$25M for 3 players isn't all that much, particularly when the remainder of the Rockets' roster is locked into rookie scale deals. For example, the Rockets had Scola, Martin and Lowry making that much last year, and were still able to add Dalembert at $7M and Camby at $9M, thanks to the contributions they got from an underpaid Dragic, rookie deals for Lee and Patterson, and the 2nd-round contracts they gave to Bud and Parsons. With regard to picking up Tyrus Thomas, I'm always interested to see when the Rockets pick up guys they targeted from years past; it's always nice to see that they do take full advantage of the extra money invested in pre-draft work and training camp invites. There is a certain amount of romanticism to thinking of your general manager as being Billy Beane in "Moneyball", knowing another organization's prospects better than even their own GM, taking a guy off their hands "as a favor", when it's a guy you've been targeting for years. Courtney Lee and Kyle Lowry are excellent examples of this, and it's one of the reasons many posters have confidence in the current front office. Let me be the first to start the Gary Forbes bandwagon, a guy who put up Courtney Lee-like numbers at the end of last year, and who played on the Rockets' 2010 summer league team; I have decent hopes that he's capable of contributing to a rotation. With that tangent aside, it's rather humorous to necro this pre-draft thread from 2006 regarding a potential trade up with Portland for Thomas; while it seems obvious in hindsight that he was a smokescreen for Brandon Roy, the Rockets did interview Thomas and bring him in for a workout, so he would technically qualify as a player they've had their eyes on for years. And if nothing else, relive the times when Darius Miles was still ambulatory, Juwan Howard was an integral part of the team, and Adam Morrison was a prized prospect... http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=114195
Read my later post. Im not saying I would have been particularly opposed to it, just that its a big factor into the consideration. In the most basic sense, at this stage the Rockets are currently in, Im not taking on a toxic contract unless I know for sure that Im getting a foundation player out of the deal. If the Rockets either felt MKG should be able to be that guy, or they knew for a fact they were getting Howard because of the aquisition, then so be it. If MKG is just a "swing for the fences" type of prospect, then Im more comfortable just trading Lowry for the #8th pick and taking someone like Drummond instead. I just feel like the MKG aquisition would have been like putting your eggs in one basket so to speak. That is, unless they knew for a fact that this is the player that will land me Dwight Howard with spared expense in return.
Idk at that point we'd be giving up so many picks and talent for just the number two pick. Most likely that would have been done to be traded for Dwight Howard but whatever. Won't matter anyways seeing as how he's going to try to "test" free agency this off season.
This is 100% MKG, Tyrus Thomas was either just a throw in or a liability (seriously with DMO would we still need another PF?). Anyway IIRC DM and his staff believe that MKG is the biggest "can't miss" prospect since Davis. There's no way they would have taken Drummond with MKG still on the table, in fact there were some reports the Drummond thing was a smokescreen and they wanted MKG or Lilliard at number 6.
Calling people idiots since this is all speculation is an extremely narcassistic position. Please enlighten us to what the non-idiotic take is.
Wow, glad we passed on that trade. Jordan, what the hell is he thinking? He should have jumped all over that.
Look, why do you care about the salary paid, when really the only thing we care about as fans is salary cap impact? Lin and Asik are essentially both making 8.3 a year (if anything a delayed payment is a benefit to Mr Alexander). Get that into your head.
Whats not noted is that the trade could have been on the board because it was contingent on Orlando engaging Houston back regarding Dwight Howard. That trade contingency could have been the reason why multiple trades were held up on draftnight.
Maybe you should read the entire post before saying something like "Get that into your head." Also did you read later on when I noted that I still very well might go through with the deal based on thorough scouting that was done on MKG, and trade contingencies?? The Tyrus Thomas contract would still need to be accounted for as more than just a throw in contract like alot of people seem to think it is. Given the current state of the Rockets, they should be thinking long and hard about taking in contracts like that for a player that is essentially a "swing for the fences" type of prospect. If its me, i stay the course until Im 99% certain that the player Im getting in return is a foundation player my team could build around. Until then, I stay the course. If they felt as if he's a home run based on the detailed scouting they did on him, then they probably had a good reason for offering this trade scenario. What seems more likely though is that the #2 pick would have been flipped in a Dwight Howard trade, but again that is just speculation.
Those scenarios are ALL based on trading for Dwight. Quit wasting tune tring to figure out who we wanted. We wanted Dwight.
if morey did that he would. Trade w/ min for 5 and Rubio Kahn would definitely consider that would save him 2 future 1sts
Do you think Morey loved MKG or Orlando did? I'm glad this didn't happen, on first thought this would have hurt us.
Trading MKG to Orlando adds up given what they traded Dwight for. Both MKG are young, defensive minded wings. We could have easily added a lotto guranteed pick (like we got from TOR) the Dallas pick to equal the real deal as well as Patterson, Scola, Thomas, or Motie (since the Magic took Al Harrington). I have a feeling either Charlotte's high on MKG (or high on the OKC "method") or Hennigan was indecisive.
lamb has more potential than anyone not named a.davis.. and Royce was already better than all the players in this years draft. great draft for us
If you consider what the Rockets were actually willing to give up for Dwight, it seems much more likely that they were trying to get Kidd-Gilchrist for themselves. Most people here realize that Tyrus Thomas has a terrible contract which would eat up cap space for years. But that's the cost of moving up in the draft to draft a foundation piece. Given the current state of the Rockets, they should be all-out aggressive in getting a face-of-the-franchise type of player, even if it requires swallowing a poison-pill contract. Being able to do a deal like this is why guys like Bima value future flexibility; at some point you have to cash it in, and the Rockets' books have been managed so impeccably, they'd still likely have cap room in free angecy. Guys you can build a team around with no associated risk will never be available. They're going to be on the downside of their career, have injury issues, or they'll force their way to a team of their choice. At some point, you'll need to gamble and invest a ton of resources into a question mark, whether that's a young unproven guy like MKG, an older player with off the court issues like Z-Bo, or someone with injury risks like T-Mac. If the Rockets really were willing to invest all of that just to draft Kidd-Gilchrist, I would assume they felt that it was a risk worth taking, not some wild shot in the dark like you're characterizing him as. I do think you're being unfairly victimized because you made a fairly simple mistake in your initial post, and unlike in a presidential debate, giving blatantly false numbers isn't going to make your argument stronger, even if you clarify it later.
