Zach Lowe: Rockets inquired about JR Smith, also talked to the Heat

Just to talk more about Johnson(since I know u already discussed his shot discussion further) I really like everything about this guy. I especially love his toughness, we need guys like this on the team to beat GS. The only thing that needs work is his 3pt shooting and we can make that respectable.

 

JR Smith is basically an expiring...honestly, I’d take his dumbass over Ryno, but I don’t see the need...we need a legit wing player

 

James Johnson please.

 

didn't james johnson train in UFC? would love to have him and beat the shxt out of donkey

 

J.R. Smith....

 

James Johnson would be a great fit. I haven’t followed the Heat. Are they looking to trade him? Just curious why they would trade a guy so valuable. Anyone?

 

Similar to Gerald green I’d take him, one of those guys can hit 3 threes in one qtr on any given day

 

Do not want Tyler as he is a bad contract and not worth the extra year.

But James would be a great fit. Him and bazemore fit.

Hell no to JR, but the money ain’t bad.

 

owed 45 mil over the next 3 years and they’re not going anywhere...that’s about it to me

 

If true, that means that now Murray is just f$#king with us at this point.

 

Jailblazers 2.0



That's now offensive in this day and age, isn't it?

 

This guy is definitely someone I do not want to see in a Rockets uniform... cp3 might drag him out back behind the Toyota Center and strangle him before the season is halfway over if he shows the same lack of awareness of a situation like game 1. We need to continue to add players that have basketball smarts.

 

Might have been asking about a possible Ryno-for-J.R. trade. He's owed $14.7M and $15.7M over the next two seasons, but his contract for 2019-2020 is only guaranteed for $3.9M. We could simply waive him before July of next summer and his dead cap hit for that season would be less than $4M -- as opposed to Ryno's $21.2M cap hit if he's still on our books.

 

...that makes A LOT of sense. No one thinks JR Smith is going to replace Ariza, but I can definitely see Morey asking about JR(thinking of him as a semi-expiring trade asset to facilitate maybe a 3 team deal) after canvassing every front office in the league and finding Anderson's contract length is a non starter for some teams. If Cleveland were willing to let him go now for maybe some collection of young players or picks(after all, Gilbert has said he doesn't want to pay the luxury tax for a team without Lebron), then Houston could use him in a deal to acquire a different player.

I think that is a far more likely theory than Houston wanting JR Smith because of his basketball skills....it would make no sense from a basketball standpoint anyway because
A. Smith doesn't really add anything missing to this roster
B. Anderson doesn't really add anything missing from Cleveland's roster(he is basically a very poor man's Kevin Love)
C. Cleveland wouldn't want to take money back anyway because they are trying to get under the tax so Morey asking to trade just with them makes no sense because we have no shorter term contracts to offer.

 

Cleveland is most certainly NOT looking to add money and contract years to their roster. That makes absolutely no sense for Cleveland. As I said above, Morey probably inquired to see if Cleveland could donate Smith to facilitate a 3 team deal. If Morey was smart(and we know he is), he wouldn't even bother harassing Cleveland's GM to ask for such a lopsided deal as Smith for Anderson.

 

Yeah, you're probably right. I wasn't even wondering why Cleveland would do it, but rather just trying to find an angle that made sense for Murrey to even consider that knucklehead.

In fact, JR's the kind of guy Magic and Pelinka have been cornering the market on.

 

Rockets running out of options. Now just saying crazy isht.

 

Because they are in no man's land - they are paying the luxury cap, are barely a playoff contending team with their best players all aging and their draft prospects not in the lottery picks, and don't have a lot of valuable assets to move.

...I like James Johnson A LOT but I worry a bit about his contract length. That being said, he is probably the best option to replace Ariza in the short term if it only costs you Anderson, and a pick/young player.