trade Asik TPE for Ilyasova (good fit) sign Jameer Nelson for vet min (he's close w/ DH and would be a nice backup PG) Bring in Lull & Papanikolaou (longshot but i'd love it)
I thought Wade rumors are dead and buried by now. I guess there's Lance Stephenson, but if they wanted Stephenson, they would've signed him. I don't see them being interested. Gibson is a great fit next to Pau, providing energy and defense while Pau provides scoring. And he obviously works with Noah. Pau is an older player who had multiple knee surgeries. They have to plan for him missing a number of games. They need great experienced backups. Mirotic is a good player, but he's a rookie. If they are a contending team, they don't want a rookie to replace Boozer and Gibson with an injury prone player and a rookie. Not to mention that Noah isn't the healthiest player either. Noah, Pau, Gibson, Mirotic. A perfectly sensible deep big men rotation. No need to trade anyone.
Paul Milsap is worth cashing in majority of our assets. The guy is an underrated All-star, who gives us great flexibility going forward. I'd offer our N.O. 1st rd pick, Terrence Jones, basically anyone not named Harden or Howard, to get that guy on the roster. You also gotta love that elbowed Chris Bosh in the face! Spoiler <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0hqm5raw7Mo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Tjones, Nick Johnson, trade exception, cash, pelican's lotto & future some random second rounder I contend this looks a lot like the Ron Artest trade and similar structure to Harden's deal (though that was a win now so Martin made sense) I think this can potentially net us Rondo or Milsap [esp. with N. Johnson ballin in summer league] Their agents need to make that push though and the player has to be unhappy/threaten to leave in order to give the Rox leverage. Was Milsap listening to Bosh when he said 'I was the last piece to win championships'?
If they got Milsap, this would suddenly become a successful off-season. The team would be better overall, deeper, and just as good at every individual position but backup center. I'd take that.
Marc Stein: So look for Rockets to re-enter trade game for longtime Houston target Rajon Rondo as well as try to work their way into mix for Kevin Love Twitter @ESPNSteinLine
Trade/ arrange sign and trade for any one of these guys: Ersan Ilyasova, Paul Millsap, Josh Smith, or Greg Monroe
Seems we are talking to Detroit about Josh Smith and Greg Monroe now (according to a Syracuse newspaper)...though I don't know that we have the ability to get either.
I wonder if someone like Danilo Gallinari is worth looking at. Although he is mainly used as a 6'10" SF he is listed as a PF as well. He's currently signed with the Nuggets but was injured all last season so hard to say what he'll look like when he comes back. Denver already has Wilson Chandler at the 3 and Kenneth Faried at the 4. Two years left on his contract, each year a bit north of $10mil so not too dissimilar from our remaining cap space. While he was active he put up similar career numbers to Parsons as you can see here: Considerably lower FG%, same 3PT%, better FT%. Parsons had a PER of 15.9 in his last season, Gallinari had a 16.8. I'm trying to make a defensive comparison but coming up short here, would appreciate some help. I'm not hearing great things about him on that end of the court but I did read that his defensive rating was above average in his last season, beating out players such as Luol Deng and Thabo Sefolosha. Perhaps he could be better defensively, but was asked to concentrate more on his offense. We all remember how Parsons started out a defensive stud and slowly regressed in that department as he was asked to carry more of the offensive load. Anyway, from what I'm gathering, he's not awful in that department. Why Gallinari? Well, it looks like the Rockets are only looking at short term contracts right now, either free agents or players whose teams are looking to give away for cheap (we need to save our few remaining assets for a big trade). He was a productive player who is currently a big question mark with his team after missing a whole season. They may or may not need him depending on what their plan for the season is and they already have players on longer contracts tied up at the 3 and 4. His contract comes with big risk, as his history shows he is injury prone. The Nuggets are currently sitting at $71 million in salary. Shedding him not only puts them under the luxury tax, but he fits into our remaining space and would get them a trade exception should they agree to a S&T. Again, his contract comes with big risk as he is injury prone, but perhaps that means we can get him cheap. He isn't likely to bring the leadership we lost in Parsons. Is he healthy? Could he primarily work as a stretch 4 for us? Is his defense good enough to guard opposing 4's? These are all good questions to ask since it looks like the Rockets are currently in the market for good deals on used cars. What do you guys think?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Now if they're able to acquire Greg Monroe or Josh Smith from Detroit their chances of getting Love or Rondo would increase.</p>— DYST Now (@DYST_Now) <a href="https://twitter.com/DYST_Now/statuses/488726192754032640">July 14, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>UPDATE: Rockets are still working the phones but getting a trade done for Rondo or Love trade is unlikely. They lack the assets.</p>— DYST Now (@DYST_Now) <a href="https://twitter.com/DYST_Now/statuses/488725859030016000">July 14, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>SOURCE: The Detroit Pistons are actively shopping Josh Smith. Rockets and Pelicans potential suitors. Also can't rule out the Suns.</p>— DYST Now (@DYST_Now) <a href="https://twitter.com/DYST_Now/statuses/488709676306268162">July 14, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>UPDATE: Rockets are still working the phones but getting a trade done for Rondo or Love trade is unlikely. They lack the assets.</p>— DYST Now (@DYST_Now) <a href="https://twitter.com/DYST_Now/statuses/488725859030016000">July 14, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Not having the assets to get Rondo is a GOOD thing. Rondo is just a NAME now, we need more GAME from our 3rd "star". And Rondo is even more ball dominant than Lin, who EVERYONE stated was not a complement to Harden. Bad fit, Morey needs to move on and find complementary pieces already.
I was pretty excited to have Bosh+Parsons. And even though I think Ariza was a good signing, he is kind of a letdown compared to Bosh+Parsons. I have been trying to think of what other moves we could make to improve our roster. And I thought of an idea that would definitely be a stretch. What if we were able to get a commitment from Lance Stephenson for whatever we could afford to pay him. I'm not a big fan of Stephenson, but he is definitely the best SG on the market. If we get a commitment from him to sign for us, then we could trade Harden for Kevin Love. Minnesota has been saying that they want a player that would be capable of winning now. Harden would be much better at that than Klay Thompson or Andrew Wiggins, and he still has 3 years on his contract so they wouldn't have to worry about him resigning there. Personally, in a vacuum, I like Harden more than Love. He has accomplished more in his career than Love has. I think Harden is much closer to the best of his position than Love is- although you could argue for both. The only reason I would consider this trade is because Stephenson is a pretty good SG that's available while I cannot think of any other good PF's. Our lineup would be: Beverley Stephenson Ariza Love Howard Say goodbye to poor perimeter defense... I do think that our offense would take a hit. Harden is an elite paymaker who is able to break defenses down. Losing that would limit the effectiveness of Bev and Ariza catch and shoots. Stephenson and Bev are decent to good ballhandlers, but definitely not elite. I don't know, just a random thought. I wouldn't trade Harden for Love straight up, but if we were able to get Stephenson as a free agent then I would consider it.
If I thought that Howard could get in the ear of Josh Smith and make him behave as a defensive minded power forward should then I would take a chance on him. But he plays too stupid on the offensive end. Monroe is intriguing for sure.
