Sign horford > try and get Kevin durant or mike Conley or noah/gasol, if none of those trade Ariza + others for somone like Eric Bledsoe, sign some solid role players Eric gordan, lin, batum, lee etc etc Rockets are contenders Horford > howard all day horford offensively is what we need. He's got decent rebounding and defense so will almost be replacing Howard's lazy defense from last year anyway
I am glad that the Rockets got a meeting with Horford. However I haven't heard a simple thing linking Horford to the Rockets. There are literally a dozen teams that want Horford. I really wouldn't get my hopes up.
Only if Durant wants to come also. Otherwise our only leverage on the OKC's of the world is to pay him more than they can offer. Don't mistake the Rockets for a championship contender here: our only stick is our money.
yep..he's staying EAST imo. We have no realistic links to the Rockets at this point. James Harden is the players MVP...isn't he?
One upside for horford is he actually could grab some knowledge from Hakeem. He has that same lanky build and actually has decent post moves unlike robot howard
Interesting analysis but isn't Howard looking for a max deal as well since this is likely his last big contract? Last I looked a max deal for him would be $29.5M per year. That's an awful lot to commit to a guy with his baggage (mental & physical) expanded salary cap or not. ATL would have to be of the mindset that Howard is the final piece they need to top CLE and I find that premise to simply be unrealistic.
Spot on. These meetings although important are hardly the only mean to communicate to a free agent. They are mostly for the final candidates to meet with the star and introduce him the entire staff together, owner, coaches, future teammates etc. to pitch their final presentation, also for the free agent to ask questions to all of them and get a personal feeling of who these people are. But these guys (the players) talk to each other, they are friends, they have some money to spare so its possible that they have cellphones, tablets, laptops and know what the internet is, maybe they even use Skype or Whatsapp who knows So you can bet your ass that they have been talking to Durant for weeks, and just like the Rockets had their meeting with Durant in Arizona to get a feel for what he wanted, there has been at least one guy from each of these teams at the very least sending smiley faces to Durant's phone to romance him a bit.
He becomes a 10yr vet next year. So, a 1+1 with promise for max next year starts him at $35m/yr. But, discount this year for 10yr max next year would seem to work more in OKC's favor than us. We'd be the ones having to offer max every way possible. OKC can offer Durant, Westbrook and his Florida coach who he won two NCAA titles with, plus instant contender.
Just because someone is looking for the max doesn't mean they're going to get it. I'm sure Terrence Jones would like the max, too, but it doesn't work that way. Unless Dwight can find a suitor willing to give him the max -- and I'm almost certain there aren't any -- he's going to have to take the best deal the market gives him. Howard Beck is guessing that to be somewhere between $15M and $17M over 2-3 years, which sounds about right.
