I don't think Dwight Howard shares your optimism. We don't have time to wait. Our window is now. I don't think a lot of you get it. Let's say lose in the second round this upcoming season with Dwight turning thirty. Do you think he opts out or bolts for a better situation. What kind of signal would that show to future superstars? It shows that we won't build contender to protect precious cap space. Superstars want to play for winners. They don't want to play for people who wait for next season. I'm sorry disagree with full heartedly
asik was big in the playoff and also when howard was out, apparently you forgot... lin was pretty much our 6th man and fill in while bev was out. Bev hasn't shown he can be a everyday starting PG, also we're putting too much faith in canaan as the backup pg who didnt showed much last year.
It's a New Age with the same results. This is H Town with another first round exit this year. It's the Yao McGrady era but with younger players. McGrady didn't like to play defense just like Harden doesn't but at least they had a better coach back then. Too bad Dwight can't hit free throws like Yao used to though. They have a younger Rafer Alston in Beverly and just lost their Battier, even though I don't think Parsons is worth that contract. That's the going rate for SF these days. But its 2009 again and Morey managed to secure Trevor Ariza. Splash! Oh well that glorious cap space is going to net the Rockets a free agent in 2016. Just wait again, and again, and again. #RedNation.
Signing Parsons would lock your options up. Now, the Rockets have a similar player in Ariza for much cheaper. They now have the space to actually sign a great player in a position of need... like, say, the PF position. Or the PG position. If they signed Parsons, then he would be their third best player for the foreseeable future without the space to make big improvements to the roster. Whereas now, they have the room to really improve those positions of need.
LOL at the Rox are back in dark ages quote. I have seen the dark ages, and no, we are not there. 2 Top stars, solid role players in Ariza, and Bev, with 2 talented young bigs in Jones and DMO. There is only 1 ball, and I would like Howard to get the ball more down on the block. Now, he will. This is still a 50 plus win team.
We're talking about building this team very soon. Not several years from now. There is time to land these players before Dwight feels a need to opt out and bolt. The Rockets are RIGHT THERE... they aren't in complete rebuilding mode.
What I have yet to see is anyone post this food for thought. - Parsons is a max player now....Guess what he'll be asking for after his current contract expires? The bottom line is the Rox cut the cord just in time. Now his ego will grow and I promise you, he'll end up in LA or NY.
And what happened... the Rockets lost in the first round. They were not a well-balanced team last year. They were making due with what they had. (no good starting PF, an overpaid back-up center, an over-paid player in Lin, a back-up PG starting in Beverley), etc. This summer, their goal was to re-balance the roster and land a star. They couldn't land the star, so now at least the roster is re-balanced. It's now time to really go to work.
We 54 games last year and where did that get us? I am sorry we got drastically worse this offseason!!! There is no other way to paint it. Mavs got better, the clippers added some depth, Portland still added depth, and both okc and SA are still the elite of the conference. Houston lost depth, it's third best player (who was the glue of the team), and for what??? Only to add Ariza. I appreciate your optimism but we do not get better at all. If anything we got a whole lot worse
I don't think they will win 50 games, but lets say they do. That may get them into the playoffs in the West. May. Every other team in the West hunt improved, including New Orleans. And the #9 team had 48 wins. That leaves very little room to even make the playoffs. However, the big issue is nothing else is coming this year (at least nothing that couldn't be added if we had Parsons) and it seems very unlikely anything significant is coming in 2015 because Love will go somewhere else and Aldridge will stay in Portland. No other options are stars and only Millsap seems like a fit and in the price range. And if they make room for him, that is it.
Options????? What options???? Options like Melo? LBJ? Bosh? Lowry? Options like this free agency? Wake up man!!!
Oh the irony.... OP, you do realize that the first picture is our own version of The Big 3 and the second picture is our own version of best center and arguably best SG in the league plus a bunch of really good role players? I don't even care about CP25, but we must remember that, barring the far-fetched "wink-wink deal with Fegan" or he was treated like a person instead of an asset and look what happened stories, we lost CP25 because we were chasing after yet another Big 3, circa 2014.
How is the roster re-balanced? We (at best) are even at the W, but with less lineup options (because Ariza can't handle as well or play stretch 4 like Parsons), have no backup 5 and lost our only other creator and backup 1/2 in Lin. The fact he would have been overpaid doesn't matter in the slightest. We literally fixed no problems you said we had and opened up 2 more...
Let's compare: Felton/Ellis/Parsons/Nowitzki/Chandler vs Beverley/Harden/Ariza/Jones/Howard If you seriously think that the Mavs are closer to a championship with that than the Rockets are, I don't know what to think. Beverley>>>Felton. Seriously. The Mavericks might have to start Raymond Felton? Raymond Felton! What else needs to be said? Harden>>>Ellis Ariza<Parsons. It's true, I do think Parsons is the better overall player. But I think it's fairly close. Ariza is the better defender and should still be a good fit into our lineup IMO Jones<<<Nowitzki. This one is obviously in the favor of the Mavs. But even here, their biggest advantage, it is hard to say for sure what will be left of the 36 year old Nowitzki. Higher chance of injuries, higher chance of declining. His last days of an elite player are fairly rapidly approaching. Howard>>>Chandler. If Chandler can stay healthy (which is a pretty big risk by itself), this one is fairly close. They are both good defenders, but Howard is the better offensive player and better rebounder, plus is more durable. I know people will talk about the coaching. Or people will talk about the bench. But I still think the Rockets are in a better spot than the Mavs with a more talented, younger roster, plus after the Asik trade have more flexibility to try to build their bench than the Mavs do as well.
As long as Howard/Harden stay healthy this team is a lock for 50-55 wins. We are right where we were last season - a couple good role players away.
I know we aren't in rebuild mode, but take a look at the other teams in the western conference. What did they all do? They all added depth or bolstered their rosters. Like I stated earlier Mavs got a whole lot better, Clippers added depth to their bench, the Grizz added some veteran leadership, Portland secured Steve Blake, and both SA and OKC stood but still kept their cores intact. Every team I listed kept their core and will build on last year's success. What did we do? We lost asik, lost Lin, and lost Chandler only to gain Ariza. Yeah we will be ok....
Because the Rockets got Asik and Lin on bad contracts in order to pry them away from their previous teams before the Rockets landed Harden and Howard. So now, you had cap space going towards a redundant player in Asik and a vastly over-paid player in Lin. The Rockets didn't know they would be getting Harden and Howard. Otherwise, Asik and Lin wouldn't have been on the roster. Now you have Parsons getting a $15 million dollar per year contract, and if the Rockets matched, you'd have the same problem with valuable space going towards an over-paid player. Now, they have shed those bad contracts and are not limited in any way.
