So after the trade for Lawson (and if he pans out and is successful in Houston) the Rockets appear set at the PG, SG, and C positions. That leaves the SF or PF position. With players on the rockets potentially being included in a trade being... Capela Dmo Jones Montrezl Dekker Ariza Brewer McDaniels no first to trade only 2nd round picks at this point, unless i suppose the 2018 pick which morey probably would not want to give up an asset so far in the future unless perhaps it was a superstar being traded for. the "best" SF's in the league are: Lebron No Durant No Carmelo No Kawhi Leanord No Parsons No Paul George No Rudy Gay is arguably a lateral move with ariza Josh Smith No Iguodala No Luol Deng No Gordon Hayward No Kyle Korver (perhaps but I would not see him starting but perhaps a backup) the "best" PF's in the league are: Kevin Love No Blake Griffin No LaMarcus Aldridge No Anthony Davis Haaa NO Tim Duncan No Dirk Nowitzki No Serge Ibaka No (even if they wanted to trade him they would Not send him to Rox) David Lee No (not better then Dmo) Paul Millsap (perhaps this could somehow make sense but the Hawks are probably trying to also trade a several players into one for a upgrade in the starting 5 so it does not make a lot of sense for the 2 teams to trade, maybe a 3 way) Chris Bosh (No for several reasons) David West (Nope) Zach Randolph (???) So unless something drastically changes and something happens to a team I don't see a lot of star movement through trade for the next year. until free agency hits again. Interestingly the only 2 players offhand I could see the Rockets wanting/having a chance at on these lists are both on the Atlanta Hawks. Maybe the Rockets could trade for a player that won't hit restricted free agency next year like DMo/Jones, but perhaps Morey sees them as a two headed monster and wants them to both resign.
The only way we improve (as of right now) is through the natural growth and improvement of our guys. A few of us have been saying for awhile that we wanted to go all in and quit saving assets etc. and, this is it. Jones or DMo might get traded at the deadline so that we get a return on them, but that's about it. As of right now, our core is Lawson-Harden-Howard.
Morey could probably turn 2-3 of those guys into a decent 1st round pick to stay in the draft next year. Depth is good though. A great example being the Warriors this past season. If you have the bench keeping or extending the lead. You cut down on minutes and injuries along with any other positives you could think of.
Why would the Hawks trade Korver or Millsap and what could the Rockets offer that Atlanta would want? I don't think Atlanta is ready to blow up their team and do a rebuild quite yet, and we want to keep all of our rotation players here.
You can't have an all star at every position. I would bet at this point Morey is satisfied; you're two deep at every position. Ariza/Brewer are very good players that most importantly can play off the ball and contribute on defense. DMo and Jones bring different things to the court and for all the Jones hate there was a stretch before one of the injuries where he was playing like an all star. Both guys are still young and haven't hit their ceilings. At this point I think we are all in. Only chance I see to get better is Durant. And if he wants to come here then yeah you do what's necessary. But barring that your big three is Lawson/Harden/Howard and you resign all of your depth. This year it was Bev, Brewer, KJ and next it will be DMo and Jones. This team as constructed looks good enough.
I would say Lawson-Harden-Ariza(glue guy)-Howard. Ariza is just as important to this group's success, unless you can get a Durant or a Melo for the 3. TJones or DMo will either step up or be upgraded in some way during or after this season. Other than that, I don't even see many changes coming for even our backups.
Why the hell would we ever trade Ariza at this point? He's perfect for us right now. We're set at SF.
Would love to get Korver. Don't quite see how we would do it, though. Terrence Jones plus something maybe.
I don't think we go into next off season stuck with paying Dmo and Jones, I think we trade for a solid PF on a value contract over the next 2 to 3 years. We can't afford to pay Dmo and Jones 10+ mill each.
The Rockets still aren't hard capped. They can use the smaller taxpayer MLE to sign McDaniels. They can also overpay Terry using bird rights to facilitate another trade in the future. Ryan Anderson Ersan Ilyasova Danilo Gallinari Amir Johnson All expiring contracts at the 4.
Why do we want another expiring 4, did you see how much the big's got paid this free agency? If anything we should be looking for players who recently locked up long term deals.
I'm a little concerned about rebounding at the 4, but I wouldn't go out of my way to fix it. I'd also like to see more depth at center. Dwight might be our most important player now and we need to protect him.
What should we do for the next 3 months if not talk about possibly improving the team? To leave flexibility for max cap room. McDaniels/TJones/minimum contract works for Ryan Anderson. If he doesn't take an extension I can see New Orleans trading him.
Don't see Gentry trading Anderson away considering how valuable a stretch 4 is in his offense (see Channing Frye, 2015, with Amare at the 5). I expect the Anderson-Davis duo to close most of the Pelicans games this year.
