SAS 1st take: Deandre Jordan wants to go to Houston

Chris Paul's opinion on the matter.

 

DJ and Clint are not dispositive.

DJ would be an elite 2nd unit big man. My concern is obviously his FTs, but DJ can get plenty of burn with a 2nd unit. He's still an elite rebounder and defender. He has value. Honestly, against the true top tier NBA teams, DJ probably offers more value to HOU than Nene. Nene is playable, but I'd take DJ in a heartbeat.

Problem is, it'll likely will have to be via buyout. LAC arguably should give DJ the buyout, especially with how the DJ/DAL/LAC fiasco panned out.

 

I don't think DJ will ever agree to a buyout, he would be leaving a huge sum of money. Nobody in their right mind is going to trade for him. Therefore all the discussion seems hypothetical to me.

 

only mid-season trades i like to see happening is if we get PG,JJ.redick or cj miles...

 

I could see several teams trading for DJ. He may not mesh well w/ high octane offenses due to his FT problem, but that doesn't mean a team won't take a bite. He's a FA at the end of the year, so no one's on the hook for any real long-term problems. I could see a 2nd tier team, say MIL, TOR, or MEM to make a move. What do they have to lose? DJ is very playable and still very good. Just needs a good system and role to play within.

 

Spotrac mentions him as a UFA in 2019, at the end of the 2018-19 season. He is making 22 M a yr.

 

If you can't play him in the 4th due to hack a J, that makes that salary even more unattractive.

 

Capela hasn't met his full potential. He grows by leaps and bounds each year. He addresses weaknesses in the off-season and is committed to be the best player he can be. He may wind up the best center in the league at his peak. "God isn't finished with him yet." And neither are Rockets training staff.

I have three "untouchables" on this team, though no one is truly untouchable if the right trade comes along. Still I feel like these three are critical to the future of the team, which looks like it could be not just a championship team but a dynasty when they fully find their way to playing together:

1. James Harden
2. Chris Paul
3. Clint Capela

I love the squad we have and am ever so happy to go to battle as is but Daryl Morey never stops working on improving the team. I'd love to see another 3 and D forward and a backup PG for insurance since for all the talk about Bobby Brown being an amazing shooter he's yet to show that on the NBA stage and some shooters are great in every situation except the big stage. That seems to be the case with Brown, Canaan didn't work out, and so we still have a little hole there if we have injuries.

It would take a legit all-star, at or approaching his prime, a very special player, for me to be okay with parting with Capela. Deandre Jordan is not that guy. He's not even close to being that guy.

 

Also Capela's truly inspirational improvement with his FT% (even if it's backslid some and reverted a bit to a mean that is still a good 15-20% better than last year) means we don't have a hackable player. Probably our most hackable player now is Nene and we don't ever NEED to play him and anyway he still hits 50% (almost every trip to the line he's 1/2 - that consistent inconsistency is kind of amazing - if he makes the first you can almost be sure he'll miss the second and vice versa) which is pretty much the cutoff for hacking. You don't hack a guy that's likely to score 1/2 each trip to the line and even if you do, we don't have the NEED to play him almost ever with both Capela and Black on the team.

That means in about two years we've gone from like 4 hackable players (meaning it was almost impossible to field any 5 players without having a hackable one on the floor at almost all times) to ZERO hackable players.

Bring Deandre Jordan, who has improved his historically bad FT% but not enough and not quickly enough to expect more growth there gives us a highly expensive and totally hackable player.

I love being invulnerable to hacking. Jordan is a very good player. Still, do not want. Not unless he's free and wants to come off the bench when Nene retires.

 

BTG,

Are you seriously suggesting putting DJ in the Deke role? I loved Deke when he was here and he's arguably the best backup C of all-time, but DJ is fresh off an all-star appearance. He's a starter on most teams, he's not an aging veteran on his last leg looking for his last contract.

SIL

 

I'm saying that's the only role I'd want him here in this season. Right now I'd want Capela and even Nene in a lot of situations over him. Now if Nene retires after this season, DAJ would be great as a primary backup to Capela in that situation but he's just not good enough for more than that.

 

Oh well, ****, then yeah I'd agree. Forgot the BTG part though, brah.

SIL

 

Yeah that was just a one off, not really my style.

 

Jordan is not a game changer for this team. If we are going to spend money, it should be on upgrading the 3 or 4 not the 5.

 

D. Cousins or Lebron it's settled

 

You forgot about Paul George dude, he should be our first or second target after Lebron.

 

It's a GREAT FREAKING time to be a Rocket's fan right now when your only upgrades that most can think of is Lebron, Cousins and PG13!!!!!

 

We're in a 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' position. I like Clint. No reason to upset what's working so well right now.

 

I'd rather us get him than SA, GSW, Cleveland or Boston