Nickeil Alexander-Walker instead of Capela/finney Smith

NAW got I believe got slightly above mle? I dont know how a S&T would've worked but the Rockets could've definitely made a similar offer as the Hawks. One that NAW may or may have chosen to take.

But the issue was that the Rockets never even considered a guard with their FA money. They just went all out on getting big guys. They traded their SG and SF for a PF in KD, then backed that up with another PF in DFS and center in Capela. This was clearly a team building philosophy where the essentially ditching guards. Even had FVV not gotten injured, this team would still be lacking guard play and shooting.

 

I would’ve loved to sign NAW, he was the guy I wanted this offseason. But honestly, it feels like he was always headed to Atlanta anyway, especially with how quickly that deal got done.

 

This should have happened.

Capela and DFS were horrible signings from the start.

 

I think you are right on the first point. NAW for this team would have made a lot more sense than DFS but I don't think it was feasible.

There weren't a ton of other full MLE-caliber guards we could have used the DFS contract on. Maybe throwing an offer sheet at Grimes for the full MLE. Outside of that your looking at things like a Davion Mitchell offer sheet, Tre Jones, Marcus Smart, etc. depending on if we're talking about signings instead of DFS or Capela. Maybe Ty Jerome as well but he hasn't even played yet.

There is some hindsight is 20/20 with FVV going down for this season but signing Capela instead of another guard was a bit weird. DFS was also probably a multi-year thought too. If they had Tari locked up with a reasonable contract extension Stone might have gone a different direction.

 

Harden instead of fvv

A bag of chips instead of josh okogie

 

NAW also has to want to come here as well. Maybe he didn't. DFS has been bad though recently.

 

The way you are thinking about this assumes that DFS and Capela are making major impacts on this current team. In which case, I'd agree that getting the better players would be more preferable to getting the better fit. But if we are re-doing FA right now, is there any chance DFS is getting anywhere near what the Rockets gave him? Or would Capela? In particular the DFS fit is just very awkward and he's exacerbating all the Rockets existing issues by not being able to pass or shoot.

There were several FAs in hindsight that would've fit the Rockets really well. Particularly imagine if this team had Ryan Rollins. I do understand this is hindsight, but then what is the point of having a good GM but to have foresight to see who may be an underrated pickup?

 

I'm going to give DFS a little time before calling that signing outright bad. Most of NBA media and I think the anonymous GM survey gave the Rockets credit for being able to sign him away, though Hollinger was on the "Houston has too many bigs and needs more guards" point even before FVV got hurt. He's bad right now but he may revert back to form once he gets more games under his belt.

We had a surplus of front court players but we also had the situation of FVV being locked into being a 30+ mpg PG and Reed needing to get minutes for evaluation. YMMV on whether experimenting with Point Amen has been wise. Short of an NAW I think it's hard to find a good use for the DFS money somewhere else off hand vs DFS if he gets back to form and especially if we move on from Tari. Davion Mitchell would help this team right now for example but that wouldn't have made sense with FVV healthy. I agree though that instead of Capela we should have signed a Rollins type ~$5 million a year guard and done something like trade for Jay Huff as the third center.

 

I didn't say the DFS signing was outright bad. I said in another DFS thread that I'm not making final judgements until his play in the playoffs, and I still stand by that. Just saying the Rockets not only paid above market in hindsight, and that his skillset doesn't really mesh with this current team. This isn't even his injury thing, because even at his best he's mostly a PJ Tucker defense/intangibles guy. So fully healthy is just a better version of his current self. That's why I said his signing was more about organizational approach to team building than anything else. There were guards on the market this offseason. Whether you want to shop at the high range with NAW or mid-range with Mitchell or Rollins or minimum guy like Westbrook. Stone just chose to get size. And at least for now, that choice is not looking great. Perhaps they'll prove me wrong later, but at this point I'm not liking that approach.

 

we keep signing PJ tucker types (gee...I wonder why..) and wonder why there is no offensive creativity.

Udoka has nothing to do with that of course.

 

Capela was a throw into the Durant trade for nearly nothing. It was most likely a do the Rockets want Capela or do we want to save Tilman some money. Unlikely that the opportunity cost was Capela vs getting someone else. I think the Rockets expected bigger cap growth, such that the deal may make things slightly more difficult next season, depending on whether Tari gets more than $20M per year.

 

The Capela/DFS signings reeks of Udoka saying "I want defense-first vets". We are one of the oldest teams in the league and look like it. It's no wonder we have struggled so much against these younger athletic bottom feeding teams. I understand getting Durant changed our timeline a bit, but we completely abandoned the identity that brought us so much success the past few seasons, which was to fill the team with young, hungry players with something to prove