[ClutchFans] Podcast - The Dwight Howard Trade Aftermath

Nice job on the podcast, ClutchFans steppin' your game up!

I'm happy the Dwightmare is over and glad we're blowing it up this season. Time to give these young guys a chance to develop.

I am excited, it should be a fun season to watch.:grin:

 

I see that some can see into the future.

 

Nah. If we were paying him to be a cash cow he would have earned a lot more than 25 million. 25 million for the face of the franchise is good and his contract is fair value. Rockets needed a pg and he is young, can play and fits into the rebuilding theme of the franchise. All that off court stuff is icing on the cake.

 

You left out the crazy factor.

 

Thanks guys. Liked the podcast a lot. I don't see us finishing 13th in the league though. We are too talented for that.

 

Glad people liked the podcast (whether they agreed with either/both of us or not). It's a pleasure to do, and I'm just glad that Clutch lets me do them with him.

Clutch, FYI, Harrington's contract is only 50% guaranteed in 2013-14 and 2014-15. If they waive Harrington after next season, Orlando can save $2-3 million per year for a couple of seasons (as measured against Richardson's contract).

That said, the Magic would have about $3-4 million in "dead money" on their cap in those years, and I'd personally rather have Jason Richardson for the incremental difference than to have that marginal increase in cap room.

 

I am not disappointed we did not get Howard. While it would have had some short term excitement, I don't think it would have led to the kind of success we were hoping for beyond a first round exit and heart break later.

I am glad Morey didn't go too desperately for Howard and has set us up well to rebuild. Now...if only we can move Kmart than we'll be well on our way.

 

They likely just wished to accommodate Dwight's wishes.

 

The only logical explanation anyone can come up with regarding Orlando trading Dwight to the Lakers is Dwight and Fegan had Martens over a barrel. I am convinced this will come out in the days,weeks, months to come. Because even if we did just offer to take back JRich and send back the Toronto lottery pick and Lamb or Motie, our offer blows what Orlando got out of the water, not even close.

And the bottom line is, we all know there is no way that Morey was OVERBID for Dwight Howard. No way. Remember, he didn't start taking stupid pills last week. In hindsight, because it came down to Fegan/Dwight manipulating Martens, it wouldn't matter if we offered all 4 rookies, the two draft picks, Parsons and Patterson along with Martin and took back all 3 of Big Baby, JRich, and Duhon. Martens would have still overrode that and sent Dwight to LA. Hennigan didn't do this. Martens did. Why? Because Fegan and DH had him over a barrel.

Morey had the best deal on the table. He had the best deal at the trade deadline last season. He had the best deal on the table all through the Nets trade negotiations. He had the best deal on draft night. He had the best deal on the table after the draft. He had the best deal on the table last Sunday night and last Monday morning. There's no way he was outbid. No way.

 

8/yr is the average starting pg price. IMO Lin is not overpaid for what he's gonna do here in the Rockets. However, Lin's presence also brings cash. I am sure that contract was to make sure that Lin gets here like the podcast mentioned. You have to overpay for restricted free agents.

Now, whether he becomes a star is still debatable. Lin's splits stats look quite good compare to the other 29 starting pgs. (Please refer to 82games.com for some in-depth statstics) Some of the important stats are PER, Hands, Team. It means nothing if you look at Lin's stats by themselves. If you actually compare them to the rest of the league, his stats do stand out above average. PER/Hands are both higher than Dragic and Lowry. Even though it is a relatively smaller sample size.

Statistically, I think Morey has been pretty consistent. I remember when Lowry was traded here, nobody knew about him until he was given that ability to show what he could do. Morey knows statistics. I am sure can provide enough to fill gap from Dragic/Lowry's departure.

I believe Clutch and Bima were right about Lin's media publicity. After all, Lin's still got enough LoF/LoH to give Rockets a relevance to talk about in ESPN or other media. Rockets will have some media coverage if Lin plays semi-decent.

2 cents.

 

Great job on the podcast. All great points and I agree with most of what you guys said

 

Lin is not getting paid like a superstar. Why would anyone expect otherwise?

 

For what it's worth, here's what Jonathan Feigen said the Rockets offer was:

http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2012/08/lakers-acquire-howard-what-next-for-rockets/


Seems that the Rockets was only going to offer 2 young players (and, as Clutch said, probably one between Patterson and Morris and one among the 4 rookies) but would take back 2 bad contracts "bad contracts."

 

I think you are overestimating the power of agents. Teams may blacklist certain agents, but not vise versa. I think Morey offered good assets, but never offered to take back any bad contracts, with the exception of maybe Duhon (given he would only cost $1 million next year). I think he wanted to retain salary cap flexibility for next summer to sign a young max player such as Harden to help convince Dwight to stay.

 

Would be interested to know what you mean by "had him over a barrel."

I understand that superstars have their pull in the NBA, but at the end of the day I just dont see what kind of info they had on Martans that forced him to play ball. I find this facinating if true.

 

I'm not buying it. Morey probably just fed that b.s. to puppet Feigen, no way he offered to take back Turk, or that offer would have been accepted immediately.

 

Enjoyed the podcast. Thanks to Clutch and BimaThug.

Agreed with Bima that we'll be in the middle of the pack of the non-playoff teams in the West. The West is deep. I don't think we'll make the playoffs, but think that we'll end up better than a few Western conference teams.

Not sure if I agreed with the assessment of the Jeremy Lin signing, but I think regardless many fans will be cheering for him. I believe Lin is good for the NBA and will be good for the Rockets. It'll be one of many interesting stories to follow next season.

I think people underestimated the sway that Dwight had in the outcome of the trade. GMs need to work with the agents of elite clients all the time, and sending Dwight to a destination he didn't want would have amounted to burning a lot of bridges. Even if we had the better deal, I'm not sure it would have mattered in the end.