[Sean Deveney] Will Dwight Howard force a Lakers sign-and-trade?

Lol to win an argument some of yall dig deep.

 

You know also that Les Alexander said he would go into the luxury tax, "given the right circumstances". In other words a contending team. You said yourself that Harden, J.Smith, Howard would be a win now team.

If Les is prepared to go into the luxury tax under my scenario I posted previously, that's another $14m + $2.6m (room exception) = 16.6m that we could spend on your playoff veteran bench. Now, remember my line-up already had Beverley and our young PFs on the bench so I think we could acquire quality veteran back-ups at the 2, 3, and 5 for 16.6m without trading Lin.

Actually, I think we would be taking a big risk letting Lin go for cap space and starting Beverley. I love Beverley but he has far from proven he is a starting point guard. At least Lin is a proven starting point guard. Lin starting and Bev coming off the bench makes the point a solid position for us, I don't want to change that so we can have some cap space to sign vet role players.

 

Cool, Lakers get hooked up again for free. No thanks.

 

The last 2-3 pages of this thread are great. I think people are over valuing Josh Smith. If Dwight is willing to come to town without Smith we will be much better off. He will get paid like a star but he will not perform like one.

With the departure of Garcia and soon to be Delfino we will need to pursue shooters and they have to come reasonably cheap.

 

It has been reported that Garcia would be interested in coming back if the next year of his contract is not picked up. He could be had for the vet minimum or the room exception if needed. I think he showed in the playoffs that he is a wiley veteran that can defend and shoot the 3, perfect for us should we land Dwight Howard.

 

I don't know about all that proven stuff when it comes to Lin or Beverly. But what I do know is that the PG position was the weakest position on this team along with the PF position.

And Morey has been pretty good at finding point guards (he practically pulls them out of thin air) so if Lin is moved, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

I dont mind a "win now" direction for the team as long as it doesnt turn into "suck later"down the road.

And "suck later" usually starts with bad contracts (player over paid & under performing for what he earns). It continues with no cap room or flexibility. And it can end with a team getting old.

Getting one more superstar is a no brainer. But what we do after that will probably be the difference between knocking on the door every year and blowing it down routinely.

While I am not against getting Dwight for 20M a year, I do wonder what we could get with (2) 10M players instead.

 

Maybe you're right but I don't think Les will go into the luxury tax just to keep Lin, unless he feels Lin is the ideal fit for the new roster and/or the revenue from the Asian market offsets the tax. Also, keep in mind that the Rockets are going to have to pony up for Parson very soon which will reduce cap flexibility even more.

I also don't think Beverly will start but will continue to come off the bench because of the energy he brings. I could however see Aaron Brooks starting. He's already proven that when given minutes that he is better than Lin and can also be very clutch in the playoffs. He would easily average 20 pts a game playing with Harden, especially getting all the open looks that Lin does. And with the interior defense of Smith and Howard, his defense although I think is just adequate as Lin's, would be moot. Or there are a number of other veteran, good three point shooters that could fit in as well for less money, allowing greater cap flexibility to build a solid overall roster.

 

Starting Brooks?

I can't remember how many times did the opposite PG scores tons when Brooks got his 20 points. You are either new or you didn't see how Brooks played except the few games that he played against the Fakers in the playoff a few years back.

 

Definitely no to starting Brooks. While I am not totally against moving Lin to get some vet players, I don't know if it is necessary to do so. Again, vet mins and room MLE after we hit the cap is fine. Move Asik + a young PF in a SnT for Josh Smith leaves us with a rather serviceable bench even BEFORE we use the vet min or room MLE. Get a vet wing player or two. Playoff rotations are like 8 players lol -- get a 9th for security. We have our 5, add in the remaining young PF (Tjones or DMo), Bev and GSmith and vet min wing rotation player = 8. I also think that Morey will try to get rid of White, maybe even through the stretch provision or paying someone else to take him and use that stretch, etc., so we can get another rotation player. Bam.

We'd only be about $7M over the cap, assuming the cap is ~$58M. It will probably go up, so honestly, we won't even be over the cap by that much, much less into luxury tax territory.

 

I agree with you partly. While I think Brooks was a net plus when he was at the top of his game, my bigger concern is that he isnt the player he was 4 years ago.

I feel OK with surgically inserting Brooks into the lineup when things get bogged down, or when guys are hurt or tired. But as a 30+ minutes guy starting? I suppose it could be proved to me, better yet, proved to the coaching staff and other players. But shouldn't be assumed until he has had the minutes and exposure to inspire confidence.

 

That was when Chuck was our center. Even a top defensive PG would have gotten torched if he only had Chuck protecting the rim.

 

I've been a Rocket fan since the 70's and am probably old enough to be your daddy. May have to change my name to Big Daddy Highlander. I've probably seen and played in more basketball games than you have pimples and pubes.

Aaron Brooks, while not the greatest defensive player, didn't get torched anymore than Lin does plus he can penetrate, shoot the 3, and score better than Lin. He doesn't need the ball in his hands to be effective like Lin, because he's a very good spot up shooter, which is a better fit with Harden and Howard. If I recall correctly, AB averaged over 20 that season, was key in our playoffs against Portland, and played very well against the Lakers. The firepower and ability to stretch the floor that he could bring more than offsets any defensive liabilities which would be minimal with a Smith and Howard front line.

So go back and suck on your momma's tit and leave the basketball discussions to the men.

 

And I'm not saying Brooks is the answer. I'm saying that he could an affordable option over Lin to allow more cap space to fill out a team featuring Harden, Smith, and Howard with solid veteran role players.

 

Glad to know someone who by age is an adult can still have the maturity level of a child. That makes me feel both scared and grateful, all at the same time.

BDK, you keep talking about AB from years ago...wouldn't it be more prudent to compare Lin now vs. AB now? I don't have the energy to dig up the numbers of Opponents points scored when AB was on the court vs. when Lin was on the court, and they might not be too reliable either way given AB's super small sample size this past season, but I have a feeling that in reality, AB gets torched a lot more than Lin.

Where are you getting that AB is a better scorer or 3 pt shooter? This 12-13' season, his FG% is pretty close to Lin's, and while his 3 pt % is a bit better, it is comparable to the 3 pt % Lin had post all star break. Lin played much better post all star break than the beginning of the season, which was atrocious. That was probably due to a combination of factors: injury, new team, chemistry, pressure, whatever, but it was so bad, it was like, why are you in nba? bad. I don't expect that to be the norm or happen again next season, again, because he got much better (shooting %-wise) post all star break.

 

Are you sure the Rockets are even going to bring Brooks back...?

Manu stole his soul. He's not a starter anymore.

 

That Sporting News article got destroyed in the comments section for being completely wrong on S&T rules, they completely re-wrote the whole thing 12 hours later and issued an apology.

 

Why is it that teams like LA can spend $80M and Miami $70 while the Rockets Cap is like 60M

 

What is going on here?

1) An article is posted that proposes a trade of Lin + Asik for Howard. The apology from the editor at the bottom of the article shows that the entire premise of the article is worng because the author thought Dwight could get the extra year (5 / 117m) and still be traded. This is wrong, sign and trade has changed! Howard gets the same 4 / 88 if he is sign and traded or just signs outright. We can easily create the cap room to sign Dwight outright.

2) Instead of feeling this story is badly researched and a bit dodgy. Certain people here suggest that we should do it anyway to clear cap room to sign Josh Smith. I outlined clearly how we can sign Howard and Josh Smith without trading Lin and Asik to LA. Just Asik and PF to Atlanta for J.Smith. We don't need to trade Lin and Asik to LA to create space to acquire Josh Smith.

3) Next, the same people changed their arguments again to say we should do it because we need to get rid of Lin to create cap space to sign better value role players (Jarret Jack?!!). Or, we need to do that trade with LA so we can get some veteran role players to win now. Our room exception, veterans exception and preparedness to go over the cap allows us to fill out our bench with veteran role players. Again no need to ditch Lin for nothing

4) Next, these same people say Brooks and Beverley are quite capable of starting in place of Lin. We should get rid of Lin because we have capable back-ups at better value. Lin will not be traded just because. There has to be a reasonable target and return of assets we can get for him

I don't mind at all if Lin is traded for someone like CP3 or in a package to acquire another superstar. The progression of arguments here by people supporting we trade Lin and Asik to the Lakers convinces me they are blinded by their desire just to get rid of Lin. SMFH

 

Hey Big Daddy, this is Grandpa Basketball.

Aaron Brooks avoids contact, does not go to the line nearly as well as Jeremy, he doesn't create looks for his teammates as well as Lin, and he can't see the floor nearly as well a Lin. In addition to that, defensively Brooks doesn't chase as well nor fight over screens as well as Lin does. He is nowhere close to being as efficient as Lin is. In short (and Brooks is plenty short), he isn't half the defender Lin is.

And for good measure, Brooks has a serious ego problem, something Lin nor this Rocket team can relate to.

Other than that, you're exactly right.