Rockets deal for Dillon Brooks (4 yrs/$86 million + incentives)

hmmm, not sure what Stone was thinking with this one or who he thought he was bidding against

if I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought Brooks is a family member and Stone just hooked him up

Who out there was ready with a 4 year deal for Dillon? Not to mention a 4 year deal at that type of money

 

Just to clear this one thing up, Brooks did meet with the Lakers, Mavs, and Bucks. The Lakers could potentially have offered him more than the MLE if I remember correctly. I am extremely skeptical that they offered him anywhere remotely close to what we ended up paying though.

 

The people who are waving the "uhh he was second team all defense" flag I bet are the same people who can't understand why Ben Simmons is a bust.

All NBA defense doesn't negate All NBA negative offensively. It's all linked do you understand? If you are guarding someone really well but score at a rate the the opponent is ecstatic to give up then it's a negative in the final score.

For the same reason you can't have a tier B scorer bleeding points on defense, it's not sustainable to have a great defender who screws you on offense.

We signed someone to a contract that - for him to earn it - he has to have the best defensive and offensive season of their career. His contract is what you would pay an all NBA 2nd team defender WHO CAN MAKE 3's AND it includes a premium for getting him to join a 20-win team.

The amount that Grant Williams is a better offensive player than Brooks at the very least makes up for the difference in their defense. Their impact on NET point differential is the same hence their impact on winning is the same.

I'm supporting Brooks to have his best offensive season of his career, but the front office dropped a tier in my eyes. Between this and Presti getting paid 3 second rounders to take two of our barely tested first round picks, the front office is losing me and I'm someone who's been defending them as recently as last week.

Fingers crossed Ime cooks up a miracle to make these things work. If Brooks is as good as you guys are making it seem, we should be a lock to make the play ins.

 

I agree with you in general esp about the net production of a player.

However I also want to point out for the next 3 years the money is kinda a moot point. Rockets are just spinning their wheels waiting for Green and Co to grow up. So we should just judge Brooks based on his play rather than what he is making.

Losing Tyty, Garuba and Co does suck... But at the end of the day we are talking tertiary backups. Garuba is the only that sticks out to me of the 4 guys, but even then I do see him as just a backup level player. If this move is what makes you think Stone needs to be fired, then honestly I think you lost priorities.

For example despite OKC having a bajillion more picks, I still like the Rox roster a lot more than OKC. Yeah they have SGA, but he is on a diff time line from the rest of their guys and tbh I prefer our core group of guys anyway esp Jabari, Tari, Amen, Sengun and Green I think that's a crazy starting lineup in the future.

 

I'll ask you since nobody else seems to be able to answer -- how did Stone ruin the cap or future flexibility? The piper still hasnt been paid from the Westbrook debacle so if guys were able to finally make peace with THAT then this should be a piece of cake. IMO the guys who are mad are probably overvaluing 2nd rounders a little bit and are ignoring how undesirable this team was for FAs. Overpaying was probably the only way to get these guys. Its just wild that everyone got the PG they say was needed and the team will be infinitely better on defense just with Brooks alone and yet here we are still shaking fists at clouds.

This team still has cap room. We still have the Nets '24/'26 first rounders and pick swaps in '23, '25, and '27 -- we're playing with house money! NOW they have the type of contracts that can match up with other max level contracts, a handful of promising young players on the roster and still a treasure trove of picks. It wasn't a good look for Stone to gamble on Lopez. I think the idea was hedged on the fact that there wasn't going to be enough playing time for these guys anyway - plan was you get Lopez and run 2 DPOY type players on the starting 5 or you miss out, but give these kids the opportunity to get some burn somewhere else. Both of these contracts run their course just about the time we have to make financial decisions on our top draft picks and also should be about the time when we are pushing teams in the playoffs. Its not coincidence.

Everything points to the Rockets trying to trade for a top 5 type player within the next couple of seasons.

 

Tari will be better than him within two years and Brooks' contract will be an albatross - that we will have to attach assets to get rid of after a couple of years.

 

In two years, 20 mil will not be a big contract.

 

It will still be way more than he is worth as a player and he won't have a place on this team in two years.

 

Meh, we’ll see. Just because he isn’t starting doesn’t mean he won’t have a “place.” And I don’t think it’ll be hard to move him at all if necessary.

 

Great post. I’ve been saying this since they signed Brooks and made the other deals. We have added 3 vets that will help and maintained all our important assets and created more trade opportunities. We can free up max money anytime we want even if it is at the cost of another 2nd round pick or two.

 

Exactly. You can always buy 2nd round picks if you need them they have a market price around 2Ms per pick.

 

Not to mention we'll have up to ten SRPs over the next five seasons, so it's not like we're in dire need of them.

 

Dang thats 10 Jokic level players!!!

 

unfortunately most of these 2nd rounders are over the next two or 3 years. I doubt we’ll be able to trade the 2024 picks; team’s apparently didn’t want them during this most recent flurry of trades. And we don’t really have the roster space to develop any more prospects. I suspect those 2024 picks won’t return value. But good to see we have some left before 2028.

 

the contract is horrendous but it might be money worth spent just to see Eason/Tate/Brooks on the floor together.

it's really too bad Lopez didn't want to come. a KPJ/Brooks/Eason/Tate/Lopez lineup would have been great fun.

 

Doubt it. 2 yrs isn't a long time and Tari Eason isn't a lotto pick his first extension isn't gonna be crazy.

 

Why won't he have a place? You always need a wing defender.

 

I really don’t understand why so many people make this point.

No one cares how Tilman spends his money in general. The issue is that the salary cap expressly limits how much of his money Tilman is able to spend on the Rockets roster specifically. Every dollar spent poorly has a consequence in how the Rockets are able to optimally build the team going forward.

Reasonable minds can disagree on Player X or Contract Y, but I can’t understand why so many people fail to understand that signing a bad player, or signing a good player to a bad contract, directly negatively impacts the Rocket’s ability to field the best team within the rules of salary cap...

 

Because I believe that Tari Eason will quickly surpass him firstly, and secondly I just don't believe he is a good player. The Grizzlies, who are trying to win a championship, determined they did not have a place for him on their team.