What is the thinking behind the Rockets trading Canaan and 2nd round pick for McDaniels? I don't think that the team gave up a lot of value, but it did give up SOME value. I just can't figure out what the Rockets thought they gained given KJ's expiring contract situation. Did they project that KJ would likely help this year so even if he leaves in the summer it would be worth it? It would look quite unlikely that he'd help right away given the vet guys in front of him on the depth chart. Also, it would seem that the team might be better off looking at a non-rookie and not pay for "upside" if what they want is immediate help for te rest of the year. Do they think that KJ can be re-signed? Given his contract, the Rockets either need to convince him to take less than about $1.1M (non-Bird exception) or use cap room or a larger exception on him. But it looks like that the team would have more urgent priorities than signing KJ-- Llull for one, and also pursuing bigger name FAs (possibly via and and trade) and veteran FAs who can help more immediately. There are also other current rotation guys that the team might need more than the minimum to re-sign (Josh Smith, unless he takes a pay cut, which is possible).
Got me. I think he could actually help us defensively on some of the big quick guards. Can't figure it out at all. Just an asset that gives us more flexibility.? But to do what? In a package to move up in the draft? Just a guy to sign and trade for someone this summer?
I too am a bit baffled by it. That could be true, but both of those guys are very important to our team so I have a hard time seeing us trading Ariza and/or not retaining Brewer. This is one of those cases where I just have to trust Morey sees further down the road than I do, because I can't make much sense of it.
Literal payback for the "Be Well" trade that helped free up cap room for the Dwight signing? Just thinking out loud...
Morey has a habit of pulling crap like this. Trade for the sake of a trade. Traded AB away for Jordan Hamilton last yr.
he is a great kid that showed potential while in philly. Hou trying to lower his value by not showcasing him so that his ask is not high from other teams. You know we do have that dilemma of how the salary will be used next year. Smith/Brewer/Mcdaniel will consume the remaining money. Or if morey decides to ship ariza away he would also come in handy.
Maybe we get value in a sign-and-trade? I was baffled at the time of the trade. I don't see us having much of a shot at resigning KJ with our financial situation. Wouldn't it be funny if Philly gave KJ a big offer sheet? We would feel so screwed by them.
Hindsight is 20/20. If we knew that Bev was going to get injured, then sure it would have been nice to still have Canaan. But we didn't. We can sit here on an internet forum and say all day long how we thought Canaan should have had more playing time, but McHale wasn't going to play him. He would have been stuck behind Beverley, Terry and even Prigioni at that point. So we sent him and a 2nd round pick (not very much, but a little bit) for McDaniels. I am assuming that we knew that McDaniels wasn't going to get very much playing time this year either. But I think it is pretty easy to assume that McDaniels' ceiling is higher than Canaan's was. At the beginning of the season, McDaniels was clearly considered the steal of last year's draft. Sure, he may walk during this year's free agency. But I think that was a risk worth taking for McDaniels' potential, especially when you remember how little we gave up for him.
It is the second round pick that I was disappointed we gave up. Future picks are always valuable. Getting rid of Canaan wasn't so bad since his contract was on the cap for awhile anyway.
Another baffling Morey move just to prove that he remains active in the trade window. KJ has done nothing but warm the bench. We had a more useful bench warmer in Canaan who also kept Dwight happy down low.
True, draft picks are always valuable. However, the chances of finding a steal in the second round is pretty low. Instead we gave up a draft pick to steal the player who was a steal in the second round last year.
Considering that Ariza was not having a great season at the time of the trade, and the fact that Morey admitted to have negotiated at the deadline for an important player.... One could think that Ariza was a piece required to get that player and that Morey was willing to trade him keeping Brewer (and then McDaniels). Just saying...
Canaan wasn't really gonna help us and Mchale would never play him in the playoffs, specially with the acquisition of Prigioni. I see this as an insurance trade, in case we end up trading either Ariza or Papanikolau or maybe not being able to resign Brewer if he gets some crazy offer.
