As I understand it, SA will have to gut their depth to pay LmA. A team with old players and no depth doesn't scare me. An 82 game schedule will break down that kind of team where they lose in the playoffs. (the Warriors adding Pierce is the opposite of that) I'd rather have the Rox competitive 12 deep than gut our depth. Smith and Brewer were the difference in a bunch of those playoff games.
Anywhere but the Spurs for me and go get a PG already. Sign Smith and hope both DMO and Jones can stay healthy for next season and let them all fight it out for minutes. The playoff roster guys actually came back from down 3-1 in a series and to me that's a special group and special chemistry. Familiarity is the new normal just look at the Spurs. A good PG will do wonders for the entire team and take a huge load off Harden.
Option 4: trade Dwight to a third team or S&T w Portland for LMA. 2 overpaid players and 3 stars with a **** supporting cast would be awful contract wise, team wise...where are the shots going to come from, who's going to sacrifice his game? Dwight is not going to settle for a third option, neither is LMA. The Spurs are perfect since he will be the guy, the rest is getting old and will retire.
Chemistry is something not to be underrated, but is something Morey often overlooks. LMA would be a great addition sure, but at what price? I'd much rather see this team, with a year of experience together, see what they can do with some minor upgrades.
A core of KL & LMA doesn't scare me. At all. Parker seems to be on the decline, they'd have to part with Diaw and one or both of their backup PGs, I think(?), and their backup big is no officially Baynes. Duncan & Manu are wild cards - you assume they'll drop off but every year they seem to compete at a high level, so you may have a 1-2 year window where you are the favorite, but that window will close fast. I'd prefer to keep our young core together and add a PG BUT if LMA wants to come here and you can do it without losing Ariza, you 100% have to do it. Harden/Ariza/LMA/Howard would dominate the league.
I prefer to keep as many as possible from last year's rotation intact. Chemistry-wise, one issue that would crop up if LMA comes to the Rockets is D-Mo likely losing his starting job. He worked awfully hard to get it and it would, no doubt, hurt to lose it. Of course if you trade D-Mo... I don't like that, for sure. D-Mo's skills make a strong case that it might be a wash to Trade D-Mo to accommodate LMA. Now if either would happily come off the bench, then...maybe. A tenuous maybe.
Trading LMA for D-Mo is a wash? Are you serious? I like D-Mo, he's great value and I think can be a starter on any team in this league (including a cpahpmion team) BUT... he is not an allstar (not yet at least). I can't imagine Dwight staying here after his contract ends unless he sucks it up and acknowledges he is not a max player anymore. This means we are in WIN NOW mode (even with Harden being this young). So in win now mode, you want a current allstar.. not a good young player who might develop into one. LMA is clearly a better fit than D-Mo (on court) for us. I love what D-Mo brings and appreciate his hard work to become a starter, but for the sake of our title aspirations, I would trade D-Mo in a heartbeat if it nets us LMA. Yes we're not sure about chemistry issues and I don't like how we keep changing our core... most contenders don't do this.. but LMA has never had off-court or locker room issues.
LMA is overrated. Shoots a ton (4th most in the league), and not at at a good clip. He's the Melo of PFs. His offensive game can look beautiful at times, but his D is not good. And, like all high volume shooters, streaks are inevitable. His D is not terrible, but I'll pass on an aging PF who isn't likely to be in the top 5 of his position in a year or two.
Fair enough position but I would counter with that Morey's biggest strength as a GM is finding undervalued parts.
i dont want him that bad but as long as h&h AND ariza stay im good witi it. i'd rather get a pg and good shooter or defender, whichever dekker is worse at. supposedly he's good at everything. i dont want him with the lakers or in the southwest division except us.
I'd give up kpap, jones, and Dmo to have LMA come play. Maybe ariza if we really had to but keep Dmo or jones then
While I do believe chemistry is important, it does not mean as much as talent. Winning games creates chemistry. I think we should add LM at all cost and build around him and Harden, giving Dwight the opt out of his contract if he wants or trade him while we go hard after KD. What if we told LMA we have the ups on bringing Durant here next year and he could only dream of a lineup of him KD and Harden and probably Dwight also knowing he won't be able to find better. I'm hanging on to the theory that he's visiting other teams for show and leverage to force Portland into a S&T to us. I'm sorry but we can find another glue guy like Ariza.
LMA is too good to pass up, give him whatever you can. If you get him, he's immediately the best post offense on the team, he'll open up shooters even more than before, he takes pressure off of Harden in a very big way and you'll still be able to sign some grinders to contracts. It would suck to pull the trigger because you'd be giving up DMo, Ariza and Bev most likely, but I'd do it if I were the Rockets brass.
Im hoping he lands in Pheonix than anything else. Think this is best case scenario for us ONLY because i think they could clear some cap by somehow trading us Bledsoe
I'm good with DMo/JSmith holding down the forward slot - at what? a third or 4th of LMA's paycheck? Put that money into a pg! Let's not get all this star power and have a repeat of Matt Maloney....
CURRENT TIME: 818 PM 7/TWO/201SIX DALLAS TX USA 75201 TRANSMISSION MESSAGE: WOULD ENJOY SEEING BOB SURA ON THIS TEAM. LITERSHIP AT THE POINT GAURD (1) POSITION A KEY FOR SUCCESS IN LOADED WESTERN OF MISSISSIPPI CONFERENCE NBA. THINKING BEVERLY TO KNICKS ON SIGN AND TRADE. TRUST MOREY TO DELIVER 2016
Oh, yes, very serious. The chemistry issue mentioned is certainly not the only one. Look at the moves that will have to be made to fit Aldridge in. Chemistry is that intangible that develops between players playing together for a while. Scrap that and mostly start over if Aldridge comes in. The bench that surfaced last year will be gone and back to square 1 again. Not that it can't happen again, but as constructed, the Rockets contended for the WC championship. (And that, without D-MO or Beverly.) A tweak that doesn't disrupt the rotation from last year is a better way to go than a major change that, while good on paper, will have to become reality over the course of a season. It is true that changes were at hand anyhow, but probably not as significant as those that will happen if Aldridge signs here. We're both making reasoned guesses and I may be wrong. It just seems more uphill making the changes necessary for Aldridge. What I was saying about it being a wash is, just on a points basis, especially with Harden and Howard needing touches I don't know that, on average, Aldridge creates enough of a point differential beyond what D-Mo can bring to warrant the major changes. The Rockets may have already created a problem bringing back their rotation by going after Aldridge in the first place. It sends a message to your FA's that they are expendable if Aldridge says "Yes," because everyone is now aware of the contracts/players that would have to be moved/not resigned. We'll just have to see how it plays out at this point. But there is a real possibility that he goes to SA AND the Rockets lose some of their rotation because of that message. It already seems as if Brewer is less inclined to resign. Again, we'll just have to see. I'd still rather keep a known, in this case (WC finals appearance) and tweak, rather than swing for the fences and miss. The Rockets main weakness is in the guard area. D-Mo and Beverly both missed the playoffs, so we don't know what might have happened. Maybe they don't reach the WC finals. I don't know. But after the clock ran out, Harden didn't tweet "Get me help at the PF position," he said "help at guard."
