It's easy to be lulled by highlight videos, what really matters is the player's track record of efficiency. A lot of fans got excited when we traded for Wall, few knew that he has historically been less efficient the Westbrook. Do you know who is less efficient than Westbrook and Oladipo? Caris LeVert. The reality is he's just not a very good player, you would be excited about him after seeing him have a big game... and then you'd realize that he has 3 terrible games for every good one, and you would grow to hate him, like we hate Wall, like we hated Oladipo, and Westbrook. Scorers who are incredibly inefficient just suck ass
So what? He's still a better asset than Oladipo. He's a better trade piece than Oladipo. People need to stop with this. Oladipo is not a more valuable asset than Lavert, the end. You have no argument. He has more trade value, he's younger, cheaper and less injury prone than Oladipo at this stage of his career. Oladipo looked worse than Lavert before the trade even happend. No one here actually wanted him, we wanted to get better assets for him. And nearly everyone in the league was saying it too.
“In the short-term, this doesn’t look good. I had a NBA coach tell me what picks, pick swaps and potential do, they get you fired. A lot of times, coaches aren’t around to see these four first round picks and develop the talent for four years. Today, it’s looking really bad.” — RJeff “It’s real bad. Ever since Tilman Fertitta took over, it’s been a downward slope. It’s going downhill. He needs to learn how to be an owner. He needs to call Mark Cuban and learn how to be a NBA owner. Learn to put people in position and let them do their jobs. He’s too involved, wants say so on everything when he doesn’t know. Sit back on the sideline. He has to learn how to be an owner. Right now, they dropped the ball tremendously.” — Perk “Only Tilman Fertitta knows how much money was a factor in all these moves. Draft picks don’t draw a salary and even when they turn into actual people, they are on rookie contracts. ... “Gee, we got a bunch of draft picks.” I will always say ‘Yeah, you can draft guys and hope they maybe turn into Ben Simmons.’ Maybe in 5 years you can develop someone...” — Nichols
He's not cheaper. He comes with double the salary commitment. He's cheaper per year so far. We don't know what Dipo is getting as a free agent. Of course he looked better than dipo, Victor was coming off a major injury. I'm not saying he has no value, but it's hard to swap him for expiring contracts with the multiple years left on his deal. Miami wouldn't have done it. They want the max cap space in case they can do better than Oladipo... Maybe the Knicks throw a heavily protected pick and some of their expirings... but the Rockets could have done better than that if Dipo played well and was healthy. He didn't... it was a gamble... Can't fault a guy for taking a swing... I'm glad we don't have the contract on our books with Gordon and Wall there too....
Its little things like this that make me sad for the future of this team. Leave the emotions for the team and business for the front office.
HE IS CHEAPER. The salary commitment is what helps his value as a trade asset. The fact that no one wanted to even take a flyer on him because of his play and one year contract and ONLY committal to Miami says enough about what teams thought of Oladipo. No its not. You can certainly have gotten more back than that for Lavert. Who cares about Miami, you can find another partner. We were pigeonholed into Miami because Oladipo wouldnt sign elsewhere. HE LOOKED BAD BEFORE THE TRADE. It was not a gamble, it was a stupid trade. Lavert looked better. Lavert could garner more assets. Yes I can. It was a dumb trade. His contract would have been easier to move and we would be in the exact same situation we are in right now, only with better assets.
We’ve got that Knicks/Dolan stink on us now. I can’t imagine any quality free agents wanting to come here. We’re going to have to hit multiple jackpots in the draft to get this team back out of the gutter
I think it's a little unfair to pretend you knew how Oladipo would play before the Rockets traded for him. Did you also know about Levert's medical issue? You say he looked bad before the trade. NO KIDDING. A player coming back from a major injury doesn't look his best? REALLY? BTW, Levert with the Pacers is shooting almost identical to Oladipo with the Rockets. Somehow you think criticizing Oladipo and praising Levert makes sense... they've both been bad this year. Also, your criticism of lack of suitors for Oladipo is incomplete. You're completely ignoring parameters the Rockets require in a deal. If Stone said no money past next season that could eliminate a lot of teams willing to give up picks and a long term contract for Oladipo. Stone chose cap space over another pick. I would think that's obvious. Players on expiring deals are routinely traded for picks and bad contracts. I'm not saying Levert has no trade value. I'm saying his contract limits the market and I thought Oladipo was the better gamble as a 2-way player...
Where was this talk when okc was stockpiling twice as many picks as us is their coach getting fired too? Oh wait their gm was getting praised for being a genius.
Right, Oladipo played as we expected him to which is why I think trading for him was a bad move, I let it play out to see if I was wrong and if the FO saw something we didn't, but that doesn't seem like the case now that we have allowed it to all play out, it is upsetting. The focus shouldn't even be just rolling the dice and hoping a top 4 pick not only materializes, but the player ends up being good. That is an absurd expectation, and the way you mitigate that risk is by having more assets to flip for more immediate picks which is what they should have done instead of trading Lavert/Allen for an expiring contract with no value and a bunch of picks way into the future. We can easily drop out of top 4 or go #3 or #4 and end up with a bust. Then what? It is not like we are guaranteed a number one overall with the next Lebron in the draft. In my opinion, and many will disagree here, we should have been able to turn Harden into a player with more value which then we could have turned into a first round pick or two in this years draft.
Tilman should be blamed for avoiding the luxury tax repeatedly during Harden's prime which I'm sure contributed to Harden wanting to leave. And of course the whole CP3/Westbrook trade fiasco. However, I do not see anything wrong with what he has been doing so far this season. Maybe I'm an idiot.
Or we trade that #4 pick and the ghost of Eric Gordon for a player on a rookie deal about to get paid where their team would rather re-set... Shareef Abdur-Rahim for Pau Gasol trade. It didn't work out for Atlanta but it could have with the right players...
Pretend? He looked awful coming back from injury and honestly has never been an efficient player? Why would you think the older, more injury prone athlete, who only wants to play in Miami with one year left on his deal would be an asset. LOL and why would that change when he is on the Rockets....here's a hint, it didnt. He's 28, it was only going to get worse as he gets older too. What are you even talking about? Hmmm so what you are saying is, Lavert who's younger, on a better contract and has does not have a preferred destination is better than Oladipo...I agree. Lavert is a better asset, who cares if there is a marginal difference between the two, sheesh. No team was wiling to give up picks and long term contracts, the fact is any of those deals would have been better than the trash we got for Oladipo. So much so that the Rockets had to get Woj to LIE about it. Windhorst even said that the Rockets had no good offers for Oladipo. What? Noooooooo, lol. Stone chose the only deal he had available to him because of every other deal was either garbage or they didnt want Oladipo. Sheesh man. Im sorry bro this is just not it. His contract DOES THE OPPOSITE. Oladipo's contract limits the market. What are you talking about? He ONLY wanted to play in Miami, he turned down contract offers by both the Rockets and the Pacers. I have no idea what your thought process is here. There is a reason EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE is calling this trade trash. Every respectable person is calling it bad,.
So you trash Oladipo and then claim he would have more trade value if he was being paid more? You sure you want to go with that? You think 18 million is good money for years for 40% shooting because of age? It's ok to disagree. I think levert is a bad contract. I know others disagree. It's just an opinion... i don't want mediocre players signed to long term deals... Eric Gordon is better value and people were talking about having to attach a first round pick to him to unload him... Just tell me someone who has expiring contracts and picks they would deal for Levert...Pacers only ones so far...
Yea, actually. He wasnt playing well enough for someone to risk trading for him on a one year deal. There is even more risk because he's likely not resigning anywhere but Miami. I dont believe my logic is wrong. His contract is better than Oladipo's and thats really all that matters. Eric Gordon is older, being paid way more and is on a way longer contract. You cant compare the two. I dont know which specfic teams, but I know for a fact that a Lavert deal would be way better than this Oladipo one. Im sure you can find teams willing to give up assets for him. More than Olaidpo too. Not only that, league executives around the league are saying the exact same thing. So I dont know what your arguments are. They are killing us every which way about this deal. Every respectable person as well.
