quote:

---

thinking he has a decent chance at landing Love is the only rational argument for Morey's quick decision to keep McHale

---

I can't imagine Minnesota doing that for the pupu platter of Asik, Jeremy and Parsons.

I'm sure the league has learned something from the Harden trade, and I done think Minnesota is hitting the luxury tax because they have all those superstars to pay

i'd imagine any deal involving houston and minnesota would involve at least one other team

Asik and Parsons are better than what most teams can offer. I hear the suns may be in it. They could maybe offer more with Bledsoe or somebody.

I'll give you Parsons but Asik is so good that no one took him earlier this season.

I'm sure loss of people are dying to pay Asik $15mm next year

quote:

---

8 gifs on James Harden from a Spurs fan. Good Lord they are so damn obsessed with Houston.

And not all of those were "comically bad" as you say. A few of those he was playing help defense and the player he was guarding was left open because he left to help.

Regardless, I have never had the desire to search 8 gifs on the ****ing Spurs. Seek help, Soup

---

What about an 11 minute YouTube video? That'd save time on the gifts.

quote:

---

I'll give you Parsons but Asik is so good that no one took him earlier this season.

---

Because morey was asking for the moon

quote:

---

I'm sure loss of people are dying to pay Asik $15mm next year

---

It's an Expiring contract genius. Some teams need those right now

quote:

---

quote:

---

I'm sure loss of people are dying to pay Asik $15mm next year

---

Only takes $8mm off the cap. Not that valuable or hard to come by.
It's an Expiring contract genius. Some teams need those right now

---

So you're admitting your argument of $15 mil was a moot point?

quote:

---

So you're admitting your argument of $15 mil was a moot point?

---

Not at all. Having to pay him $15mm when he is no where near a max player is not attractive. Then only having $8mm come off the cap? Not that hard to find an rains contract that size.

Unsurprisingly overrated as far as his value is concerned.

He is that overrated? He would probably average 12 and 10 if he started and played 30+ minutes

[This message has been edited by Ags #1 (edited 5/19/2014 7:02p).]

12 and 12 or 10, 11 and 12

I think Rockets fans overrate his trade value.

I think the NBA as a whole has gone away from the big plodding center that you can't run plays for and is mainly there for defensive/rebound purposes. I don't think many teams want to pay $15mm for that and finding an $8mm ending contract isn't especially difficult.

I think teams that have a rim protector, want a guy that is more like Ibaka, Chandler or Deandre Jordan that can move and is much more athletic than Asik. The league is just too athletic.

Plus, think about building your team to battle the teams you have to go through.

In the west, that is Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard, Durant and Westbrook, Lilliard and TheMarcus, Howard and Harden, Paul and Blake, Curry and Klay and in the east it is Bron/Bosh/Wade, Wall and Beal, George/West/Hibbert, Joe Johnson and Deron, Lowry and DeRozen. You have Duncan for however many years he has left and outside him, Howard and Hibbert. Do you really want to build your team around stopping Howard and Hibbert or do you want to spend your money finding the next Paul George/Kawhi Leonard that can play both ways and put the lock down on the other team's best wing? Because players are slashing, a rim protector does have value, but I don't think that Asik has the type of value he would have had ten-twenty years ago when you were gearing up for Shaq, Hakeem, Duncan, Robinson, Alonzo, etc.

Plus, teams tend to be wary of knee injuries on seven footers. There just aren't any dominant centers in the league - Howard is as close as they come, but he isn't quite the same as he back with Orlando. And unless the Rockets figure out team defense, I don't think any of the good WC teams are fearing them because they know they will be able to score at will with or without Asik. A team like Miami would just play small and take him out of the game completely. Asik is a very nice player that does a lot of what you would want in a team, but I think his game was better suited to the years when Deke was the man.

This is the time of year where most fans occupy themselves by building intricate scenarios wherein they can trade a selection of mediocre role players for superstars. Look, I know these six players combined for about 11 points per game, but the salaries work! Come on down, Carmelo Anthony!

[This message has been edited by Ulrich (edited 5/20/2014 10:45a).]

quote:

---

This is the time of year where most fans occupy themselves by building intricate scenarios wherein they can trade a selection of mediocre role players for superstars. Look, I know these six players combined for about 11 points per game, but the salaries work! Come on down, Carmelo Anthony!

---

In terms of tradeable assets, tell me a team that could offer more than the Rockets? I'm curious

And keep in mind love doesn't want to go to a loser. So name contender who can offer more

quote:

---

Rockets aren't a contender.

---

We heard you the first time asswipe. I asked what team can offer more to the wolves? I'll hang up and listen.

this thread

quote:

---

Rockets aren't a contender.

---

The Rockets will be a contender if they can put together a better team defense. I think they will contend next year.

Your trade proposal is Asik, Lin, and Parsons for Love. From Minnesota's perspective:

Asik: Minnesota already has Pekovic, who is better than Asik and the same age, and Dieng who will probably be a better defender than either. Asik could probably get spot minutes, but he's probably not the starter now or in the future.

Lin: Lin would get minutes; he's a more effective scorer than Rubio or Barea. Rubio would probably still start though.

Parsons: Parsons is a nice player. No defense, decent scorer. He would start over Corey Brewer, but he's also not a dramatic upgrade.

Love: Love is Minnesota's leading minutes player. He is 3rd in the league in scoring (26.5), 4th in rebounding (12.5), shoots 50-38-82, and tosses in 4.4 assists. The backup PFs are Luke Mbah a Moute and Ronny Turiaf.

So, from Minnesota's perspective, they would get a small but noticeable upgrade at SF and a few rotational minutes at PG and C in exchange for one of the three most productive players in the league. The starting lineup goes from Rubio-Martin-Brewer-Love-Pekovic to Rubio-Martin-Parsons-Mbah a Moute-Pekovic. Turning that trade down looks like a no-brainer to me.

If I'm Minnesota, I want to see two starters (including a PF and a perimeter defender) and a quality backup (probably at PG).

Again name another contender with a better package

So, they basically have 2 options: They can try to get as much as they can in return for Love, who has made it very clear he is looking to leave when his contract is up. OR, they can just watch him walk away and get absolutely nothing.

And nobody guaranteed the trade would be parsons, lin and asik. I think we can all assume parsons would be in there, but maybe they will throw in T Jones instead of asik? Maybe both will be in there and we keep Lin. Who knows? And that's the point. Houston has parts they can offer Minnesota that not many (if any) teams can match.

Good breakdown, Ulrich. That trade is just getting rid of spare parts for Houston and doesn't really benefit Minnesota at all.

My comment was that many fans spend the offseason coming up with trade ideas where their team lands a superstar in exchange for spare parts and bad contracts. Asik-Parsons-Lin for Love isn't the worst I've seen, but it fits that mold. I've no doubt that the Rockets could come up with a better trade than the one mentioned, but the three players you originally mentioned are good for sweetening the pot depending on the other team's needs, not being the entire trade.

So no, I'm not going to go combing through every roster to see who has the right pieces because I never even implied that the Rockets couldn't put together a solid trade for Love. That said, Howard + Harden + Love = 52 million in 2014. The cap is 59 and the rookie minimum is 500K, so you're going to have to go way over the cap to field a competitive team.

Rockets were 1 of 6 teams going into the playoffs with the talent to win it all. They were a contender just didn't play great during crunch time in the playoffs

[This message has been edited by rebornaggie2013 (edited 5/20/2014 9:40p).]

Don't feed the idiot

What was the last NBA team to win a title, despite their defense ranking bottom 10 in the league? This year's Rockets were 23rd of 30.

The Pacers are #2, Heat are #5, Spurs are #6 and Thunder are #12.

I think the only team in the past 30 years that was bottom 10 in defense was the 01 Lakers. And Harden/Howard aren't exactly Kobe and Shaq.

Defense was **** the first month or 2 of the season until everybody got comfortable. Then it was actually good until Kelvin Sampson left. Then it sucked. Would've been better than 23 if you take out the first month or 2

Man I wish the Rockets would fire Morey and hire Cokehead. He really knows his stuff.

I didn't think the Rockets were contenders this year. Maybe we had the raw talent, but we didn't play well enough, particularly defensively. PF in particular was weak (shocking revelation, I know). Jones got manhandled against good PFs, and Asik killed our spacing offensively when he was with Howard.

I think the Rockets would have to be creative to get Love. Asik is their most tradeable asset IMO, despite GS's disagreement. Advanced stats followers believe that defensive centers have been far undervalued historically. That's why Morey paid Asik what he did and had such high trade demands.

So to me, you have to find a 3rd team to take Asik first. Maybe send him to Boston with one or two of their multitude of picks going to Minnesota? Cleveland with Waiters going to Minn? Atl for Millsap? From there, you fill in with the role players and picks. I think Jones would have to be one of them from the Rockets' POV.

Minnesota isn't going to get fair value because no one is going to give a star for a star. So they are going to hold out for draft picks IMO, and that's one thing we can't offer. But at the same time, neither can most contenders, who are the only teams Love is interested in going to. Not a great position to be in for Minnesota, that's for sure.