I think the Rockets will strike out on most good free agents (FVV, Lopez, Harden, etc)…they'll end up paying a sub-par player a large one year deal or trade for players on one-year deals into the cap space. Players to trade into our cap space: Malcom Brogdon Derrick White Joe Harris DeMar DeRozan (maybe the Rockets would incentives the Bulls) Kyle Lowry CJ McCollum Patty Mill Tyus Jones Underrated FA that can help coach our young players: Seth Curry Kevin Love George Hill Danny Green Joe Ingles
FVV (age 29) may get a 4 year contract. BL (age 35) may get a 2 year contract. I think that the Rockets would rather roll with 2 year contracts for vets. The Rocket may have to significantly overpay any FA to get the deal done, so 2 years of contract pain is way better than 4. I have a sneaking suspicion that Ime might be looking to land his starting PG via trade ... maybe targeting a PG with a Spurs history like Patty Mills (age 34) or George Hill (age 37). Both appear to have one year left on their contract.
Admittedly without thumbing through this array, the name I hear no where is a prime FA pick-up in ‘my world’, Grant Williams. Young, tough, best year was under Ime, positional liquidity, 3-point deadliness + improving putting ball on the floor. Good teammate, selfless.
I don't think Brooks should even be in conversation for a team trying to build a better culture. If they could get Reaves or VV, C Johnson and Lopez it would be a home run. Good team guys, with hustle and shooting across the board. Much needed.
Reaves/Johnson are the ideal SF targets. I like McCollum but we need a more 3 and D oriented guy. Feel like FVV is too expensive and still at a point in his career where he wont want to defer to young guys. Jalen/Bari/Sengun should be our focal points this year. Schroeder/Johnson/Lopez or something of that nature.
With Brooks I was against it when I thought he could be signed for $5-10m on a one year contract with a team option for the second. Now he's leaking through Stein that he would not be happy with the NT-MLE $12.4m lol People on here have suggested some insane numbers too like $15-18m per season with multiple guaranteed years. Are you crazy? Dillon Brooks shot 32% and 31% from 3pt range the past 2 seasons with a well defined simple role on a team with very good chemistry. He also just kept ignoring his coach who was telling him to stop heaving up a shot when they're running plays where he has to touch the ball. On offense, he's WAY below average. He would reduce our spacing, teams will just sag off him if he gets the ball - they will just prepare to double team Sengun/Green. He got 2nd team all defense because he was on a great team with the DPOY JJJ and Steven Adams - he's not even a top 2 defender on his team. That mathematically doesn't make up for what a negative he is on offense. There's no way he's worth more than the league average. We already have Amen and Sengun who will get major minutes and can't shoot very well. There are no teams who can live with 2 bad shooters on the floor. Are we going to discover that Ime is outdated offensively? That he lucked into a shooting big in Horford and doesn't realize there's no way that scheme would work if Horford couldn't shoot? Why in the name of god is Rafael Stone interested in this guy? If you're thinking Udoka will make him be more responsible, it ain't happening. Jenkins IS that guy too and they tried to do it for years until they gave up and put a press release saying they don't care what they could get back in a Sign n Trade, they just don't want to even talk to him ever again. Go read a Grizzlies board to hear stories about how he'd just jack up shots intended for Bane/Morant because he felt disrespected not being treated as a big scorer. Major red flag. I can't imagine that if Grant Williams is available around the same price, we would go with Brooks. How much better is he defensively than Williams? Because Williams is ten times the shooter he is. This is the millionth time I'm ranting about it, I'm done now. Please don't happen. Please don't waste a perfectly good amount of money on this idiot. Even when he was shooting well he was not worth it.
interesting; KJ’s contract is pretty minimal, so we won’t add much cap room by moving him. Clearly we avoid having to pay him next year if we trade him, but this has to be more about making space on the roster for vets and our core young guys. Really want Stone to get a deal done already. He needs to get either a protected 1st or a solid vet on a desirable contract for KJ. If we do 2yrs $80 mil for FVV, and 2yrs $55 mil for Lopez, I don’t see money left over for Brooks barring a KPJ salary dump.
I agree. I was using the same rationale though about Harden until I learned the Rockets HAVE to spend $50M. So in that case my preference is 1-2 year deals overpaying to maintain flexibility when the kids come up for contract renewal.
pretty much, Udoka is just doing his best magistrate/judge impersonation, non Article 3 type that is, corporate handler status
Stats are important but they do not tell the entire story. KPJ makes a lot of mistakes that cost teams wins - a ton of small things. FVV doesn't make many of those mistakes at all.
