Mikal Bridges was one of the MOST sought after players on the trade market last year and is a proven 2-way player. He is definitely better than Green and waaaay more consistent on both ends of the floor. Udoka could guarantee a #1 Defense ( He was NBA All-Defense 1st team just 2 years ago and runner up for DPOY) and guaranteed move the offense to Top 10 with Bridges, who is a 3-level scorer. Sengun is the star of this team and I don't think the Rockets want to throw Max money at Green and I bet most people on here would agree to that. He's not worth it. Green doesn't have that IT factor but one out of every 5 games or so. Put Bridges under Udoka and watch out. Rockets will start climbing the rankings on Game 1.
We would never sniff a ring doing this silly trade. You literally are selling that farm for a #3 guy. We need GROWTH not some miniscule improvement now.
Mikal Bridges is not miniscule improvement. Dude is a center piece of any franchise. I recommend you do some research. Jalen this far into year 3 has shown vey little improvement since his rookie season. If anything BKN would probably ask for Smith too.
Jalen Green is 21. At 21, Bridges was still in college. He didn’t average double digit scoring until he was 24 and didn’t average 20+ until he was 26. Not that I necessarily disagree with you. A Sengun/Smith/Brooks/Bridges core is intriguing. I just think people are being too impatient with Green.
Bridges will be 32 by the time Sengun's 26 and Jabari's 25 and entering peak form. Narrows your window by a great extent to go from losing in the first round in 6 games instead of 5 this year and next.
And what do you project Jalen to be doing when he is 26? I don't see 1st Team anything for him sadly. Wish I could say I do but I don't. With Bridges you are guaranteed an upper echelon player on both ends of the court for the next 6 years or so.
Mikal is no centerpiece for any team. I do plenty of research. He's a nice player, i like him. But he is a #3 guy like tobias or middleton in his prime. His prime also doesn't line up with our core. It makes no sense giving uo so many assets for a miniscule upgrade to or season outlook. We are still building for the future, not the now. Mikal is a now player.
I may not see All-NBA 1st team with Jalen, but so far I'm not seeing All-NBA 3rd team for Bridges at any point in his career. There are players I'd trade Jalen for, Bridges isn't one of them.
Will he still be an elite defender when he's 34 as the entire core is in their mid-late 20s hopefully competing for titles? You'd be making the same mistake the Suns did by trading everyone (including Bridges!) for old dudes, you limit your window for success in the future. I'd bet my left nut Jalen will be better when he's 26 than Bridges at 32.
Bridges is a nice player but would not change the outlook of this team enough to give up two FRPs. This would be an extremely shortsighted trade. Bridges is absolutely in his prime already, if anything some of his advanced numbers have declined this year already. Lmao. Mikal, is that you?
While Zach LaVine is one of the top names on the market, the Rockets are not in on his sweepstakes, HoopsHype has learned. https://hoopshype.com/lists/top-nba-trade-candidates-for-the-2023-24-season/
"Looking ahead to the February trade deadline, Houston will look to continue upgrading its roster with the tradeable contracts of Victor Oladipo, Jock Landale, Jeff Green, and future draft pick(s) compensation, league sources told HoopsHype."
Even if we wanted Zach Lavine, I don't think we'd have an aggregate of 85% +/- $100k of his $40,000,000, or whatever we'd need.
It would be possible if we included Jalen Green. Something like Green, Oladipo, Landale, and Jeff Green for Zach LaVine and Drummond should work from a money perspective. Not saying I'd do it, but that would be the setup.
We shouldn't be trading for any players in their prime right now. Once we prove ourselves as a playoff team, then I'd be comfortable trading young players not in their prime yet for established players.
Landale: 8 mil Jeff Green: 9.6 mil Oladipo: 9.45 mil In total, that's about 27 mil. Let's say we were willing to trade the Net's FRP this season. What do y'all think that could fetch us? Some players from that article: Alex Caruso makes 9.4 mil. Isaac Okoro makes 8.9 mil. Richaun Holmes makes 12 mil. Maxi Kleber makes 11 mill (3 years remaining). Bojan Bogdanovic makes about 20 mil a year. Malcolm Brogdon is on a 2 year, 45 mil contract, and Jerami Grant is at the start of a 5 year, 160 mil contract.
