Yeah, I'm jelly. There's no way they can keep that team together for long too. Too much talent. They might lose Green, as he probably gets a near max offer from a desperate team.
Keepers Howard Harden Ariza D.Montiunas Capela Bring back if the price is right Terry Brewer Smith Beverly McDaniels Trade Bait Terrence Jones Papanikaolou Nick Johnson P.Prigioni Cuts Dorsey
with OKC and NOP in the fold next season, the odds of getting back to the WCF are more difficult next season IMO. we have too many holes to fill. PG is obviously area #1. need better 3pt shooters. need a backup center (hopefully capella can improve enough to fill this). need harden to develop a floater and his defense. need the coaching staff to improve both playcalling and this defensive switching crap off of picks. i'm not sure morey will be able to address everything adequately.
Some replacement to Parsons would be nice, not necessarily at the same position. Someone who can handle and pass, but who's also valuable off the ball, who can spot up, who can cut.
Because their players improved. Thompson became a better shooter and scorer. Curry was a better playmaker and defender. Green replaced Lee as the starter and was 2nd place in Defensive Player of the Year and a reliable 3-point shooter which spread out the offense. Barnes continued to improve. Iggy, Barbosa, Speights, Ezeli, and Livingston became a terrific bench unit. Bogut was healthy. Hell, their entire team was healthy all year long. And replacing Jackson with Kerr made a huge difference with that group, especially defensively. Not to say the Rockets didn't improve themselves. But the important thing is that they don't rest on their laurels. Clearly this team has deficiencies that must be addressed: 1) Point guard - Morey has neglected this position for 3 years and enough is enough. In 2012, we had Lowry AND Dragic on the roster. We traded the former away(which is fine since the pick from Toronto was part of the Harden deal) and allowed the latter to walk because of a contract dispute and replaced him with Jeremy Lin which seemed way more about marketing to China than putting a winning basketball team on the floor. Well no more kicking the can down the road. Get someone in here who can handle the ball, make wide open 3's, and force all of the great PG's in the West to actually work on defense when they face the Rockets. 2) Power forward - I like D-Mo's offensive game and if he can come back healthy this fall, he's automatically the starter alongside Dwight. But if there's one thing the Game 5 loss emphasized(aside from the need for a PG), it's that we're far too often a very poor rebounding team. And unfortunately D-Mo is horrible in that area, particularly for a 7-footer. This needs to be addressed as well. We need frontcourt players who can gobble up those defensive boards so great offensive teams like Golden State aren't given endless opportunities to score. Which means T-Jones is likely done as a Rocket. 3) 3-point shooting - The Rockets need one and possibly two reliable 3-point threats added to the roster. You look at teams like the Spurs and they have a ton of guys who can nail the outside shot(Marco, Green, Mills, Diaw, Bonner). Anyone not named Bogut can make a 3-pointer for the Warriors. The Rockets must address this issue. If we're gonna have an offensive system built around the 3-point line, we need guys who can hit close to 40% and especially make wide open shots. Ariza is streaky, but he's pretty good. You keep him. Harden obviously has improved in that area. D-Mo was getting better as the season rolled along. But that's about it. I'll live with Smith's ups and downs, but we can't be held hostage by Bev's disappearing shot or rely on a 38 year-old veteran like Terry. Get a starting PG who can nail those open looks and bring in another sniper(Dunleavy is an intriguing possibility) who can come off the bench and provide instant offense from the perimeter. 4) Team defense - The Rockets did improve in this area early in the season, but they started to revert to their old bad habits as the year wore on. Certainly a part of that was due to all the injuries, particularly Dwight. But we need consistency at that end of the floor if we're to take that next step. The lousy defense in the playoffs through the first 9 games nearly did us in against the Clippers. I mean, it was almost historically bad the way the Rockets were giving up points. Whether it's an upgrade in personnel or a change in defensive philosophy(like no more switching Dwight onto a PG out on the 3-point line!), this area must continue to get better. 5) Fundamentals - Free throw shooting. Turnovers. Maintaining their intensity for 48 minutes. Adjustments by the coaching staff within games. All of these must improve. The Rockets had one of the worst point differentials in the NBA for a playoff team that finished 56-26. The reason is because of all of the aforementioned issues. Some will be tough to address. Dwight and Josh are just lousy foul shooters. D-Mo and Capela ain't much better. But careless turnovers, lazy defense, and a habit of coughing up big leads can and must be dealt with. One of the reasons guys like Harden and Ariza had to log so many minutes all season is because they had so few blowout wins. The good news is most of these areas can be improved upon this summer. Any run at a big name free agent will likely have to be put on hold til 2016 when the cap goes up. But the Rockets don't need another superstar to take that next step and advance to the Finals(that sort of addition could make them a potential dynasty though). Just address these needs and a year from now we'll be the ones hoisting that Conference(and eventually Larry O'Brien) trophy.
I agree with keepers. Brewer had player option, but dropped it just to help Rockets maintain flexibility. I mean, he's a good back-up piece and I hope we sign him for one year. Smith can sign for another year for vet minimum since Pistons pay him next two years, and if he wan't to be around Dwight and have a good chance to win championship I bet he will sign for next year. Beverley, I think we must sign him. I don't think offers would be huge, and he's one of the best defensive PG's in the league with a hearth of a champion. Terry and McDaniels should not be signed, I think we should steal CJ Watson for a back-up PG role. He would be much better than one year older Terry. McDaniels at half a million, I would consider, but I don't think he is in our long-term plans aniway. Spoiler [youtube]roIw_iVmi8s[/youtube] Papanikolaou, not sure what team thinks to do with him, we have team option and he might be signed via MLE for 4.6M next season. May be a good piece for sign&trade? Not sure. Nick Johnson should be a ceeper at this price I think, just under a million for each of next two years. You don't trade those guys because they don't have any value yet. Pablo may retire, we have him signed for the next year and I think we may keep him if we draft a point-guard, he would be a good mentor for young guards. So is Jason Terry, but only one will stay, or neither of them. TJones, never been a fan, if theres any chance we can deal him for any good - then we should (even if it will be two second round picks). Because he won't stay with us after his contract is over. Dorsey probably gone, thanks for the year Joey! I think we should draft Alexander Vezenkov after all with an early second round pick we have, then trade our 1st round pick for several 2nd rounders and maybe even some expiring veteran or whatever Morey would get. Draft Delon Wright and JP Tokoto with two second round picks if we get any (76ers may be interested in 18th for several 2nd rounders ). If we end up trading TJones for 2nd rounders I would say keep 1st rounder and draft solid power-forward. If I was GM I would've drafted Christian Wood or Bobby Portis (if by any chance he falls during draft day) tho. Patrick Beverley/CJ Watson/Delon Wright James Harden/JP Tokoto/Nick Johnson Trevor Ariza/Corey Brewer/Alexander Vezenkov(stash) Donatas Motiejunas/Josh Smith Dwight Howard/Clint Capela bolded play-off roster
Still Fire McHale Or perhaps be kind to him and give him a "promotion" and new title as "Head of Recruiting"
That ain't happening. The dude coached the team to the WCF and back from a 3-1 deficit. Not to mention a 56-26 record and the Southwest Division title despite a ton of injuries. Be honest. Is there any other coach out there would've accomplished more than that given the hand McHale was dealt? All that being said, there will be more pressure on him going forward. Now that the team has gotten to the WCF, first round flameouts will no longer be acceptable. If the Rockets don't at least get back to the WCF next season(barring catastrophic injuries), there will be a ton of heat on McHale as well as Morey.
I thought he should've been Top 3 personally. Kerr and Budweiser were definitely the Top 2. But McHale was right there with Kidd for the 3rd best coaching job this past season. I don't think people realize what a sh-tty hand he was dealt most of the year. Even coming into the season, look at what he'd lost over the summer and what he was initially given to work with(Papa, Canaan, Dorsey, Black). Yet the team still gets off to a 6-0 and 19-5 start despite losing Bev 2 games into the season and T-Jones 4 games in(and Dwight shortly thereafter).
I don;t know. Warriors are doing pretty damn good with it. Oh wait. They have legit three point shooters. Not streak shooters. hmm.
