[Feigen] expectation is that Butler will opt out and Rockets plan to target him in Free Agency

we'd still have to dump quite a bit of salary in a S&T scenario though b/c of the hardcap

 

Demarre Carrol would be a great fit

 

Butler would be an upgrade on defense, no question there, but teams are going to smother James with Butler on the court.

 

Would rather keep EG over CP3

 

I thought the apron is $139 this year. The Rockets currently sit at $125 M, so if we send out EG, Capela and Nene, then Jimmy B can be traded to us putting us at $128 M. We lose all our exceptions but we are under the apron and still can do some maneuvering. Unless I'm inferring that incorrectly.

 

We've seen this story before. Rockets make pursuit of free agent/trade known publicly to their favorite reporters, fail in that pursuit, then the reporter writes an "Oh well, they tried-- they are always aggressive" piece. And then when they fail to spend money, the owner comes out and say "I would have spend money on the right player-- look at how aggressively we pursued Jimmy Butler!"

Significant deals are often not negotiated in public like this-- see Chris Paul trade.

 

James seems less dramatic than the posters on here, though.

 

Yeah, but other GMs are very aware of what Morey will do......I think there are not many who would help him.

 

They would be helping themselves first. Morey is smart enough to make deals that will accomplish goals for each case.

 

I hope you are right because it took him years to follow up on the OKC trade.

The Chris Paul trade happened 5-6 yrs later.

Okay, I know the Nene and Paul Gasol trade got nixed but there weren't many deals for the second star or a 3rd star inbetween.

And I hope he doesn't get caught up in reaching the goals of the other teams before he reaches our goal.

 

This is what I was assuming as well.

 

Lol. What?

Yeah the Rockets #1 problem last year was signing midseason offensive contributors on the fly who were able to integrate with Harden...other than Austin Rivers, Denuel House, and Kenneth Faried there was NOBODY to be had.

Anyway thanks for posting Carmelo. Time for you to go.

 

Why? Just because Butler might not space the floor quite as well doesn't mean teams aren't going to have to pay attention to the guy. Butler's a far more dangerous offensive player than Gordon. Not sure how you could suggest otherwise.

 

Unless we move to Tomball, Butler ain't coming here

Is there any good spot north of Spring Cypress on 249?

 

Look, if Morey is comfortable enough to *thread the needle* like he did this year to get under the LT (by a SMALL amount), he is comfortable enough to deal with a hard cap if it comes to that.

Just assume he knows the numbers. Assume he knows the multiple ripple effects of player moves.

 

I have no doubt about that.

He never learned to keep it quiet about his targets.

 

ya according to spotrac it's $138M, i just meant that we'll still have to fill out a roster with like 8 more players then

 

I agree with this completely. I think for DM this is right along the lines of upping their risk portfolio. Also, I think we are all under the fallacy that the Rockets have two years to figure this out before Morey does some massive renovation. I think because of Tillman's repeater tax dodging the Rockets really only have 1 year to get it right or Tills breaks it up. If the rockets don't win next year I could see Morey shipping out everyone not named Harden, taking in bad/expiring deals with picks, and sending out talent for 50 cents on the dollar. Houston will be in LT this year and next, but my guess is even in a rebuild year they are in the tax. Morey knows this, and it's probably why he isn't as tentative about a hard cap as we are being.

 

In this offense with the ball dominant Harden? I don’t think so. Jimmy is just going to stand on the opposite corner of Tucker and be an expensive AF spot up shooter. Spot up shooting isn’t Jimmy’s game. He’s made less than 1 3pointer per game for his career.

Also, I can’t imagine Jimmy being happy watching Harden ISO 90% of the game only to bust his ass on defense and cover for him. He’s not the type to shy away from how he feels either.

There’s no doubt Jimmy is superior to Gordon and I’m down to roll the dice and make a change just to see but he’s not gonna get 22 a game here.

 

I agree with that. Gordon is inferior but clearly the better shooter. We need someone like Gordon and Butler.

However, our cap only allows us so many.