[ESPN] Sources: Aldridge to start free agency with Lakers, Rockets

Why LaMarcus' son doesn't live with LaMarcus? Is LMA Dwight 2.0 when it comes to babies? We might have a shot then!

 

Ramona is that special breed of leach that ESPN likes, she is extremely LA biased and does not even try to be objective as her agenda is to push the Lakers narrative.

No worries, ESPN will eventually dump her as they have every other reporter that falls in that category.

 

When I saw Ramona on Grantland not long ago, I thought she was from Lakers TV or something, no way she works for ESPN. She's like Jonathan Feigen

 

The further this thing goes along, the more I think I want to keep Josh Smith. His chemistry with Howard in the playoff run was huge.

Yeah, he does some stupid things at times, but he'll also single-handedly win you some games, too. I think he may already be the perfect forward for us. Smith with Dmo off the bench would be killer. I'd love to see a second unit of Dmo and Capella. It's like mini Howard/Smith.

 

DMO was already starting over Smith and Jones this season, what makes you think Smith would move to starting lineup next year? Absolutely zero chances that happens. Because Smith demands the ball, just like Harden and deep in his heart Howard, it didn't work so Smith was sent back to bench after 2 or so games when he started.
In playoffs Smith started only because Jones crapped his pants again and DMO was unavailable.

 

Yeah ramona is very lakers biased and anti dwight. She does know some bball but shes a far cry from a neutral reliable source. People here like to comolain about stein well hes ten times more unbiased than her.

 

I think it could work. Just a hunch, to be honest.

I think if Smith could learn to quell his tendency to shoot first at times, it would work brilliantly. If he just focused on being a distributor, which is something he excels at, he would be perfect for us.

But then again, he hasn't been able to do that throughout his career, so I doubt he'd start now.

But I also feel that, as much as Smith wants the ball and to shoot, Aldridge will want it just as much.

 

One thing you need to factor in is that for SnT deals where the player is getting more than a 20% raise , the current CBA treats that player just as Base Year Compensation (BYC) players were treated under the old CBA. Basically, from the Rockets end Beverley would only count at 50% of his new salary for the purpose of salary matching.

Here's Larry Coon's explanation:

http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q89

So, you can definitely include Beverley to a 3rd team in a deal but in order to add $5M+ in salary, that team would have to be willing to pay him double that amount.

Now you certainly can also include Beverley and add in other players to make up the difference.

 

Is there any word on how our meeting with him went?

 

I too think that if we had both Smith and Dmo, that Dmo would start. But your statement that Dmo started over Jones is incorrect. Jones started to begin the season and then got injured. When Jones returned from injury, Dmo got injured.

 

I'm surprised Ramona is on ESPN despite how over weight and unattractive she is.

 

I will say this again, yes Josh takes bad shots and makes bad turnovers. However, if he hit 65% of his free throws along with his boy, we would be unstoppable with our current team.

 

Wow, that is deep ... very deep, dude.

 

Also Bath few mention Smith hitting 38% of his 3s in the playoffs while taking over 4 attempts per game. And some of those 3s he hit were huge. Agree 100% on his free throw shooting.

 

Except that neither cat is remotely close to those percentages. Josh got close to 65% 4 years ago, but has been horrible since. The worst stat? His FT% the last two times he was in the playoffs. All of 43% in the playoffs this past season. That just killed us, combined with his good friend's numbers at the charity stripe. The weird thing about Josh is that he wasn't always awful shooting free throws. Mediocre, to be sure, but I would take mediocre any day over 43%. Still, he helped us win games several times. Don't mind having him back at all, but off the bench, please.

 

Noone in their right mind would ever pay bev 10 per. Not ny not sac not anyone.

 

She has a face that's made for radio

 

Spurs may get LMA and we would be retaining Smith? That would be a joke and the Spurs would easily be the favorite to win the SW.

 

Wow man. I'm not sure why you are so upset?

Another poster said that he thought we had a really good chance to get LMA. I said I disagreed and I wasn't sure how someone could think that. What indication has there been that he is interested in playing for Houston? Has there been anything? He said that he is interested in winning and then we as (probably biased) Rockets fans assume that Houston is the best place to win. And it probably is, much better than LAL or NYK. But you can't discount the Spurs track record for getting players and building a team. LMA and Leonard would already form a great foundation for them to build on for the next 4-5 years. I'm not sayign that IMO I think SAS would be better, just saying that I could completely understand how someone could think that would be a better situation.

You blame me of being hyperbolic? Someone said they thought we had a high chance of getting him. I said I didn't think we did and didn't know how he could think that- Houston would have to move so many parts to make it work and I haven't yet seen a single report of him being linked to Houston at all. I didn't say that I thought there was absolutely no chance, I just said that I thought it was slim and I wasn't sure how someone could be so confident or say there is a really high chance of him coming here. You said that I thought that "nobody in their right mind would even consider the possibility of him landing here". That is not at all what I said. Who's being hyperbolic again?

But I will definitely agree- Morey, and Rosas, and McHale and the Rockets FO are way smarter than me. One of the things that I love about them is that they are constantly pursuing different angles and possibilities. Almost any time there is a major free agent available, the Rockets are one of the teams that are listed as being interested. Even if it does seem like a long shot. Even if it does seem unlikely. Morey still seems to pursue those chances because you never know when it might work out.

 

The Knicks may. Ha ha