“It has reached the point when I speak to various teams that it would be a legitimate leaguewide surprise now if Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks don’t strike verbal agreements to join the Houston Rockets by Friday night. VanVleet is expected to receive a two-year offer from Houston worth a projected maximum of $83.6 million. Brooks on a two-year deal in the $14-to-$16 million range annually”
I guess I should have reined in my expectations a bit, which were already fairly low. It just isn't a great free agent class to begin with, and most players would prefer to stay with a winning team. Still, the hiring of Udoka should begin a big culture change, and we should suck a lot less. I'm not reading any more backup plans to usurp Sengun's spot with a more defensive-minded center, assuming Brooks sticks with Milwaukee (Good Lawd, what a tax bill for a small market team), but that may still be floating out there.
Not much money left for a big after $56MM dedicated to these 2. I really wish they would have prioritized Brook Lopez especially over Brooks.
So Kuzma, Van Fleet, and Brooks. So what happens with Jalen, Jabari and Sengun, Thompson, Tari and Whitmore then? I could understand one signing but all 3 is a lot. I also forgot about Josh and KMJ....sheeesh man.
I understand the hesitancy on Brooks, 100%... But yall, what vet PG do yall want if its not FVV? Is there a better option out there I'm missing or...?
Udoka wants a defensive identity. Most of the roster should be uncomfortable moving forward if thats the case.
Part of having Vets is to push the young guys I mean think about it. When KPJ went into chickenhead mode all Silas could do was either put in Nix or use Green or Ego as point (basically, not have a point guard) now when one of these young guys goes into dumb dumb mode, whether that be Green or KPJ or whoever, the coach can hopefully put in a vet that's going to play the right way and give the right effort. Everyone on this team should feel like if they aren't bringing it they can sit down on the bench and watch someone else do that but you can only do that with them if you have legit options behind them or in front of them. Kid gloves are coming off, Ime isn't here to win 3 years from now, he wants to win now. Either these guys earn their minutes or they weren't worth the draft pick in the first place. Time to find out.
Houston can offer FVV 2/83, Lopez 2/52, and then with a S&T sending out Tate and Martin, can offer Brooks a 2/32
Most of the roster should be uncomfortable with their defensive effort last year. Most of the roster should look forward to the investment the organization has made to grow their abilities in the next season.
Yup. If we're going to blow it up for Udoka and his vision thats fine, but there will be no quarter for him. Same results driven philosophy on playing time for the players will apply to Udoka if guys like FVV, Brooks, Kuzma etc... are brought in with the coaches vision in mind. If this team wins 20-30 games at the expense of player development with a roster hand picked by Udoka then I'd fire his ass after 1 season - what the hell did we tank for at that point?
Yes, this should also be true. However, I keep seeing "at the expense of development" and that makes no sense. Players don't have to start to develop or play X minutes. If they just don't play young guys, sure, that can hurt their development. No reason to think they won't do that though. Young guys playing with nothing but young guys with nobody knowing how to actually play basketball stunts everyone. If for some reason they bring in a bunch of veterans and their young guys just don't play, sure, crush them.
Jevon Carter (42% from 3) Cam Johnson (40% from 3) Brook Lopez (37% from 3) J Carter (3 yrs, $21mil) (7 per) C Johnson (4 yrs, $100mil) (25 per) B Lopez (2 yrs, $40mil) (20 per) Carter and Lopez are top defenders with championships. Cam is a decent defender that was in the NBA finals. Shooters, defenders, winners. It shouldn't be that hard to make these three your targets.
They can't sign all 3 unless they trade away KPJ. FVV is $40mil and Brooks is $15mil. They'd only have $11mil roughly left and Kuzma's going to get way more than that.
