If this is the case then he just wanted to go to LA. He wanted the MLE from us but was willing to go to LA for a vet minimum? I'm not upset about that. Morey overpaying him would be a bigger tragedy.
And now all three guys will be getting passes from Chris Paul LOL. :grin: Any objective fan will agree that the Clippers got much better.
You know he could have been though. When Harden put his heart and soul into those first two GSW games...if Harden got ANYTHING out of the likes from Smith we could have won, both of those games. That's the thing though. Smith during those games was lazing around. Some times he wasn't even attempting to go for rebounds. Personally, what does Smith give us? Consistently. Rebounds, Blocked shots, Vertical play. That's what he does best consistently. People talk about him being a playmaker but that is not consistent. It's not like you WANT to rely on that, you just take it as a bonus...but often times it resulted in bad play and ugly jacked up shots. He's no Lamar Odom who was a consistent Playmaker at forward. We will still be a very vertical and athletic team trust me on that. Don't forget about Capela and if we do keep McDaniels trust me on this, he's a very very vertical player that can block shots and play some defense. We should not have to rely on our PF to make plays from the perimeter. It was unreliable. What we should have gotten from Smith can be replaced. In the end though I'd rather have the player that will be there 100% of the time so that when Harden/Dwight go all out like that those players can be relied on to be there and give that extra effort to win.
Guess Josh and Dwight weren't that close after all? How do you leave your best friend and a team that made it to the finals? Can the trade deadline get here already? I want our playmaking PG.
It's no death sentence, obviously, but to take a step back after a WCF appearanCE is utterly disappointing.
I'm well aware of McDaniels - I actually tuned into Sixers games just to watch him and was schooling people on this board about him when we acquired him. I like KJ a lot - it's just that he isn't better than Ariza right now and this is a team built to win now. Smith at the PF is much more valuable to us than KJ at the 2/3 given Ariza and Harden will be playing so many minutes and Brewer gets most the leftover minutes. The only thing I can gather here is maybe Morey is intent on moving Ariza(presumably for a PG or PF) in which case, Harden + Dekker, Brewer, McDaniels is not that bad of an idea.
you don't know if that's true or not. David Aldridge ✔ @daldridgetnt Smith had bigger offers, but took 1yr vet minimum deal in LA.
i wonder what did rockets plan, apparently, josh helped us a lot in the playoffs, now i am not saying if tjones was healthy all season we would be better, but this doesn't make sense at all, why would Josh go to clippers while he has a perfect situation here, he wants freedom, is he gonna get it in LAC, why would he leave for less money, so many questions...
He must be upset with the organization. I see no other reason to take less money in a similar (or more likely reduced) role on a team with pretty much the same ceiling.
Hoping Lawson gets bought out...if we weren't willing to pay Josh the MLE for KJ FREAKIN MCDANIELS I'm gonna lose it
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Rockets offered Josh Smith the non-bird exception of roughly $2.5 million for the 2015-16 season.</p>— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/calvinwatkins/status/621797310243151872">July 16, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
That's somewhat illogical. Yes, he was the saving grace in Game 6 against the Clippers. How'd he do before that? I'll tell you. He was HORRIBLE the first 4 games of the series Horrible as in 9-34, 1-9 from three, 6-15 from the FT line, and getting abused by Blake. Props to him for stepping up and having an amazing quarter. And on top of it all, this was Smith's decision to not come. Offering him the full MLE would have been dumb. --- The issue here isn't the loss of Josh Smith. It's the overall state of the PF and PG positions on the team, which need serious improvement. Morey has to improve one of those spots meaningfully for the team to have a chance at taking that important next step.
If Dwight leaves because of Josh freaking Smith over us being able to give him the most money, tax free, unconditional love during his time here, a true MVP-caliber running mate and an ideal HC...
