Should the Rockets pursue Kyrie Irving this offseason?

Kyrie would be 4/240 for his age 34, 35, 36, 37 playoffs. Madness.

 

I don't know what the Rockets front office think. But I personally thought the Rockets should've pursued Fox. Especially if we just needed to offer slightly more than what the Spurs did, which was 3 crappy 1st round picks with no upside. The fact that they let the Spurs get Fox without giving up any of their lottery-upside picks was fairly weird. At the very least put in a competitive offer to make the Spurs pay sticker.

 

Absolutely, we let them get away with a steal--I have to believe even most posters who were against trading for him would have been fine with it at just a bit above the price SAS got him for. (Basically something like FVV + one PHX/BKN pick + one future Rockets pick.)

 

Yeah at that price I actually want him as a rental. Since him coming off the books next year will coincide with some of our extensions kicking in. Which is to say I'm not sure I know what the Rockets front office even wants. I think they are just Booker or Bust? But that doesn't really make sense because the Rockets don't have the Suns 2026 pick. And if you're talking about Booker 2027, he's going to contend with Jabari/Tari new deals and Amen getting a max soon. Honestly I don't see anything good. Not that I think Kyrie's a great answer, but I can't really think of any clear good answers. Not unless one thinks someone like Anthony Edwards wants out and somehow the Rockets are his #1 destination.

 

I think it's just the waiting game right now. See if somebody surprising shakes loose due to the new CBA and/or because he's unhappy in his situation. We're not in a big rush since our entire young core is still in the first third of their 20s. I thought at that price maybe Fox could've been the guy but I guess the front office just wasn't interested.

 

I think there are relatively few people outside this board who think Amen, Sengun and Fox can share the floor together. Of people who are even aware of stats, I've never heard it mentioned seriously given they shoot a combined 30% or something from 3. Nikola Jokic struggles to carry just two such players. We'd have 3.

You would maybe try to make it work but ultimately in most cases you're going to have to trade one and that means you build around Fox after we spent 5 years rebuilding? Is he really good enough to be worth re-pivoting our entire rebuild around him? I think Stone most likely feels no reason to take this risk and try to be some kind of pioneer with 2 non shooters and one bad shooter.

You can't trade Jalen right now either, so the shooting would be just historically awful if we acquired him. I'm sure they did some projections. Your best shooters in the starting lineup are Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks followed by Fox, Amen and Sengun? Just impossible to imagine. Even if you start Jabari in place of Brooks.

I don't think it was super compelling. I'm not happy the Spurs got him easily but I'm not surprised we didn't go all in. Always seemed like an awkward fit.

 

I get the concerns about fit, but I think I'm a bit more of a believer in Fox's ability as a shooter. I think he's just having a down season and his 3P% is going to come back up. His FT% this season is the highest of his career (82%) and he has been a fairly high-volume three point shooter the past couple seasons. I personally see his true shooting talent as being something like the average between his performance so far this season and last season (35.2% from three on 7.2 attempts per game).

 

There were literally dozens of articles & podcast segments in the last month about how/why the Rockets should move for Fox:

• https://www.si.com/nba/rockets/news...nt-threats-if-deaaron-fox-trade-happens-kings
• https://www.chron.com/sports/rockets/article/deaaron-fox-trade-rumors-20063524.php
• https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/60...n-fox-trade-rumors-kings-spurs-rockets-magic/
• https://hoopshype.com/2025/01/28/rockets-a-team-to-watch-for-deaaron-fox/
• https://fansided.com/2-reasons-rockets-trade-de-aaron-fox-1-reason-shouldnt
• https://www.si.com/nba/rockets/news/houston-rockets-should-trade-for-deaaron-fox-says-bill-simmons
• https://athlonsports.com/nba/sacram...-a-title-contender-they-want-to-trade-for-him

Dozens more:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Rockets+dearon+fox&ia=web

 

Kyrie about to own the Mavs this summer. He’s going to get a Max deal that will get him paid $50 mil when he’s 36. Dallas will have no other choice but to keep him since they would lose him for nothing and have to rebuild without picks and around AD.

He’ll be the new CP3 but with a Ring.

 

if Dallas is losing Kyrie they will want to blow it up. You don't blow it up unless you are getting draft picks. If Kyrie leaves for nothing, they can pursue whoever they want. I don't think FVV would be at the top of their list. I think they would rather let him walk than take FVV and Dillon in return. If you want to do this in a sign and trade, it will have to include draft picks.

 

Well when you see VanVleet get $40M
and Dillon get $20M per year....
Kyrie is going to shaft Stone for
$70M a year.

No thanks. Can't say it's poor team tax
this summer.

 

In 14 years in the league, PG Kyrie has never averaged as many as 7 assists per game. I find that weird, especially since the eye test says he's a pretty good distributor.

"Selfish ball hog" Harden has a career average of 7.2, more than Kyrie's ever had in even a single season.

 

Kyrie on wrong side of 30 + Udoka is a FVV fan so that may not work out. Would rather go after Naz Reid. He is perfect stretch 4 + smallball 5 for Rockets, still only 25.

 

Flat earth Kyrie is still a thing?

 

I don't think it's that complicated re: Fox. They weren't interested in pursuing Fox because they don't think having Fox on a 30% or 35% max for his age 30-34 seasons is worth much.

Not that I always agree with it, but I think a lot of the gap between our FO's views and many on this board's views is that the FO doesn't seem at all interested in just getting better players. They want a #1 or #2 on a surplus value contract, or the status quo.

They don't think trading a real asset for anything else improves the status quo, in terms of long term championship equity.

So that's like 20 or 25 guys. All of whom are long shots.

 

This version of Kyrie likely only plays 55 games a year.

 

Tyus Jones. He got stuck on the Suns for 3M and the Suns cant pay him more than that. He should be the no 1 target since if Suns lose him they cant get a better pg for the vet min.

 

Fans like you don't follow basketball you just chase headlines, media gossip, internet babble. Kyrie Irving has never been anything but a great player & wonderful teammate. He hasn't done anything close to being a nutcase

 

These kids are winning at a high level