We don't need to trade for Smith. We don't need him for the rest if this season and we have a lot of cap space. I've long been an advocat for him, but we have several options going forward. Smith and Millsap will both be unrestricted free agents, There is a slim chance that Howard or CP3 is available, and withall the cap space several other moves may be there. This is not a Harden situation. Smith is a very good player that you will have to overpay a bit. Players like this are not easy to find, but not that hard either. So lets keep our cap space and see what we can d with it in the off season...
Robinson's upside > Smith 2-3 month rental Smith is looking for the max, and he's not gonna get that here. Not to mention he's extremely, dangerously, overrated on this board.
I think they do keep Robinson .... the fact that he's in the first year of his rookie deal helps the cap situation for a while. He has the potential to be a foundation piece tho a much different player than Patterson. He's averaging the same number of rebounds in about 55% of the playing time. Robinson hasnt attempted a three all season which is refreshing at least to me. I'd rather bigs get it done in the paint where they can be more efficient. Between Asik and Robinson the Rockets should improve rebounding over Asik & Patterson .... which should translate into getting it up the floor in a hurry. Motejunas gives them a bigger version of Patterson with a better shooting touch from range and a post game. Harden gives you scoring and a primary ball handler. Parsons is the glue guy , jack of all trades and still has a lot of upside. Might never be a star but is already above average at the position. Lin at the point has been eratic but isnt poor , has a lot of room to improve. Of that list , I think the most likely to be moved is Asik or Lin should either DH12 or CP3 decide to move on from their current locations. If not I'd be happy with the above roster knowing they have three young PF's to develop .... the odds are pretty good that one of them turns out to be a above average at the position. Keeping Robinson really gives them flexability elsewhere because of that rookie salary for two extra years over Patterson.
Because the Rockets will still be below the salary cap after the completion of the trades, they can trade any of the players they receive immediately with no restrictions. [RQUOTER]In addition, teams cannot trade players under the following circumstances: For two months after receiving the player in trade, if the trade aggregates the player's salary with the salaries of other players. However, the team is free to trade the player immediately, either by himself or without aggregating his salary with other salaries. This restriction applies only to teams over the salary cap. http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q98 [/RQUOTER]
THIS! Josh Smith is a top 10-15 player in the league. He probably isn't getting any better than that. TRob has great potential to eventually become a NBA player. Maybe even a starter. But the uncertainty is so irresistible!
Seems more likely he ends up in utah... my gut is telling me that this isn't the only trade we're going to see from the Rockets
