Extending Oladipo would be a mistake, even if he was willing. He's shown to be injury prone, willing to grumble, and has only been an all star level player one season in his career. The goal is to rebuild the team into a title contender, not build to being the Portland Trail Blazers. Still a little perplexed as to what Stone wanted him for. I really like what Stone has done overall, but I'm scratching my head on this one. Lavert seems to bring more as an asset, and we could have gotten something more creative if we wanted expirings.
Yes he is. For guys like Harden and LeBron, even at 50 million they are underpaid. The difference between a tier one superstar and borderline all star is well over 20 million.
Dipo is more than a borderline allstar he is a definite all star (in the East) set to make the max, borderline all star would be a guy like CWood or a healthy Levert. If your logic holds out how come KD and Harden only beat Orlando by 6 pts? They got 100M salary advantage over Orlando. In theory or in a vacuum yes a guy like Lebron is underpaid even at 50M but in real life terms 2 all stars can get you better results than 1 superstar just cuz its hard for 1 guy to do it alone and the synergy of 2 great players is more than just 1+1=2. Case in point Lebron with the Lakers without AD vs Jimmy Butler and Bam in Miami. Or Curry, Klay and Dray breaking the NBA regular season record and beating Lebron by himself. Those 2-3 all stars beating not tier 1 superstar, but arguably the greatest or 2nd greatest player in NBA history. Even Big 3 Celtics that destroyed Cavs Lebron shows 3 all stars beating 1 super star. As with all things there is a price/talent ratio drop off as you go higher up the scale if yoh stocked with talent then yeah, tier 1 superstar making 50M makes sense but if you got 0 then it is more economical to break that money down cuz you get more talent per buck. 50M is 50% of the 2019-2020 NBA salary cap already. If you remember KG Wolves he made 14M in 1997 when the salary cap was like 27M. We know how that era turned out. In layman's terms Harden is a lot more talented than House but at 50M vs 3M Harden isnt 16x more talented than House. If bball had just a salary condtraint and no fixed amount of players on the court you'd have more overall talent on your team with 16 Danuel Houses than 1 James Harden. It's the rarity of a tier 1 superstar as well as the roster contraints that makes Harden underpaid not really the overall talent he brings to the table.
I think all will depend on how well Wood, Wall and Oladipo play together and also how well Tate and Brown develop. Exciting times!
I really like Olidipo. I don’t view him as a superstar to carry a team but I think he’s a great piece to have on a good team.
What does that last statement mean in the tweet? We will try to cash in the TPE of $10 mil to see if we can take advantage of a team looking to shed salary since we have room under the hard cap? Similar to OKC?
As long as Tilman doesn't let him walk for nothing I'll be satisfied. If he plays really well and we re-sign him, it won't be that bad either since he's a movable contract and player entering his prime years. It'll just mean we're definitely not tanking.
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2021/1/18/22236679/nba-power-rankings-james-harden-trade “It got lost in the fast-moving news cycle, but ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported that the Nuggets had discussions with the Rockets for Harden. My understanding is that those talks didn’t go very far, but it does indicate Denver is looking for upgrades to bolster its Finals odds. Is there another move out there for the Nuggets? As discussed in the Sixers blurb above, Beal could eventually become available if the Wizards keep dropping games. Could Denver build an offer around Michael Porter Jr.? Another option might be Victor Oladipo, if Houston wanted to flip him. No matter the case, the Nuggets should be active in seeking upgrades. Nikola Jokic is having an MVP campaign, but he’s carrying a more massive load than any other season of his career. Jamal Murray has been as frustratingly inconsistent as he was pre-bubble, so finding a more consistent backcourt presence would go a long way in helping them both.” ... “People around the league wonder what Rockets general manager Rafael Stone will do next following the Harden blockbuster. As I reported last week, Victor Oladipo, an impending free agent, has eyes for Miami. Could the Heat, or another team looking to contend—such as the Nuggets or Celtics—try to acquire him?”
Dipo's body language isn't positive.He repeated the word winning so many times. He knows he can't win a championship in Houston. He might give us a few good games but he's already out the door even before entering the room. Trade him by the deadline for a first round pick to a contender. I doubt if the Rockets can get a good young player in return for him. @ApacheWarrior @Nook
He is 100% a borderline All-Star. He's made two All-Star games in seven seasons and is averaging 21.6 PPG, which would tie him for 30th best in the league and 8th best among SG. He's definitely not a lock, and if there was a vote tomorrow, he's a long shot to make the team. Also, don't get me started on his advanced stats, which are not very good. I like Oladipo, but let's not overrate him. At best, he's a borderline top 30 player in the league, and that might be too generous. You're looking at a one-game sample size of a team that literally just got put together. Let's compare their records at the end of the season to see how much better Brooklyn is than Orlando. A lot of things to unpack here, but one thing I'd like to point out. Oladipo makes $21M right now and Harden makes $41M. For what Oladipo gives you, he's a huge bargain at $21M a year. If you looked at most guys making that kind of money, none of them are likely to going to even be borderline All-Stars unless they're still playing on their rookie contracts. But if you were to take the average player making $20M a year and pared that player with Oladipo, all 30 teams would still 100% value Harden over Oladipo and that $20M guy. As for your point about Miami, Boston and Golden State, I think you're way off base. You're acting like those teams were all made of players of Oladipo's caliber. They weren't. KG, Pierce, Allen, Curry, Klay, Draymond, Butler and Bam were all significantly better players than Dipo. Hell, KG and Curry are all-time top 20 guys, and the rest of the guys on that last (except Bam, who is still super young) are locks for the Hall of Fame. Is Lebron better? Sure. But in most cases, Lebron may have been the best player in the series, but those other teams (except last year's Heat) were far more talented overall basketball teams. Except Harden doesn't make $50M right now, and the only way a team would pay their star $50M is if they were already contending, had other stars around him and were expecting to go over the cap. Saying that $50M is half of the cap is disingenuous, because any team paying a star that much money is easily going way over the cap and probably has another max level player on the roster. A superstar player is 100% always going to be more valuable than a borderline All-Star, regardless of how much money he is making. Harden is easily 16 times more valuable than Danuel House. Sure, 16 Danuel Houses would beat 1 James Harden in a game of basketball. But you're acting like having a max level superstar completely prevents a team from adding other star players. It doesn't. Most contenders have two max players on their roster. Some have three. If I take an NBA team from scratch, I would much, much, much rather start building around one James Harden at $50M than 16 Danuel Houses at $50M.
And for the record on my post above, I'm not trying to crap on Oladipo. I like the guy and always have since he came to Indiana and got out from under Westbrook's shadow. He's a good player, and at $21M, he's pretty damn good value right now. But Clutchfans has a bad habit of overrating incoming players and underrating outgoing ones, and I just couldn't disagree more with the mindset of "Oladipo's contract is more valuable than Harden's because he makes half as much money." A top 5 player in his prime in the NBA is the most valuable asset you can have in any of the main professional team sports in my opinion: better than an elite QB, an ace pitcher or whatever the hell the best thing is to have in hockey. Having an elite top 5 guy in the NBA makes you a lock to make the playoffs every year, makes it easier for you to attract other star players and makes you relevant on the national scene. Houston fans may have taken that for granted with Harden the last few years, and I think some fans may be in for a rude awakening.
Yea that's wild to compare him to Harden contract be damned. There are about 10 guys in the NBA worth having at any dollar amount and Brooklyn happens to have two of them now. I do think I'd rather him at $20/25 for the next three years than Beal at $40 for the next five though. That is strictly on this team and for team building where Wall is making $40 Million for the next three and Eric is making nearly $20 for the next three. The end result would end up the same either way and that's without a championship most likely. I also like that he's expiring. Between today and March 25,2021 the Rockets and Victor will have a trial period. If it seems like a fit they will verbally agree on an extension that can be consummated in June. If it's not a fit? They can work to find him a team where he'd like to go and if he looks great in the meantime, his trade value will go up to the point where Stone might be able to get the equivalent of 3 FRP as we just saw with Jrue.
Yeah he's as good as gone. Has had his eyes set on Miami since forever - (had his surgery in Miami, his Victor Oladipo Skills Lab is in Miami)...let's see if Stone can finesse a deal for picks at the deadline
Agreed for most of the part. But to knit pick, Bulter is not locked for HOF. He only has 3 all nba third team nominations. This doesn't guarantee a HOF induction. The bar of HOF is not very high, but not that low either. Guys like Chris Webber, Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace, Penny Hardaway all accomplished more than Bulter and they are not in the HOF.
