Gortat will not hurt this team in getting a max guy...if we send out Patterson, Motiejunas & Jones with Aldrich expiring 2 million Patterson = $3,105,301 Motiejunas =$1,422,720 Jones = $1,551,840 = $6,079,861 for all 3 next year ; Gortat =$7,727,280 = $1,647,419 in dead money Adding Gortat but not picking up Delfino makes it $43,197,685 and if you add Delfino 3 million = $46,197,685 Salary Cap is $58,000,000 (I believe) w/o Delfino option being pickup Rockets will have $14,802,315 (Millsap) w/ Delfino option being picked Rockets will have $11,802,315 So if Rockets pickup Gortat (expiring contract next year), pickup Delfino option while letting it expire and let Morris expire = Rockets will have $12,824,040 off books for summer 2014 ...I think my explanation as to why getting Gortat is vital basketball wise as well as financial (Whew)
****Also since Suns want to go young might as well give them our Assets cause they will not help us this year or next year IMPO**** but my brain hurts right now....so I'm out LOL
Only player potentially worth giving up Parsons & Lin for would be Cousins, and that's not going to happen for reasons I just mentioned. The Seattle group will want full control of Cousins this Summer either as a trade asset or a potential franchise cornerstone. No way they let Lame duck Petrie & the Magoofs make that move at this point. I would expect them to make a Morey/Presti type of hire this Summer as a GM who will come up with the plan at that time. Right now, the Kings are not going to trade Cousins.
i wouldn't trade Asik's defense for Gortat's offense. But adding Gortat's offense (along with his rebounding and shot-blocking) could be nice.
I think the cap is $54.5 million. I like the size he'd bring at the four. I still think Jefferson or Smith are better options if you can get one of them for 4 years, $40-43 million. I don't want Bledsoe. If we can sign Smith or Jefferson for a good contract then that is worth giving up our cap flexibility. I don't see any top 10 player signing with the Rockets just because. He provides post scoring, something the Rockets have lacked since Yao was on the team.
I'm calling it now. Morey will go after Bledsoe and he will get him. Bledsoe Harden = best backcourt in the league 2 yrs from now.
YES! I was about to say that the most intriguing guy on that list is Bledsoe. Him and Harden would be great together. That would be a very athletic back court for sure. My only concern is that he isn't known for his passing which it would be nice to have a point guard with nice passing skills but I would gladly take him over Lin. The guy is just fun to watch.
Not many Asik fans here, but you guys need to be more patient with him on offense. He's an elite NBA defender according to xRAPM and most other metrics. He's second in the league in total rebounds while averaging less than 30 mpg. By tomorrow he'll be first since Dwight is out. His defense more than makes up for his lack of offense. The "You can be more patient line" should be for the entire team really, with the exception of the PFs.
For what it's worth, Bledseo is probably an upgrade over Lin, now and in the future. However, Bledsoe is not a solution to our PF issue. Getting Bledsoe doesn't change the fact that we need a PF. And not only do we lose Lin, we lose Lin + assets to get a decent PF. So it doesn't seem like a smart move for at best, a marginal upgrade at one position, when there's a huge hole in another position.
It's crazy how quickly people are turning on Asik. He was the darling of the board for a while. I still love him. He hustles. He crashes the boards like a maniac. He plays top notch defense. Sure, his hands are made of stone, but I promise you he's exceeded the expectations of a great many around the league so far. That said, if he has increased his value substantially and the Rockets feel they can improve our roster by including him in a trade, then so be it. I am definitely an Asik fan though. As a general rule, the only players I'm ever truly mad at are the ones who don't appear to be giving it their all. Hell, Lin has been disappointing by and large this season, but I believe he genuinely wants to be the best player he can and the effort remains there, so I can't be mad at the guy. I also think if he can improve his 3 point shooting we may have something special in Lin. I really feel like his inability to consistently hit the spot up 3 is the one thing that's really holding him back.
At this point in time in year one of the Harden era, we need to trade some of our assets; particularly the ones at PF.
It's true that Asik's offensive ineptitude - his stone hands, his lack of grace around the rim, and his aversion to dunking - hurts players like Lin/Harden/Parsons who pass it to him under the rim. It'll give you that it probably hurts Lin the most. With that said, Asik's defense is so good, he's the second best player on the team after Harden according to xRAPM. However the solution isn't to trade Asik away. 7 feet centers with elite defense do not grow on trees. The solution is to find a PF that can be an offensive weapon to run PnR + PnP plays so that we can utilize our guards which happen to be the top PnR players in the game. People, do not ignore the black hole we have at the PF position! It's awfully hard to win an NBA game 5v4.
People hate Asik for his offense when in reality we all knew this would happen. We knew front he beginning he was a great defender with a decent offenseive game.
Who is our second best player if not Asik? The guy has given us elite defense while posting averages of 10.6 ppg and 11.2 rpg while shooting just a hair under 54% from the field. He's a walking double double. If his hands were better he'd easily be averaging what 16-18 ppg? That would put him in the neighborhood of Dwight Howard. Is that what you expected out of him this year?
