I'm not coming out and disagreeing with you, just questioning why you think this? I mean one of the first things Morey said when the season was over is to find a head coach who believes in defense. It's been reported that Jeff Van Gundy was Morey's choice. Les has come out and said he's going to take a more active involvement in the coaching hire. D'Antoni fits the flashy offense narrative that a lot of people are saying have Les' fingerprints all over it. Do you not believe any of that? We've all been in situations at our job when a higher up has completely disregarded our opinion and gone in another direction because they're stubborn and believe they're right.
After Dwight leaves, I'd look to use our cap space as a salary dump for other teams. Would the Bulls be willing to give up a pick to get rid of the last year of Derrick Rose?
go to a michael bubble concert, with my wife of course. then, i'd go to some tech conferences to promote my 12 year analytics plan to bring glorious days to our rednation. While on a bathroom break searching for the next llull, I'd trade everyone on the team not named harden, demo and beasley. I'd finished by visiting every bakery in Paris.
what would i want to do? i would want to acquire defense-only players to make my point that we should've gone with vogel, jvg, joerger, or messina. what would i do to try to make this MDA experiment work? go small: 1) clear cap space - trade ariza, brewer, and beverley. ariza should net a low first, beverley a second, and brewer might cost us a couple of high second round picks to off load. that's an extra $22M in cap, giving us a grand total of neat $66M to spend. 2) resign dmo 3) offer max to rondo and conley, see which one we get. probably rondo since conley will most likely sign with the spurs or stay put. its overpaying but we need a PG for this system and there are no other options. (and harden shouldn't be the pg) 4) move harden to the 3 where he's better defensively and then go after playmaking SG's like fournier or bazemore. baze would be great, but we'd have to overpay to pry him from atl. fournier is probably easier to steal away. 5) go after a combo forward to can spread the floor, rebounding and ball handling are a plus - batum, parsons, ryan anderson, marvin williams, teletovic, etc... final roster: capela-dmo-harrell batum-beasley-dekker harden-KJ bazemore-goudelock rondo-terry that lineup could defend and score. you could also go big by subbing dmo for bazemore. we'd be a backup combo guard and second rim protector away from a really dangerous roster.
Pretty much agree with this post. With a couple of exceptions. I don't think it's possible. In a vacuum, yes, but when you factor in that we are competing for FA services with the other 29 teams, it's pretty unrealistic. I would not move Harden to the 3 because that takes away his advantage of physicality against opposing 2s and that's s big part of his game. i like harden at the 2 and he can defend other 2s well. The problem is defensive effort and fatigue. Play harden less minutes, and surround him with coaches and players that stress defense, and we'll see real improvement on that end. DMo is not resigning because from all accounts he's done with Houston. We traded him and players tend to remember those things. nor will we be his highest bidder. I'd love to create cap space, but it takes two to tango, and it might not be in our control to offload guys like Brew without giving up 1st rounders, and that can hurt our future. I know Bev doesn't fit MDA's system, but he's a hard nosed defensive warrior, who i'd argue is even more important to retain now that we've hired a coach who doesn't care about defense. He's also in the best cardio shape of any player, which is important when you push the tempo like MDA will. All that said, Conely would probably be the biggest difference maker for us next year. He's the ideal PG for MDA. But he'll be hard to get and as others have pointed out, we'll need to add so many more pieces, especially shooters, to make this work. Good shooters are hard to find, and every team is looking for them. Call me skeptical that even half of the above could come to pass. But good plan.
If I were DM i would walk in to Les's office, drop my pants, Pinch a log off on his desk and wipe with my resignation paper. Pretty sure Les would accept his resignation at that point.
I would blow this whole thing up!! 1. Let Howard walk 2. Attempt to trade Harden to Phili for the 1st,24th, and 26th pick. 3. Draft Ben SImmons number 1 overall 4. Attempt to trade the 24th, 26th , 2 2nd rounders, and a future 1 to jump back in the top 5 picks and grab Buddy Hield to be our shooting Gaurd 5. Sign Harrison Barns to be our new man 6. Sign Hassan Whiteside 7. Sign Rondo to run the 1 8. Resign Dmo 9. Let's T Jones walk Rondo Hield Barnes Simmons Whiteside Beasley Ariza Beverley Dmo Capela McDaniels Dekkerd Let's Go!!!!
Probably should've originally posted here...sorry! --- Cut ties with Smith, Jones, Goudelock and, should he express a desire not to resign, Jason Terry. I picture him going back to Dallas and retiring as a Mav anyway. Corey Brewer needs to go. We will likely need to give up something to get rid of his contract, whether it be a pick or two. Pick up Michael Beasley's team option - he is our sixth man scorer. He has his flaws but I believe if he could become a more willing passer, he'd be fantastic. He has the body to be a versatile defender, rebounder, and capable of scoring from anywhere.The Rockets should attempt to retain Motiejunas at a decent price. Detroit sabotaged his value, which is unfortunate for him but good for us. If he can get an off-season of rest and recovery, I'd hope he could come back to form. He can post-up or shoot threes, as well as provides some defensive footwork and passing in the paint. Rebounding is a major issue. As far as free agents go: Forget Durant. He is not coming. I repeat, he is NOT coming. At midnight, the Rockets should be waiting at Mike Conley's door. To win in this league, you need at least two star perimeter players. Curry/Thompson, Westbrook/Durant, Irving/James, etc. If Harden is to be our Nash, then we need him beside a gritty defender who can also score and move the ball. I love Bev but he is essentially a 3&D player. Conley is an all-star caliber player who not only can match-up with the star guards of the league, but also slash and shoot reliably and create plays. Lawson had completely lost it, as we saw once he was with the Pacers - it is not because Harden cannot play with another ball-dominant guard. For the second major FA target, I really believe the Rockets should go after Harrison Barnes. I would say Batum but he is almost assuredly going to resign with Charlotte. Barnes has been rendered a 4th or 5th option, but I still think he has the potential to be more. He's versatile both offensively and defensively, and given a larger role, he could bloom into a star. Gotta take risks at this point, plus it could hamper GS's cap situation. Conley/Beverley Harden/KJ Barnes/Ariza Motiejunas/Beasley Capela It's a start, right? Risky sure. We'd have Capela taking the reins and throwing him into the fire, but I feel he's a cheap alternative that can block shots and crash boards while finishing lobs. If you wanted shooting from all positions, you could slide DMO to the five and insert Beas at the 4, or slide Barnes over and bring Ariza in. Barnes, Ariza, and to an extent, KJ (its about time we played the guy, he can't shoot worse then Brewer did) are plus defenders you can throw at opposing wings, while Conley and Bev can guard opposing guards. Harden would be the maestro and you'd hope he could take this team up a notch like Nash did with the Suns of a decade ago.
I love this idea too... Trade harden for the 1st pick and Joel Embieed Draft Ben Simmons...sign Harrison Barns and rondo
The first thing I would do is find the person who leaked to the media that MDA is not my first choice, and then crush that person's career.
Even as a hatter of the MDA hire; I agree with you! I am a vocal critic of the direction of our team, but we can't have a leaky ship!
so who was Lex's first choice? I never thought van gundy had a shot. Lex can be petty like that. His battle against or hailed fuhrer, rick, began because he wouldn't buy a house here.
