If we're not getting one of those big name power forwards (Josh Smith) _ may as well stick with TJ... A lot of you are sleeping on this young man, the kid has talent...
I think he meant Terrence Jones (young man). And I agree, he and T-Rob have the highest potential out of all our soon to be 2nd year PFs, imo.
Young man... I was referring to Terrence Jones... I like Landry, but when we start bringing up players like him _ we may as well stick with TJ... He has a higher offensive skill set and he's a shot blocker.
Landry has had a very good year this season, the best since his Rockets days. Some here may not have noticed it. His offensive efficiency is the highest it's been since leaving Houston (116 ORtg, .601 TS%). His rebounding rate is also the best that it's been since his rookie season (and he only played 700 minutes back then, small sample size). He has done very well playing substantial minutes for a playoff team. Now, obviously he's not worth a $12M/yr contract if we are talking a 4-year deal. However, he can most likely get a 3 to 4-year MLE-type contract (which would take him to around $15M to $20M). If the Rockets are in a position to offer Landry a contract, it will be because it could not land Dwight Howard and the other bigger-named guys end up with long term offers from other teams that the Rockets deemed to be overpriced. This would mean that the Rocket's plan would be to find a 1-year fill-in and try its luck again in 2014. To get Landry, or any other player who could get a long-term deal, to accept a only 1-year guaranteed, plus a team option for year 2, a team would have to overpay for that year. Lets say Landry has a 4 year, $20M deal on the table. If the Rockets offer 1 year, $5M, then most likely Landry will take the extra guaranteed money because he wouldn't want to bet on being able to get more than $15M next season (injury risk and all). But if the Rockets offer 1 year, $12M, then he might take the smaller guarantee because there is a good chance he can get more than 3 years, $8M a year later-- just depends on how risk-averse he is. These, by the way, are not the precise math. I am only guessing at the market. Some team with cap room might offer Landry more than the MLE. On the other hand, teams might get conservative all of a sudden, too (though NBA's history is such that teams will most likely end up paying more than fans/commentator expects for free agents, been that way under different CBAs over the years, even while the NBA was crying poor). The principle, though, doesn't change: If the Rockets don't find a player worth a long term deal at $10M+/year, they should look into signing a Mid-level-type guy to a 1 year guaranteed deal, and overpay him for that one year with the trade off being future flexibility. This, I think, is a better and more realistic course of action than trying to trade for a Pau Gasol-type player with 1 year left on his contract. Contrary to what some here think, the Lakers are not going to give Pau up for cheap (like Robinson or DMo)-- there will be other teams eager to offer the Lakers something good for Pau, and the Lakers trading Gasol likely means they retain Howar and will be in a "win now" mode. So, instead of spending trade assets on a 1-year rental player, it may be wiser to just sign a guy for 1 year.
There is no need make small incremental moves especially at PF. This team needs to go big (get a superstar) or go home.
