So let's rate how the ownership and front office have done at the deadline point. Try not to be 100% biased towards the deadline moves. Let's try to make an assessment of all the moves this summer to this point. The idea is to measure how much we improved our chances of winning it all given our situation, assets and resources. I'm not going to make an assessment of why these players are in/out since it just gets drowned in contentious technicalities. Also I'm only going to include players who have a 1% or more chance of being in the rotation, so guys like Caboclo and Edwards are disregarded. Out: Ariza, Moute, Joe Johnson, Ryan Anderson, DeAnthony Melton, Tarik Black, Melo, Ennis, MCW, House, Zhou Qi, 2019 first round pick, 2 x 2nd round picks, a few million cash. In: Shumpert, Hart, Clark, Rivers, Faried, 2021 Second Round pick swap from Philly. So before the buyout candidates phase, how are we doing? Take into consideration the rest of the league is not static, your competition is typically improving all the time.
I’ll give them a C. The clear savings motivated moves are annoying AF. But the names I heard in here were almost equally annoying. AD? Bradley Beal? With our assets? Lmaooooooo. If not getting guys like those are the standard you were holding Morey to than EL OH EL. Shumpert is a nice move. Like Faried, because we don’t really have a guy like him it makes the move a little more important. Plus I don’t have to watch ennis terrible lateral movement for another minute
Nobody moved into the West that changed thier team for the better. Buyout market is not going to push anyone over the edge in the West so I'm satisfied and gave them a B. If we beat GS in the playoffs we can beat anyone in the East.
If Harden and CP3 were 25, I'd say B-, but since CP3 is aging faster than the Nazi from Indiana Jones who didn't "choose wisely", I'd say D-
Compared to top teams GS add boogie Raptors add kawhi, gasol Bucks add mirotic 76ers add butler and Harris Decline from 65 wins to 49 wins pace
Shumpert makes them a bit better today than they were yesterday but is an expiring contract. My biggest questions aren't about this season , they are about next year - Can they retain Rivers / Faried without use of the MLE or at least replace them with equal quality via minimums allowing them to add another quality player ? Are they committed to retaining Shumpert beyond this year ? If the answer to any of the above is no , they are going to have a hard time improving next years roster over the current status.
Team improved. Just have to be cautious with injuries. Like CP3 says, a team has to beat us 4 times out of 7.
I’m fine with those adds being your issue... but asset collection and what he did before this year should be your issue with Morey then. Besides Mirotic I don’t think we had the assets for any of those guys and boogie wasn’t coming here. So maybe the issue is if we had a guy like Shumpert, or kept ariza we would have been able to make a move for a guy like niko.
PJ is solid, but he won't shoot like Curry in the Playoffs again like last year. 47% was a Fluke!! If he shoots 32% like he did the year before with TOR we wont pass the second round. If PJ meets us in the middle and does his season average of 38% in the second round, then we can beat anybody except GS. Unfortunately, it looks we will see GS in round 2.
As much as I have complained about the tax issue , the more I think about it , the more I realize that avoiding the tax this season is important because its going to be increasingly difficult to avoid going forward. I expect they are paying the tax next year & the year after as well … It'll be tough to avoid when they are within $10m with only 7 players under contract next season.
you give up first round pick like its free then you got taken for a first just because to save money and trade away a pick look at some of the picks that went in this years draft late in the first some good player still fell to later round or second round build through the draft is good for future
D...summer was a straight up F...deadline was meh, I obviously hoped for more, but we have no assets, and teams don’t want to help out the Rockets
Forget about roster changes folks...harden just need to man up in playoffs and we good...no more 2-13 stinkers from 3 in game 7 He needs to go full killer instinct...and forget all about behind the back crap
Michael Jordan in his prime in playoff mode wouldn't be able to take this team to the title. Harden's gonna bounce if we don't justify ducking under the tax. The excuse is better this season than later, so this summer will be very interesting.
A lot of the fans here seem to have really short memory - Houston's big 3 has always been Harden+CP3+Capela. That was settled a long time ago. Signing CP3 to his max was a must from day 1 and the Capela contract is more than reasonable. The following moves are all about building a supporting cast around the big 3. The team added some solid veterans (the supporting cast maybe even slightly better than last year) and get under the tax line at the same time- Morey has done his job. NEVER understood some fans' perceptions of landing a 4th star with HOU's cap situation and assets on hand. Maybe DM has spoiled HOU fans. Anything short of magical is a failure
Im tired of the argument 'we have big 3 already'. So you think we can't improve? We are not clicking nearly as much as last year anyway. Just because we played good last season doesn't mean we shouldn't go deeper with our roster. And trash assets get converted to good players whole week it's just the Rockets board inability to make those moves. Last year we "only" had to worry bout GSW and eventual finals were a walk to a groccery store on a sunny day. Now you looking at Miluwakee, Toronto and Philly all far superior to last years Cavs. And on the west? You got GSW who added Cousins, OKC playing way better, Denver becoming a powerhouse all of a sudden(people not giving them props, but were they giving props to last years Rockets?)..... It will be a looooooooot of harder these playoffs and we are at best the same as last year - IF chemistry gonna click and Paul gets back to shape
