PFs that we have and half of them are not contributing Patterson, Morris, Jones, Motiejunas, Greg Smith, White couple of them are tweeners but those take 6 roster spots
There's a reason why Morey drafted PFs that can play on the perimeter, and not one who operates best inside.
yeah... does not mean he only wants those players You have a balanced roster if you throw in some versatile players that can shoot midrange jumpers and make hook shots
Except Morey specifically stated what I just said. I'm not guessing Morey's intentions. He actually said them. Millsap is a 35% mid range jumper. Morris is a 37% 3pt shooter. How is Millsap's mid range jumper helping us being versatile? So defenders can cheat off of him to double Harden all game long?
Small sample size.... Millsap is a more reliable scorer, more reliable help defender, and above all more reliable REBOUNDER I am not talking about Millsap only... Al Jefferson is another guy I think who would be interesting and he could play Center Utah beat the Heat tonight outrebounding by almost 20 boards
I don't really care what Morey said.... but anyone who is familiar with bball fundamentals takes Defensive Rebounding over 3pt shots all day any day Those are critical to win a basketball game.... those running out teams with 3pt shots are nice but let's not kid ourselves that is not the most stable formula of winning games Defense and rebounding and inside scoring are
Is this true? Has Morey explicitly stated this? I did listen to one of his radio interviews wherein he mentioned that he wanted an elite stretch-4 which basically sounded like Kevin Love. I'd still prefer it if we had some offensive diversity and had a PF that could bang inside as well. Patterson has a sound mid-range jumper, a decent post-up game and has shown glimpses of being able to bang inside and hustle for offensive boards. I don't see the harm in trying to play some sets where we have two interior bigs rather than a stretched floor, sometimes it's quite clear that our three-ball isn't falling and recently defenses have made a concerted effort to shut down shots at the rim. We need an inside-out game to go to, it's as simple as that.
If you've watched the games, teams have been doubling Harden and cheating off of Morris for quite a while now. Morris isn't considered a 3pt threat and his confidence and play has been extremely subpar as of late. The problem with having an undersized PF camping outside the three point line who isn't capable of banging inside is that you sacrifice defense, defensive rebounding and 2nd chance opportunities from offensive rebounds. Harden played in OKC where he ran in units with Collison & Ibaka or Collison & Perkins and he seemed to be fine. Denver constantly runs two bigs while their offense is fast-paced and perimeter orientated like ours, they benefit in that when they miss those mid-range shots they have guys hustling for offensive boards, and it works, meanwhile they don't have a perimeter player that's as talented as Harden. Denver is 1st in offensive rebounding this season, we're 23rd despite playing the fastest pace in the league.
It kind of surprised me, but yeah. He said a post up option would be nice, "ideally" the Rockets would have one, but that it's not necessary. If the Rockets get one, he wants it at the 5 position. He doesn't want the 4 clogging up the paint because of the way our backcourt drives to the basket.
I like mozgov, he'd be a really solid backup 5, no more getting lit up when asik takes a 2 mins break. Then could move smith to the 4...but like morey has stated, he'd really like a stretch 4 on the floor instead.
Regarding my Luol Deng salary dump idea from last night, and the notion that the Bulls would collapse without Deng: there is an article on www.thenbageek.com that talks about "unsung heroes," and one of the guys listed is Jimmy Butler for Chicago. Carlos Delfino has, as all Rockets fans know, played exceedingly well this season. I don't think the Bulls would see a huge dropoff if they were to replace Deng's 40 minutes/game with, say, 28 minutes/game from Delfino and an additional 12 minutes/game from Butler. Obviously they'd prefer to keep Deng but the point is that their luxury tax situation for this season and next season is a problem, and they surely want to keep Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. And Carlos Boozer is untradeable. That leaves Deng, in my opinion, as the guy most likely to get traded, assuming management is instructed to avoid the tax. My suggested trade, again, is this: Luol Deng and filler (Nate Robinson, Vladimir Radmanovic, and Nazr Mohammed; all three contracts expire at the end of this season, and Houston will let all three dudes walk, obviously) to Houston; Carlos Delfino, Patrick Patterson, Toney Douglas, and Cole Aldrich to Chicago. Hell, if Chicago wants you to sweeten the deal by throwing in Donatas Motiejunas or Terrence Jones, do it. Deng's really good, guys. I don't think Chicago has much use for Patterson, as somebody pointed out earlier. I agree. Chicago would probably want to flip Patterson (especially since they don't want to pay him $3.1 mil next season to barely play) for a useful veteran role player (probably a wing player) who is wasting away on a losing team (e.g., Dorell Wright, Alonzo Gee, DeShawn Stevenson). There is probably a losing team out there who thinks Patterson might be a solid rotation player. Having said all that: I don't think Chicago even thinks about trading Deng until they are absolutely positive that they can't somehow dump Boozer's contract ($15.3 mil next year, $16.8 mil the following year; ouch!) on somebody. I don't see that happening, though.
Denver has luxury tax issues next season that they need to resolve. Trading for Patterson's $3.1 mil 2013-14 salary doesn't help! Denver is presumably wanting a late first round or early second round pick for Mozgov, anyway. If you want to target a current Nuggets player who the team is looking to dump, Wilson Chandler is a possibility. Denver is very motivated to get below the luxury tax line in 2013-14. Check out Chandler's stats from 2010-11: http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/3194/wilson-chandler. Chandler is only 25 years old. You could play Chandler with Parsons, as well; again, doesn't really matter who you're calling your "small forward" and who you're calling your "power forward." Chandler would be a much easier get than Deng, I'm guessing. He gets paid $6.3 mil in 2013-14 and then $6.8 mil in 2014-15. I believe there is a team option for 2015-16 (which I'm guessing wouldn't get exercised). Denver probably goes for this trade proposal: Wilson Chandler to Houston; Donatas Motiejunas or Terrence Jones to Denver. Denver reduces its 2013-14 payroll by nearly $5 mil, which is enough to avoid the tax. I'd rather have Deng, though.
Thats a pretty good idea, chandler was pretty solid back in his knicks days, crazy he hasn't played in 2 years though, but if he could be had for cheap that'd be sweet.
Wilson Chandler wasn't even that impressive 2 years ago, when he last played substantial NBA minutes. He is no upgrade over either Parsons or Delfino in talent and a substantially larger contract liability. Whether or not people are satisfied with Patterson or Morris (or the potential of Jones and Motiejunas) is not the main issue here. The issue is whether taking on any alleged "upgrade" over these guys justifies giving up even a portion of the team's upcoming cap flexibility. A team with (1) a young elite player like Harden, (2) a young core that is already performing above what can be expected based on its age level, and (3) the requisite cap room is going to be a desirable destination for free agents (like Millsap, Al Jefferson, perhaps even Dwight Howard this offseason and Lebron, Bosh and others in 2014). It is generally not a good idea to give up assets and cap flexibility in exchange for a player similar to ones you already have or ones that you can land through free agency. A guy like Wilson Chandler is a decent enough talent, but you can sign guys like him to contracts like his in free agency fairly easily and there is a decent enough probability that one of the young prospects already on this team can develop into a Wilson Chandler-level or better player.
Morey answered questions on Twitter today. This was his funniest answer. Daryl Morey @dmorey .@KateUpton RT @kylewalstad which non rocket do you covet the most? #SSAChat13
And adding a subpar jumpshooter who can't even shoot the 3 only makes things worse. Also agree, which is why I think overall Patterson is the better player. That said, Millsap is 6-8 and never known for his defense. So hard to see the upgrade here. Advanced statistical breakdowns have consistently rated the Thunder being worst when Perkins is on the floor. And that their small ball lineups have resulted in historically jaw dropping efficiency. I agree with this line of thought. Which is why I would love to have Josh Smith, but not Millsap. Also, not sure why you bring up offensive rebounding. Millsap's offensive rebounding efficiency is roughly the same as Patterson the past 3 years.