Leslie Alexander: Rockets plan 'to bring in a terrific free agent', will 'be a lot better' next seas

If the Rockets want to dominate next year, i truly think they need another big man inside that isn't as immobile as Asik. Some one big tall athletic and can defense and shoot. If you look at the West, teams tend to dominate because they have a couple of bigs inside....like Clippers for example, Memphis w/ Zach & Gasol, Indiana w/ Hibbert and West...i think think the recipe for success. Our PF is not big enough. WE should stop experimenting w/ short undersize PF such as Landry, Hayes, Greg Smith, Jones, Casspi. It's time to find another big athletic dude.

 

what?

 

What's everyone thoughts or what is the market for Monroe? I would guess 8-10 mill but i didn't watch him or pay attention to him at all this year.

If we could dump Lin and trade asik to open up around 15-16 mill i would be intrigued to try and target both lowry and monroe. That is of course unless we can sign a melo out right, which i doubt and not to overly optimistic about.

 

Reality is that Les doesn't have much control here. It's a little bit of luck.

 

IDK where the idea that Asik is immobile came from. Do you actually watch him play, or just assume he's slow because he looks like a big oaf?

He moves his feet on D better than any "traditional" center in the league, and better than most power forwards. He does better defending guys on the perimeter than Dwight. Have you seen him on Blake Griffin? He has size, he is virtually always in position, and he squashes a ton of pick and rolls with good decision making, hard shows, and hustle on recovery.

The main problem with Asik in the Portland series is that McHale didn't start him from the beginning. Secondly, his conditioning, which was disappointing.

 

I like Z Bo. If we can get Z Bo...it'd be awesome. Will take some pressure off of Harden when he's not making his hots.

 

Under this scenario, you might be able to move Asik/Jones for Paul Millsap.

So that would net you Lowry and Millsap to shore up the PG / PF spots.

Lowry
Harden
Parsons
Millsap
Howard

In this scenario, you don't have a "3rd star" but add two really good borderline all star players.

 

VC or Ariza please. Drop all guys with no contracts and pick up chandlers option, trade garcia with dmo. Take a bite and trade lin asap, get a backup PF FA

 

After witnessing TJ got abused by LMA, what adjustment was made by McHale in game 1? Right, nothing - we all know how McHale performs with in-game adjustment. What adjustment was made in game 2? Again, nothing. That tells you McHale was clueless.

Not until game 3, Asik got a chance to bother LMA a little bit more.

We can talk about top free agents, or unloading Lin and/or Asik all we want to, but to me, the biggest priority or issue is McHale. He can be players' coach or loved by all players, but we need a highly competent head coach.

If that doesn't change, getting Melo is not going to help.

At work, becoming friends with employees is never a top priority for a qualified manager. As a matter of fact, since you can't be friend of everyone, it's a whole lot better if the manager does NOT make friend with ANY employees.

 

I think you misinterpret clueless for being a players coach. A players coach expects players to pull themselves out of a hole. McHale felt that TJ could perform if given the chance. I'm not saying this is right/wrong, good/bad, I'm just saying it doesn't mean he's clueless. Going deeper in the rotation doesn't necessarily instill confidence in a young team, and doesn't necessarily fix the issue. Furthermore, if he did switch it up, change TJ for the TT line-up or go to DMo and the Rockets still failed, he would have a whole host of people getting on him about not letting TJ play his way out of a slump.

The whole TJ/Twin Towers thing doesn't bother me. What bothers me is the play calling in general and the idea that the Rockets can win without Harden playing a pivotal role. The Rockets only can win if Harden has a decent game. Even his game 3 performance (37 points on 40 shots) is better than nothing. McHale should have been running those backdoor screens and the mid range pick and roll much more often and much earlier than games 3 and 6.

 

This would be the ideal offseason IMO. Talking about Melo, Love, Rondo, etc. is nice but adding a real PF and borderline all-star PG would take this team to the next level.

 

That is a great idea! See ya.

 

He's immobile meaning he's not quick and athletic. He's terrible when it comes to dunking the ball...the time it takes him to rise up and dunk is enough time for anybody to strip the ball. He is a terrible ball-handler. He is only exellent in playing individual defense and team defense. But we need more than that...we can't have one dimension player playing the PF position. He can't shoot the ball from anywhere on the court. So that means the guy who is guarding him can double Harden all game long and prevent anyone from penetration. So that means we can't put him in the starting lineups because it's going to hurt the flow of the offense.

 

the idea the rockets can win in the playoffs with either howard or harden's 1 on 1 play is laughable. the whole team needs to be involved.

 

rondo comes off the book in 2015. lowry would get a contract. with melo/love, you'd have to trade a whole lot(dont believe melo is coming her as a FA; only SnT, but love might next year). with rondo, you don't have to give up a large amount of assets, at least compared to melo.

 

The management should be cautious with Cuban this offseason...he'll do anything to derail our plans...he's still bitter with our DH acquisition...

 

Yea i heard they're trying to get Tyson Chandler from NY. Why don't we trade Asik for Tyson Chandler. He's a lot better than Asik, will definitely be an upgrade.

 

How much Pau Gasol fetch in this market? He's no longer quite a star, but still damn talented big man that could probably use a reduction in his minutes. Morey's gone after him before as a building block, would we still be interested now in a supporting role?

 

Well I doubt Boston is giving up Rondo for chump-change. He's their one bullet in the gun that can bring them back something of real value and I doubt Ainge is giving that up for anything short of Lin, Parsons, and a #1 draft pick(s).

As far as that 2015 cap space everyone is so enamored with....it's a nice fallback option should nothing work out this summer but if you think for a second that Morey will pass up a good deal for A CHANCE to sign Love I'd say your wrong. If Morey can pull off a Lowry & Millsap combo I say do it and 2015 cap space be damned...one in the hand is worth two in the bush. Love is no "slam dunk" as LA (his hometown) is by far the favorite and the way Portland is going I'd doubt LMA is going anywhere either.

 

And each player will play 45 min because we have no bench.