Wall, Wood and Cousins arent gonna play half court set so whats your point? Rox wanna take advantage of their quickness and athleticism by scoring in transition not setting up half court plays. Trust me Wall isnt a guy you want Isoing for a half court play.
Agreed but it’s not like the sixers haven’t loaded shooters around Simmons. They have. He still doesn’t initiate. It’s still a pretty glaring weakness in a player If you are unplayable in half court sets. In crunch time vs. the wizards shake was handling the rock in the half court. He was initiating the game winning plays. Simmons was in the dunkers spot. That’s not a recipe for a winner and if that’s the end goal he’s not the guy at that price tag with his agent. I’d rather use him for more assets.
What's a "Durant in OKC"? His last year there they took the GSW dynasty to 7 games. Should have won. I'm not advocating rebuilding through the draft. I'm advocating rebuilding via free agency. You are correct that Wall will likely opt in for his final year. That's the reason that I'm talking about 2023 rather than 2022. If you went that route, then in 2023 you'd have to fill out your roster with players on 1 year deals. We would most likely suck but we own our own first rounder in 2023 ( we owe our 1sts in 2024 & 2026 and they have options to swap in 2021 & 2025). So that would be a lottery pick we could keep or deal. After Wall expires in 2023, then yes you would have cap holds but if your not resigning those guys then you renounce them. You'd get hit with an incomplete roster charge for 11 empty slots ( assuming you kept a lottery pick). That would only be about $11m against the cap so you'd still have lots of cap space. That approach is exactly what Pat Reilly did to acquire Bosh and Lebron. Once you use all your cap space then you have to fill out remaining spots with minimum guys. It really depends on who you sign with your cap space. By no means is this a sure thing. It's a fresh start with lots of flexibility. To me that gives you a better chance than a middle of the pack roster with no cap space and some low end draft picks.
Do you have a point to make or you want me to infer? Regardless, let me remind you that I said there is NO trade equal to Harden. Trying to get close is all you can hope for.
That's a creative trade idea. I'm just not sure where GSW are going. I think most other teams would use Wiseman and the picks to go young and sell off the Splash Bros. But I think the Warriors are going to feel that out of loyalty to Steph and Klay they try to load up for another run. Like you said, I have doubts at to if they would give up Wiseman and the two likely lottery picks for Simmons. Simmons and Green seem redundant. I'm not sure that you can get by with Draymond and Simmons shooting in a lineup. I guess they could trade Draymond. My guess is that they go with Steph, a recovered Klay, Wiseman and then hope they hit on one or both lottery picks. Here's a story mentioning the same issues that you referred to of having Simmons in the dunker position. https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/...ery-much-like-a-team-that-needs-james-harden/
He can get better. He just can't shoot. There is no guarantee that he will ever learn to shoot. Simmons is in his 4th year and he has the exact same number of career 3 point makes as Toppin. The problem is that Toppin has only played 1 game in his career. Bad comparison. Toppin can shoot.
Thanks. I don't hate hate this, but the alternative to me is better. As an aside, when I say Durant in OKC, I would think the situation here is actually worse because Durant suprised everyone with that move. Here, the assumption is Harden and the team have agreed on trading him, or at least reassessing, by the trade deadline. If he's demanding and ownership is not complying, it could lead to unforseen consequences and suboptimal play or even a hold-out Anthony Davis style. So the 4 picks aren't the end of the word, but still bad. The point is that it doesn't incentivize sucking, so we both agree that FA it is. And if we're talking about when every current player is renounced, then the only remaining question is does Jaylen Brown making $26M and $28M 3 and 4 years from now a good deal? Because having Jaylen Brown (or another young player) is not exclusive of rebuilding through Free Agency. The Rockets will either have low end FRP from another team or no low end picks. The Rockets will rarely have high end picks (you said one year), so maybe complete tank one year. We can still do that with Brown. I don't know...none of these are perfect answers because the future is unknown and Harden's actions if the Rockets don't appease him are unknown. If he's definitely leaving, then I'd rather have Wood + Brown + young Boston talent or picks + cap space than no Brown and more cap space. He's worth his contract.
Ok fair enough. Toronto led the league in transition points last season at 27.8 pts/game. Where is the rest of your scoring coming from? That leaves a whole lot of half court sets that you better be able to use dfficiently.
I would doubt that the Rockets have promised to trade Harden by a particular date. My guess is that they told him that they would try to trade him. I've also seen reports that say Harden understands that the Rockets have to get a fair return. We still own our own pick in 2023. We have both condition 1st from the trading prior to the season ( whatever those end up being). We also have a first in 2025, though it may be OKCs pick rather than our own. I prefer keeping Harden for two years because it's our best chance to be good. I'm not trying to mitigate damages, I'm trying to maximize our chances for a deep playoff run. Wall doesn't expire till 2023 and then Brown would expire the next season. I'd rather have Harden for the next two. A couple of additional seasons of Brown without Harden doesnt do anything for me.
Nobody wants to touch Walkers contract till we find out what's going on with his knee. If it's a degenerative problem as everyone is speculating (due him getting stem cell injections) then run away from that contract...far away.
It is probably reasonable to cross Toronto off the list as a championship contender type destination. The depth and assets the would have to surrender to get Harden would leave them far too thin. Siakam would therefore only belong on the list as part of supplementary pieces from a 3rd team (ie Simmons to Toronto, or Nets pieces to Toronto). It would take some doing to make such a trade attractive, LeVert Siakam and picks if Harden is desperate to leave. A few more games with Wood Wall et all might convince James that Houston is his best chance, and then we can use picks and pieces to get a big versatile forward type
I'm watching Simmons closely, and I'm more convinced Simmons is overrated after watching. He reminds me a lot of Draymond with a lot better passing, and running plays. Also, bigger size, which makes him and his team harder to defend because the lineup is just simply bigger. But that's where it stops going in Simmons' favor: Draymond shoots, and makes less money. He's also never considered "soft". I can never settle for a Simmons-Harden swap. That's just ridiculous to me, Harden is worth more and there's more runway to burn before we start getting desperate.
Siakam is garbage for the amount of money he makes.He is a complimentary piece but not the piece He is not a franchise player. Simmons and Brown atleast have more upside and are younger.
agreed if I were GSW I’d hold out with the current crop and use it as a bridge to the next generation. It’s just curious if they feel some kind of loyalty and drive to surround Curry and Draymons for their last years of the prime. Klay isn’t going to be back for another year and a half. Is that incentive enough for them to pull the plug on a trade revolving their future young nucleus? I honestly don’t think they’d trade 3 potential top five picks for Harden and if that were the case I’d reroute Simmons to Denver for MPJ and Harris with additional draft picks since Harris has sucked. Simmons would fit perfect with Denver as they need an elite defender. He can lead the offense in transition and cut in the half court with Jokic being the hub. Denver can hide Simmons easily on their team.
for those who were so giddy about someone like Siakam... here’s what Raptors fans have been saying lately “Siakam the new Hibbert” “nice of pascal to completely tank his value so we have no shot at harden now. thanks a lot dude” “There were real people who wouldn’t have traded Siakam for Harden. Amusing how delusional people get about their own players sometimes. Unfortunately you’d have to think it’s too late now.” “pascal is pretty much finished and will get you role players in return at this point” “LMAOOOOO @ The people who didn’t want to trade Pascal for Harden” “If we wait another week, we'll be lucky if we could even trade Siakam for Horford.” “This would have been good a couple of weeks ago, but at this point you cannot trade Siakam when he's at his lowest value. You have to pray he becomes an average nba player again next year. Besides, he's doing a masterful job at leading the tank.” “Houston would be morons to trade Harden for Siakam atm” “Well that escalated quickly. Media and fans alike have turned on Siakam fully. Given his recent performances, if this continues at this rate, he'll be labelled Pascal Bargnani.”
Here is a novel concept - how bout we try to go all in to convince Harden to stay. He’s the best player of anything available and it’s not like a marquee FA is going to play in Houston down the road so unless you get a winning lotto ticket in the draft, or identify another polarizing star on the verge like Harden - this is your best strategy. The only thing a trade to a contender is going to do is make us a mediocre team before we suck again.
Another fantastic start from JB. 22 at the half on 9/11 shooting. Crazy that he was essentially the 4th option at times last year.
Celtics fan here. I may be biased, but if you got to choose from any of these guys, including Simmons, I think you'd be crazy not to want JB. Of course not all trades are equal as there are other parts. Simmons is overrated also IMO. JB getting better and better. He insisted on MVP type incentives being built into his contract. He's supremely confident in himself. But at the end of the day, I hope you guys keep Harden. He looks happier lately too. Best offensive player of this generation.
