For those who wanted to release FVV point blank, I have no idea how your brain is wired to be brutally honest.
Cooper Flagg? Average af, we'll give you future superstar Cam Whitmore (DD approved even) Uncle Jeff and lifetime all you can eat at Landry's. Cooper's fat af like Luka, we'll take him off your hands no worries... Or something. Seems plausible.
During last season, I began to realize Fred would not leave the Rockets and might stay on as an assistant to Ime once he quit playing.
Agreed - as an example. I am not in love with acquiring Durant. He's one of my least favorite players in the league. I also love Dillon and will miss him. That said, the more I've thought it through, the harder it is for me to argue with how he obtained him. Dillon Brooks was acquired with cap room - so no assets were forfeited to acquire him. The #10 pick was part of the Brooklyn pick trade. He turned 2 picks into 4 picks. Then included one of those picks in the Durant deal, leaving us one first rounder ahead. That was basically a free first rounder. Stone essentially created two out of three of the assets in the Durant deal from thin air (and both the Brooks signing and the Brooklyn pick deal were widely questioned at the time), and arguably the one guy who was a true Rockets asset, the #2 pick, was a disappointment on a bad contract. And there is even an argument to be made that if Stone didn't have the balls to tank and gamble that we could get a top 4 pick that year, we wouldn't have even had Jalen to include in this deal. I was upset about the second round picks at first just because of the sheer amount of them, but they're all likely to be late second round picks. And at that point, you may as well just sift through the undrafted players looking for gems or try to buy an early to mid second rounder ala KJ Martin. Again, not a fan of Durant. I am not even excited to have him on our team. But how Stone managed to acquire him is crazy impressive. As to the FVV deal, that's wild. Say what you will about him, but we were better with him last year than we were without. He's on a very tradeable deal now too.
That's just a story y'all keep telling yourselves. We have FVV for two years $25/yr. It comes off the books as soon as Amen's extension kicks in seems like a great contract to me.
I think it was an overpay, but it does make for a good trade piece next year. We really are out of options to make trades for significant salary. This gives us enough for a 40m or so player without including Sengun. Now we need to go ahead and use the 14.1 to add a good player that fits and another salary we can add to protect our core.
For in today’s NBA market value, that is a solid deal for the Rockets. Essentially the Rockets signed Fred Vanvleet for a 5 million extension. And if he elects to decline his one year option, the Rockets saved 25 million. This move will allow Reed Sheppard to continue learning under Fred.
FVV will thrive once Amen gets his jump shot going, Durant can dictate the offense, Jabari is more confident and gets more shots - Jalen took a lot - and Reed gets more playing time as a playmaker and shot maker. Plus once he starts coming off the bench in a year or 2, he’s a nice vet to keep around.
I think this is a very fair contract, and I say this as someone who is interested in moving on from Fred to give the reigns to Amen / Reed. The player option is a fair concession to a player that has been a key contributor for our turnaround. A few points. We stayed under the L-Tax so there are no repeater concerns. Relieves pressure to move Jock / Holiday prematurely. They will serve as quality trade fodder without impacting our rotation Fred's money falls off when it's time to pay Amen. The contract is big enough to be useful in trades without being an albatross. This is actually the biggest benefit. I was a little worried that we didn't have enough "middle class" salaries for trade matching if a high-impact player became available. Well done Rockets.
Im not a plural D, if you’re trying to talk to me then just talk to me. I looked at the cap situation in free agency. Let me know if you think Brooklyn would have signed Fred for 25 mill or more after trading Bridges and for their own pick back in 2026 to tank. If you think that’s unlikely, we agree. Then look at the Pistons, they have about 19 million in cap space along with Ivey and Cade who run the point. Ask yourself if you think they would sign Fred for 19 million. If yes, his market rate could have been 19, if you think it’s unlikely they targeted him, then Fred max in free agency would have then become 15 mill per as no other teams have cap space.
Cool cool cool what next ? look I’m not even a big fan of his. My opinion is that we focus on what he CAN do.
We just got a 20 million dollar discount on each season. Fred was gonna be paid 45 million and now it’s 25 million. Gives Stone more flexibility and keeps us under the second apron.
Why are you laughing? Name 7 starting PGs worse than FVV. I don’t really care. I’m relieved it’s only two years 25, because I thought the Rockets might really blow this. Now he is a reasonable trade piece next year.
