Nice. Another national NBA podcast about the Rockets: [Dunc'd On] Anthony Black Scouting Report; Houston and San Antonio Offseasons
Houston controls Free Agency = Houston has the most cap space and at least until the start of free agency or the money itself is used, Houston will be leveraged by players and agents.
He's right that we "control" it in terms of having the most capspace ... and remember guys , we HAVE to spend ... one way or the other. Either we bring in FA's , trade into our cap space , or give guys on our team a raise lol . Theres a salary floor that we have to meet at some point , otherwise the guys on our roster just get extra money. We have 60 mil . Everyone and their mother has been talking about how we have to bring in the right veterans. Others have said not to abandon the youth movement. But yeah , we got 60 mil that a lot of FA want to get their hands on. Aka Austin Rivers talking about how the rockets needed veteran leadership ... He prolly wants that gig .. for 15 mil a year. We are in a tough spot. I hope Stone's interviewing skills are up to the task. I feel like 95 % of FA just want us for the money . How many really wanna come here and help reset the culture AND play behind Green and KPJ and sengun and smith. Thats prolly where the rumors of trading KPJ ( or some people here wanting to trade green ) come from . Weve committed 2 horrible wretched seasons of losing to development . We better use this cap space to get better . If we bring in Dillon Brooks and Brook Lopez then the onus IMO will still be on our young guys.
These guys are actually level headed and seem to actually watch games. the guy makes a good point that if your idea of Harden "making other guys around them better" is Jalen Green getting some open spot up threes, then Harden would not make sense at all. Jalen Green doesn't become who he needs to be by getting more spot up shooting reps.
I would have agreed with you before we hired Ime, but I think he gives us a coach that can hopefully draw some talent. Guy I would really like to target is https://www.espn.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/4065670/bruce-brown. He played well both ways for the Nuggets and can bring that championship experience to our locker room. He'll be 27 in Aug, so still young enough to blend with our core. He has a player option that he'll likely decline at $6.8M. Not sure what we would have to offer, but he would be a great 6th-7th man for us. Denver or another contender will probably snatch him.
The guy coached in Boston for 1 season, with a team that was already in place. Maybe there's some current/former Celtics who love him, but hes not getting Bruce Brown - who is going to get paid - on a discount
He's been coaching in the league since 2012 and was an assistant when Brown was with the Nets. You maybe right, but I think there is a chance they have a good relationship and he would consider a contract to play in Houston.
My biggest hurdle , is that we are gonna be paying real $ to , and counting on to help build our team .... to guys that , just like you said , are 6th and 7th men . IF we already had a good group of starters , I'd be all for that . BUT , we are putting young guys there based on potential. I kinda want to bring in guys to compete with our young guys for minutes . Its gonna be hard , organizationally, to find out where we are.
This was a pretty balanced take . and i think what they predict ( porzinging and miles bridges ) would pretty much be ideal ... at least out of moves that i can think of. Because ( at least from the outside ) we are at a really tough juncture. We have this massive Cap space that could be a great opportunity to add players , BUT we have 7 first rounders the last 2 drafts that we still need to give minutes to to develop them . Or is that over ? Also we have the number 4 pick that we will likely take someone with . Do we try to continue to develop KPJ , Green , Smith , Sengun ? KPJ and Sengun have earned further development ( KPJ you could take out of a primary ball handler role if you brought someone in that was good enough ) . and green and smith were top picks. Tough choices ahead for us.. because , if we want to keep developing + the 4 pick ... thats not a dumb idea .. but then how the hell do you make use of 60 mil cap ? Hopefully , the rockets can use their information advantage . Being Quiet so far could be good. IDK how stone is playing this . I havent given him much credit so far. This offseason will be a lot of pressure for him. But just as easily as he looks bad, he could look good .. and our Cap is definitely a vehicle to pull that off.
I don’t really view it as some make it or break it off-season. Most likely we just consolidate some of the rookie scale contacts into competent role players with some slight upside. We can afford to overpay on shorter deals and/or take some risks on shorter deals. We managed to get lucky and not send the OKC the pick that ended becoming Green, but I would expect we send a 8-12 pick next season.
I think we have to know what we’re trading for before free agency. Trades are harder to pull off than throwing money at players to fill needs. The universe of point guards potentially available through trade is much bigger and better than throwing big money at Harden or FFV. There aren’t any other FA point guard options after those two. The other priority is rim protecting center. Lopez and Poeltl are great options, but if we can nab a Clint Capela for say Tate and KJ, we can focus on other positions in free agency. If we get to free agency without making some major trades that’s a very bad sign for Stone.
I also see it more relaxed now mainly because the Udoka signing was a good one. But if the results are mediocre, we would see more pressure on Stone.
This is a very hard decision for Udoka and the management because the available free agent are not that good. We need a trade to get that superstar we want or wait at the next free agency where there are many good free agent. Maybe add a starting PG for this season and move kpj to 6th man scoring machine
