Do you think a possible low-seed playoff berth was worth keeping Lee/Dragic?

i think clearly Lowry's illness scared away other teams. Teams like LA can't afford to give up a starter and then sit lowry down for 2 weeks, maybe more. If he comes back and regains his form, then i don't see why teams won't still be interested this summer...

Dragic's value is increasing more and more. That's good and bad for houston, depending on what Dragic wants this offseason. The dragic/lowry situation is very similar to lowry/brooks, and we all know how that turned out. I think the team values him more now than before, and is more open to keeping him and using lowry as trade bait. They're practically the same age, and while lowry is more experienced, i believe Dragic's got a bit more untapped potential and lowry doesn't.

 

I'd like to think so but I've never known Les to buy someone out nor Morey to pay to lose an #asset (expiring). And I really don't think you can trade him unless you want to tack a IOU a #1 to his jersey.

 

Well considering the Rox have been operating like this for a couple of years and Dalembert and Nene were open to coming here just last year I'm not sure if all this bad rep is just in your head. But maybe they just didn't get the memo that the Rockets are a bad team to play for.

He's a UFA but which team ends up owning dragic will keep him and match any offer that comes up, so basically trading for him is the same as keeping him regardless of his UFA status (unless some other team massively overpays). As the owners of his contract we can offer him more years and $$$ than other teams.

 

Just got into town and wanted your take. I like it! We have more flexability this summer with Camby's expiring. Can trade Lowry if we want to resign Dragic, and if a deal presents itself that improves the team, I'm fine with that. Gives us a chance to keep Lee and deal Martin, if we want to do that. Hate the Fisher deal, because I hate the idea of Fisher in a Rockets uniform, but give Morey an overall positive for the limited moves he made. We'll be discussing this for a long time. While I'm unhappy that we didn't land a "name," the summer becomes a lot more intriguing. Morey has a hell of a lot of work left to do.

 

Actually I think we have less flexability (if you are talking about money). We traded expirings for Camby (expiring so ok) and Fisher (player option for 3.4ish). Now I like the 1st round pick but that too will cost us another 3 million for that player. So cap wise, we lose a little on this. I just hope that Les doesn't keep Fisher and let Goran walk but I can totally see that happening.

 

so we couldnt trade kevin martin for that juicy nj pick and yet portland could?

morey went to sleep too early, clearly.

if we could trade kmart for that awesome nj lottery pick, then this would have boosted our team's building by 2 years

 

Thanks. I literally just walked in the door from a few days with the S.O. in NOLA, showing our daughter some jazz during her spring break, so I know little about the deal. Tried to listen to 610 AM driving through Houston and got really pissed off. All they were talking about was Mario Williams and the Texans. Still have to digest this, apparently!

 

They're more likely to buy him out this season and he'll just walk back to LA...plus i don't see him exercising his option anyway, he can get almost all of that back by signing a one year with a team he'd prefer, over houston anyway.

 

I hope I'm surprised by either Les or Fisher.

 

You are partially correct. Fisher will be bought out, either now or after the season, so only a portion of his $3.4M salary for next season will count against the cap. And if Fisher wants out bad enough, he might even waive his player option altogether (a big if), which means Morey will have essentially bought a first round pick for $153k and zero salary cap ramifications!

Also, where are you getting "another $3 million" in cap room for that first round pick? A pick in the early 20s would take up about $1 million or so. Also, I'm guessing Morey didn't acquire that pick to use it on a player. More likely, he'll package it with the Knicks' pick to try to move up in the draft or in another trade. Actually taking a player there in probably Plan C at best. It's a quality trade asset, one that has more value than anything the Rockets gave up today.

 

You do realize that NJ has been calling Orlando pretty much daily for months on end trying to arrange a 3-team trade to get Dwight, right? And it's been long rumored that one of the players Orlando requested was Gerald Wallace? Orlando simply doesn't hold Kevin Martin in very high regard; even when Kevin was having a career year in 2011, Orlando was still only willing to give up Gortat. I think the trade was made in order to convince Deron to reup, and get pieces for one final Dwight push next year.

And while Gerald Wallace has been having a down year, at least he hasn't been pouting, injured and MIA the last two weeks.

 

Exelent post and also great news!
so we have the same money in expirings contract at the end of the season + dallas pick and Alexander only spent $153.000.

 

I hope so but I'm not sure Fisher will sign off on that last year for free. We'll see how good he is a bargining someone to stay home.

I was just ballparking on the pick salary but sounds like I was way off. Thanks for the better detail.