Either start Lin, or bring in a new starting PG, Bev ain't cuttin' it.

Last year, he traded a starting power forward in the middle of a playoff hunt for what amounted to be a movable contract, i.e., he sacrificed a player with immediate on court value (Patterson) for a player with a better cap positional value (Robinson) to acquire a bigger piece (Howard). It really shouldn't be that hard for someone of your intellect to understand.

 

The other obvious example is Olajuwon and Kenny Smith during the '94 and '95 championship seasons.

1994 Olajuwon 3.6 ast/game Kenny Smith 4.2 ast/game
1995 Olajuwon 3.5 ast/game Kenny Smith 4.0 ast/game.

 

The Rockets being worse if you trade Lin without another PG to fill minutes isn't debatable at all.

How many games would we have lost last year and this year during the periods that Harden was out? How many games would we have lost without Lin's production and some of this big scoring games?

Take the Rockets' starting line up, take out Harden and put in your role players for 48 minutes over multiple games.

And calling Lin a "back up" is meaningless if he's giving you 30+ minutes per game. You pay $8.3M for 30 minutes of production. Whether he is in the starting line up or off the bench is irrelevant.

 

I think, because of his heavily back-loaded contract, he's going to be hard to move before his contract is up. I think he's shown that Linsanity was not a fluke and a few teams would be interested if they only had to pay the salary cap hit figure of 8.3 mil.

I think the Rockets are stuck with Lin for the length of his contract. And I don't blame Morey, his gamble on Lin to steal him away from the Knicks was a good one at the time, but he had to grab Harden when the opportunity presented itself.

 

The PF position was very deep, and the drop off was NOT that much with Delfino, Jones and others sliding to the 4.

The 4 wasn't expected to be highly productive in terms of point scoring. And unlike last year, there was a specific plan for a free agent. Unless you are aware of a specific target through free agency, then it's a different argument.

Take a look at the 2014 Free Agency class... do you see any obvious candidates that would require that kind of cap space?

http://www.hoopsworld.com/2014-nba-free-agents

I don't see one unless you think Morey is clearing space for Pau...

 

Bev ain't cutting it? Do you even watch the Rockets? Serious question

 

My guess is he does.

 

Your lack of knowledge of basketball is showing. If you look at stats from last night, Bev dosn't look like as big of an impact as he was. beverly was the MVP of last night, stats don't prove anything dude.

 

You do realize his post was made before last night's game, right?

 

Thank you. People here are using this "back up" or bench player designation to try to demean Lin and dismiss his importance to the team's winning. He's a guard and he plays, he doesn't sit on the bench all game like Brewer usually does and plays with starters and guys that don't start. That's all.

 

Bev has been quality almost all season, last night was just a particularly good game.

 

The Rockets would be fine without Jeremy Lin. His "production" will be easily replaced by Aaron Brooks. Did you not watch the OKC playoff series last year? We were actually better without Lin

 

Patrick Beverley is fantastic.

You sir, need to watch more basketball (and learn).

 

The cap hit on his contract is only 8.3 million for any team that picks him up. The 15 million would only apply for the Knicks at the time and any team who traded for him under that contract. However, His contract with the Rox is 8.3 cap hit and it transferable to any team. The contract the player signed is obligatory. It's not that complicated, don't let the Knicks talking heads confuse you.

Lin at 8.3 million is tradeable and the Rox should do if they can get a better PG to take his place.

 

Gotta love ppl that only looks at the boxscore.

 

When any team needs to slide Delfino, a 6 ft 6 combo guard/small forward, to their starting power forward slot, it signifies a lack of depth at that position, not the other way around.

Any talk about "obvious candidates" on that list is a waste of time. The potential use of such cap space wouldn't be limited to that list alone and you know that.

Personally, I was a Lin only Fan before he rejoined the Rockets (after seeing him in that "legendary" UConn vs Harvard game, actually), and I would prefer that he has a long and successful career in Houston. However, this doesn't preclude me from understanding another Clutch member's view point in preference for Morey having cap space at the sacrifice of Lin's production. Morey did deliver us Harden, Howard, and a tad ironically, Lin when it seemed a foregone conclusion that he would return to the NYK.

Ergo "In Morey We Trust".

 

Yes, I do know that.

I also know that we only have 2 contracts of any size to make a trade... Asik and Lin.

If you move Asik, what we get back will determine what pieces we have left to get a deal. IF you move Lin for *just* cap space, you then have a shortage of salary contracts to work a decent size trade unless you gut the roster.

Let's say you get back $8m in contracts for Asik's $8m. That's not a lot of contracts to work with if you move Lin's contract for *just* cap space.

IF you want to trade for a player on a team that's above the salary cap, you *must* give them more in contracts than they receive. In other words, if they have a $15M player on the books, then you need to send them $15M or MORE. You can't actually take back less in salary. In that case there is no benefit to the extra cap space.

So, if you're moving Asik, depending on what contracts you get back and your intentions in terms of keeping those players versus flipping them by the February deadline, then having Lin's $8.3M cap hit contract has more value in terms of making a trade unless you can get back a similar cap hit player.

If you trade Lin on a 1 for 2 or 1 for 3, you're going to have to cut players off the roster and it's hard to say what our roster will look like in terms of contract distribution.

So, the idea of moving Lin for pure contract space actually limits our trade options outside of a limited number of scenario's.

And in terms of signing a FA, unless there's a player that you're specifically targeting, the benefits of moving Lin at the February trade deadline versus the off season just means that you're reducing our wins and play off seeding for a mystery player of unknown value, with whom you're *still* going to need to build chemistry.

And that still doesn't address the issue of needing a secondary play maker to back up Harden and offer a consistent offensive threat that can help them spread the floor when playing against upper echelon Defenses.

In conclusion, unless there is a specific player, or a very specific trade that benefits the Rockets substantially, there is very little justification in my view to move Lin for "just" cap space. Our contract sizes and distribution and the necessities of salary matching especially with teams above the salary cap means that we need sizable contracts to build a successful trade.

 

We were actually better without Westbrook (u mean)

 

That's sports players get injured unless you're suggesting bev took out wb