My view: Jalen - either before the season or before the deadline - he'll want a big contract, we might have come to the conclusion that we'll be more efficient with Sheppard and Cam and Amen taking his usage. Dillon - good defender, but so are Amen and Tari. Overpaid. I'd rather see his minutes go to Tari, Amen, Cam. Landale - won't see a lot of minutes behind Alpi and Steven Adams. Turned out to be serviceable at the end of the season and is a great interview, but is expendable. Tate - It's time.
I guess you ran out of threads to obsess about Reed Sheppard? Obvious answer imo is FVV. Max contract to match the players we should be trying to acquire, a max expiring at that, and still a high level player. That's our blue chip trade piece. I mean even in your obsessive assumption that Reed Sheppard is already a Rockets legend you didn't even follow the trail that he's a 1 and if he hits would be a replacement to Fred. Dillon overpaid? Geez. Trade Tate and Landale? Like we didn't need them or something. Geez.
Brooks would be my primary trade candidate. I think he's one of the few players we have that has decent trade value and is likely in a redundant position. Jalen is probably next on the list but I just can't see us getting enough for him. The second we give up on him his trade value plummets. I'd probably just give him till the trade deadline to see if he's improved over the summer. The rest don't have much trade value other than as salary filler. So, if we have to give up Landale/Uncle Jeff/Tate or whatever to make salaries work on a bigger trade, fine. Otherwise, just keep them.
Please aggregate Jeff Green, Jock Landale, and JaeSean Tate into something of value. That’s all I ask.
I totally forgot about Uncle Jeff. He was great at the start of last season, then his performance kind of worsened...great veteran, I'm sure, but I agree with you - not the best use of that salary.
Brooks helped change the culture, instill a defensive mindset and get the team to a winning level. But they’re heavy on frontcourt players, and others at his position are good defenders, too. He and his salary are expendable.
honestly for me Jeff is a great 11th or 12th man, but we already have a 10-man rotation if we draft the #3 pick. And that’s before we add an MLE player. Each of those 3 guys should have 2nd round pick value. I want to cash them in.
I was thinking trade Amen, Sengun and Tari in a package for Embid or Zion or LaMelo Do you think a Sengun and Tari package would be enough to get maybe someone like Paolo?
Tate... that's it. But why even trade him? Decent insurance policy and could do a lot worse from your 11-12th man.
Cash them all in on a strong willed winning super star. A leader by action; the youth will learn from. An all star with expectations for the team, setting the culture for the future as our next generation mature. We see what FVV and Brooks did why not take that to the next level. It’s worth throwing in #3 (trade down in this draft) to achieve this, IHO. The all world player that would bring this to our team would have to be experienced. To get experience one has to do. To do the player has to be older. Because of their success he will be on a super max; so the window to obtain said player is small, keeping the cap in check. Now is our time. We can retain FVV this year then max out Sengun the following. After 2 seasons the older superstar fades as Smith, Eason, Amen & Cam look to get paid. Players of this caliber are hard to find. Jimmy Butler is our answer. The biggest draw back #3 -> #15. Know will can’t existed 4 top 4 draft picks in the future because there is not even cap space to do so and keep other players as well.
Yes, Brooks should have some value to a contender (even if it's only neutral relative to his salary) and he can be salary-matched in a lot of scenarios. We have Tari, Amen, Cam, and Tate who can all play small forward, and the first three of those guys might already be more impactful than Dillon next season depending on how their development is proceeding. I would actively be seeking asset-consolidation trades involving Brooks. I worry they won't do it though because "culture", Ime's coaching style, etc.
I just don’t know about Jalen. We gotta see what he does this year bc he brings something that nobody else has on this team. I wanna give him another season
Dillon - not going anywhere and not overpaid. Tate - just cut him you're not trading him for anything. Landale - see Jaesean Tate. Jalen - his value is as high as its going to be. But they'll throw him out there again hoping he performs the whole season like he did in March. People refuse to see that his inconsistency is who he is. #3 pick - our biggest trade asset. FVV - expiring contract but no one else is ready to run the team so not going anywhere. Tari Eason - yep. Our biggest trade chip outside of the picks. Would trade the picks, Jalen and Tari for Devin Booker. The bigger question is trade targets. We have too many wings. We need a shooting guard. The list is Desmond Bane and Devin Booker. I'd trade Tari and picks for Bane. Jalen can be 6th man and if a team wants to overpay for him at the end of this year you can get someone in free agency to replicate his production.
I am really back and forth on this. One day, I agree with your take, the other day, I think it might be better to trade him, given the chance, because I fear he will never fix his bad shooting and inconsistency. I guess we just have to trust that Ime will make the right decision here. Either way, I think having Sheppard will be good - if Jalen leaves, Cam and Sheppard and Amen (or whomever we would trade him for) should be able to pick up his minutes and usage - if Jalen stays, we can keep starting Jalen, but we can throw them in if/when Jalen is on one of his bad nights, and we just want efficiency and a steady hand.
I love Tari’s hustle, but ranking him ahead of everyone other than Alpi is pretty ridiculous. Amen is already our second best player and he and Sengun will be 1A and 1B sooner rather than later. Amen and Sengun have superstar potential. Tari is a great role player, that will probably come off the bench for most of his career.
If your logic is "which player on the team would be most sought after by other teams", then you would probably be correct. But, in a sense, the player other teams want most should always be the one we should want to trade the least. I am speaking from 25+ years of playing fantasy basketball, and winning at least one of my leagues every year lol.
Which is exactly the kind of player you would want to retain and lock up long-term on a reasonable contract. You need those guys on championship teams. I was blown away by seeing how high he was on the all-time college box plus/minus list. Really additionally validates the eye test of his impact on the Rockets.
