When McHale agreed to be the Rockets coach he went to Martin and said "No Kevins allowed on the Rockets...that means we can still have one Kevin......you do the math"
His Smugness the Flipster self-creates the crazy offseasons and inseasons. Clearly, I am not a fan of his. He's got some talent there and did make a timely good deal with LBJ er Griffin. And gave away two p/o contributors.
I think it might be possible. Lowe referenced it would have to be a complicated sign and trade. In the offseason, I think we can trade with a 150% difference in salary, meaning we would need roughly 12 million.
You have to salary match in the NBA. We cannot take back more than 150% of the salary we give away. Thus, Ariza's contract+ Papanikolau's 5 million non guaranteed contract are basically the only optimal solutions to trade and acquire the monstrous salary Aldridge demands. Morey is set up to stabilize our small forward rotation tho. The KJ McDaniels trade midseason of this year gives us the oppurtunity to sign a young, quality defender that has undoubtedly been practicing his shooting and Brewer is also desperate to return. Losing Ariza hurts, but I think a Brewer/McDaniels small forward rotation could more than hold their own, at least defensively. This would make our rotation: Beverley/Llull Harden/Brewer McDaniels/Brewer Motiejunas/Smith Howard/Capela ***Plan contingent on Llull accepting MLE offer and Smith accepting 2.5 million dollar offer***
I see the argument for trading Ariza but I just cannot agree. We are too close and he is a critical part of that. I want Ariza to flank Harden for the next few years. We just need to find a point guard for that duo. Praying Llull comes over.
Morey is going to do the same thing he always does, only slightly more risk adverse based on us already being contenders. He had built in flexibility to make almost any deal possible. He will send out feelers to the premium free agents like Aldridge, Gasol and Love. If they get far enough in discussions, they will meet with the agent and player. If Love, Gasolor Aldridge agrees, Morey will immediately make a deal to clear capspace to sign them (Morey will have already discussed hypothetical deals to move players like Papa and Ariza before hand making it easy for him to deal). There is like a 5%-10% chance one of the three big free agents agrees. If that Happens the Rockets will look for a less impressive 3 + D small forward and give Brewer a lot of minutes. Assuming none of the Big 3 free agents come, he will look at trade options like Ty Lawson, Kyle Lowry and possibly Rick Rubio. The cost to get one of these players will be higher than many on the board think because there are bad teams thirsty for anything close to an all star. I could see Sacramento paying an insane amount for Lawson. At that point Morey has to decide how "all in" is he and how realistic is it that other near all star players will be available in trade at the deadline. After getting burned by Dragic, I suspect he pays more than he would if the Rockets were not in their prime. If that fails, Morey then plays up to his players and media the idea of continuity. He resigns Beverley and Smith and Brewer. He uses the MLE (if he hasn't already on Llull) and looks for a more minor deal during the season involving Jones or DMO.
I tend to agree, we need to aim to bring back bev smith and brewer. Then bring over llull and trade papa johnson and a pick for kmart. Llull Bev Harden Martin Ariza Brewer Dmo Smith Dwight Capella We would be 10 deep, and that bench is absolutely dirty.
You have to operate under the assumption that Howard either opts out or severely declines sooner rather than later. If you have the opportunity to get Love, Aldridge or Gasol, at the cost of Ariza....you do it.
From what it sounds like, Sergio Llull is plan B if they cannot get LMA or Love. I wouldn't mind getting Llull for MLE and trading K-Pap, Prigioni, and a pick for Kevin Martin. Don't know if he is available or not, but he'd be an ideal backup for Harden and the shooter we need.
If you're operating under that assumption why will you trade for LMA or Gasol considering they will also be declining at the same time as Dwight? You will end up with the Spurs situation where you have old dudes and a young in prime Harden....except unlike the Spurs the Rox haven't won a ring. This season has put me off Love in a bad way, he didn't play any D, was extremely inefficient and ended the season with an injury (again). Not only that allegedly he didn't want to play with HnH because they weren't winners...then it turns out Love was a complete loser who can't even stay healthy for the first round! Tristan Thompson totally stomped all over him this season and Thompson isn't even that good so why gut the roster for this guy?
