In my world, reality......Rockets can't afford both with only $60 million in cap space. Middleton only played 33 games this year. Harden led the league in assists
Stone: "How about Middleton?" Udoka: "Sheeeeeeeeey***********t, you mean, 'How about what's left of him'?" Stone: "Yeah, I figured. Well, we'll put him as a 'maybe'." Now Middleton's on the radar.
I like Middleton BUT No! He is just a solid player nothing special . . .replaceable at half the price Rocket River
Middleton has a $40m player option for next year. No way he doesn’t opt in after this year’s abysmal performance. He needs to cash in and play a full season at a high level in order to get another good contract. There’s really no other option for him. I would only be interested in trading if we strike out in all of our free agent options. Basically just take him on for a year as a trial run.
Honestly. . . IF Harden Opts out Coming to Houston is simply a retirement plan Mentor some young basketballs. . . some young er folx in some clubs Stay in his favorite city doing it . .. be king here until the new guys are ready Which is why I doubt he try to max out the contract Rocket River
Why would Middleton opt out of $40MM after a terrible down year? I just can't see it. Aside from all star types or guys that fill a specific need, I'd rather focus on guys that could have a long rockets career and are still in their prime. One thing to keep in mind though - there is a salary floor. The money WILL be spent, even if it's just on a one year rental. So, if we strike out on all the big names I could see us trading a vet into our cap space so some contender can dodge the repeater tax. Maybe Middleton is the backup plan.
100%!!! Lamelo over Henderson any time for me. The more interesting question is this: CHA gets #2 and offers it to us for Jalen Green. Do you do it?
Truth is this free agent class just isn’t that good . harden at the top , but he’s 33 kyrie Porzingis Westbrook Middleton Van fleet Green Barnes Russel Vucevic that’s a pretty shabby top 10 There’s Josh hart and Jerami grant further down is FA after the draft ? Before the lottery ? I think it’s after the draft right ? well , things will depend on our pick . Call me crazy but I like porzingis and WB . If you could get them for 3 years. porzingis would be great for the development of Jabari , sengun , and maybe a certain draft pick . WB seems like a good mentor for green . inject WB Tate Eason Smith Sengun into my veins potential lineup alternate lineup of green Kpj Christopher Garuba Porzingis spread offense. Silas will be sad he missed out prolly won’t happen tho . However , I don’t know how much WB gets ? Is he getting max? Half max ? Do we get some protection this year given the cap is going to jump soon ? Man nba teams must be bringing in so much revenue . It’s crazy you can pay mutliple guys 30+ million and still have it work out ! especially when they don’t play games . Like how are the clippers doing ? Are they going to think twice about handing out more maxes. most players get injured
Maybe if they get Middleton on a MLE type deal. Aging player and declined but savvy vet and champion experience.
If that was the deal why would he even want to come here? He has it pretty good with Giannis and the Bucks.
Since leaving Houston Harden been....F**king around and see what happens. Year.... minutes....FGA.....Ast 20/21: ...36.6.........16.7.....10.8 21/22:....37.2.........15.3.....10.3 22/23:....36.8.........14.5.....10.7 So Harden has been a consistent 36.5 minutes a game while sporting 10 assists per game. This is not the same Harden needing to score all the points and give us 36 points per game. His FGA's have been coming down each year....16.7 / 15.3 / 14.5 He can come to Houston and give us dueling banjos with KPj/Green/Sengun Warriors shares the ball between Curry/Poole/Wiggins/Draymond Hawks shares between Trae/Murray/Bogdanovic/John Collins Heat shares between Butler/Lowry/Herro/Oladipo Celtics share between Tatum/Jaylen/Smart/Brogdan Knicks share between Brunson/Randle/Josh Hart/Quickley Days of sharing the ball are upon us.....takes teams further. Imo
Before the playoffs I had Celtics/Warriors finals. I don't think Jaylen Brown is leaving. Team would love a young 22 year old Green placed next to Tatum under his current contract. That's a win-win situation. Some would say the attention Tatum gets allows Jaylen Brown to prosper... so would Jalen Green. Give Green those 3-point shooters...he would be a beast.
