Is this enough to get him out of Minnesota? I haven't gotten that sense. ... People believe this is another tactic that Jimmy will explore to see if Minnesota/Thibodeau budge on moving him. Most around the league believe Thibodeau has been open to engaging in conversations but their price is sky high. They came so close to moving him to Miami for Josh Richardson. That didn't pan out even after exchanging medicals. If they didn't trade him after exchanging medicals, there's definitely a long way to go before they get a deal done. I haven't gotten a sense there's one close. How desperate is Houston considering they're 1-5? They're very desperate to get talent in there. They let two vital parts of their team go in Ariza & Mbah a Moute. People are glossing over the fact Ariza played 35 minutes a night, Mbah a Moute 20-25 minutes a night off the bench playing multiple positions. These are versatile players you need in your lineup and they went unaccounted for over the summer. They signed James Ennis but he's not Trevor Ariza. He's not Luc Mbah a Moute. They're reeling. They're desperately looking for talent. There's pressure around that organization. They've made their bid but Minnesota is not taking Brandon Knight, who is injured, & Marquese Chriss, who is not in their rotation & not of interest to Minnesota and 4 first round picks that probably convey into the 20s the next 5-7 years. There's no incentive for Minnesota to do that. Unless Houston is coming up & offering Gordon & Tucker, I don't think a deal will happen on that front.
Minny is going in to a on the fly rebuild. They arent going to win now, so why not add 4 1st to their arsenal for a player that is GONE anyways. You dont have to draft using those picks, you can put them together in a package and shed salary or acquire other players to pair with towns and wigs. Thibs is insane. Butler need to be the one to really put pressure on the Wolves to get traded and get the hell out of there. Harden needs to get better as well.
"Very desperate." "They're reeling." "Desperately looking for talent." "Pressure around that organization." @cyberx @Codman @Nook @ch44
After Rose's miracle 50-point game, Thibby is definitely in win now mode. "If I can resurrect that sack of cartilage dust, I can carry this team to a title through sheer will and Big Thib Energy!"
Minnesota is dumb, they don’t know how to leverage the rockets picks into a player they want. Morey is probably forced to include a third team to move the picks for someone they want
It will have to be a 3- 4 team deal. .With multiple rockets picks going to other teams as well, and other teams sending players to Wolves
The Rockets have known that their best bet to beat the Warriors is to acquire a third star player, and ideally one that can defend multiple spots. Chris Paul is old, James Harden is getting closer to being old..... so the Rockets window is maybe 12 months to add a real true impact star player, and the reality is that Jimmy Butler may well be the best player available to them, if not the last star player that they have a shot at in their limited window. If the Rockets brass really believed that Rockets team as composed was the favorite to beat Golden State, they would have brought Ariza and Luc back and ran it back. They didn't because they believed they needed another player to get past Golden State. So here we are, and lets see what happens. What fans don't always understand is that just because they view the Rockets assets as the best, doesn't mean that another organization does or that the goals of the other organization are as the same as the fans expect or think. The Rockets were willing to deal Gordon or Tucker weeks ago. I have seen nothing that would lead me to believe that has changed. The Rockets start has been very poor and that likely only increases the organization's willingness to make a radical high end change. So I would not be at all shocked if at the end of the day the Rockets move Gordon and possibly Tucker too in a 3-4 team deal with the Rockets getting Butler and another role player or two, but with the Rockets losing draft picks as well. Ownership wants and expects to win and they don't have a long term relationship with the front office like the previous owner did.
When you are in a desperate state, your chance to make a big mistake is high. Like what you said, the rockets should keep Ariza and Mbah, but Morey likes go for big name stars, so they have to overpay CP3, got Melo. Now they want to get Butler with all cost, but you can not win the title with Butler or not, he is likely going to leave for big money next year, the rockets can not match NY or LAC for the big offer. The owner already paid too much money for the current players.
Exactly. I don't think the Rockets were "as close" to the Warriors as last year's WCF seemed. A third star is needed to raise the ceiling and improve the margin for error. Last year the Rockets had to do just about everything right to overcome the Warriors talent gap. It is a lot to ask. Need high end talent to increase the ceiling and improve the margin for error.
So if we were 5-1 or even 3-3 I'd be all in on 4 draft picks for Jimmy because then you could convince me he could put us over the top. But last season we had played 25 games before we had 5 losses. This doesn't look like the same team. What happens if even adding Jimmy without losing anybody is not enough? My guess is there will be more drama and he won't re-sign. If giving up 4 first round picks guaranteed we'd have a shot at beating Golden State I'd be all in. But the Rockets look so terrible that I'm not sure adding Jimmy Butler even guarantees us an appearance in the 2nd round of the playoffs. My nightmare scenario: Age caught up with CP3 in the first year of his 4 year max deal. Capela is the second coming of Andrew Bynum; gets paid and quits caring. We spend the coming years really awful because we're locked into untradeable contracts and have no depth. But we don't even get to look forward to draft day every other year because we mortgaged our future for a 1 year rental of Jimmy Butler, who probably spends the year complaining about how his team mates aren't showing any heart.
Nook, Any idea, since we're all in a holding pattern like the planes in "Die Hard 2", just what Minnesota thinks they want from a third team, as opposed to the draft picks? Obviously whenever you get three team deals (let alone four-team deals) they become one big house of cards; a mouse-fart could topple it.
It's so tiresome hearing people call Butler a rental. Morey is not going to trade multiple picks plus top 5 rotation players for a rental. He is simply not. It's amazing that fans and analysts of other teams are - sometimes in secret - so amazed by Morey that they can't even FATHOM that Rockets picks 5 and 7 years from now MIGHT be in the lottery. Paul will be retired and Jimmy and Harden will be 35-36 years old. Frankly nothing is a bigger compliment to Morey than how NBA fans have described those picks. The guy who's picks are going to be late first rounders for eternity is not trading Gordon and multiple picks for less than a season of Jimmy Butler. If you don't know that, you haven't been paying attention to this franchise at all.
of course its not the same team harden wasnt even injured in the first 25 games ariza replacement also got injured cp3 got suspended other players were also injured you read too much cf to be able to think rationally
Let's be real, we ain't getting JimmyB. Thibs is too delusional and perhaps too stupid to do the trade.
