Good post. While it is true that we don't know what this team is going to look like we do know where we're going stylistically. The problem with Love right now is how does he fit and what kind of defense and defensive big do you have to play with him to be successful? In a small ball lineup offensively Love and the team are best served by playing him at the 5 as a pick-and-pop first option. But where does that leave you at the 4? You've now got to find a 4 that can shoot it too but also help your D with length and the ability to switch, cover multiply positions, while having the speed to get back inside and help Love defensively. That's a Herculean defensive assignment for a 4. Because Love is a small-ball 5. But not as good at it as Draymond is. And very much needing a Lebron/Bosh type player next to him to cover his defensive defencies. Those guys don't grow on trees. Not only that but Love is at his best when he is free to dive to the hoop and get the rebound/stick back on the offensive glass. So that means your 4 had better be a young stud with young, fast wheels holding up the body of a Lebron/Bosh if you expect to beat the Warriors. Where do you find that guy? What's his name? What number does he wear? And the Warriors are the team to beat. I would've thought that the Cavs would have figured out they needed to play Love at 5 and Lebron at 4 before game 1. But it took them until game 3 to put Lebron at the 4 and they still haven't figured out the Love/Lebron 5/4 combo yet. We have to build out a team around Harden that can beat the Warriors. If we aren't going to try to build a team to beat the Warriors then why not go to the lottery? And to beat the Warriors means we've got to be very careful how we build out. The parts have to provide an exponential return over the sum total of each part individually. This is why I keep saying we just can't add Durant and think problem solved. Won't work. Because Durant is another high turnover player just like James. So you're adding better shooting but another stout dose of turnovers to go with Durant's shooting. You add Love and you're adding another high usage player just like Harden who has the same problem Harden has defensively, finding a matchup they can handle. That means you'd better have three great defenders at the other spots to offset the double dose of crappy defense you're going to get with a Love/Harden duo. Gotta be careful how you build out and load up the cap.
Further thoughts on my question: For the Cavs, Dwight becomes an expiring contract to take Love off their books heading into 2017. Dwight is also an upgrade over Tristan Thompson, especially when motivated. And the Rockets could always throw in Montrezl Harrell as a sweetener. I'd then sign Mike Conley and call it a day: PG: Conley / Beverley SG: Harden / McDaniels SF: Ariza / Brewer / Dekker PF: Love / Beasley / 2nd round pick C: Capela / 2nd round pick (Zhou Qi?) Keep in mind that if you do not trade for Kevin Love, you're likely to pay what he makes right now for Ryan Anderson, who isn't nearly as good. I could see a 3 guard rotation with Conley / Harden / Beverley, and would like to see McDaniels / Brewer / Dekker fight it out of the backup swing man position. Maybe give Greg Oden a tryout?
Hold on to Dwight. Sign him to a 2 year with a player option so that he's a free agent with CP3 next summer. Rumor was if Clippers didn't get Doc, CP3 wanted to follow Dwight to Houston. Could have been leverage, but i believe they are good friends. What better place to do it than Houston? What better team for 2 of the most hated players to be on?
I know we don't have much to talk about now, but can't we stop Howard trade thing, he is not idiot, at least his agent is not:grin:, there is not much incentive for him to opt in at all.
He's a bad contract because of his injury history. If Love was healthy all year then yeah even with his bad D and pitiful playoff performance I'd say its a good deal because you get a nice asset. But given Love's injury history with his maxxed out contract this is a horrible move for the Rockets. Love has never had a fully healthy season there's always something wrong with him so why get damaged goods at full price? Howard got a lot of hate on this board for missing games but Love's missed games are actually worse! I've never seen an injury prone player suddenly become healthy in the NBA, those who want to get him are not doing their due diligence and just want a trade done for the sake of a trade.
Something like the last ten teams to win the title have a second guy with high usage. It's not going to be an issue. Neither McHale nor Harden were prepared for it. This time both D'Antoni and Harden will be prepared for it.
Kevin Love would be great under Mike D'Antoni to go alongside Harden. Dwight is a half court type player and needs players around him that can shoot the 3 and lock down on defense. He is not well suited for a run and gun type offense unless all he is doing is dunking a ball that was lobbed to him.
