I think people want to find the next James Harden and people think Barnes could be that guy but the dude is pretty useless if his midrange shot isn't going in. I personally think Beasley is a better player than Barnes.
As long as he plays D like he did the last 20 secs of the game AND..... make Green play D (wear Green out), I'm wanting DMo back!!
Well, you just start with Capela and you play him a good amount of mins (based on the match up and if the oppenents are hacking him -> effectively) and for the rest you play Horford at the 5 with Ariza at the 3 (on offense), Durant already plays at the 4 with OKC, and in this nba you need a strong small lineup to win. Also, in this situation you're going to force other teams to match up with you, no one will keep two bigs to face KD at the 4, just no way that can happen, and you can still use Ariza to guard a bigger 4 in case. I don't know RR, i mean, Harden guarding point guards is not gonna end up well, but let's say you put Ariza on the opposing pg, you'll still need a small lineup to play against the Warriors best 5, which is Draymond at the 5 with Barnes, Iggy, Klay and Steph on the perimeter...not sure you can beat them with Capela and another 4, especially if your players are hackable...but with Horford, Durant, Ariza, Harden, Pat, i say you have a good chance, at least better than anyone else. But at the end, the best thing is to have as much versatility as you can, with Durant and Horford you can play big (if you have a center) and small, that's just huge.
Codman, have you heard something those past months/weeks about what Horford is going to do this summer? Thank you in advance
Both Horford and Durant are eligible for 30% of the cap ~27.6m starting salaries. To sign both of these guys and keep DMo's cap hold we would have to dump Dekker, Ariza, Brewer, and KJ for future picks. Then all we have left to fill out the roster is bae, mmle, and vet min contracts. I would hope that if somehow we land Durant we could convince him that the Horford money could be better spend filling out the roster. Horford is barely a better rebounding than Dmo and not much of a rim protector. Rather keep Dmo, Ariza, and KJ and bring in 3rd guard like Llull or Gordan, and still have around 14 million to bring in another big.
I'm not sure why you're so low on Horford, the way you're talking about him looks like you're talking about Josh Smith lol Btw i think we'll have a better chance convincing Durant to sign with us if we're able to sign Horford (an all star caliber player) next to him rather than a couple of bench players honestly. And in your scenario our front court will be Capela - D.Mo...eh...that's not good enough to convince Durant imo.
You know what is funny, people are willing to just let a known guy walk, for a shot at Durant - who will have nearly 30 other teams after him. If that is not the definition of stupid, I don't know what is. DD
Rockets could know if they get Durant BEFORE they have to make a decision on DMo. The moratorium gives them that leeway.
If he asking for more than 10 mill a year. . .year He has not proven that his back is 100% yet for me and he has not moved into a top 20 PF in this league . . .not consistently anyway Rocket River
7-9 years of experience is 30% cap, 10+ is 35%. However the exact number they use to calculate the max not the entire cap. So the starting max is I believe 25.9 million not 26.7m as I originally stated. That is why there is talk of Durant signing a 1+1 contract so he can opt out and get the higher max 35% next year.
You forgot the 14 million, which is actually closer to 17 million that I said you could sign a big with. I would rather have Pau Gasol on a 2/25m or so and a strong bench than just Horford and a bunch of minimum salary guys. Horford is overrated now. He has lost a lot of foot speed the last two seasons. He is now too slow to play effective PF and he doesn't rebound or defend the rim like you would want from your primary center. He is a second tier borderline all star guy now. I would love to have him, but not at 26 million a year, and having to gut your team for him. But if Durant wants him and will only sign if he comes then of course I would say do it.
Overrated? I think it's quite the opposite in fact, you never hear talking about him lol Btw if you don't sign a max players like Horford for 26, you'll still have Ariza (8) + KJ (3) + D.Mo cap hold (6), so we're talking about 17 milions, that leaves you with 9/10 milions, not 14 or 17, and i'm not sure what you can sign with those 10, Llull if he wants to come over but you don't turn down a max player for 3 bench guys when you basically have two holes in the starting lineup, and in a scenario where those bench guys are replaced by two all stars...
Durant with room for other players. James Harden $16,784,031.00 Trevor Ariza $7,421,000.00 Patrick Beverley $6,000,000.00 K.J. McDaniels $3,333,333.00 Donatas Motiejunas $5,720,513.00 Clint Capela $1,296,240.00 Montrezl Harrell $1,045,000.00 Beasley $1,404,000.00 Goudelock $1,016,000.00 Durant $25,900,000.00 Total $69,920,117.00 + 2 roster holds. So you have 22 million to fill out the roster including DMo cap hold. You can also Keep Dekker too easier under this option if wanted. If you sign Horford one of Dmo or Ariza has to go. IF you cut Ariza you would have about 3 million left and two roster holds come out of that. 2 Max option: James Harden $16,784,031.00 Patrick Beverley $6,000,000.00 K.J. McDaniels $3,333,333.00 Donatas Motiejunas $5,720,513.00 Clint Capela $1,296,240.00 Montrezl Harrell $1,045,000.00 Beasley $1,404,000.00 Goudelock $1,016,000.00 Durant $25,900,000.00 Horford $25,900,000.00 Total $88,399,117.00 + 2 roster holds.
DMo is a restricted free agent with a lingering back injury. I think we'll end up getting him on a cheap deal
He is basically a more finesse but less consistent Jonas Valanciunas You can find Euros in the draft!
That is called going full throttle at a gamechanger like Durant and end up being Top 2 or Top 3 in the West consistently and not just one fluke year. Instead sticking with role players like Dmo result in 7th, 8th seeds almost every year So you tell me what is stupid? Although the chance of getting Durant is like 10 percent at best. Being a gamechanger and favorite rather than a borderline playoff team Durant is a much better leader than Harden in my opinion, much more mature at about the same age
That's a false dilemma it's not keep DMo OR go after Durant, you can do both. It's not keep DMo, OR go after 2 max FA's, again you can do both. Since the Rockets have his Bird rights, so long as he doesn't sign early in FA, they can use those Bird rights to keep him after the other FA signings are done. San Antonio did this just last year to get LMA while also keeping other players on their team that were due new contracts.
