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

Hard pass on JR Smith.

Clearly Bazemore and James Johnson would be great gets and fit in many areas.

Tyler Johnson? It would be a let down of a trade with Bazemore & James Johnson names already thrown around. BUT, I would still do it because Tyler can at least PLAY in the Rockets rotation. As a backup PG has decent size at 6'4" and he plays hard. He would be a clear rotation player. BUT, the Rockets are hoping Melton develops into this role.

Hopefully the Rockets can convince the Hawks to move Bazemore for that 1st round pick sweetener.

 

We haven't seen very much of Morey in all in mode, so this should be interesting.

For the most part, we usually watch him in flexibility mode, but with the super max contracts of Harden and Paul, our window to add any significant players is over. Adding long term guys is pretty much the only play now.

 

Well JR, when you lay it out like that.... YIKES!!

It's insane... but its also a good case study on what happens when you are middle of the road, and don't move players at the right time and get stuck with a "well we have to resign them don't we" mentality. This is how/why DM moved guys like Dragic, Lowry in the first place.

 

Morey almost never gets a guy that a reporter claims he enquired about / has interest in.

 

thanks for the info!

i still don't see how ryno for tyler makes sense since we wouldn't be saving them any money, and he doesn't replace ariza. i believe james johnson does have value but we have to take an additional bad contract to make it happen. hence, tyler being included. again, i don't see that package happening since we would have to add either a rotation player like ego or tucker, along with nene, nanu, and zhou, just to make the trade work cap wise. i just don't see us jumping through that hoop for james johnson.

if the heat insist on attaching tyler its more likely we move on to marvin or bazemore. attaching waiters makes more sense. we can still save them money this year and a lot more in the future... and we can get it done cap wise with just ryno and nanu. morey will have to flesh out this deal with riley and then weigh the cost/benefit against deals for marvin and bazemore. since riley is notoriously tough, and johnson is the best fit we can find, i bet the 'best deal' comes from the hornets or hawks.

 

Yeah, this dovetails into my trade suggestion of moving James Johnson and Waiters out of Miami to save them money. And then routing Waiters to the Kings (via Shumpert) to give them a swingman they are looking for. Solves problems

HOU - Johnson, Shumpert
MIA - Anderson
SAC - Waiters + Nanu (+cash to cover contract)

Rockets get James Johnson and then can utilize Shumpert's expiring for another move if need be.
Miami, in the LT, saves 5M this season. And gets off Waiter's contract. Cleans up the roster a bit.

 

If SAC is willing to take on Waiters’ shyt deal for an expiring, MIA should just cut us out of the equation altogether

 

Do we still have cash on hand for a deal? For some reason, I'm thinking we used it. Sure would love Johnson. Shumpert might be useful, on the bench or in a deal later, as you suggested.

 

If he is an expiring deal and the cavs willing to take anderson without rockets having to give up a pick, i can see why Morey would do it.

 

I think we used around 1/1.5M to acquire Edwards from the Jazz, we should still have around 3.5M to trade.

Pretty much.

 

Cavs don't want Ryan Anderson. They have some dude named Kevin Love.

 

No one wants Ryan Anderson's contract. It really comes down to trading our garbage for another teams garbage. The Rockets are trying to dump their garbage for another teams over paid garbage, but fits the Rockets' needs.

I am very skeptical of the Rockets getting James Johnson, Tyler Johnson or Kent Bazemore without it being a three team deal and the Rockets adding assets to make it happen.

I know the Rockets have talked to almost every team in the league (especially rebuilding teams) in an effort to set up a 3-4 team deal, but I am not sure it is going to happen soon. I keep hearing "not worried, it will happen" from people that would know, but I just don't see how Morey is going to be able to turn this into something good. The one exception is if Eric Gordon is included, and then the Rockets sign someone to fill his role. Gordon isn't a huge asset but he does have positive value.

 

Best outcome would be shipping Ryno and a first for Shump's expiring.

 

The cash used to acquire Edwards was done prior to July 1, 2018. If you read BimaThug's reply to Adam Wexler, it implies a reset of the maximum cash limit for the 2018-19 season [$5.243 million per Coon's FAQ].

Spoiler

 

Nice find! So we're locked and loaded again, cash-wise. That's good to hear. It could make a difference. Morey loves his weapons when he makes deals. "Still not happy with the deal? How does $5 million sound? Yeah? OK, let's exchange faxes and get this done. Bye."

 

The on hand cash would likely be used to include in any deal with Nanu to cover his contract. Rockets need him moved to open a roster spot.

 

Morey is one of the only GMs I would trust to acquire JR Smith, because like you said, it would mean that he has a contingency plan on how to use JR as a trade chip or space-clearing asset in a way that he can't use Anderson.

 

Is losing defensive assignments not part of Bball IQ? Unless you mean actual IQ LOL

 

I would like to say I respectfully disagree about Eric Gordon, I would really rather trade him at all unless it's for an all star. I would love to have James Johnson here but not if its gonna cost us Gordon.

 

Nah man Harden has one of the highest bball IQs he misses defensive assignments all the time.