But to the point of trading Jalen now because the Rockets apparently have proven talent behind him…. That’s beyond knee jerk. And I’m someone who thinks Cam is must see tv when he checks in. Jalen Green is probably getting a near max extension soon and I don’t think that’ll make him untradeable at all if for some reason we are fortunate enough to have Cam or someone else be good enough to take some of his minutes. What Jalen can do is valuable enough to retain value around the league. So don’t worry about it guys. We aren’t the 94 Rockets. There are minutes to spare if you can hoop.
I am not excusing anyone but I think people are looking in the future, I do not think they would trade Green now. But I could see Whitmore wanting a trade if he is developing way early and there are no minutes as starter. That would be understandable.....you cannot hold someone back who is a potential scoring champ himself.
Yeah I mean in the “future” everyone will probably be traded at some point. We are likely to have the highest turnover of any team in the league over the next 5 years. The question to ask is about diminishing value. Right now it’s really just KPJ for obvious reasons and maybe Dillon Brooks who have the two contracts where you’d have to pay someone to take at this point. With Jalen and Jabari in particular, even if they get paid and then they get benched because someone outplayed them in 2 years I don’t see them having negative value. Sengun is an interesting question on an extension but even him I’d still extend if you could unless his offense just fell off the cliff and he lost his mojo.
The question is how much of the cake is left once you extend almost everyone.....that is the money you use for further role players. Fred is 100% gone, that contract is too big. I do think Fred is more useful than Brooks.
In the same stroke though, Cam looks as much of a 3 as a 2, and with Amen at the 1 you could very easily run both Jalen and Cam and have such a plethora of scoring options. I don't think Jalen and Cam are mutually exclusive players, both scorers for sure and both athletic but very different games. Imagine the athleticism of Amen/Jalen/Cam, very few teams could keep up with that. Cam's more explosive than KJ, a better shooter and built like a tank. Gives us 3 crazy athletes with 3 different styles of athleticism. Pick your poison. (And that's without even thinking about Bari, Tari and Sengun.)
Too early to tell, but at what point do we need to know if we are giving him a max extension? Mid season, end of season? Is he worth $250M? Less concerned about current fit, more concerned about this groups ability to actually get value out of trades instead of a fire sale at the last minute. I don't think this group has shown they have the ability to pull off winning trades yet.
Basically the system now are Brooks and Fred helping the young players to establish this superior defensive system. Those 2 are pretty much the system. I think it would be a different ball game when you swap those 2 out.
Generally I agree with this, but a roster balancing trade may be needed. Will take until Xmas time at least to know that probably.
Cam at the 3 depends how well he can guard 3s. I'm not sure if he'll be ready for that anytime soon. Maybe when the other team has a "small ball" lineup on the floor.
It’s too early to talk Green/Sengun extensions, but the worries about the Harden-OKC parallel are way overblown. That was a historically dumb/cheap move by Bennett. A young team that just made the Finals and he was penny-pinching AND jumped the trigger on the trade. They could have rolled the dice in RFA, like Morey is currently doing with Maxey. If Green and Sengun make small/incremental improvements, I am offering them $18-20M per, leave it or take it.If they don’t take the deal, I am rolling over to the RFA off-season, unless a super-duper trade is presented to me. This is not a Finals nucleus, no need to overpay. Harden was a star, 6thMOY, etc., there is no comparison. Just stay calm, make a fair offer and if they decide to balk, so be it, don’t panic with a dumb trade or overpay.
I get the idea, but there's been inflation. For reference, Bruce Brown signed for $23m/yr, Austin Reaves $13m/yr, Jaylen Brown $60m/yr, Gabe Vincent $11m/yr, Brooks $20m/yr. Reaves and Vincent pretty clearly took discounts to be in LA. So if you offer Green and Sengun $18-20m, they are at the same level as those guys. If there is even a 20% chance our guys can become Jaylen Brown level (good, but not franchise-level player), it'll be $25m minimum.
Good points, I guess. What is your feel on the Maxey sitch? Do you think Morey made an offer? As a later pick Maxey didn't make as much as say Jalen Green. If Morey offers something like 5yrs/$100m, how do you say no to that? Regardless of market value. I think a 5/100 offer may be rejected by Green, given what you said and given that he made close to $40m on his rookie deal. OTOH I think Sengun takes it, I mean that's a loooooot of money...
Maxey at 5/$100m is close, though it wouldn't surprise me if he got 5/$130m. He's young so his production looks safe unless he gets injured. He has lower upside than Green because of his size, which is why Green likely gets quite a bit more. Morey's style is to make offers while players are still developing and cheap. Once you get into the franchise player contract levels, nobody is worth it unless they make a leap from Jaylen Brown into Tatum. But you have to pay for that chance. I think you're right Sengun would take 5/100.
I wonder if this becomes a Paul George behind Danny Granger type scenario - where the Pacers (after 2 years) threw the keys to George over their established all-star. Way too early to tell, but it will be interesting to see the development of Whitmore (and our other young guys!)
Kinda off-topic, but kinda not ... one of my favorite clips of Paul George's where he talks about Granger :
I could see Cam becoming the future starting at the 2 for the Rockets. They have Tari long term at the 3, Smith long term at the 4, MAYBE Sengun long term at the 5, and most likely Amen long term at the 1. With those guys you'll need some more shooting and Cam can provide that.
Speaking of Green- There is literally no examples of a player of his age/athleticism/scoring bag NOT getting the max. No way him or his agent accept anything less than the max because if Houston isn’t willing another handful of teams will most definitely. Unless there is injury concerns, you just give him the max and if you need to trade him later for fit reasons, there will always be at least a few teams competing for a guy of his skill set. Even if you don’t want him on the team long term, he is far too valuable as an asset to risk letting him walk for nothing - so just pay the dude.
