Dash

Its official: Daryl Morey is a [expletive]ing god. Turn our average-mediocre assets into a top 5 pick we actually wanted to draft in just his rookie year.

Holy crap this is amazing news. Definitely buying the next WWE game.

...Where do you see this team in terms of contendership for the next 2-3 years? Do you think Josh Smith (now 27 years old) is a good fit for the current? The lineup with Smith would look like this: Omer Asik Josh Smith Chandler Parsons James Harden Jeremy Lin Bench: Carlos Delfino, Patrick Patterson, Greg Smith, Donatas Motiejunas/Terrence Jones, Toney Douglas (Houston would have its MLE and LLE to add a veteran or two) Obviously the West is pretty damn brutal so does this move make them better than or on par with the Nuggets/Spurs/Grizzlies/Thunder/Clippers/Lakers or does it make minimal impact on Houston's position by only moving them up one or two seeds?

SHIELD!

Yeah he was at Toyota Center last year for our Team of The Decade bit and he looked horrible, but damn he looks even worse now.

Sad news. RIP.

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Glad to see Houston isn't among the teams interested since we can just sign him outright in the offseason. What sort of pieces do you think Smith can get Atlanta with him being an expiring contract and previously been suspended by the team? Of the teams mentioned (Milwaukee, Brooklyn, Boston, Philly, Washington and possibly Denver) which do you think has the best chance of landing Smith?

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/8956469/los-angeles-clippers-utah-jazz-talk-eric-bledsoe-paul-millsap-sources-say

Quote from the article: Discussions aren't going to go very far if this is the case.

Houston's schedule is about to get very easy, which would mean it'd take a huge collapse (similar to last year) for Houston to miss the playoffs again and I don't see it happening with Harden. So if LA is taking a playoff spot, it most likely will have to be Utah's.

Never have and probably never will. Just doesn't interest me personally.

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Meh. I don't see how there being shitty commentating in the past makes it okay. Still [expletive]ed up. Because I have so often praised the Rockets commentary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Caa-gSxxd2Q Close up on the injury: Damn. Hope he's alright. Edit: also found this on another board:

Harden goes down to what looked like a serious ankle injury, Warriors fans start booing him when he gets taken out and their announcers start jerking off to the thought of Stephen Curry replacing him in the All-Star Game. Lol what a [expletive]ing joke.

Adding on to this, check out these stats per Zach Lowe: http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/50343/the-height-of-wonkery-an-in-depth-look-at-the-nba-with-the-most-innovative-technology-available

No chance whatsoever Parsons gets sent out for Josh Smith but if after a strange turn of events he did then Carlos Delfino will start at SF. Sergio Llull is a prospect we have stashed overseas who our management really likes and seems to be doing great with Real Madrid, if Lin is gone then good chance we bring him over by selling him on starting for an NBA championship contending team (he's iffy on leaving Spain right now). The problem with this is that Houston would be dealing assets for Josh Smith and dumping Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin just to have a shot at signing Dwight Howard while the Lakers have that fancy 5 year max deal in their pocket. I'm not banking on any assumption regarding Dwight after the Dwightmare. If Dwight decides to resign with the Lakers and then Houston decides not to overpay Josh Smith and he signs elsewhere...then Houston just itself back a few years even with James Harden still on the roster. If this scenario were to happen I'd imagine it all transpire during free agency after Houston and Harden can sell both guys on forming a super team. Then the Rockets can just dump Omer Asik, Jeremy Lin and another contract and sign both guys outright. The only way I can see the Rockets trading for Josh Smith at the trade deadline were if he were to come along cheap (Patrick Patterson + expirings or something of that nature, any scenario we lose Parsons if an automatic no). Otherwise we'll just sign him in free agency if he really wanted to be here because there's not much point in owning a player's bird rights unless you were willing to give him a max deal. This is implying Lin is a bad contract, which he isn't. Nah. If someone were to offer him a max deal, he'd be an idiot not to take it. Houston has no interest in Josh Smith unless it leads to them making the jump to contendership and that only happens if the Rockets can get that 2nd star first. I can picture Smith taking a "pay cut" ala Lebron/Bosh but that would require a commitment from Dwight, which to me is just highly unlikely.

This. Can't believe people are calling this guy a hero.

Regardless of Rudy Gay's contract locking them into financial instability already, committing $32-$33 million to Gay and Boozer would go down as one of the worst financial decisions I've seen in recent history. Next year Toronto will commit $60 million to Carlos Boozer, Rudy Gay, Landry Fields, Amir Johnson, DeMar DeRozan, and Linas Kleiza. The year after that factor in Lowry's extension and that number kicks to roughly $70 million committed to just 7 players. Factor in any future free agents or draft picks to fill out the other half of their roster and that will make the Raptors one of the most expensive rosters in the league. And to do what? Be a treadmill team and then blow it up in the 2015 free agency? It just doesn't make sense to me and no doubt this team will be cutting costs such as selling draft picks or attaching a pick to a contract, etc. They'd be completely stuck in no man's land until 2015. The only way I can see this spinned as a good move is that Toronto would make absolute zero use of any sort of cap flexbility anyways. To me that doesn't make it one, its just accepting defeat and building a treadmill team to reap $ from Toronto's large fanbase. A very high salary roster with no legitimate star, a coach having a pretty bad 2nd year, and the worst GM in the NBA. This is just such a dreadful mix. The sensible thing would have been to fire BC, amnesty Bargnani, let Calderon walk, tank for the 2014 draft with Jonas Valanciunas as a cornerstone and cap room on the side. The only silver lining here of course is that they could have a ton of cap room in 2015 and that if Jonas can quickly develop into a top 10 center in the next 2 years then they could probably be a 2nd round team considering how weak the East is these days. Barring any chemistry issues with a trio of Lowry/Gay/Boozer. Edit: ended up rambling there.

Per Shamsports Carlos Boozer 2012-2013: $15,000,000 2013-2014: $15,300,000 2014-2015: $16,800,000

Oh jeez Toronto being locked into Boozer's and Gay's contracts would be horrific.

I've been thinking the same but obviously no chance he leaves the LA market + $30 on the table. We'll either sign Josh Smith or keep our cap room for another season more likely.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/16847/heat-see-harden-in-superstar-role I've been on the "James Harden is a superstar" bandwagon for a while now (some rough stretches during January but that was a ridiculous schedule for Houston) but do you agree/disagree? Where do you see Harden ranked amongst the league? He still turns the ball over alot and plays some awful defense but at the same time unless Lin is having a great night like against GSW his defense/turnovers come with the territory of having to completely carry his team on the offensive end.

Eh Mark Jackson across to me as a sore loser but it was cool to see a rivalry building between two probable playoff teams. After the Warriors were trolling the shit out of the Rockets, I'm glad someone on the Rockets had the balls to do something (Beverly) and I don't blame Green for laying him out. Anyways next week's game should be physical. .