How does this happen? Do they take an oath of silence like the Omerta. That's some real Italian ish right dur.
I said it in the trade thread, but assuming Sengun, Eason, and Amen are our primary core (which I do), then what we need most is more scoring at guard. Hopefully Green will develop into that, but if not, we basically need our own Donovan Mitchell trade — give up a lot for a young scoring threat at guard without giving up Sengun, Amen, or Eason.
they should be. I also feel very good about the Sengun extension. Building around those 3 makes sense; need to add a core shooter and rim protector. Maybe Reed is the shooter, we’ll see. I’m not happy with the Jalen extension and that $36 mil could cost us in many different ways. It also sets a precedent that we pay for potential as opposed to performance. The fact that Jalen can get an extension near max contract on “potential” sends the wrong message. I really hope we can get off that contract this offseason.
Best 3-man units with Sengun (>50 Min) Basically, 2 of Eason, Amen, Brooks fill the top 3 spots, followed by 1 of Eason, Amen, Brooks plus FVV fill the next 3 spots. Last 5 games or so, JSJ breaks into the mix of best 3-man lineups with Sengun, and FVV is becoming more important as well after a slow start. Basically, Green (and Reed if you consider him in the rotation) is the only rotation player not playing well with Sengun recently.
I mean, yes and no. A lot of this kind of data can be skewed by the fact that Tari and Amen dominate second units. Looking at the starters, Green / Brooks / Sengun is amongst the best with a +14.7. Green / Sengun / Eason is pretty darn solid as well. Really the only bad one is Sengun / Eason / Bari.
Things are relative. +14.7, while great in an absolute sense, is rather horrible considering how well Green/Brooks/Sengun is with either Amen or Eason as a 4th man. Basically, the starting lineup is rocking. There is big step back in production for the Rockets with JSJ (not so much recently) and Green when one of them are in the lineup, it isn't the full starting lineup, and 2 of Brooks, Amen, and Eason aren't in the game (i.e., Amen and/or Eason are feasting on 2nd units better than JSJ and/or Green). Edit: If Green gets going, the Rockets are going to be crushing teams more than they are now.
Playing with the cap calculator, I put together the following based on these assumptions: We opt out of FVV's contract and he resigns for 2 yrs / 70 mil We sign Bari and Tari each to 5 yrs / 150 mil Amen gets a max extension We keep Landale one more season, with the hopes of landing his replacement in the draft Jalen opts into the last year of his contract
IMO, what they want to do with FVV isn't just opt him out and sign him to a new contract at a lower number. I think they plan to agree with FVV next summer to a certain number of dollars over a certain number of years (say $75M/3), then opt him in to his $45M in 2025-2026, and cover the rest of the $75M in an extension. That would create the only CBA situation in which a "contract" can be front-loaded to the extreme. We could afford FVV at $45M in 2025-26 and stay under the tax, and then his contract would be smaller than the MLE in the following years when Tari and Jabari's extensions kick in. Perfect for a veteran backup PG or trade filler. It'd be like: 2025/26 $45M 2026/27 $16M 2027/28 $14M
