Actually it can hurt to try. The Rockets p-ssed away a golden opportunity to sign Kyle Lowry a couple years ago when they insisted on wining and dining Melo who everyone knew was never coming here(and wasn't even a good fit anyway). Imagine if that dude was on the team last year when we had to go up against Chris Paul and Steph Curry in the playoffs. Imagine having him on the roster this season.
That is an impressive market, but it's going to be as tough as ever with more teams having money. I see Morey going hard after these guys with max or near max dollars... Durant Horford Conley Then moving to these guys with relatively premium money but not max... Dwight H.Barnes R.Anderson Fournier Batum
We should not be going after so called superstars.... Bring in a coach with a system... Get the people that will fit with that coach's system... All players including superstars don't fit certain systems.. T_Man
So many teams are going to strike out of truly worthy max level players. Since we will be competing with 20 other teams, what is the allure that Houston can offer? 1) 2 max guys so tell Durant that he can pick up whomever else he wants in addition to Harden already there; this is the three superstar model. How many other teams with two max salary cap space has an established star like Harden? I am asking cuz really curious and too lazy to do the homework. 2) Rockets culture/management? I am not sure what reputation the Rox have 3) great coach: i feel like we really need to have a brilliant coach that players want to play for. I dont think that is Blatt or Thibs. 4) build a roster or great complementary pieces that is already set in place so the players coming in are ready to win now. If you look at all the things mentioned above, it is basically the strategy that Miami had... 2 max to put together three friends. Great culture. A destination city. Riley. The fill the roster with aging vets. The only problem they had was they gave up all their picks to clear space. We have the advantage in that the cap increase negates that need. This allows for the team to acquire young talent for cheap, which was essentially why James left Miami because there were no upcoming youth. Basically I am saying that we need to learn from Miami and use that as part of the recruiting strategy.
i see morey wasting time on KD or horford while attainable players like conley, barnes slip away, leaving us to resign dwight and TJ... hopefully he learned from getting left at the altar by bosh and rejected by melo while lowry slipped back to toronto. we could've had lowry if we made him a priority. we don't need 3 stars. we don't even need a second star. we need 3-4 borderline stars around an MVP candidate, health, chemistry, and a coach with a system and management skills. first: i would let dwight walk. capela isn't too far behind and is only 1/10th of the cost of retaining dwight. not to mention there are plenty of decent centers on the market to backup capela, or challenge him for the starting spot. second: let all of our free agents and NG contracts walk. clear as much cap as possible to reload. third: target borderline star free agents while the rest of the league waits for horford and durant. give extra preference (and extra money) to players from teams ahead of us in the standings. stealing those players will improve us while weakening them. this helps us rise in the standings exponentially. fourth: avoid the traps. gasol is too old. batum, jefferson, and noah are always injured. whiteside will cause more harm that good, just ask miami. same for rondo. primary targets: conley barnes ezeli parsons clarkson
Awesomeness. Repped. I don't see a true power forward in your list of primary targets, and that's where we've sucked. Cyberx mentioned Barnes as a primary target, and he can fill that spot sometimes. That Detroit pick could become interesting in helping us sign a restricted free agent. Unless a player Morey loves falls to the spot.
I agree that Morey will go after Durant and Horford. Maybe Conley, but Im not sure. The rest.....probably not. All of those guys are going to get big $$$...that's not Morey's MO. He will wait for other teams to overpay and then sign an undervalued role player. My guess is Noah, Afflalo, Marvin Williams.....guys like that. Mozgov is going to get paid because Cavs have his bird rights, but a healthy Noah is just as good. Teams are going to lineup to pay Anderson, but Marvin Williams is a far better defender and a decent shooter.
Yes, and Lowry apparently wanted to join. But Morey told him to wait and Lowry decided to join Toronto. That's my biggest issue with Morey, you don't need to aim for option 1a every summer, a team with Lowry+Harden+Dwight is a great core to build around, so don't dream about something uncertain. It will probably happen again this summer, with Morey wasting time with guys that won't join, instead of signing players that are available and great fits.
Do people want a championship contender, or just a good but less frustrating team. That's the real question because Les and Morey want a contender, not an also ran. That means having enough firepower to have a real fighting chance against the likes of GSW, SAS and even Cleveland. Option being kicked around here: Harden + good coach/system + 2 good but not great players = A good, but less frustrating team, that is an also ran. les/Morey philosophy: harden + star + really good player (hopefully + Good coach) = maybe have a shot at GSW Etc. Reasonable minds can disagree as to whether Harrison Barnes has the potential to make the leap to a top three cog on a contender, or if Horford can be that guy. But let's be clear - the two options above are mutually exclusive. If you pick the first, I understand why. But NBA history tells us that you are doomed to mediocrity. The current spurs are an anomaly with a HOF coach, culture and system, aged but former greats, surrounded by two very good players and role players. The Warriors have the (swallow) best player in the league, two additional top players in Thompson and Green, plus a system and team buy in that makes them historically good. But they fit NBA History. If you don't think they are anchored by three outstanding players, I can't help you. Ask what Cleveland is doing. Where is there system? It's not a system, it's amassing enough health and talent and defensive effort to challenge for the ring. I'm pissed off like everyone, and this is the least enjoyable season in decades. The approach has not succeed in delivering a ring, but 100 out of 100 times, I do the Harden deal and sign Howard. We got a WCF appearance. We needed to take the next step, but fell on our faces for a litany of reasons, starting with H and H. I had hoped we would find out if DMO could be that third guy. But I'd do that again every time. Management wants a reboot. My bet is that we bring back Howard, try to add Barnes as the third piece, another small ball option. I'm with the plan, and we need to execute. Building a decent, fun team is the easy way out and the road to nowhere. The step from good to great is always the hardest. I don't want to settle for good.
I agree! We are always left with the clearance rack of FA! I think the issue is that Morey doesn't know how to build a team. That's why he's looking for a 3rd star so that they can manage with almost whatever they have around the 3 main guys. Finding the right combination of guys can produce plenty of wins without needing that 3rd star per se
Harden will know where KD is leaning, so I doubt Morey wastes too much time on him unless he truly is attainable. Dwight's going to test the market so you have time to meet with other FAs - tell him to figure out his market value, come back and we'll see if it's where we value you. I expect we'll go hard after Horford. He would fit perfectly next to Dwight AND he would be a great contingency plan in the event Howard leaves. You'd be left with Bev/Harden/Ariza/?/Horford and can fill in accordingly.
Agree with this. Harden should know pretty quickly about Durant and Howard is going to be sitting on the sidelines waiting for the Durant/Conley/Horford dominos to fall. Some idiot team out there with money to blow like Charlotte is going to offer him max dollars when they can't lure anyone else. They will probably swear that the offense will be 100% revolved around him too. So then Howard will choose money and mediocrity like Melo in NY or less money and a competitive team. Ultimately I think we end up with Barnes and Howard.
We have a chance to sign Barnes ONLY if the Warriors sign Durant, otherwise they'll match everything to keep Barnes. So yeah, i hope we'll not sign Barnes :grin:
Thanks! the reason i dont have a true PF on the list is only because there is no true PF that's worth being a primary target. there are decent stretch 4s in free agency this summer: ryno marvin williams teletovic sullinger but i'd rather go for those listed as primary targets first. we'd be lucky to land one of our primary targets for about $20M. the other $20M can be split on 2-3 secondary targets such as those PF listed above, and other secondary targets below: zaza jennings turner jeff green mozgov mahinmi boban
