get a first round pick with more upside than a soon to be overpaid role player who will have periodic back issues

DMo gonna average like 10 and 4 if he even gets on the court

Can't risk him messing up our free agency moves

 

Shouldn't we pray that he can stay healthy and in this league before talking about his stats?

Would not matter if he was out of this league in 1 or 2 years.

Those things happen. I am not sure where Rudy Fernandez, Jan Vesely are now. Somewhere back in Europe I guess.

 

I'd say Durant, DeRozan, Horford and Conley are all worth their 25 + mill max's

Barnes and Whiteside their 21+ mill max's

Parsons/Batum/Howard 20 mill

Anderson 15-17 mill

Gasol is the most interesting one because he is the only big named player that will likely be okay with taking a one or two year deal because of his age. If we strike out on Durant, I'd be all over giving Gasol a 1 year 25 mill contract with or without a team option.

As for DeRozan, I think he's highly unlikely to be interested in Houston, but he'd be a interesting fit next to Harden and is IMO the second best free agent out of the list of players we are talking about. He's 26, he creates, good rebounder, good passer, strong and uber athletic, fantastic slasher, driver and finisher around the rim. He's not an ideal fit next to Harden, but they may be one of those tandems where their "overlapping skills" absolutely kill the opposing teams due to both players relentlessness, strength, driving and passing ability. I'm just saying if he would be willing to come to Houston, I'd take him.

And if the Rockets couldn't get any of those players, we can always give out multiple 5-10 mill per one year deals to solid-good role players to both A- keep us competitive and B- keep us flexible for next years free agency.

 

This is exactly how Morey operates, kick the can down the road and hope.

He can't do it that way will never work..

DD

 

The odds are not good, the competition in the West and now East are fierce.

In a light million years.

 

Dmo wouldnt help against Draymond Green or LaMarcus Aldridge, he would get destroyed.

If Harden played like last year, you keep Dmo as a ROLE player. Dmo will probably average 14 and 6 at his best.

Since this season is lost, it's much better to get a draft pick that can be as high as #9.

Dwight is probably gone, so we'll have tons of capspace plus 2 first rounders.

That's way better than a broken down 7 footer who can't rebound or dunk.

Morey was able to rip SVG off because SVG is obsessed with stretch fours even if they aren't healthy and he even admitted DMo will have periodic back flareups.

 

He didn't kick the can down the road the prior year, did we "kick the can" with Lawson, Brewer and Beverly? Motiejunas' contract is up and the Rockets can't pay him his salary because they want to sign another max player, what do you want him to do? Let him play the season and see him leave for nothing? Even Clutch and Bima agree the trade is a great one!

All you do is say your complaints even if it doesn't make sense. Why don't you look at reality and the context in which moves are made before you post?

 

I'm in the camp that firmly believes this to be false. Green was absolutely eaten alive in the post by Monroe and the Bucks kept going to him down the stretch.

Obviously if you're thinking D-Mo is strong enough to back down Green than yes - D-Mo would get destroyed. But Monroe feasted with an array of post moves.

A healthy D-Mo would be monumental against Golden State when they go small.

I hate that he's gone. And I hope he gets healthy so I can watch him be unleashed on the Eastern Conference.

I also acknowledge he's the only piece we had basically that warranted a first round draft pick coming back. And considering how we're the laughing stock of the league no point in holding on to him hoping he gets healthy.

 

What??.... Go back and look how well DMo did matched up w/ Draymond last year. There is actual evidence to support that too since it actually happened. It's not pretty. That's like saying someone could be a good fire fighter after they just caught their kitchen on fire.

I can't speak to Monroe having success with it, but regardless DMo really struggled with Draymond like most teams do. Even if you find a lineup that can successful go small defensively against GSW, they'll still have more offensive power.

But maybe DMo was worth another shot as a small ball five if we were going to see Golden State in the WCF again.

But I think we all can agree how unlikely it is the Rox get there now. We're lucky to get in the playoffs at this point.

 

I meant more defensively. We know DMo is effective in the post, assuming he gets the ball

 

Draymond Green is super overrated. Just saw he was a 90 on NBA2K16. Dear god...

 

Wow, I'm reading these apologetic comments, and have flashbacks to a somewhat similar situation where Morey (or should I say Les?) signed Lin over Dragić, because we couldn't afford to give a player option for fear of losing precious "flexibility". Morey has a plan! That player option is risky! It will hamper our ability on the market! Morey surely knows better than us! Two years later, Dragić was named 3rd team All-NBA and Houston had to include their own first rounder to dump Lin. Btw, Dragić earned less money per year than Lin (7.5 vs 8.3 millions).
That move was bad, a number of people on the board knew it from day one, but the blind fans couldn't accept that someone in the Rockets organization made the wrong call and where all about "you can't say it's a bad move right now, give it a few years and then you'll be able to give correct judgement". All I have to say about that is - if it smells like bull**** and it looks like bull****, it's bull****.
I'm 100% certain that DMo's cap hold wouldn't be a crucial hurdle for Houston in the FA market this summer. The difference between the Detroit pick cap hold and DMo's cap hold is what? 4-5 millions? I repeat, it's not a crucial difference and it won't make things unfold drastically different. Donatas is a good player, he can help the Rockets, you hold on to those players and that's it. There's no need to overcomplicate things.
I'm also confident in Morey's ability to maneuver around his cap hold and make sure it doesn't present a problem in offering a max contract or whatever. But in the end, I'm also pretty sure Durant won't sign for the Rockets, so the flexibility we got with this trade is fool's gold. Classic Houston sports.

P.S. I like Daryl, but he's human and he makes mistakes. No need to be afraid to call him out on that.

 

Now that you are mentioning Dragon's name, I was against him in the past

I am wondering what could have been with Dragic though...

 

To be fair, there is a big difference in apologizing, and explaining the reasons for a trade or move to happen.

Nobody I know of (well the good veteran posters) is making excuses. Its usually the fanatics of whatever player thats involved that go off the rails, and take the explanation as apologizing.

Everyone knows the move sucks. Pretty much everyone loved D-Mo. He was a fan favorite for a good reason. He always had great upside. However there are reasons for making the trade just like there were reasons for Morey & Les opting to let Dragic walk and pursuing someone like Lin.

Yes his moves aren't always perfect. The Lin one didn't work out. The Terrence Williams one didn't work out. The Royce White draft pick sure as hell didn't work out.

But we shouldn't kill the people who tried to explain those reasons of doing those deals at the time of the transaction. The D-Mo trade could make Morey look silly. I don't think anyone is denying that.

 

It could always be worse guys. We could have been the team that traded away a 1st and Dragic to get Aaron Brooks.

Let's not act like Morey was the only GM in the league to underevaluate Dragic.

 

Truth is, with DMo we were never going to lose another game. And now, we'll never win another game. Thanks, Obama and Morey.

 

Dragic sucks and he wouldn't fit next to Harden anyway.

Lowry is a better argument. He's better than Harden this year.

But if you are going to argue you could have predicted that and Harden getting this fat, you're crazy.

 

DMo's intangibles are literally through the roof.

He does things like improve team rebounding without actually grabbing any rebounds because his boxing out is so amazing.

 

He traded Aaron Brooks for the draft pick that led to DMo. It actually netting Dragic off the Suns, too. Did you like that trade?

Aaron Brooks for DMo and Dragic

 

Let's say we don't kick the can down the road.


What do we do with the can?