"Some Rockets firmly believe that Ilyasova would nicely complement [Howard and Harden]"

Ilyasova went two seasons shooting over 44% on 3s. With the spacing that Howard would create he should get a lot of good looks. Morey has to realize a lot of big names may resist joining the Rockets because they don''t want to be a third star, which is exactly why Bosh jumped at the opportunity to stay in Miami. Ginobli is the third star of the Spurs and he averaged 14.7 pts, 3.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists throughout his career. Jordan and Pippen carried the Bulls, Hakeem and Clyde carried the Rockets, Kobe and Shaq carried the Lakers. You don't need a high producing third player just someone that can score and hit big shots as well as good coaching.

 

I agreed with Harden when he said all we need was a few key additions and that a third star was not necessary. Given that Morey wants cap room and swing for the fences on getting a third star who does not mind being the third option behind Harden and Howard, he won't want to tie up cap space. I think the only way the Rockets are getting a third star is by trade.

 

I think Morey himself realizes the same.

 

Who is taller???

Ilyasova 6'9 209 http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Ersan-Ilyasova-254/
Jones 6'10 252 http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Terrence-Jones-5708/

Jones has all the physical tools to be a geat defender. This season I hope we see progress on that side.

 

This guy would be a huge contract risk. That said, you know if you take him you're getting a pretty consistent 16 and 9 with shoddy defense (given minutes) - the only inconsistent part is his shooting percentage.

After the season from hell he just had I would not give up our last remaining flexibility to give up assets for him, but if the Bucks are willing to pay the Rockets to take him, he might be a sneaky good rehabilitation project if Morey gives up on the 3rd star dream and just starts loading up on complementary players (which I'd prefer myself).

 

I agree if you can get Milwaukee to give up extra (like a draft pick) to take him off their hands that would be good, otherwise he is a rehab project and would be a gamble. You never know Morey clearly loves to gamble.

 

and without Asik's offense.

In other word, the opposite of Asik.

 

All it would take is Covington, Gee, and Hopson for Ilyasova. Milwaukee gives us a 2nd round pick or two, too. We have a perfect stretch 4 next to Dwight. If he doesn't go back to his good shooting, we have a nice expiring contract next season to use as a trade piece. After that, he has a mostly non-guaranteed contract. I like the idea.

 

Ilyasova is a good man to man defender, but struggles with team defense. T.Jones was abused 1-on-1 against Aldridge and is often out of position.

 

Everyone is judging Ersan by last year. As if the years before don't count for anything. Would you want to be judged by the year you played through injury?

This guy is a decent defender, a dead eye shooter, an outstanding rebounder, and he's got length to boot. He can stretch the 4 without giving up rebounding and adequate defense.

I'm not sure why anyone would hesitate. $8 mil is a value contract now. He's better than Ariza.

 

He is only an average defensive player, but that would be a massive step up from Jones.

 

I'd rather just make a trade for a guy like Tyler Hansbrough who has a small expiring contract and can be brought in at those times when Jones is completely overwhelmed defensively. Ilyasova's contract is just too cumbersome if he doesn't get back to form.

 

Wrong.

Absolute worst case scenario: Ilyasova can be waived and stretched after this season and would count as $1.66 million against the cap.

But more likely he can simply be traded as an expiring contract with a couple second rounders for nothing or he could be moved out as an expiring as part of a salary match. His last season only has a $400,000 guarantee. Which means sometime between now January of 2016 he will become a definite trade asset.

 

Ilyasova is a shooter and his contract is only guaranteed for 2 years. If they don't at least look into this guy, I'll be more disappointed about that than losing Parsons because I think Ariza is around the same level and a suitable replacement. Ilyasova and Ariza at the forward spots would really space the floor for Howard and Harden. We'd be a better team in my opinion. This waiting until free agency next summer idea is played out for me. Try to win now and if you have to dump salaries later to sign a big time free agent that wants to commit, do what you did this summer and what GSW did last summer when they wanted Iggy. Hoarding cap space is pie in the sky. If you have good players like Asik was, you can trade them easily for assets later on and clear cap that way.

 

But he doesn't do anything to address our biggest concern at PF which is defense.

 

1) He's at least average on defense which is an upgrade
2) We now have an issue on offense as well. Losing Parsons took a big part of the offense away.

 

Ariza/Ilyasova is superior offensively to Parsons/Jones.


Ariza/Ilyasova is superior defensively to Parson/Jones.

 

The problem is more an age thing, once they're 30+, that last mega contract is hard to give up, when you're 28 or under, it's your 2nd last and it's maybe even better to target 30-31 as your last contract year rather than 31-32.

 

That was my point. I said Illyasova was an upgrade on defense from what we have and that we do actually need to improve the offense as well due to losing Parsons.

I'm all for Ilyasova as long as it doesn't cost us the NO pick.

 

Agreed. Would make us very competitive next season.