So at this point, we know there is a possibility Fred comes back late this season or for the playoffs.But if he does so, it will be a very quick recovery and considering his age, there will be some risk associated with it. Not to mention, he probably won’t be anywhere close to 100%. it is fair to make the argument that 75% of VanVleet might bring exactly what this team needs. it was a super unfortunate injury, and I am so grateful to Vanvleet for helping to restore this team back to a respectable level. That being said, elements of his contract were probably specifically designed for a trade ability if the right deal came about. If we choose not to trade him in February, are we essentially committing to keeping him next year? Obviously a ton of this depends on his own perspective. I am guessing he wants to stay in Houston and I am sure that there are a lot of people in the front office and on the roster that want to keep him around. I also would expect that he would be a valuable player next year, and I could see him signing for a couple additional years at a value contract. so maybe this even allows us to recoup some of the value loss this year. in my mind we have a three year Durant plus the Young studs window. Kevin May regress a little bit, but I think this will be largely offset by the development of the younger players, and I would expect that our team is even better next season. However, in the background is always the possibility of injury lurking. This applies to everyone, but especially Durant. I, like most of the board and probably disappointed in how EMA has deployed Kevin, as I feel like it is exposing him to some injury risk that is not necessarily needed or conducive to our best offense. I am thinking if the right deal came about that Fred would be amicable to moving on. He would still make a lot of money next year and probably be in line for a more prominent role on the next team. We can combine Fred with another player or so and a pic most likely to really bring in a significant upgrade this year. What do you think? Is this Kevin Durant Window so valuable that we need to deal Fred this year or should we wait on him and see what happens?
My understanding is that he can’t be traded unless he approves it. So it wouldn’t be so easy to trade him away this year. From what I’ve heard it’s highly unlikely.
Fred probably won’t approve a trade Ime doesn’t want Fred traded Franchise Fred™ will retake his starting spot (either this year or next)
It costs us additional assets to trade him off this year...I would wait until potential buyout candidates become available. We need to trade Tate and Jeff Green to free up roster space and open up $6M in cap space
I just think that we paid him 25m to sit snd coach . If we want to move on, I believe he would be amicable. Maybe he will give them a couple years on the cheap
That makes one of the highest paid coaches in the league. If he is coaching the offensive side of the game he needs to stop coaching.
The team has an open roster spot. What they don't have is cap space. Ditching Tate and Green doesn't free up $6m .... They have to be replaced and all you have to do it is the minumum. They can sign a player to a minimum for the rest of the season after the 37th game - they have played 34 (35 after tonight's against the Blazers). I don't see much available right now - they probably wait for the deadline and buyout market. Or they could trade Tari .... since he doesn't have a contract for next year, but even that is limited to a contract of $5.75m.
This team is completely different from last year. As good as DB has been, the biggest impact is not having a serviceable pg in FVV. His defense, being able to shoot and on court leadership is being missed sorely. careless turnovers, confusion on offense, too many iso, etc.. As mediocre as he was last year, this year he’d have a different role which would have been perfect for him. Reed, Thompson, bari, KD, sengun would have an immediate positive impact with him on the floor. unfortunate but I really don’t think this team will go far with whatever the hell this offense is. Udoka I don’t put too much blame on him, these players are mostly playing through their weaknesses.
Trade him why? In an attempt to save a team that anybody who watches every game can tell doesn’t work? So that we can lose in 6 in the first round instead of in the play-in? Once you realize the core of your team isn’t good enough to be a contender, you don’t spend assets on short term tinkering around the edges.
Stone with the no-trade for FVV, FTL !!! I wouldn't risk a return this year.. and wouldn't blame Fred for waiting. Stupid season-derailing injury... like CP3 game 5 but dispersed over 82. Go Texans Coogs !!! .
Only 2 back in the loss column from a top 3 seed. I have faith they can figure out but they need to figure it out now
We would have these same issues. in fact, we did which is why we lost to a 7th seed team in the post season
No. Of course not lol. The Org needs to focus building around Sengun/Amen/Reed in that order and F everything else and hope they continue to grow. Sengun and Amen right now have legit shot at being every year all-star players, we'll see with Reed. KD can stay if he wants. If he wants to go ring chase somewhere else, let him. This means we should not GAF about Fred. Put him on the trading block and force him out and tell him you don't want him and that Reed is the future of the franchise at guard. He'll waive it then. Unfortunately, Reed will probably be traded because Ime is not playing two small guards at the same time too much which means Reed will probably not play much because Fred will have to get his 35+ minutes. I do think Fred would help and some of these games we would have won therefore we're sitting at like 10 losses instead of 4...but this is an ACL tear, there is no certainty that he's close to what he was especially being an older player. If this were a hamstring or something then yeah but nah this is an ACL, no reason to assume he's going to be back healthy.
We aren’t a contending team. And mostly I’m concerned about the development of our young core. If we want to be contenders next yr, it’s best to give Fred plenty of time to recover. More importantly we need to properly evaluate our roster and consider making some changes. Given Fred’s age and injury history we can’t rely on him as some sort of silver bullet solution.
Honestly, he sucked last year. I thought he might have one season left in him as a starting calibre guard by shifting him off ball a lot more often. It was obvious his days as a heavy-minutes starting floor general are over. He's been missing 20-30 games per season consistently for 7 years now. Has only played in 70+ games twice in ten years. Now that he had a major injury, I don't think he has that extra season in him as a starter. Aging doesn't stop when you get injured. He was 39% from the field and 32% from the 3 last season and his assist numbers were declining rapidly. In earnest, he's been on a downward slope for 2 years. Even if he hadn't gotten injured, there was no indication of any kind that there would be a bounce-back. He was already needing to take too many 3's with Jalen shouldering 9 attempts and Brooks taking 5. Paired with Amen (2 attempts) and Durant (5 attempts)? What's he going to do, take 15 attempts? There aren't that many off ball attempts for him to take. I see him as a really really good backup now. An excellent 6th man and coach on the court. It would be great if he could give that to us late this season and the playoffs, but are we really going to bet on him returning? Imagine if things don't get better without him and then he doesn't come back - our hands are tied at that point. That's the one situation I want to avoid at any cost. I'm a huge fan of Reed and Amen getting developed rapidly, but I'm not willing to go into the playoffs with them if they're not ready for playoff pressure. The team should get a cheap insurance backup PG for nights when Reed is shaky or Amen can do more damage in a Lebron-like role at SF. Someone we can acquire now and not care about losing in the summer. Someone who we don't mind leaving on the bench if Reed and Amen are doing great.
