But see, I actually think all of the examples you just gave were poor ones to back up your point. Of those teams you just mentioned, how many of them are legitimate contenders right now? Zero. And how many years have they toiled in obscurity waiting to draft the right guys and build the right foundation? Most of them 5-10 years, and some more than a decade. Minnesota looks like they're in good shape right now, but they're not contending with Golden State or OKC next season. Hell, I think it's more likely that they fall back down to irrelevancy than it is that they contend in the next five years. The Rockets are as good, if not better, than most of those teams right now without having to rebuild from the ground up. Rather than completely blowing it up and starting from scratch to get back up to relevancy (and frankly mediocrity) again, why not give the Harden era two more years to play itself out? I'd rather take our chances with a top 10 player than have a fire sale and take my chances with draft picks and assets that are all complete question marks.
That's not a realistic amount for someone of Anderson's caliber. You're thinking about amounts in terms of last year's cap. But you can't just look at the numbers at face value, you have to consider the numbers as a percentage of the new cap. A $12 million per year contract today was a $9 million per year contract a year ago. How many players can you think of that could score 17 a night signed contracts were $9 million a year last season? Probably zero.
A year ago 9 mil a year for a bench 3 point specialist would have been about right, maybe even a bit more than you'd want to give them.
Calling Anderson a "bench 3-point specialist" is crazy oversimplification. A "bench 3-point specialist" doesn't put up 17 points a night on solid efficiency. I understand how underwhelmed everyone is this offseason by Anderson potentially being the Rockets' biggest acquisition, but the hate the guy receives on this site is kind of insane.
But it's not working and this free agency is proof perfect. It's time to try a new strategy; I'm not satisfied with being above average; you have to take risks to be great. Right now we are just setting ourselves back years. I'd trade Milwaukee's future for ours n a hot second.
He can shoot but he brings nothing at all else to the team. He's basically the 3 point shooting version of Beasley, he'll score in bunches, but he'll give up more on the other end so he'll still be a net negative on the court. Anderson is best used as a bench 3 point specialist so that he'll be in against other bench quality players to give him a chance to score more than he's scored against.
I'd throw the max at Barnes just to put the Warriors in luxury tax territory and effectively out of the free agent market for years.
Or the Warriors just laugh at the Rockets and don't match because they have guys who can replace Barnes already like Looney, Mcadoo, and Iguodala.
OK, but a year ago wouldn't you have said that it WAS working? Nobody could have predicted the complete trainwreck that was last season. But stuff like that happens in professional sports. Just because you took a couple of steps back doesn't mean you completely blow up the entire plan. I'm not satisfied with being average either. I also want to be great. But you know what else I am? A realist. I see the alternative of trading Harden for pennies on the dollar and rebuilding in a league with a LOT of other bad teams, and I know that the Rockets have a hell of a lot better chance of contending with Harden than without him. In sports and in life, if you're smart, you'll play the averages. And the smart move is to keep Harden, take your best shot building around him and hoping he re-signs in two years.
Except he's far, far more consistent than Beasley. On the defensive end, Houston just have to play better team defense and have solid defenders around him to compensate. But let's be honest, you don't bring in Mike D'Antoni if you're dedicated to improving your defense. They're going to give up a lot of points on that end next season regardless of who starts at PF.
The starter, DMo, has an all around solid game. Do we have a superstar PF? No, but is that really what you are expecting?
