By drafting well and cultivating young talent you put yourself in a prime position to make a trade for a disgruntled star. We saw it with the Heat, (Herro/Robinson), Nuggets (MPJ), and Nets (Lavert, Allen) when Harden wanted out. It even worked for the Rockets in the CP3 trade giving up young talent. If you established nice pieces like WOW and Gordon but no superstar you can pounce on one with picks and young guys. Rockets are in a great position to compete and have plenty of flexibility to make moves in the draft or trade if opportunities arise. I’m torn on trading House and Tucker to allow the young guys to play and develop. Both those dudes are having solid impacts to the current teams success.
The point Im saying is the winning we are doing now makes us more attractive to prospective FA. Garbage teams dont really attract FAs cuz FAs want to win. Miami for example only became prime destination once Jimmy B got there and they got to the Finals. Before Jimmy B who the last major FA who was dying to get to Miami? Lebron? Lol. Now Miami is a hot dest Dipo reportedly wanted to go there immediately. Its based on empirical evidence superstars want a team that is strong but isnt OP so they can say they made it a champion but at the same time it isnt utter garbage. We got the supporting cast but dont have that superstar. But in 2 years if we are still competitive thats gonna be a major draw to a Max FA cuz Walls deal will expire in 2 years. Thats a lot less speculative than tanking and hoping to get lucky in the draft. Less painful too.
The Rockets are in a good position now but signing Oladipo this off-season can put them in a bad position quickly. They'd be committing $90MM to Wall/Gordon/Oladipo for the next two years. That's 80% of your cap space on aging injury prone guys. And after they expire your picks start going to the Thunder and Wood is a FA. You better be confident in that group because you are betting a lot of them.
We dont need to draft well we got Wood who is equivalent to drafting well already. Stone also got Tate and co ubdrafted. You are right you need assets to get that star but at the same time you need to be good to get that star. Harden is a commodity Im sure teams like Washington, Sac, Minny, Atl wanted him cuz they wanted to make the playoffs but since they suck he didnt want to go there. If this team is good without that superstar, we can get that star via FA straight up just like how we got Dwight. He didnt wanna come pre Harden, but after Harden came he said ok lets go there. With that said Id def trade House abd Tucker cuz we need to open space for young guys. Porter Jr needs his PT.
We don't need aging players like Wall/Gordon/Oladipo/PJ to be attractive. You said earlier that you think we are a non tank team with Wood and the young guys. We attracted Howard with Harden and young guys and we had the cap flexibility to make it happen. If we commit $90MM to Wall/Oladipo/Gordon we don't have any flexibility for the next two years. We'd also have to hope that aging injury prone players stay healthy while taking up 80% of the cap space.
The way to keep Wood is by making the team competitive. If you suck the 3 years he is here you think he will stay or leave? 2 years isnt a long time lol. It aint a big deal because next year theres no good FA anyway really you are just waiting 1 year to clear cap.
You dont havr flexibility anyway Wall takes half your cap and he is immovable. The Rox cant clear cap for a max because Wall is there for 2 years and like I said there is no one better available next year. Dipo for example gonna be among the top 3 FA this summer. Clearing the cap to commit to someone else who available next year? Taurean Prince? AL horford? Blake Griffin? Andre Drummond? Lol
These are all your opinions and you have the right to think that way I disagree. Oladipo has only had about a season and a half of all star play so you are paying 25+ hoping he gets back to that and that it was who he he actually is. Don't think that's a wise bet. Rockets are a much better team sunce trading Harden? what are you trying to imply here?
Why would we suck? You just said we cannot tank with him and young guys. If Wood is a legit all star we should still be a mediocre team if we move Oladipo for someone like Herro. It is a long time when you can get assets for those players in the meantime and build around younger players. The 2 years from now FA plan almost never works for teams. With a cheap owner like Tilman that is going to dodge the tax it will be two years of not taking risks on available players because he is trying to avoid a high cap number.
Dipo is not an elite offensive player, what are you talking about? Gordon is a better offensive player than Dipo.
Let him build his value up then move him. If he was a max player, I'd do it but he is not so far. I see people falling in love with a team that isn't really that good as the record suggests.
Wall is not immovable if he plays well this season. CP3 just got moved this off-season with assets coming back. With 2 years left on his deal this off-season a team might take a chance on him. It's not clearing space to sign a FA. It's not committing 80% of your cap to one position for 3 players that are likely going to get worse as their contracts get bigger. We don't have a big spending owner. Being able to take on salaries is huge and not exceed the tax is huge for this team.
If we can move Oladipo for Herro you def do it but he is a free agent why would any team give more than 1 low FRP for him they can sign him outright? With Dipo the choice is 1 low FRP or sign Dipo. Asset wise it is better to keep him as he is only 28 and can be good 3rd option when you start recruiting that superstar.
Why would you max Oladipo just because there are no great FA's next year. What happens when you have Wall and Dipo taking up half the salary cap? Nobody is advocating to clear out cap for this FA class.
That's the most sensible thing to do. Oladipo is improving, but he's not going to become a max player after his injuries.
No it's not. You are just overriding rebuilding speculation with retooling speculation. Miami was a FA destination before Butler.... sometimes teams just need a few years to rebuild.
This.... people just started getting feelings about this team.... But you don't put a ring on this team, shes just a good time girl right now.
Dude Miami has always been a prime destination. I see you are just making **** up on the fly. I don't think you know what empirical evidence actually is and none of this has anything to do with my original post to start this thread.
Well first of all Oladipo is making 21M this year so he isnt exactly making peanuts. His next salary of 25-32M a year isnt a huge stretch from what he is currently making. The impact is maybe Rox trade away EG so they are under the cap and have ebough wiggle room to spare. With Tucker's 8M expiring though that might not even be needed if Dipo signs under 30M they can keep the same salary as they do this year.
