I'm intrigued with Bass..but I'm wondering what happened to his game..is there a regression or seems Sullinger has more ball iq than him.
I completely agree with this. IMO the only way something like this doesn't happen, is if there is a deal that comes out of nowhere such as the Harden deal. Yes i'm sure Morey had many talks with Presti long before that deal but, to most of us that came out of the blue. I don't think it will happen but, I could see Love being moved if the T-Wolves think they could get a nice haul. Not so sure the Rockets have the necessary pieces to land such a player but, Morey has surprised us all before.
If it were me, I would shoot for cousins 1st,then wall 2nd. I would look for a young guy whom management might not want to extend. In refernce to the 2 I named,if it meant taking a contract. Okefor and wall for asik,lin, and choice of patterson/morris/jones/donuts.
Of all the trade rumors so far, the Brandon Bass -> "Rockets interested!" rumor is probably the one I'm most skeptical of. Are the Rockets in need of another below average power forward? No? Oh. Well then they must be a midrange jumpshooting team. Surely they must need a player who does that a lot. No? What about...what about his salary? What if that same guy would be the highest paid Rocket this season and the second highest-paid after James Harden? What about that? What if Houston could overpay for him? This is all very exciting!
The answer was Brandon Jennings all along. All you had to do was click your heels together three times. The power was inside of you!
If Granger is traded here, he'll be playing WITH Chandler Parsons. The Rockets have all sorts of nice small ball lineups that involve Parsons at the 4, and Patterson at the 5. I'm not sure what the price tag for Granger would be though. If it's not too much, say Delfino + Patterson + future 1st/2nds, sure. But Indiana isn't in any salary trouble. They don't need to dump Granger's salary, and probably would prefer a bigger haul in terms of talent.
I don't think the Bass rumor is real. He doesn't make sense. We would probably look for another shooter or a major upgrade at the 4. By major I do not mean Bass, we wouldn't be trading up. With Bradley coming back from injury it seems more likely Courtney Lee would be available. Oddly he makes more sense coming back to the Rockets than trading for Bass. I am of the same mind as those thinking that Morey does next to nothing by the deadline and likely only makes a move to acquire some more picks. It seems more logical that we develop our players more so they can become better assets to land another superstar. Hopefully not Josh Smith or John Wall.
I think it's real in the sense that it was fabricated by the Celtics or by a fan of their team in order to drive up interest in Bass as he is being shopped to other teams. Problem: There isn't much interest under the new CBA in a guy making 7 million per year who is putting up 8 and 5. Most of those old Orlando Magic "win now" contracts they were handing out are garbage. Props to the Celtics for trying to make it somebody else's problem now, but that's y'alls celtic cross to bear.
He brings a different element though so I see him as more of a compliment than an upgrade. Patterson is more of a finesse type of player that plays smaller than he is. Bass is a bruiser that plays tough inside and loves to bang. I could totally see him coming here, step up his game and play better than his normal status quo.
Coincidentally, this was a player Morey traded away for nothing over the long term. The assets Batum was turned into were lost for no compensation.
I definitely think this rumor was created for that reason. Our 4's have to be able to shoot the 3. Bass doesn't do that. All of our rookies, D-mo,Jones,Patterson shoot the 3 and it helps stretch the floor and make guys close out. which opens up the lane for cutters. Having a midrange/post type 4 does not help us to do that. I think that a likely target will be a 2/3 type player that is a knockdown shooter. When Delfino was out with food poisoning there wasn't a consistent 3pt shooter to help us stay in games and keep defenses from collapsing into the lane when harden and Lin drive. This happened in both the games he missed against OKC and SA. Maybe it was us playing legit contenders, but I think we need another shooter. Perhaps Anderson can be that guy. Time will tell.
I think he is quite literally a significant downgrade over Patterson in some fairly significant ways: shooting range and defense, just for starters. And I'm not exactly high on Patterson. But look at us here, falling into the trap of buying into fake buzz.
Oh man. I can't tell you how happy I would be if Batum were a Rocket again. 4 years / 45 is no joke under the current CBA, but he is more than worth it. I wouldn't even care about lost Josh Smith possibilities if Morey swings a deal for that guy. You know Morey is the type to always try to correct past mistakes, so it's not the kind of thing he wouldn't try. The bad news? The Blazers are very, very high on Batum themselves and consider him part of their new young core. I don't think Parsons, filler, and picks is even enough to pry Batum away.
That is false. Nicolas Batum turned into a compensation called playoffs. Taking the Lakers to 7 games, without Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutombo. All because we traded Nicolas Batum.
