Fischer: Rockets interested in reaching long term deal with Fred VanVleet

yea! somebody gets it!

 

I don't know what the hell they are hating on, dude shoots better than 40% from 3, 52% from 2, 87% from the stripe with an assist to turnover ratio of 4.3:1 (6A, 1.4T) which is better than FVV's ~3.5AT, with outstanding shot selection.

The problem in PHX isn't Tyus, the problems are:
they have no depth
no one to do the dirty work
their stars don't play defense
there's only one ball to share between three dudes who need the ball to be effective
those 3 dudes wreck their cap.

 

How is he stuck when the Rockets are ahead of schedule?

How many people expected Rockets to be a 50 win team this season?

 

Like it or not, we drafted a supposed point guard at number 3 in the entire NBA Draft. I say we let FVV and his 140 million 3 year contract extension walk and play for the Lakers. Play Reed 30+ minutes a game and if it doesn’t work than fire the pathetic lawyer GM who picked him to replace FVV to save the team money.

 

These (getting a rare 3rd overall pick in the draft) are huge moves and guys picked that high need to be treated as and considered the team’s future. You can’t base your future (like it or not, that’s what they did) on Reed Sheppard and then the following year give the guy he was picked to replace 3 additional years at over 100 million dollars. That screws up all the other needs of the team financially. We basically bought Reed and now have to live with it and fix other needs like using FVV’s money to acquire Naz Reid or in my imaginary Rockets World, an actual superstar to help us compete for the Finals.

 

everything is about money... what's the price? 15-20 milly im fine with it.

 

Fred already has a ring as a starting PG. Fred could win a ring with the Rockets, but we need better players around him.

We could improve the team with a better PG, but I don’t know if that would be enough to win a championship. It would depend on how good that player is. I don’t really see Fred as the player that is holding this team back. I see more weaknesses in the players around him. Put some real shooters and players who understand how to play offense around Fred and watch this team takeoff.

 

If I remember correctly, Kyle Lowry was the starting PG back then and Fred only started few games over him.....

Lowry was still close to East All Star level.

Lowry was traded or left Toronto in 2022.

 

I've mentioned this a few times recently, it would also give you about ~$19.3m in cap space to pursue another player before inking Jones to an MLE deal, assuming you decline FVV's team option.

The only real downside is that you don't have that one large contract on the books to facilitate a big trade.

We've seen recently how important a steady PG is to any team .... particularly one this young, with the FVV injury and no capable backup. There's also the option of picking up the FVV option and signing Jones to that MLE and being hard capped at the 1st apron.
The only issue with that is renouncing Adams (Tate & Green) and needing a capable backup 5 while staying below the hard cap. Not sure who you could target at the backup 5 .... haven't done the numbers to see what they'd have to spend.
The rest of the roster you can fill with minimum guys.

 

He was the backup PG. That's what he should be for us.

 

The KPJ experiment went on for too long.

 

Objectively Fred has played poorly this year. Yes he’s really important to the team but he’s 31 yrs old and shooting a shockingly bad 38% from the field. His assist to TO is way down from last season. He’s averaging 14 pts per game, which is his lowest over the last 6 yrs. Fred is not an ascending player. He’s played 70 games or more only once in 9 seasons. And just with the eye test he really doesn’t look spry. You can’t look at one yr and say he’s in decline, but this is his worst season since he became a starting caliber nba player. U don’t like to see that at 31.

the rockets must be very very careful giving Fred an extension. You’ve got one year of great production and one year of poor production, and he’s missed a few weeks both seasons. The contract has to be tradable. I don’t think we can go over $25. Just look at the production: it’s not worth $30.

I’d be happy extending him on value money, but I think we can do better if we are paying big money. Our backcourt has been the biggest drag on this team.

 

I am curious if the Rockets can hire Mahmoud Abdul Rauf - The Original Stephen Curry as a Assistant Coach for Reed Sheppard, Jalen Green, Amen Thompson.

 

Thanks guys, I guess I didn’t watch much of that series.

 

I agree .... and even $25m may be too much, if you can get Tyus Jones for the MLE ($14.1m) you are getting better production and significantly harming PHX at the same time. They'd struggle to sign a replacement.

 

A lot of Phoenix fans would disagree. Tyus is a terrible defender. A backcourt of him and Green would get torn apart.

 

FVV wasn't a starter for Toronto in their 2019 championship season. They started Gasol, Leonard, Green, Siakam and Lowry every game of the playoffs.