The current owner is averse to buying picks. Les had his faults, but he acquired Landry by buying a high second pick ( 32 or 33).
Lol. Our current owner is against buying anything; but he did recently buy in to get Vincent Edwards at 52. Questions as to who the coach is will determine what personnel changes will occur. JVG history of big centers? Do we go that route? Silas history with Centers (Dwight Howard favorite coach Steve Clifford)......Dallas had about 5 Centers last season if you consider, Boban Marjanovic, Kleber, Dwight Powel, Porzingis and then traded for Willie Cauley-Stein....as centers. In “Jaws” we better get a bigger boat......Rockets better get more Centers possibly for Silas. Lucas. We go with what we got while adding some backup.
Nerlens Noel - lob threat & switchable Meyers Leonard - 3ball threat Both should be obtainable for portion of MLE.
I agree. I’ve mentioned Meyers Leonard before. Shot over 40% from 3......tore us up in the regular season game against Miami. It seemed he hit every 3, dove to the rim and dunked on everybody, and got all the rebounds in that game. I’ve also mentioned Kaminsky thru trade. Shot about 33% from 3 this year but higher in previous season. Not so much about him as including Cheick Diallo and parting ways with Eric Gordon. But I digress.
I like Diakite best but he is likely 1st rounder. He has LMAM frame and defensive IQ but plays like a more mature Capela on offense with a better shooting stroke. Nnaji, Carey and Knight may be a little too heavy legged for current Rockets defensive scheme.
I think people are overreacting to Westbrook's poor playoffs performance. Has everyone forgotten he wasn't himself? He was playing hurt with a serious injury and was just coming off of a covid infection. Before the stoppage he was playing great. Heathy Westbrook made small ball work. Unhealthy Westbrook made it fail. That's inconvenient but it doesn't make him a bad player. It seems to me that, if he's healthy, he's more likely to return to form than not.
Just listing who was available and made sense for this team. There are a number of players on the list who are not realistic options due to financials.
Yes, you were just presenting a list. Sorry if it looked like I was attacking you. I wasn’t. Just feel like many here on CF’s think Baynes will be cheap because he was hidden in Phoenix. I don’t believe that will be the case.
Bingo, Batman! Folks have short memories...whatever's convenient for the current narrative/ their emotions whipsawing back and forth.
More I watch Diakite the more impressed I am. Looks kind of like Rodman in build and blonde do but his game really reminds me of a young pre-2108 shoulder injury Mbah a Moute. For selfish reasons, hoping he falls out of the draft and Rockets can sign him to 2 way.
I know I have shot down this trade for practical reasons, Isaac and Vuc too valuable for Magic. But Jonathan Isaac would be perfect as Rockets small ball 5 playing alongside Harden. Isaac is a legit DPOY and has been able to more than effectively smother prominent bigs like Porzingas, Ibaka, Joker even Giannis and AD. While I still believe AG and/or Bamba are more obtainable, JI would be crazy next to Harden. Jonathan Isaac will not available next season due to knee injury so if Magic are desperate for postseason success right now, some creative GM could swipe him away....
I see him no worse than Jerami Grant eventually, might even be a better scorer right now. Has a little sky/hook shot. Think consensus here on Clutchfans is that Jerami Grant would be ideal for our small ball experiment. That is currently worth about $9.3 million and possibly more on the open NBA market......pending post Covid market
I'd like to throw some vet minimum names out here for reasons related to tilman. Ian Mahinmi - +2.6 Defensive RAPTOR (PJ was +2.3, but played over 2000 minutes while mahinmi played under 1000). 96th percentile at offensive rebounding, 76th defensive Rebs, 98th in blocks, 77th in steals (including guards). Only 57th percentile at finishing at the rim (also including guards, is pretty bad). at a minimum contract he'd be serviceable for 6-12mpg against scoring centers (non Allstar) like Lopez or valancunas, who always give us problems.
I've advocated for Baynes before (literally started an entire thread on him) and I think he will command at least the NT-MLE at around ~$9 million a year. However, there are a few factors that work against Baynes getting a bigger deal: his age, there are a few other PF/C that will be command more of the market, and teams that actually have more than the NT-MLE to offer most likely have other needs to fill. Of course I was also dead wrong in thinking anyone would have signed Ariza to more than $12 million that one summer so who knows lol