He's 5 inches taller and 19 lbs heavier than Holiday. But what difference does that height make in their respective games? Trent Jr. stands there and shoots. He's not a rebounder. He's a very inefficient shooter inside the arc. He's not a good defender - he's got a worse defensive rating than Holiday. He gambles too much for steals. Any benefit in shooting based on his height is already factored into his percentages - which are basically the same as Aaron Holiday's. His TS% last year was identical to Holiday's, and in 23-24 it was worse.
Salary Swish has a good Tax Tracker. After looking at the rules, I am like F-It. I say give out the full MTLE. Other than OKC, I think the NBA is wide open next year. The NBA let them play in the playoffs and I think the Rockets could wear them down in a 7 game series. Looking at the luxury tax, it only gets punitive if you are into the tax by $11.37 MM - or a bit between the first and second aprons. It is also punitive if you are a repeater - from Salary Swish: A "Repeater" is a team who has had no luxury tax room in 3 of the 4 immediately preceding seasons, where the first season considered is the current season (since the tax is calculated after the season ends). So you wouldn't become a repeater until 3 years straight and could avoid the repeater tax rates if you dip below every other year or two years in a row after two years as a tax payer.
This is the best option because he’s a high quality, long defender which the Rockets need to add after losing Brooks. He’s also a great shooter so he fills both needs.
None of the guys mentioned - Gary Trent Jr., Tim Hardaway Jr., Malik Beasley, Luke Kennard, or Nickeil Alexander-Walker - has particularly strong advanced defensive metrics. (I just checked all of them.) Even NAW does not grade out well. I'm not saying they should be avoided on that basis, but none of the guys getting attention here fit a profile of defensive stalwart. Not sure why you'd ignore Kennard's far superior shooting, given all of that. (I'd still prefer a more well rounded player though.)
I was going off of what I saw from him in the playoffs. He seems to take his defense to another level so the ability is there.
it continues to linger in the back of my head if James Harden would take the full MLE? I understand it would be him leaving a ton of money on the table, but this is his home and the Clippers don’t really have a future. Kawhi was relatively healthy for the important parts of the year and they still just don’t have quite enough.
since we are now below the first apron we can sign and trade for free agents wink wink Quentin Grimes. Long shot but we theoretically can do it.
IMHO need two lineups: Rox 94 (AKA KD-Alpe- shooters): FVV - ??? - KD - Bari - Alpe (could also replace Bari in this lineup) Run & Fun (aggressive defenders who get buckets off of attacking passing lanes): Reed - Amen - Cam - Tari - Aquaman So we're missing an outside shooter who can handle the ball when called for (Ty Jerome?) Posting this in multiple thread
While the Rockets have access to the NT-MLE, I expect any signings or trades to be limited to the TP-MLE of $5,685,000 so the Rockets don't hard cap themselves on the first apron. The Rockets want to be able to make trades easily in-season.
I imagine we might want to try and duck the tax THIS year so that the following 2 years we can be in tax land. The season after those 2 we could then duck back to avoid repeater (if that was neccessary). My thinking is that a Durant extension would be for the following 2 seasons, and those 2 seasons would also include Jabari and Tari possible extensions. What happens after that is a fair way out, and no need to project it now, but if possible to duck tax this year, it then gives us 2 years of paying it without falling into repeater land. [Personally, it ain't my money, go all in and pay it every year to maximise the roster!!!]
NAW isn’t going for below full MLE, Minny might even work out a S&T sending him somewhere over MLE money for a small asset / cash. A lot of Minny fans don’t really care to have him back either because of his back to back terrible playoff performance (31 games between both years). There’s something to be noted about guys who crumble during the big games vs shine. Give me Bruce Brown over Walker.
Sengun/Adams Smith Durant/Eason Amen FVV 7 deep with people we can surely count on. Cam and Reed as guys that should take minutes. But we need to (by trade deadline) shore up end of what would be the playoff rotation. So an eighth and ninth person.
I could get behind this move. Either guy would give us improved shooting that we really need. Kennard is a smart vet player that is decent in PnR situations. We just need "that shooter" who can come in and keep the floor spread for everybody else and knock down a couple big 3s here and there.
"We know we're going to be in the luxury tax, and if you want to compete for a championship, I feel like unless you get real lucky, you're going to be in the luxury tax."In July 2018, Fertitta stated that exceeding the salary cap is likely necessary for a championship-contending team. Fertitta has emphasized a willingness to pay the luxury tax if he believes it gives the team a genuine chance to win a championship. He also noted the significant financial difference that comes with the "repeater tax" for teams that exceed the luxury tax threshold in three out of four seasons. So why do we care about keeping under the luxury tax for 2025-2026 if we are CLEARLY trying to win now? My point being, I appreciate all the cap experts and mathletes out there but the reality is quite plausible right now that making sure the math all adds up to duck the tax doesn’t matter dick at all this year. If the right guy is gettable and he puts us over a million or two or 3 who gives af, go get him. (By him, I mean Grimes)
