Please go to the Please go the Random trade thread and take a look at the list of starting PG’s in the league and tell me his pretty damn good. FVV is a bottom 5 starting PG. He would be a great backup PG, but our horribly deficient offensive head coach can’t see it.
It isn't that simple. First, he wouldn't necessarily be a starting point guard - he could operate as a 6th man or part of a 3-man rotation. I know Dallas has spoken to the Rockets about FVV for example. Second, 30 million a year isn't what it was. The cap has increased and continues to increase. Jalen Suggs now makes 35 million, KCP makes over 20 million, Porzingas makes over 30 million.... Tobias Harris makes 26 million......Andrew Wiggins makes 30 million.... Kris Middleton makes like 35 million....Beal makes 55 million, Jaden McDaniels makes 25 million, Jeremi Grant makes over 30 million, D. Murray and McCullom both make over 30 million.....hell, Emaunel Quckley makes over 30 million a year as well. The financial landscape in the NBA has changed and will continue to change with the cap going up..... $30 million sounds like a lot, but it isn't really....not when the Quigly's of the world are getting 5/165 and no one even blinks.
I think there’s truth here for sure - and this logic would apply well to Fred if this conversation were being had last summer, coming off his 2023-24 season. At that point in time we had evidence to believe FVV was currently a comparable player to the Quickley’s and Suggs of the world. A solid starter. But Fred (although he’s a player I have a soft spot for) was way way below that level over the course of 2024-25. He shot 37% from the field and a bunch of his metrics fell off a cliff. Nobody has ever shot below 38% and gotten even the MLE the next year; typically it’s a ticket to veteran minimums. It was a contract year and the NBA is a performance league. If FVV had had a solid year I’d get giving him $30M/yr. I don’t get giving him a contract that assumes his most recent season didn’t exist.
I need something in the $20’s; I think his value is $26. And if Fred is coming back I need us to move on from Jalen. Running back that backcourt feels to me like a failure to address one of the major issues holding us back.
Most everybody you listed is better than FVV in my opinion, but the money should be looked at from the Rockets cap situation, not the mistakes that other teams have made. The 2nd apron rules have changed the landscape dramatically. I don’t expect any of this year’s FA’s to get much more than the tax payer MLE. It always comes back to who are the Rockets bidding against. The cap grows 30m, so what? What happens when we need to extend Jabari/Tari and in two years, Amen. You are going to need that 30m on guys that actually are core to us being a championship contender. As far as the other point about FVV might come off the bench with Ime as the coach, give me a break.
