[Chron] Don't rule out a trade despite Rockets' recent run

Dare I say lin may be the best defender out of that trio

 

What I find absurd about this Rondo discussion, or a Carmelo discussion, or any discussion about any player, is that what fans on or off of this message board think is irrelevant. What matters is what the Rockets front office thinks. Either Morey and company are trying hard to get Player X or they aren't, either Morey and company think highly of Player X or they don't. And Morey and company are obviously better at this than any of us. Hell, Morey and company are arguably better at this than anybody on the planet.

I believe that Morey is looking to trade Asik, Lin, and Motiejunas. I believe he is looking to get back players that his advanced stats team and scouting team value highly. Actually, I know that's what Morey is doing. I also know that Morey wants to maintain cap flexibility, which means he is interested in VALUE, in bang for your buck. He wants pieces he can easily moveaound. Let's say Lebron James is impressed by what Houston is doing and is interested in signing with Houston this summer. Morey wants to be able to very quickly move pieces around so as to create the cap space to sign Lebron. James Harden can be quickly/easily moved, so can Dwight Howard, so can most of the pieces on this roster. But Asik is not, Lin is not, even Motiejunas is not as easy to move as you might think. If Morey were to obtain Rondo, then Rondo would be very easy to move. Courtney Lee would not be easy to move, which is the #1 reason why Lee is not a Rocket right now.

My point? Think like Morey, and you can more easily anticipate what Morey will and will not do.

I think Morey is looking at the following guys right now:

Rajon Rondo
Kyle Lowry
Ty Lawson
Paul Millsap
Paul Pierce
Luol Deng
Tyson Chandler
Amir Johnson
Anderson Varejao
Isaiah Thomas
Kenneth Faried
Kyle Korver
Mike Dunleavy
Trevor Ariza
Al-Farouq Aminu
DeMarre Carroll
Ed Davis
Jordan Hill
Patrick Patterson
CJ Miles
Jordan Hamilton
Bismack Biyombo
Iman Shumpert
Miles Plumlee

Now, the price is going to be too high for most guys on this list. The price will be right for only a handful, and those are the guys most likely to wind up in Houston at some point over the next four days. Trade deadline is this Thursday!

 

This was back when Harden wasn't a main option on the team. He was in the league for 2-3 years at that point and hadn't yet been given free reign over a basketball team. Now that he has, I question whether or not he'd be accepting of taking a lesser role in the offense to pave way for a new alpha-dog like Rondo.

In the off-season he was getting noticeably annoyed at all the Dwight Howard questions he was getting asked. In a public appearance, he even said "No Dwight Howard questions" to the media before they asked questions. Bill Simmons appointed to it as well. James is a tough personality to figure out. He just seems very reserved and has a quiet swagger about himself, and I have my doubts on whether or not we can have two strong egos in Harden and Rondo on the same team. Especially when it'd be thrusted on the two of them suddenly in the middle of the season.

 

Great post ! No one knows what will happen this summer with bosh,dirk,melo,lebron so if anything morey is trying to remain flexible just in case anything happens this summer but also keep this team ready for the WCF push. Like u said asik\lin are the guys that can get in the way & morey would hate that ! Melo/Dirk have already coming out saying they will take LESS to be on a contender. That's music to Moreys ears !

One player your missing is humpries (celtics) $12,000,000 expiring contract. He's a solid backup center and boston would love to have asik for him. They would give a 1st or 2nd round pick also.

 

You say you know for a fact that Morey is looking to maintain cap flexibility, and then name a number of guys that he may be looking to trade for that would hinder our cap flexibility.

If we want to maintain our flexibility because if by some miracle a star wants to come here, why would we trade for Tyson Chandler's contract, Kyle Korver's contract, or Ty Lawson's? Are you ever so sure Morey can swing those guys promptly for cap-room if Kevin Love wants to take his talents down South? No. I have my doubts Morey is even gonna make a splash this deadline. Things are starting to come together chemistry-wise.

 

You think that Rondo can significantly improve the Rockets defense? There are exactly two types of players that have a significant impact on a team's defense; paint clogging big men who shut down paint penetration and long athletic wings that can guard the opposition's best offensive wing each and every game.

Every Rocket fan should be well familiar with the effects the paint clogging big. Asik filled that role on the Rockets last season. These type of players dominate dRAPM, the gold standard for fans trying to estimate a players defensive contribution. Asik in a reserve role will probably make more of a contribution to the defense than Rondo could ever as a starter.

The wing who can guard the opponent's best wing scorer also has an a measurable effect, albeit a smaller effect than the aforementioned paint clogging big. Think Iggy or Paul George here. Certainly valuable.

Rondo is neither of those types of players. Therefore his contribution to the Rockets defense will be minimal. The Rockets defensive woes (although the Rockets rank ninth in dRTG, so it is hard to characterize them as being bad defensively) are team oriented. Rondo is not going to fix that.

In conclusion, if your reason for wanting to trade for Rondo is to vastly improve the Rockets defense you are barking up the wrong tree and should find a different reason to advocate for that trade. He is not going to be a measurable plus on defense over what the Rockets currently have.

 

Fixed. And very untrue.

 

Great post. People focusing on Rondo or the PG position in general are (I believe) barking up the wrong tree as far as biggest impact on D and W/L. Defensive wing who can shoot and backup center are still the priorities and hopefully Morey will find some gems to fill those roles.

 

All of the players listed are considered good values, and yes, can be very quickly/easily moved, if necessary.

To clarify: I do not think Tyson Chandler's final destination, if New York trades him over the next four days, will be Houston. The idea behind a Chandler trade would be to ship him to a third team, a contending team who would start him. Phoenix is a really obvious final destination for Chandler.

This is the skeleton of the trade that I expect to happen:

Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin to New York;

Tyson Chandler to Phoenix;

First round picks, prospects (e.g., Iman Shumpert, Miles Plumlee, Donatas Motiejunas), and Emeka Okafor's huge expiring contract to Mystery Team;

Big name mystery player (e.g., Rajon Rondo, or Luol Deng, or another big salary guy from my list) to Houston.

Maybe Plumlee and/or Shumpert goes to Houston instead, but you get the idea.

Houston gets better AND improves cap flexibility. That is what will happen.

 

The Rockets currently have the league's best backup paint clogging big on their roster. His name is Asik. A partially engaged Asik is so much better than anything available it is not even funny.

As far as the wing defender; IMHO the coaching staff should take Parsons out to the wood shed and beat him until he focuses on defense like he did his rookie season.

Problem solved.

 

I agree - I hope we can keep Asik if he's even partially engaged, problem solved on that front. The Parsons thing is more complex - dude's tryin to get payyyeeed on his next contract and seems to have other plans than focusing on D. Covington COULD turn out to be that guy but that's probably at least a year down the road.

 

That's true, some contend/win with only one or even none. 2 top 12 guys should be enough to where you just need to fill in the gaps around them. If it's not then I question whether they're worth that money.

 

Chris Bosh said:
"A guy came up to me and (said), 'You took a picture with my son last All-Star Weekend (in Houston),' " Bosh said before boarding his bus. "They remember this stuff. When you see people who are genuinely excited just to see you, it's great. We don't always have time to do everything, but when we do have time and you take a couple seconds out of your day, they just really appreciate it."

 

You yourself have said that the Rockets have basically done nothing other than sign guys for the minimum since signing Howard. So who is it that doesn't understand that it's better to have more talent in that case?

 

A very nice post. Thank you.

 

It is hard to imagine that Harden and Howard are not worth the money, so IMHO Morey only makes a minor move if that. The Rockets currently have the sixth best record in the NBA, and with the Spurs injuries and troubles defeating any team with a 0.600 record or better they could be the two seed in the WC in a couple of weeks. Upsetting the apple cart would seem to be a bad idea.

 

True. Everybody, for the right price, is available. And if Morey does make a trade at this point we can view it as a probable steal. Morey rarely misses on established NBA players.

 

We will see a small trade IMO. Morey doesn't want to tamper with the chemistry that this team is building as we speak. Especially to the core group.

 

Of course Morey is "looking", but everything hinges on whether or not Asik will be productive. If you ask me they got lucky that OKC, SA, and even LAC had major injuries this year that have allowed the Rockets to get away with Morey making no effort to improve the team while staying in the race. If Asik continues to pout and the Rockets lose in the first round, that would be a major black mark on Morey's record. If he manages to trade Asik with not many games left in the season and they still lose in the first round, same deal.