Assessing the Potential Value of a Trade Package for Our Next Star Player

Don't want to wait till 2015. That's too far away and I bet we'll have our guy well before that.

 

It will take Patterson, Parsons, and a combination of draft picks and young players like Terrence Jones to get a deal done. Plus any other player like Delfino who may provide cap relief.

 

My personal opinion of the worth of Rockets players as of right now.

Tier 1: Parsons, Asik
Tier 2: Motiejunas, our 1st round pick this season if we're in the lottery
Tier 3: Jones
Tier 4: Patterson, Morris

That's it. For a player of Love's caliber, I imagine it would take Parsons, Asik, and our 1st rounder if don't make the playoffs, Motiejunas if we do, and extra 1st rounders in the future + maybe Patterson or Morris. Harden came with a price tag of a 12th pick, a ~5-10 pick, and Kevin Martin who was ironically incredibly valuable for that particular team. But draft picks are more versatile than players, so IMO it would require more if we just go with players.

 

Well i think we can all agree that currently we are tapped out of trade assets and need to develop what we have, namely Dmo and Jones. Ideally im hoping that we trade for Millsap or Aldridge at the deadline this year for that number 2 "star". After all is said and done we can hopefully package enough talent around whoever we trade for this year and other assets (picks and current players) for Kevin Love. While 2015 sounds like a long way away, its pretty much the most feasible and realistic way to become a contender in the smallest amount of time. We should consider ourselves lucky that we arent rotting like most other small market teams (even though were the 4th largest city in the US and apparently the coolest city?http://www.forbes.com/sites/morganb...-our-list-of-americas-coolest-cities-to-live/ )

 

Develop players. sign love/aldridge in 2015. Think Cleveland's Irving may recruit love though.. They are Pepsi uncle drew team.

 

Not down to trade parsons mang..

 

Love to Cleveland? lol, have you ever been to Cleveland?

 

Yeah, seems like the 2014 season is a good time to pull a Harden-type trade with K. Love positioning himself to leave Minnesota after that season.

Also, an interesting idea that a Josh Smith might be valuable to Minnesota (or whoever) in a trade for Love (or some other star). Not sure Morey agrees with that position, but I can see how Minnesota's management might want to try to compete with Rubio/Smith/AK47 rather than try to rebuild again around Rubio and whatever picks/prospects they could land in a Love trade.

And this makes it more crucial that we free up playing time for Motiejunas and Jones. We need to find out what we have.

 

What's wrong with Cleveland? Sorry I don't know anything about Cleveland.

 

Ask Noah : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN0WqSeCKW8

 

Both players will go in trade most likely a year before they hit free agency. This is the way the NBA works for max contract players. If they do not plan on signing long term after their contract is up, them or their agents let the team know so they can A. move to a team they do want to sign with early so they can B. Retain their bird rights when they re-sign with the team they are currently with post trade.... meaning more $ for the player if traded beforehand.

-Aldridge's contract is up at the end of the 2014/15 season. Meaning, if he's still worth a max contract after then(doubtful), Portland can keep him as late as February 2015 before the trade deadline to move him to the team he as indicated he would sign a max extension with in the Summer.

-Kevin Love has a player option for the 2015/16 season. Most likely Love will command a max contract in free agency, and will decline that player option the year before making him an unrestricted free agent. Again, the T-Wolves could essentially wait until the Feb 2015 trading deadline to move Love if they felt he wasn't going to re-sign with them and get a bounty of assets in trade.

So, in the situation of these two players, the power lies in the hands of the teams they are with for at least two more years. If you wanted to trade for either player, its going to take a BOUNTY of assets. Most likely more than what they gave up in the Harden trade.

Short term Focus for Morey going into the Trade Deadline- The Rockets have ample opportunity this trade deadline to use the expiring contract of Aldrich, Cook, Douglas, and the team option contract of Delfino to go after 1st round picks for taking on additional salary of teams over the cap in exchange that pick & a player that's also expiring.

The Rockets have trade worthly complete player pieces in Parsons, Asik, & possibly even Lin. They have some enticing rookies in Jones & D-Mo, and some intriguing young contributors in Smith, Patterson, & Morris. They have the previously mentioned expiring contracts. Lastly they also have 7.5 mil in cap space.

The only thing they are missing is tradeable draft picks. Since I dont see much on the market right this second, I fully anticipant Morey to use all of the expiring contracts to trade in February for even just a couple draft picks.

-Lets just say that potentially gives Morey 1 first round pick, 2 second round picks, the Rockets first round pick(assuming they miss the playoffs), and whatever players are necessary to make the deal work. Summer of 2013, Morey should then have the assets to pull off a major blockbuster. Right now, he just needs to focus on wheeling and dealing come February. Because they MUST get picks for those expirings at the deadline if they want to be players this Summer in a blockbuster.

Play their cards right, and they might have two first rounders to center their trade around. That's enough to get the conversation started on a major target that hits the open market. I think Love & Aldridge are a year premature, so Morey might actually go for future picks that might not mature until 2014 or 2015 to allow them to carry over, but there still might be some names that come out of nowhere that Morey needs to be ready for in trade this Summer.

 

I dont see how we can prognosticate on what we might be able to do in 2015. It's too far into the future and there are too many variables. I think the best you can do is look at the team's assets right now and guess at what we might be able to accomplish this coming offseason.

At the deadline, we'll be one of 3 three teams with cap-space to absorb salaries from a team that wants to blow up the roster. There's an opportunity there to acquire a star. In the offseason, we don't have max cap space, but we're close and probably could make a trade to get max cap space, or otherwise use the space to take on another team's star that wants to leave. That's opportunity #2 there. The draft could have been another opportunity, but the Rockets are playing too well right now to capitalize on it.

That's pretty unfortunate, imo, because the chance that Morey snags someone on #1 and #2 is pretty small. We might have the financial flexibility to deal with a counterparty for a star, but we haven't got a whole lot in proven talent to send back. Harden is obviously off the table, there's some restrictions on trading Lin & Asik because they were signed as RFAs, it'd be hard to part with Asik in any case because good centers are so hard to find, Royce White is radioactive, and our draft pick is encumbered. Otherwise we've got Parsons and a couple of rookies who haven't shown anything yet.

So, you may be right that 2015 is a realistic timeframe. I'm sure Morey will take a swing every deadline, every draft, and every offseason. But, it may take a couple of seasons of the slow accumulation of assets to have something to score with.

 

Can't say I've been there but from what I've seen from video footage and pictures that place looks dead.

 

I truly believe that D-mo's development at the 4 is integral for the team's success. Either he blossoms and we keep him, or he stagnates and he's a moderately valuable trade piece. I think he's a perfect fit for this offense, especially paired with Asik.

 

Agreed. Even as a trade piece skilled 7 footers have excellent value. As a part of this team moving forward he has the skills to be that player eventually. He has a long way to go, but I agree he could be a very important player for the Rockets moving forward.

 

Not to mention the fact that D-Mo CONSISTENTLY blows up lesser competition. The guy needs NBA minutes. I'm glad Morris is getting burn while Patterson is hurt but I wish Dmo could start coming off the bench at least. To me, with a guy like D-Mo, he has to see his weaknesses in order to fix them. If you tell him he's not NBA ready and he never plays in NBA games he'll just assume you're wrong. He needs to get "thrown to the wolves" a little bit so he can exerience getting knocked around by bigs that know how to play defense. But obviously Morris building value is a good thing. I just don't see Morris as having a longterm effect on this team, other than through trade. I would love to be proven wrong though. It's possible that he could end up playing at the 3 if Parsons were ever moved for another star, but given his development I think that would be a mistake. I would move Asik before Parsons.