How many players are currently on the roster? And who do you think gets cut?

I thought this was obvious... Gee, Hopson and Powell are just contracts to trade.

 

On what date will those contracts become guaranteed?

 

None have a guarantee date written into their contracts so January 7th when all contracts become guaranteed.

It won't come to that. All the roster spots have already been filled with guaranteed contracts. They'll be waived before opening night.

 

I think that's probably right, except, what happens to Covington? That's a good team, but not a contending team. There's a lot of upside on that roster, but it's too raw to translate into contention this year. I have to say that i don;t think i've ever been more disappointed in an offseason than i am in this one.

Can Morey look at Dwight with a straight face and tell him that's a contending team? Looks like we are playing for a 2nd round out.

 

Ok, thanks. Just wasn't sure if they would become guaranteed before then. Also, they can't be traded until a certain date (sometime in September I believe), correct? So there will be a pretty finite window for them to be used as part of a trade.

 

Pretty sad roster honestly. Hope Morey has a few trades lining up.

 

Covington showed the world in summer league that he is a AAA player.

 

With Gee being a terrible player and unguaranteed + Garcia saying he is coming back for one year, I'm sure it's going to look like this:

Beverley/Canaan/Johnson/Smith
Harden/Daniels/Garcia
Ariza/Papanikolaou
Jones/Motiejunas/Adrien
Howard/Dorsey/Capela

 

Morey is not done yet. Roster will be significantly different in September and Dwight does not appear to be panicking either. Patience is a virtue.

PG: ? / Beverley
SG: Harden / Daniels / Johnson
SF: Ariza / ? / Cisco
PF: Papanikolaou / Adrien / Capela
C: Howard / D-Mo / Dorsey

I can see acquisition of either Bledsoe or Dragic at PG or Billups backing up Bev.
Sessions is also still on the market. At SF I would rather have John Salmons backing up Ariza over Cisco but it appears that Pelies will sign Salmons after waiving Casspi.

 

Most seem to have Cisco on the roster. I don't see where he exercised his player option yet, maybe I missed it.

 

He already opted out and he said he's going to re-sign and Jonathan Feigen hinted at it as well.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>That's their plan and his, but no agreement on deal yet RT <a href="https://twitter.com/rjanssen37">@rjanssen37</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen">@Jonathan_Feigen</a> is it true that the rockets re-signed Fransico Garcia</p>&mdash; Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/statuses/499915153144827904">August 14, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

That's what people said about this roster.
Smith/Cassell/Brooks
Maxwell/Elie
Horry/Elie
Thorpe/Herrera/Bullard
Olajuwon/Cureton

Its called living in Houston with the most negative fans on the planet. As a matter of fact, when the season was still ongoing they called that team Choke City. It is very hard to win a championship. It sometimes requires a bit of luck, a lot of skill, a lot of chemistry, and another bit of luck. What I do know, is that the current Rockets team is a fun team to watch and they can contend. That is all I can ask for.


For 6 years (2008-2013) the big three of the Spurs did nothing until Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green showed up. Patience young grasshoppers, patience. Ugly players and ugly teams win championships. The Rockets current roster is ugly as hell so they have a chance.

 

I am surprised that nobody is anticipating a preseason (pre-roster deadline) Donatas Motiejunas trade. Motiejunas has been a pretty lousy player yet presumably still has perceived "upside," which means that somebody out there will trade a second round pick for the guy, which is more than he is really worth. Plus, advanced stats LOVE Jeff Adrien, and the team invested a lot of money in Kostas Papanikolaou. And Robert Covington played extremely well last year, he is not getting cut.

I do not anticipate a big quantity-for-quality trade happening before the season starts, although obviously Daryl Morey would love for this to happen. If no such trade happens, then I expect Motiejunas to be traded to a bad team (Philly?) for what will hopefully be a high 2015 second round pick, which means this is your roster on opening night:

Starting lineup

PG Patrick Beverley (32 minutes/game)
SG James Harden (36 min/g)
SF Trevor Ariza (32 min/g)
PF Terrence Jones (32 min/g)
C Dwight Howard (36 min/g)

Key reserves

Kostas Papanikolaou (28 min/g)
Isaiah Canaan (16 min/g)
Jeff Adrien (16 min/g)
Troy Daniels (12 min/g)

End of the bench

Robert Covington
Joey Dorsey
Francisco Garcia
Ishmael Smith

Stashed in the developmental league

Clint Capela
Nick Johnson

Cut (barring a big quantity-for-quality trade)

Alonzo Gee
Scotty Hopson
Josh Powell

 

Yes. We lost a bunch of offense in the offseason, but we got back a solid defense in exchange. Defense wins championships.

Also, Lin had 9.3 FG attempts per game, Parsons has 13.3 and Ariza has 11.1. The math shows me 11.5 extra attempts get spread amongst two players that are far better players (Dwight/Harden).

Regarding the above, yes I realize it doesn't work out exactly like this, but fact is, there are more shots available for two players with more refined games. Lin, bottom line, was a chucker and Parsons was forcing up shots trying to get the value of a contract to his standard. Selfish play like that doesn't make you better, so, yes Aruba, Morey can look Dwight in the face and say, "we're better now because you're getting the damn ball in the post.... almost every possession."

 

I also think the 2014-15 Rockets will be better than the 2013-14 Rockets, and so does Daryl Morey. From an advanced stats standpoint, Trevor Ariza > Chandler Parsons, and Jeremy Lin = grossly overpaid ($14.9 mil in 2014-15!) backup. And, in terms of trade value: unprotected New Orleans first round pick > one year's worth of Omer Asik at the whopping price of $14.9 mil.

And please keep in mind that the ultimate goal here is to package the New Orleans first round pick with non-essential pieces (e.g., Capela, Johnson, Canaan, the pick obtained in the inevitable Motiejunas trade) for a very good veteran player (e.g., Rajon Rondo, Paul Millsap). The Rockets will quickly turn into a legit championship contender if/when this happens.

Oh, and a bench of Papanikolaou, Canaan, Adrien (or Covington), and Daniels = MUCH better than many of you guys think. I guarantee you that Morey is very excited about how good these guys should be.

 

JLin was terrible against playoff type teams. He always shrank. That's important to note if you are building a playoff team. And I agree with your bench analysis. We should think of the squad in terms of an 8 man rotation. You don't need 12 great guys when you only play 8 the times it matters.

 

This is the Key question. Gotta believe that Papanikolaou, Daniels are in no doubt. Then probably Cannaan.

 

Not to nit pick, but what is "a bunch of offense"?

Let's say Ariza is marginally worse than parsons was...

Let's say that Canaan is just half as good as Lin...well that right there isn't a lot of offense lost IMO.

That's not even taking into account jones possibly improving, Beverly improving, harden and Dwight being more comfortable together...

And then unknowns like trey Daniels, big papa, dmo getting some tick....

Yada, yada...

I guess maybe we have lost quite a bit offensively, but what will the net effect be?

 

Honestly I'd like to see a 9 or ten man rotation. Or atleast occasionally using that many.

I see other coaches sometimes dig into their bench depending on how guys are playing, game flow, match ups, ect...

You have different guys that have different strengths and weaknesses...I hope mchale becomes better with his lineup usage.