Disagree. Dragic has shown he can and willing to play SG. Which means we can put together more 3-guard lineups and lineups where he plays alongside Beverley/Johnson/Canaan. He gives us more lineup flexibility.
Hibbert's contract tho. If youre PHX would you realistically trade a 7.5mm player option for a 15mm player option?
I agree. In hindsight, we should have given an offer to Lowry the moment we met with him, and not ask him to wait on Melo. I was confident he would have signed here.
Hibbert is better player than Jones, but Phoenix would gain nothing long term. Hibbert can opt-out after next season. If he plays well, he'll opt out and demand max and force Phoenix to pay him to retain him. If he sucks, he's on the books for $15mil and lock Phoenix out of FA. Phoenix is not into putting up the most wins next year. Their GM wants to build a contender. Hibbert doesn't make them a contender in the short term and will either leave or be their Chandlers Parsons contract in the long term. Jones and Pelicans pick give them cap flexibility in the short term and ammo to trade for a star in the long term.
I think it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. Both have advantages (and disadvantages) the other doesn't have. I'm not going to get into that here, but I would have loved to had gotten Kyle. I'll be equally thrilled with Goran, if we can get him. Damn, I'm hoping Morey manages it. The Lowry ship has sailed, back to the Frozen North. The Dragon can still leave the Burning Desert for the Green Coastal Plains of Texas.
The longer this drags out, the more likely it is PHX will SnT Bledsoe rather than Dragic. If that happens, for some reason I like our chances even better. Wherever Bledsoe goes has to be a place that is willing to pay him, somewhere he wants to go, and has sufficient assets to satisfy PHX. That list is likely very small, and you'd like to think we are on it. Our main competition is probably the Bucks, as they have some good front court talent that will likely be pushed to the bench.
Timing was off on a harder pursuit of Lowry; but the asset reassignment would have been better than (a) what would go in any deal for GD and (b) would have come already contracted for the next four years.
We simply don't have enough to get a Dragic or Rondo. It would start with TJones, which just creates another (bigger)hole. I really don't want to trade TJones anyway, dude has an 80-85 potential rating. Harden and Dwight suck so bad in 2k..i always wreck with my boy Tjones though.
BimaThug mentioned that one thing about signing Kostas Papanikoloau is that because he is a draft pick and not a free agent, he can be traded 30 days after he signs his contract as opposed to after December 15th. If so, then around mid-September, two things happen: 1. Kostas Papanikoloau's $4.8M contract can be traded. 2. The non-guaranteed contracts acquired in the Omer Asik trade (which officially happened around July 13th)-- Scotty Hopson ($1.4M nongaranteed) and Alonzo Gee ($3M nonguaranteed) can be combined with other contracts in a trade to take in a bigger $ contract. These 3 guys gives the Rockets roughly $9.2M in non-guaranteed or expiring contracts, which allows them to take back $13.9M salary in a trade-- and even more if you combine them with another salary (Capela, DMo, Jones, Covington, Johnson, Canaan, etc.) Trevor Ariza was also acquired in the Asik deal technically so his $8.6M salary, too, can be combined in a trade from mid-September on. But it probably doesn't make a huge amount of sense to trade him unless there is a trade partner who really LOVES Ariza or if there is a trade target that makes an absolutely huge amount of money (like $20M+) that makes the inclusion of Ariza's $8.6M needed or at least useful. Anyhow, the point I'm trying to make is that salary matching for even a very large contract-- like max money for Eric Bledsoe or Greg Monroe under the rules-- won't be an issue for the Rockets in a trade after mid-September. So, I wonder if mid-September = "Soon."
Has the Lowry ship sailed? Who was Denver's GM when the Nuggest signed Nene to a 5 year contract and traded him for JaVale McGee within 3 months?
The Rockets also have the non-guaranteed contract of Josh Powell ($1.31 million), and Robert Covington's $816k deal is partially guaranteed for only $150k. Also, FWIW, Ariza was SIGNED-and-traded, so he cannot be traded until December 15, just like any other free agent. But I doubt the Rockets have much interest in trading him.
Pretty sure Ariza can't be traded until Dec. 15th (free agent sign-and-trade). But the other salaries: KPap $4.8 million Gee $4 million Hopson $1.45 million Powell $1.36 million Covington $0.816 million Terrence $1.6 million Canaan $0.816 million Nick J $0.5 million Garcia?? $??????? Hamilton $2.1 million DMO $1.484 million That's enough salary to take in $30 million in salaries. And that doesn't even include the $8.374 TPE. We won't do all that. And we are hard-capped at $81 million. But we do have great trade flexibility to take on salary. And we'll probably make some sort of deal.
He might have been. That guy is ruthless. I would not put it pass him if Toronto starts to go south by December.
and if you're going to look at trades where we send out non-guaranteeds for salary...best to start at the top of the highest salaried teams....Brooklyn and NY. They're the 2 teams that have the most to gain by dropping salary. KG is sitting there. $12 million expiring deal. Terrence plus some of those non-guaranteeds would be tempting. We could save Brooklyn upwards of $30 million in a KG trade. Knicks have Bargnani ...... and Dec. 15th will have Jason Smith.... Just say'n. Don't forget these guys.
If the Rockets are indeed going for Dragic and miss out on him...I would not be surprised if we called up Minnesota... They will be rebuilding and don't need Kmart.... We can get him for the non-guarnteed contracts ...and hopefully we can snatch Alexey Shved(think he would be great in a rockets uniform) and JJ Barea... Beverly/JJ/Canaan(possibly have trade him)/Young Harden/Kmart/Shved Ariza/Kostas TJones/DMO/Capella Howard/Dorsey/Adrien This line has your stars, role players and a great bench.
