Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Morey gets a bunch of young players because he couldn't make a trade: Morey needs to be fired. Morey has a chance to flip young players and a disgruntled shooting guard for a star replacement: Morey needs to be fired.
I've had very little to get excited about these last few years as a rockets fan. Royce White excites me. Please don't include him! and why the hell isn't Marcus Morris on that list?
No. I literally answered your EXACT question in the post that you quoted. It's all good, though. The new CBA now prohibits players from getting any better of a contract (on both years and raises) via sign-and-trade than they could get by signing with another team outright.
The only advantage to a sign and trade is New Orleans threatening to match an offer sheet if we don't do a sign and trade to get them assets. By the way, the NO talk show guy who was on with 790 is a horrible human being that all the players in NO will hate. Kevin Martin better not go there. He referred to players as potential "assets." OH NOES!
I am not even worried about it. Morey will have plenty of time to find a replacement. When you have a chance to acquire a player of Gordon's caliber, you have to seize the opportunity. These opportunities don't come around often. It would be so stupid to pass up an opportunity like this just because we don't have a starting SF temporarily.
Yes, that is the advantage . . . for teams with tons of cap room. In the Rockets' case, they are PURPOSELY taking the sign-and-trade (as opposed to outright signing) approach in order to preserve the cap flexibility to bring back Goran Dragic and (possibly) Courtney Lee. If they were to make an offer sheet to Gordon (and not a sign-and-trade), they'd likely have to renounce their rights to one or both of those guys.
I meant the advantage to the Hornets, not the Rockets or the player. They could threaten to match an offer sheet to get a sign and trade done. I get that the Rockets benefit from a sign and trade. It keeps their options open. Although I doubt they'd bring back Lee if they brought in Gordon, unless they were losing Lamb in the trade. Could Lee play SF full time with Gordon at the 2? I have my doubts.
It's an interesting week for the Rockets. As you've noted, the Rockets will have to waive/renounce some players to clear the space for Asik. As it stands now, the Rockets likely want to keep Courtney Lee, and thus probably need to waive all of the spare bits (Greg Smith, Simpson, Leuer, Livingston's non-guaranteed money, etc.). But I think if Eric Gordon is in the picture, that changes everything. Lee won't want to stay as a backup to a 23 year old making max type of money, and so there'd be little need to hang on to his restricted rights. Of course, you may want to keep him for the bench if the contract were a good value, but I see Lee as pretty ticked off in that scenario, which wouldn't do good things for his trade value anyway.
If Eric Gordon were 100% healthy last season, there would not even be a thread about acquiring him. That is, outside of the regular crackpot random trade proposal thread. The Hornets would just offer him a 5-year max contract and/or match any max offer sheet, and that would be the end of it. Unfortunately, the Rockets are not in a position to just "pluck" a healthy, well-adjusted superstar from free agency or another team. They've got to take some chances if they're truly going to break out of their far-too-long cycle of mediocrity.
The Rockets should offer Martin, Lamb, and either Morris or Patterson. This gives the Hornets a veteran replacement for Gordon in Martin, a future replacement for Gordon in Lamb, and a young forward in Patterson or Morris. We could give them both Patterson and Morris if need be. Maybe we could substitute Jones for Patterson or Morris, but that's it. Anything more than this then the Rockets should take a pass.
Actually, I've got some theories on what's going to happen to Lee, regardless of their pursuit of Eric Gordon. Hollinger's cap math in his (otherwise excellent) piece last night about Morey and the Asik offer sheet is WRONG. TEASER: There will be more on that in Clutch's and my new podcast, expected out later today.
I want to keep Parsons, Lamb, and Donuts. If we actually get this guy, a risk with his injury history (god, not again!), let them pick from the rest of the roster.
Including either D-Mo or Parsons in the deal for Gordon would be a tough pill to swallow for many on this board, however, you have to do it to get a young, highly skilled player of Gordon's caliber. Including both of those guys though... that just seems sooo risky given the fact that Gordon played something like 9 games last season, not to mention all the hype surrounding D-Mo since we drafted him last year. I do believe that its time that HOU makes a move to bring in some all-star talent by using some of the 'assets' that have been stockpiled. If I'm NO though, I would absolutely want both D-Mo or Parsons packaged with K-Mart in a S&T for Gordon.
