As a fellow Hoya, I am clearly biased... but if the opportunity presents itself (OPJ bought out) you gotta jump on it
Toronto will not do the trade, this guy can block any shot and he is a asset for them because they have little size in the frontcourt
Sign cheap after buyout is only way I would take a chance on an underachieving Otto Porter. And I like Nance too but PJ + House is worth more than just LNJ. You would need both salaries to make that trade work for Rockets who are hard capped.
Starting 5 is Wood, Silas has this ad nauseum. Need another big to help him on defense. Can also play small ball 5 and defend 1-5. If this player could also be tertiary playmaker even better. Answer is Aaron Gordon. Nance is possible starting 4 and possible small ball 5 but he cannot be tertiary playmaker (or even secondary playmaker for days Wall sits).
I think I’m at ease with whatever route the front office goes. Nance, Grant or Gordon should all make us a better team. If there’s a dramatic difference in how those teams value them, then I think you can go with the cheapest option (ie number of picks) and be ok. But all of this has to be done in conjunction with fixing whatever hole you open up. You can’t just trade Eric Gordon and replace him with nothing. He has a valuable role on this team.
Boogie will be the flamethrower off the bench IMO. He needs to be ball dominant on offense to maximize his impact.
so far they’ve just used him as a finisher. I’m interested to see if they allow him to do more playmaking.
Best possible trade if rockets wanted to reset with 2 young star players, EARLY 1ST rd picks and Big Expiring. You trade James and Pj to Denver, send Barton, Harris, RJ Hampton, and Eric Gordon for Micheal Porter, Zach Levine, Otto Porter(30m expiring), Thad Young (8m) only 6m guarnteed contract, plus 2 bulls first, and picks from Nuggets. To me you try to get as many first from Bulls. They will probably have real low draft picks, you could swap them nuggets picks to get more but to sum it up. Bulls will get better in trade w/ Gordon Barton, Harris, Rj having these players on a new team in the East. All offensively talented. Rockets get 40 M Expring and 2 new Stars to build around. Zach Levine and Mpj! plus 2 low first from bulls, and picks from Nuggets. I mean if james rides it out another year and they dont get anywhere again, People think James is going to get them past Lakers w/ this current squad got another thing coming for them and he going to want out after another beat down from Lakers, Nuggets, or Clippers, might as well do this now while his Value is high. But people around here cant let go of James harden cause his scoring ability. Well wait till the playoffs come around.
Something I’m opening up to... While I think having a guy like Eric Gordon on this team is very valuable and acknowledge that he has an important role, we simply cannot go into the playoffs with our current deficit of talent in the starting front court. House will hopefully claw his way out of the cellar, but he’s nowhere close to a starting caliber SF. Tucker still brings good defense, corner 3 point shooting and a dog mentality, but lacks the skills to do anything else on offense. Tate and Nwaba can’t shoot. I think our bench offense can get by with Wall, McLemore and Cousins. Plus we should be able to find someone in the buyout market that can help. So if Gordon + picks can fetch us a real improvement, I think you do it. At the same time, I think you try to keep at least one of Tucker or House to maintain quality depth in your front court. whatever happens, I trust Stone. One interesting theory...what if Houston told Detroit that if they let us borrow their cap space and bird rights for a few months, we could get them multiple draft picks? In other words, what if we said if they could sign Grant using their cap space, to be traded to us on Feb 5th, and trade Wood to us using his bird rights, we would get them 3 FRPs. We already know they had a prearranged deal for Wood. Is it possible there was more to that? I always thought the way the protections were set up on that pick they sent us was weird. Why would they restrict themselves like that? Detroit is 0-4, and there’s a good chance they start 0-11 with games against Boston, Milwaukee and Utah coming up. Jerami has actually played pretty well despite all of it. Anyway, just a theory. Jerami is a good fit next to Wood.
That’s the hope. Maybe if EGo starts out playing well we can get the deal done quickly and won’t have to attach a ton of picks. we don’t know a ton given the unusual start to the season, but I think we can say that Wood is going to need defensive help. He will be better than he’s shown, but we are going to need more playing Lebron and AD
Well Magic are undefeated (1 of 2 teams), ssssooooooo they have little incentive right now. That being said, I think their FO recognizes it's a house of cards
Right now I don't care who the Rockets trade for. I just want #Clutch to trade that ugly Westbrook picture on the main page for anything else. Westbrook gone is old news. It should have always been a Welcome John Wall picture or a mix of pictures of the new players. Anything other than that horrible picture. Making me not want to come to the site. lol
