Exactly right. The Beal trade established the market for non top-20 players getting paid supermaxes. The return you get is expiring contracts (and that’s if you’re lucky enough to find a crazy owner like Phoenix’s to trade with). If KAT is traded, it’ll be for expirings and a nominal return. Maybe a fake frp and a cast off young player.
You're correct that it is not the same. Allegedly Miami was offering Lowry and Robinson and some picks - Washington were interested in Herro, but Miami not so keen... better package, but not by a long way! And this is for a guy who has positive potential value. KAT plays the same position as Gobert, and they don't work well on the court. Not a lot of incentive for anyone to help them out...
You could sign Fred VanVleet, Naz Reid, and still have enough cap space to acquire Pascal Siakam for #4, #20, KJ Martin, and Tate: PG: VanVleet / Washington, Jr. SG: Green / Porter, Jr. / Christopher SF: Smith, Jr. / Eason PF: Siakam / Garuba C: Sengun / Reid / Boban? You've added two of the top 50 guys in the league, both with championship cred, plus one of the best backup centers. The young guys would still need to develop, but that could be a special roster.
Porzingis and Kuzma are interesting targets now that the Wiz are in blow up mode. Not necessarily saying to acquire both as I personally think Kuzma is a more reliable bet. Porzingis would be a good get IF he could play 65 games a season. The spacing would be much better. The Sengun contingent might not like it, but 96 minutes between Jabari/Porzingis/Sengun
I'm not sure why Porzingis hasn't gotten more love here. Everyone knows the injury risk, but the two things he does best, hit 3s and block shots, are the two things the Rockets are missing. We're going to spend at least the next 5 years in the same division with Vic. It would be nice to have a guy that size to go up against him.
48, 57, 43, 34, 17, 51, 65. That's the number of games he has played the last 7 seasons. Every single person likes what he does but he is always injured.
Injury risk + perception that he's soft and/or an empty stats guy. He's a good player when healthy though. Worth keeping in mind that he's pretty much just a center at this stage in his career, his days of playing the 4 are done. So there are some fit questions with Sengun. Might make more sense if, for example, we trade Sengun to move up in the draft, but I'm not in love with that idea... I'd really like to give Alpi one more season and see what the offense actually looks like with him as the focal point before we make any rash decisions.
Id rather roll the dice and trade for Zion than take a run at Porzingis. I think Kristaps is just who he is at this point and I’m not sure where he fits next to Sengun and Jabari.
Availability is the best ability. It’s not talked about, but the Rockets have actually been really lucky with injuries for the last 10 years or so (ignoring Game 5 2018). We’ve not had to deal with major injuries basically at all, so I think some fans don’t realize how brutal it is to have an injury prone star. Building your team around a guy who is constantly unavailable is just soul destroying - ask Clippers fans with Kawhi, Pelicans fans with Zion etc etc. GM’s are super wary of pinning their hopes on those risks - it kills entire seasons, and you’re helpless.
They overvalue their assets and play too much hardball. Not worth the headache for guys like OG and Siakam. Just punt some cap space and try to get them in free agency next offseason if we really want them.
(Yes, I'm quoting myself, sue me) One side note with this scenario is that it leaves us with an obvious hole at the 3 spot. Now, maybe that ends up filled by KPJ, but I prefer him as a 6th man backing up all three positions off the bench. I'd love to see the Rockets make a run at a free agent wing or combo forward with our cap space, such as Cam Johnson. Scoot/KPJ Green/KPJ Johnson/KJ Martin Jabari/Johnson Sengun/Nurkic (or vice-versa)
Dam…?? You want to trade for 2 guys who miss 70% of games each year??? Clutchfans begging to be mediocre for the next 5 years
It’s only injuries that are the concern for me. I feel like Jabari, Porzingis, and Sengun would be a great front court that would be complement each other. Sengun has potential but he still isn’t a good shooter and we need more shooting. I feel like Kuzma is the safer bet and more of a Swiss Army knife.
Dallas is allegedly looking to trade #10 for a playoff ready perimeter player. Unfortunately, we don't have that. But here's the best we could do: #20 KPJ Tate or KMJ For #10 Bertans At least this way, the Mavs get off of Bertans' deal. At 10 maybe we take Dick. Though he won't admit it publicly, I think Tildo craves Dick.
