If Amen continues to play well at the 4 during Jabari's absence, we can justify trading for KD: Dillon/Jabari/Adams/Tate/Suns draft picks for KD This would address our 4th quarter issues with us needing a closer.
Not my fight, but it does look like his steals are up this season. All other defensive metrics = no bueno
Houston Rockets Trade Breakdown Change in Team Outlook: +11.2 ppg, +1.6 rpg, and +5.1 apg. Incoming Players Davion Mitchell 26 year old, 6-0, 202 lb PG from Baylor 6.4 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 4.7 apg in 25.3 minutes in 2024-2025 Gradey Dick 21 year old, 6-6, 200 lb GF from Kansas 17.2 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.1 apg in 31.7 minutes in 2024-2025 Outgoing Players Reed Sheppard 20 year old, 6-2, 185 lb G from Kentucky 3.3 ppg, 1.3 rpg, 1.2 apg in 11.6 minutes in 2024-2025 Cam Whitmore 20 year old, 6-7, 230 lb F from Villanova 9.1 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 0.5 apg in 14.6 minutes in 2024-2025
I mean Dick would be pretty alluring but this seems like a near lateral move at best and due to so much uncertainty because of how young Cam and Reed are it could be a disastrous trade worst case if one of them blow up.
My around the edges trade scenario HOU - LAC - CHI LAC: a protected SRP from CHI (will never convey) [protected 31 - 57] CHI: Adams (HOU) + Tate (HOU) + 3 SRPs via HOU HOU: Vucevic (CHI) + Craig (CHI) + Hyland (LAC) Rox add playmaking, scoring, and 3 % All the teams stay under the tax threshold FVV - Bones - Holiday JG - Cam - Shepp Dillon - Amen - Craig Bari (IR) - Tari - Uncle Jeff Sengawd - Vucevic - Landale
Lol. Nah! The way the Suns are going it is more like: Durant/ Booker/ Plunlee and Jones For FVV/ Adams/ Green/ Landale/ Tate/ and their picks back (ie they blow it up and get to tank. They can farm extra picks from selling off their other parts too)
Tate, Uncle Jeff, and Jock for Duncan Robinson. Grab a low cost back-up, back up center. We'd be thinner on the frontcourt with Adams working his way back and Jabari coming back probably early March.
The only trade I'd consider making this season is FVV or expiring salary for his long term replacement. I don't see him as part of the future of this team and you probably need to use his salary to acquire the replacement as letting him expire doesn't generate more than ~$19.2m in cap space which isn't likely to be enough. Also using cap space in the offseason takes away your ability to use the MLE, you only get the room exception if you use cap space and it's ~40% of the NT-MLE. Who? I don't know .....
We cant keep using the cap cuz then we will approach luxury tax once extensions come. We dont know if Tilman will be willing to pay up or not.
I'm starting to become greedy. Every asset we have seems to get better and better. Cam and Jabari have shaken off their early season slump, Amen and Tari have taken off, Jalen is ramping up to post all star Jalen, Sengun is gonna be an all star at age 22 and Sheppard just scored 49 pts. The PHX pick is top 10 and even FVV has changed his playstyle for the better. I dont see any downside to holding off till the offseason. The last thing we want to happen is risk doing an SGA and trade one of our guys only for them to blow up and be better than the stars we traded them for.
Cam and Holiday for Deni Avdija. Blazers atone for taking Scoot and replacing him with Cam. Blazers reroute Holiday to Boston. Rockets get a young player who cherishes every minute played in this league. Gives you 14pts off the bench. hustles on defense. I'd rather Cam sppreciate a Manu/ rookie Harden role off the bench but not everyone likes that.
Amen is his replacement. FVV's salary can be traded for any position that will help us. We will have to find a backup PG or combo guard, if Reed doesn't work out. We don't need a traditional Pg on this team. Amen, Jalen, Dillon, Jabari, Sengun is a contending starting unit as soon as next year. If we can trade for Ant or Giannis we can mix that up a bit. Trading for Fox or Booker at this point would be stupid in my opinion.
Do you consider next season the future? Amen and Sengun are already really good players and still improving. I would not punt this season. I would not punt next season. If the Rockets can get a FVV replacement, they can likely do it with expirings/draft capital and re-sign him with early Bird rights. Really the only reason not to keep him is if the Rockets add a star making over $40M and the Rockets don't send out other 25-26 salary such that they have apron issues. FVV is better than the NT-MLE, tax-MLE, and room MLE.
There are really just two big questions for the FO going into the next couple transaction windows. They’re not going to mess with this locker room otherwise IMO. 1. Do you have confidence you can make the “big trade” for a tier 1 offensive creator by July 1? If not, FVV must be extended. What AAV can you get him at? 2. There’s no room for both Dillon and Cam in this team next year. There just aren’t enough minutes after Amen, Jabari, and Tari. If Cam isn’t part of a “big trade” you see happening by July 1, who do you keep and who do you trade for a future pick?
1. Why, you could just let FVV walk. 2. Why, Dillon is the starter with Amen at PG. Cam will be able to get 20 mins as a bench player and Tari is 50/50 on whether he'll play most of the year.
1. I'm guessing the AAV for FVV if Rockets opt out and re-sign with early Bird rights will be about $25M AAV for 3 years. Maybe a little less, but well above the MLEs. 2. I think Brooks has decent odds of not being the worst of Amen, Brooks, Tari, JSJ, and Cam. Also, there is a chance Amen plays a guard position mostly, or JSJ or Tari is traded.
