So basically he is such a great asset that teams are afraid to sign him because his greatness will disrupt rotations for REAL CONTENDERS like the Lakers.
I honestly felt certain he must have signed somewhere by now. I'd been too busy to keep up with more than watching the games and haven't had time to read Rockets news or the forum. And it occurred to me to wonder where he wound up so I went to ESPN/NBA/Players and typed in his name but no result came up. I figured his new team just wasn't in their database yet so I came here and read through six pages certain in the knowledge that someone must have signed him by now. I'm genuinely surprised that he hasn't signed anywhere yet. He's 7' tall. Something has to be pretty wrong that nobody has signed a 4 year vet that's 7' tall and recently got offers of 7 or 8 million a year. I find this news pretty shocking but mostly it just makes me glad The Rockets aren't a part of that anymore. The Rockets are having a banner season, they're the universally agreed upon best surprise team in the league... IOW they've defied all expectations.... MDA seems to have unlocked Harden's potential the way Jackson seemed to unlock Jordan's (nobody saw that coming).... Bzdelik is really making the difference on defense and you see it when they put in consistent effort. #2 in the league in defense during the streak? That translates to a very easy analytic: when The Rockets put forth effort on defense they almost always win. Nobody saw that coming. And they've been doing it a lot. I didn't see any of that coming. I wanted Jeff Van Gundy and we wound up with someone somehow so much better. The team chemistry is off the charts and really most importantly this is a squad that does not take games off. "Most importantly" because I don't think I've seen it in any prior Rockets team (too young to remember that about the Malone/Rudy T/Murphy years or even Sampson's too short time with the team) but in my post-championship/adulthood fandom I don't remember this ever happening before. I'm not saying they don't lose focus and take off quarters. Or a player may take off a whole half. Or the team might take off the 2nd and 3rd. But the team (including every rotation player) never takes a game off in the way past Rockets teams have. What I mean: This team isn't taking lesser teams for granted; it's learning to step on their necks so badly they can sit Harden for the night at the end of the 3rd quarter. That is brutal. And this roster is up for the big games too. When they've lost it's almost always been close and we lost games we were in until the last minute or last couple minutes against San Antonio (twice), Cleveland, Memphis when they were playing better... Those aren't exactly embarrassing teams to lost to, especially when they were games that really could have gone either way. I think I remember the T-Wolves game being their poorest effort but even in their poorest effort they found a way to win. Past Rockets teams didn't do that. I'm not including Olajuwon's championship seasons in this. I won't engage in that sort of heresy. Those years are untouchable. To compare something to them would be like resorting to the example of Nazism in a political argument; it simply isn't done. Or shouldn't be. Also it's pretty fun that our team is finally getting national respect! And getting it like crazy! When was the last time THAT happened? Remember when we won it all and we didn't even get the national cover of Sports Illustrated? They sold a special edition in Houston with the Rockets were on the cover but the NBA champs that year didn't get the national cover. Unheard of! But that's the disrespect this team has suffered from in some form or another for ALL these years. And now we're finally getting much deserved props and we should be! Legit MVP candidate, legit coach of the year candidate, legit 6th man, legit executive, but more than any of that is the wins. As I've written this, obviously, more and more I've realized it doesn't really go in this thread. But maybe it sort of does after all the handwringing over all the months over what? Over D-Mo who hasn't even found a team that wants him enough to sign him after all this time as an unrestricted free agent? ANY and I mean ANY rotation player, upon hitting unrestricted free agency, gets SOME offers that very same day. Add in the fact he's a 7 footer with a nice shot and postup game (when healthy) and you'd have to expect he would have gotten lucrative offers, several at least. So apparently something none of us know about but every GM seems to know about is making no one want him enough to sign him at an offer that's sufficient for him. Sounds to me like we dodged a bullet even if we didn't get anything in return. Maybe what we got in return was an end to this petty distraction. Last time I saw chemistry like this we won it all. I know that several have made the same point but why the **** have we been talking about D-Mo? How could even one of us care about something like him/that nasty situation when our team is playing like this? I got sucked into it too. I guess even when there are so many positive narratives we're still all addicted to the junk food of behind-the-scenes drama. Why? When we're playing this well? When things are going this well in just every imaginable way, apart from the Capela injury, how do we even have time to check on D-Mo and what's become of him when there is so much fun stuff to talk about with the actual team we have this year. If Howard was addition by subtraction (I think he was, sadly) so was D-Mo. He blew this and BJ blew this and he should be a Rocket now and be happy as hell about it but maybe he can't play anymore and we certainly don't need anyone bitter on this team. I hope Morey is very protective of the chemistry he and everyone else involved have achieved. D-Mo is like the Bizarro or the negative or the opposite of every else that's happening for our team this season. I think I can say I've finally lost interest. Not like it was affecting my ability to enjoy the games (NOBODY is thinking about D-Mo during the games this season - well, except DD I guess - no surprise) because it's almost impossible not to enjoy these games. This year is so special. I'm watching most of the games late at night, alone, on a recording after getting home from work and I swear to god I'm cheering them on almost like I would if I were in the arena. They're that exciting. D-who?
Im not sure if losing D-Mo is addition by subtraction, but I will say that not signing him, and changing the offense/rotations & affecting chemistry COULD BE a blessing in disguise. While D-Mo, if healthy, is a quality player, he takes minutes away from Dekker, and Harrell who are key to the Rockets success thus far. He also might have had a salary that blocks trades from happening, and most importantly a stab at a max guy this Summer (Hayward type seems obvious dream catch). Its a conflicting situation. The DD's will say you dont lose a decent player for nothing = Morey should be fired, and there are the folks who say walking is the best thing they could have done for X amount of reasons. I'm in the middle here, but am willing to see the positives in moving on. The only thing I really hope happens is that D-Mo ends up getting somewhere he can have success, and stay healthy. The fact that he can't even secure a spot on the Lakers (who only have the BAE to offer) is telling, and I hope he can get picked up by a contender, prove himself, and have a strong free agency this Summer. Hate to see the obvious career trajectory that we see now. Pretty sad for a talented 7 footer at this young of age.
I really hope you got paid for the efforts of writing all these shlt. (No about the content as I read none, just referring to the wall of text) Seriously.
It's just that way now because of how his situation played out. He wasn't going to get paid much to begin with. And now his value is just at an absolute low. Even as an UFA he interest is just minimal
Not his fault that we live in a time where newer generations are too dumb to take the time to read things and instead of owning up to it, they scream nonsense like TL/DR or Wall-of-Text.
So basically what you're saying is that it COULD BE non-subtraction that was masquerading as an addition but might have in fact been not additive at ALL
Nope. @DaDakota doesn't like Dekker that much thank goodness. He did say his favorite player is Bev, and then Bev, I kid you not, went out with a thigh contusion THE NEXT DAY. The Curse is real, I just hope it doesn't affect Bev; we need him.
No. It means Lakers won't make play-offs anyway, so why steal minutes from young players like Julius Randle & Nance Jr by signing Motiejunas..
I shudder at the horror PBev has had to go through as a Rocket. Imagine how healthy he would be had DD not liked him all these years.
So basically he is too good for a tanking team but not good enough for teams that want to win basketball games. Or maybe - he has a back injury that nobody wants anything to do with. My evidence for this = his back injury, which at least 2 teams have thus far not wanted any part of.
It's probably a combination of his back and the rotation concerns. They're afraid of signing him for longer than this year due to his back, and since they're out of the playoff picture, he wouldn't add anything to their team going forward. If he does well, someone else will compete to sign him next year and if he plays poorly, he will have taken minutes from their future guys they're trying to build the team around.
I'd rather read his rambling wall of text over your snippy one line posts. The next time you contribute something worth reading will be the first. Seriously
