Love dmo but I would prefer josh smith for multiple reasons. 1. Better all around player who can switch positions 2. Nasty chemistry with dwight Howard in Dallas 3. Proved he can be clutch in the clippers series 4. Without Josh smith we would of never made it to the western conference finals
If LMA agrees to join the Rockets it will be real quiet because everyone involved knows that whoever we trade Ariza to shouldn't have the leverage of knowing the Rockets are semi-desperate.
Atlanta wants to sign millsap. Cleveland is a nono. You dont help other contenders. New york possibly but they are exploring free agency and that can take them out of their targets. Plus have marginal assets to give back. Lakers no. Indy has 11 mil capspace and they need a pg. Unless they find a taker for hibbert which is very doubtful. Phoenix is about to max knight. Will they have capspace after that? Now toronto ...that can work. They could send back ross.
How likely is it that sources other than the Rockets FO (for example Mavs brass) are feeding Stein BS overstating how aggressively Morey is pursuing LMA and Love? A competitor like Cuban would have no second thoughts about fanning the flames of the "Morey ruthlessly pursues all the hot FAs regardless of how it affects team chemistry" narrative. At the minimum doing so makes us look bad and affects our perception if we don't land anyone (like it did last year). Stein's tweets contradict what Morey has been saying in press (thus the information that Morey wants out there) which is "we're working on signing our FAs, big move is unlikely."
I feel like LMA is a no go, I'd take him for sure but it puts our roster and depth in a bind and we still won't have strong ball handlers.
He could be a ball handler. We could just give him the ball down low and let him go to work. When it is crunch time than we can give it Harden.
I hate the thought of losing Ariza. He was a major key to our success last season, obviously, and while a lot of folks around here think that, "Morey can replace Trevor in his sleep!" (to paraphrase), I don't think it would be that easy. And his contract! Yet another example of the brilliance of Mr. Morey. The irony, for me, is that I practically did cartwheels when he went elsewhere years ago, happy that he would be anywhere except Houston. Yet here I am, hoping the guy is holding down the 3 spot next season. Despite saying that, if moving Ariza improves our chances to contend (although it's hard for me to absorb that losing him could be a plus), I would be for it. Life is strange, to put it mildly.
Morey plans ahead very well....i trust, that if getting LMA cuts into our depth, he's going to have replacements in mind that should be good enough. People get caught up in depth because it's helped us so much, but we have more depth than most. Losing some, isn't that big of a deal. Someone like LMA would be playing 35-37 mins, anyway. That's the reward, in acquiring the big names...you no longer have to look for the hot hand every night because they'll usually play well from night to night.
Yeah, I agree... Ariza did so damn much for us last year. I really hate the idea of losing him. Perhaps if we shore up our overall defense (especially at the point) we need less from him, but he brought so much last year.
not sure i'd want ross, although he is expiring. but if we did take on his $3.5M, then we'd also have to find takers for dorsey/nick?
Ok. The more i look at it the more i see toronto as being the best option. They should give ross the lac 1st and two seconds back at least. Ariza kpap jones and dorsey fills almost all their needs. Now lets hope that harris doesnt really consider them
I believe you. But I can't do the math. If the Rockets dumped everyone except Harden, Howard and Ariza they would not have enough cap space to offer LMA the Max. To sign LMA straight out they would also have to trade Ariza and then they could keep DMO. That's a Roster of Harden, Howard, LMA, DMo, Dekker, Wood, Harrell and a bunch unsigned free agents and minimum vets. This has to be a big time bluff or we have some other crazy idea of clearing cap space by trading Howard. Would anyone trade Howard to clear cap space to sign LMA. We would probably get some other young piece in place of Howard. Who wants Howard right now. Maybe Rubio in a 3-way deal. I know it's out there but the other scenarios are just as crazy.
You dumb dorsey to toronto. too bad they dont have a cheap back up pg to send back. This trade is wayyy too good for them. Ross is wasted talent.
Portland would gladly take Ariza in a sign and trade. They just made an opening at SF, trading away Batum.
