If you're gonna trade for a big man, it's gotta be a guy that can set the pick and FINISH at the rim big time. You've got two guys now in the back court, both of your starting guards, who are PnR specialists. You want a big that can FINISH. Now, it would be nice if he could shoot the 3 secondarily to finishing at the rim. But the priority for a big in this offense is going to be his ability to FINISH at the rim. That would appear to put JSmoove on the top burner if he is acquirable without giving up the farm. Perhaps we would now be willing to take on Mr. Amare if the Knicks decide to give him away to help their cap??? (They'd have to give us an unprotected first rounder for doing that for them.) Rumors have swirled around Smith coming to Houston for a couple years now. I suspect if he becomes available that Morey goes after him. He's most likely leaving ATL after this season anyways. I thinking we could turn either White or TJones into Smith straight up.
Love is the top player Rockets should be pursuing...he's already expressed his dissatisfactions in Minnesota. 1.Love 2.Bynum 3.Cousins 4.Smith If Rockets can acquire 1 of these 4 players they will be a championship contender. http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=8txyt82 Then sign Josh Smith or Bynum to max and we'd have a top 3 team in the league. we could have a lineup like this!! Lin Harden Smith Love Asik or this Lin Harden Jones Love Bynum :grin::grin:
Yes. We are only on the book for like $28 mil not considering Harden's eventual max deal. Even with his max deal we can probably get another near max deal done too.
I think another option murray would look into is Gasol (...again) if the Lake-show falters and the j*zz desperately want to get rid of Jefferson. We could do a three way in which Jefferson and Morris go to LA, Gasol comes here, and Royce, Patterson, contract fillers and a protected future first from us go to Utah. Lakers cut salary for next season with Jefferson's expiring, j*zz get rid of Jefferson, and Murray gets his band-aid player while Dmo and Jones grow behind him. Gasol's contract expires in the same year Cousins' contract is up and could possibly do some sort of S&T for him. Lin/Douglas Harden/Forbes Parsons/Delfino Gasol/Jones/Dmo Asik/Smith
If you want an elite PNR pf it's gotta be LMA. LMA and Broy Pnrs were unstoppable during their heyday.
LMA is more of a PnP guy. You mean the PnP worked with BRoy, don't you? On another note, I think LMA is definitely a target of Morey if Portland falters early.
Definitely, but what assets do we have left, really? We can only trade one future first rounder. Motiejunas, Jones and White all play the same position. I like Parsons, but his upside is very much limited. Lin is unlikely to be traded and the Blazers, like most teams, aren't in need of a PG anyway. I don't think we have enough assets to put together a compellign offer for Aldridge. As for the topic, one guy that intrigues me, but probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense from a roster perspective is Ginobili. Him and Harden are so similar, it would be quite interesting to see them play together. I do believe they'd do quite well playing next to each other. It's just something that I'd love to see as a basketball fan.
It's going to be fun to see how this plays out. The Rockets are a really raw team right now, and with the exception of the very slow and exposed Ling, are in a great position to attract a max FA now that they have Harden and 1/2 guys ready to step up (stats will be inflated with no veterans to defer to). A trade for another all star player that leaves Houston with enough room for the max would be great, but that means getting rid of Ling's poison pill contract... which will not be easy now that he's scouted. Still, this is a trade you have to make if you're in Houston's position.
Sorry if that's not the official spelling on the back of the Chinese National Team Jersey. Lost in Translation. But the point has been made.
Don't see DHoward signing long-term contract in LA, the championship window for their aging roster is pretty small. Houston is definitely looking attractive to any FA, now that we have the First Piece. Also, history tells us that Donald Sterling won't spend much (over time) to keep the Clippers roster in place; CP3 could be available as FA or S&T. Potential 2014 roster: The Beard DHoward CP3 and filler
I think it's clear that Morey's been trying to follow the Celtics model (which makes sense giving how he used to work for Boston). We have our Pierce equivalent in Harden, now we have to wait for more similar level guys to become available. The best part about Harden is that he's young. So if it takes us a few years to bring in other players around him (it most likely will) we're not wasting his prime.
