Sometimes I wonder if people will be more sane if we just shut off all NBA news for the summer. Just do a time-skip and reveal the entire offseason right before training camp.
Are you suggesting it's unreasonable to wish actual death on Les Alexander for offering more money than the Clippers did??
Yeah, this season is a total waste. Sure we have our starting PF and PG back from injury, and still have time and assets to make other moves. But we lost our backup PF, how could anybody seriously expect to overcome such a crippling issue.
Smith's bone headed plays and ball hog bricks contributed to the tight spots during the Play Offs. Maybe there's one too many 6'9 guys on the team as it is? You guys realize Dekker is going to probably be a pure 3 pt shooting type with way more speed and agility than the aging Smith to be able to cut to the rim with some nice finishes rather than just plain layups? Come on suckers.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't OKC actually still in luxury tax territory right now even after trading away Perry Jones? So at least at the moment, Les is even cheaper than their owner.
What exactly do you think that the Rockets should have done regarding Smith? Pay him the full MLE? If so, that would have cost $5.4M for Smith, we would have had to let McDaniels walk and we could only have signed Harrell to a 2 year minimum deal (~500k/year). In all that approach would have cost us just under $6M in total next year. Instead, we offered Smith $2.5M so that we could use the MLE to resign McDaniels and Harrell. That would have cost us $5.4M + 2.5M = $7.9M. So, our offer would have actually ended up costing us almost $2M MORE than just signing Smith using the full MLE. How exactly does that show that Les isn't willing to spend money? I'm not following your logic.
It's July and we're already in tank mode, huh? Please CF, take your hand slowly away from the red button.
i don't understand where people are getting this. Smith took LESS money to play with the clippers. We didn't give him away, he left.
Technically yes. But he reportedly wanted to be here. It sounds like the Rockets did something to drive him away. Either he wanted the MLE(or a decent chunk of it) or he wanted to know for sure he wouldn't be splitting time with D-Mo and T-Jones(and possibly even Harrell) at the 4.
so he wanted to be here, but was unsure of playing time with dmo and tjones so he took less money to go backup blake griffin? that doesn't seem to make much sense. he had a place in the rotation here, and still left for less money. maybe it wasn't that he didn't want to be here, just wanted to be in LA more. I'm fine with him leaving. He wasn't worth the MLE, and accordingly, no one offered him anything close to it.
I would like to also throw in that paying Josh just 3.7 million of the MLE would hard cap the team at the apron. Potentially making a trade for a talent upgrade very difficult and impossible if the trade would push the team over the apron. Using the MLE would also negate the possibility of receiving a player in a S&T deal later in the summer.
Josh Smith was cut by Detroit for a reason. He's a good role player, mainly as a defender, but he has one of the worst shot selections in the NBA. He tosses up shots like an all-star but is a very poor 3-point shooter that can quickly shoot you out of a game. Again, defensively, I thought he was solid but considering he couldn't stay on the court during crunch time because of atrocious FT shooting, he was a liability. Bottom line is Smith can be replaced. I just hope Morey can sign a guy like Dorell Wright, a 6" 9" guy that can knock down 3's at 38%, grab some rebounds, and play above the rim. Hell, even D Arthur could be a plus off the bench.
