You couldn't get an old Windows phone fished out of a Bonnaroo porta-potty for KPJ and 2nds. We just keep sinking deeper in the hole by the way we handle adversity.
They are now capped out (assuming KPJ's salary is not voided by the Commissioner), but they still have their full Room MLE ($7,723,000) to spend if they really wanted to add someone in that price range.
It has nothing to do with being a mediocre team either. I wasn't longing for the days of going nowhere where we were a decent team missing out on the playoffs and only being able to get the last pick of the lottery either. My issues with being really bad was the fact that we were unwatchable. The plan to be horrible was absolute dog **** and the product was not even enjoyable to watch. I can't say I enjoyed watching the development of our young players just because of the iso system Silas chose to run. I think there are other aspects they have failed. I think allowing Eric Gordon to overstay his welcome was dumb. I thought allowing Bruno Fernando to start in front of Sengun last year (to give their darling KPJ the vertical spacing) was stupid. I thought the moves to get rid of Garuba, Ty Ty, Christopher were stupid since we didn't even have a firm commitment on Brook Lopez (for the very least they should of made the trades contingent on Brook signing). Those are just to name a few. I am a Sengun fan and I thought not making the team run through him was dumb. I think the way we coddled KPJ has been detrimental to the team and this was something that seemed to be forced by Stone. Roster construction is better, but part of it sounds like influence from Ime Udoka. Tilman/Stone were ready to bring back Harden this summer (I was on board), but Ime led them in a different direction. We will see what the results are this upcoming season. We really haven't had the right veterans in place the last few years and I think that has hurt us. We've also had the wrong coaching staff. This is really no fault of Silas since he didn't interview to be the coach of a team that was going to re-build, however, management should of stepped in and made a change a lot sooner. My fear has always been that we become the Kings or the Knicks or the Wolves, that for years don't do nothing and their roster construction is incredibly poor. I don't want to sit here 10 years from now still hoping to get into the playoffs. We been spoiled the last since the start of Yao/Tmac era where we actually had hope. We've had very poor seasons in between and for the most part we been competitive. I'd like to get back to being competitive. I don't need a championship season (would love one) but I at least would like to feel like a threat to upset somebody (similarly to Harden's first season where we gave OKC a run for their money). I was fully supportive of the rebuild. My post history would suppor that. However, I have hated how poor the product has been. I tempered expectations knowing damn well that we were experimenting, but yeah, the lack of structure on this team, really made us look like some street ball team that had no clue how to run an NBA offense. I won't even talk about defense, but I know that's definitely a byproduct of young guys.
If KPJ deal is voided (highly unlikely) would we be able to absorb salary in a trade? How much would that be?
Has @Clutch expressed any opinions on this yet? It’s borderline hysteria in here. If you are mad at the Rockets for keeping kpj all these years I’m totally with you, fire stone. But accusing them of trying to save money or something by trading him now is hysterical, they will most likely add money - in an effort to either get an useable player or a tradeable contract.
We aren't trading KPJ for Davis Bertans or Duncan Robinson, or whatever other semi okay role player is available. We are trading KPJ + cash considerations + draft picks to get our hands on one of those "serviceable" players. We are mad because we know that whatever deal is made will likely be underwhelming. The season has not even started, currently teams are carrying false hopes of being competitive, and they are unlikely to move good rotation pieces for draft picks. Most trades that happen at this point of the offseason are usually due to unhappy players that are hoping to move on or players that couldn't agree on a contract extension and the team chooses to extract value now rather than later. We aren't going to be trading for Damian Lilliard or James Harden (wouldn't make any sense anyways), these are the only two disgruntled stars truly available. There is zero reason for us to trade for a Ben Simmons (I'm sure Brooklyn would love to send his bloated salary our way). I'm sure Miami would love to pawn Duncan Robinson on us for us to help us facilitate a Lilliard deal, not sure why the hell we would take on additional years of salary, makes no sense. So yeah, of course we are upset, because we are thinking of this rationally and any underwhelming deal that Stone can come up with right now, will likely include trading away draft picks that we really don't need to trade away. If you were telling me that we had a chance to grab an OG, a Pascal, or at least a super role player, man I'd be all for it. But that's not the case. So why waste time doing this. This whole "Stone doing his due diligence" is absolute horse ****. We all been fans long enough that we know that this time of the offseason is mostly dead because no one is really looking to make trades. At this point, sign and trades were resolved during FA opening, there is no disgruntled star that we have a chance (or a reason) to trade for, and teams can look to get under the cap or tax later on after evaluating their team after the first couple of months of the season.
Even from a basketball perspective, anybody we add is just going to take minutes that could have gone to Amen, Cam Whitmore, Tari, etc. The only thing I can maybe see is adding some third string center but we could do that with the vet minimum.
Trying to trade KPJ doesn't even make good basketball sense. What other team is willing to trade a valuable player under contract just to eat KPJ's contract for a few measly 2nd round picks in return? If I'm a GM, I'm not even coming to the negotiating table unless first-round picks and significant players are involved as a return for taking on KPJ's contract. If the Rockets would give that up just to get rid of KPJ's contract for a player that could help them win games now, the fanbase would riot. The idea is farcical to begin with, so why even take the PR hit for something that has little to no possibility of happening? Just waive him and give KPJ's minutes to Cam and Amen.
I don't blame them for trying to salvage a crappy situation. I do blame them for mishandling KPJ for 2 years. They should have traded or waived him long ago. Now they are stuck and have to pay someone to haul the trash.
Would people here entertain the following: Rockets Out: Brooklyn First - Cam Whitmore - KPj Rockets In: Tyler Herro Portland Out: Damian Lillard Portland In: Brooklyn First - Cam Whitmore - KPj - Miami 1st Miami in: Damian Lillard Miami Out: Tyler Herro - Miami 1st Cam fits Portland's timeline perfectly but doesn't fit ours as much and doesn't have the upside of Amen. Tyler Herro is an insta-upgrade to KPj. Portland can take on his salary and cut him freeing up cap space for next summer.
I think fans would storm the Rockets headquarter if they traded Whitmore and a Brooklyn 1st for Herro.
Too many rooks. And the team needs to start winning. I don't see how Cam is going to get significant development here with so may guys ahead of him. Why would they storm the headquarters over trading a #20 and another late-ish 1st that likely will never see playing time anyway? Herro in here instead of Cam would probably have the Rockets at 40+ wins this season.
so where are you fitting his $30 mil per salary per for the next 4 years and especially considering green/sengun/bari/tari are all up for extensions in that same time frame
This take is operating under the assumption that either KPJ’s contract and/or some meaningless 2nd round picks have such great value that it’s worth the PR hit that the OTHER team will take for capitalizing on a terrible situation and having his name associated with their team. And we don’t even know yet if the league will allow that team to suspend or waive him for some time. So as a GM trading for his contract you have to play out worst case scenarios and cost that factor in. So again I ask… is KPJ’s contract and a couple 2nd round picks that valuable to an NBA GM? And that’s not even factoring in the question of how you comprehend the rockets will get any rotation player worth a squat? Waiving him yourself imo makes much more sense. If Stone trades KPJ, two 2nd picks and filler for Paul George… sure that’s something I’m happy to eat crow about but the reality is the deal would be more likely to be KPJ and a FIRST round pick for Marcus Morris or Robert Covington.
