I would love to see the team that offers us a top 10 pick for Lou, Trez, Ryno, and whatever picks we might have. We might be able to get Porzingis. If it comes down to Hayward, Griffin, Ibaka, and Gallo, I would much rather just go for Gallo and Ibaka first. Hayward is a pipe dream and Griffin is too injury prone.
Was thinking maybe separate deals. Like Lou to ATL...he'd likely help them more next year than any player they could get at 19. And then a team like Sacramento with two top ten picks and nothing at PF...flip that first plus Trez, Ryno plus whatever other 2nd Rd picks and/or future picks it'd take to move to 10. Even if the target Markannen isn't there you should still have the option to pick a good young player. Or make another move from there. I know I know. I can dream though.
he is a great third string center and injury insurance in case one of our big man get injured. Montrezl is a pf. he's perfect for the Rockets and the rockets are perfect for him considering he cant play back to back.
he was signed for the playoffs but was injured which has history of and is another year older. ultimately, his minutes this season were wasted. they should have gone to onuaku's development.
He was instrumental in guiding us to the 2nd round of the playoffs and could have taken us to a Game 7 against the Spurs. He also played well in a number of important regular season games. Nanu was not ready for the regular season, let alone the playoffs.
Hayward would be the guy to light a fire on Harden's ego and maybe surpass in on pure performance many games as a Rocket.
He can be better at times. I think a guy like Hayward would give Harden the best defensive challenge in practice and maybe show him a thing or two about work ethic. Either way the league, Rockets and other organizations collaborated to shut it down. Harden probably doesn't like it much but he'll take orders and do whatever is necessary as an employee of the NBA. Hayward paired next to Harden might let the league make it happen for the Rockets (actually compete for the title). Hayward can be Harden's Pippen on any given night.
On the one hand, you absolutely have to wonder - what would Sacramento want with Ryna, Trez and a late first to give up their #10 pick. On the other hand, they are picking at 5 already, and Ryno kind of makes sense as a floor spacer in a lineup with Buddy and Trez has upside, and the #10 pick is so hit and miss. On the third hand, I feel like Sacramento really wants to test out the Skal Labissiere experiment in full next year. He hasn't shot them at volume yet, but he came on solid after they traded DMC and did at least show some ability to shoot from the 3 - granted only 8 shots, but at 37.5% it might be something he can work his way into his game at volume. He's an interesting, deceptively potential upside type player. On the fourth hand, if you're talking about moving Lou (don't think you can just trade him to Atl for no money back), Ryno, Trez, etc. for the #10 pick and cap room, you probably need to be pretty certain you can land a very very solid free agent or two. I'm not a big Gallo fan, principally because as a PF he's a worse rebounder and defender than Ryno is and he's not a pure PF anyway, and he's also always injured, but if the downside to moving that package above was the #10 pick in a solid draft and the creation of enough cap room to sign Gallo... hey, I'd be for it. maybe switch out Trez for Dekker as the Kings have more of a need for SF anyway and the Rockets would have more of a need to keep PFs at that point. It's still HIGHLY unlikely the Kings move the #10 pick for Ryno, Dekker and a late first replacement but you never know. As a reminder, how do contracts work around the draft. For example is Tyreke Evans $10 million contract still "on the books" and tradeable until the NBA calendar year ends which is after the draft, or are those guys already off the books?
When you talk about work ethic, or you talking about not going out to clubs all the time? Cause I suspect Harden otherwise puts in the work, and I suspect he isn't stopping his clubbing anytime soon. Harden would still be the clear alpha dog with basically any FA the team could add, unless its a KD, Lebron, Steph, Kawhi, Russ type - guys clearly in his class -or a guy like Draymond who has natural leadership type qualities while being a badass at what he particularly does. But Blake, Hayward or lesser guys ain't coming to Houston and changing the culture.
You don't catch 'the drift' much do you? Harden and the Rockets were ordered to shut it down and end the season. I don't know if Les Alexander freaked out and didn't think the Rox could match with the Warriors with Nene out for good or it was orders from Adam Silver so the scheduling would be just right... Either way. It's a BS.. But maybe a combo of Harden & Hayward would make the Rockets a worthy contender to creep up into the Finals. Enough ratings and marketability for the bottom line?
