Dan Scott said:

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That's the problem. Harden just doesn't care. You don't show up for game 6 and you know the fans are pissed off and the media is going to crush you because you acted like a quitter and don't care. Then you just fuel it by acting like you don't care after the game. Wait until the Weekend.

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He will be at Cle and Spire this weekend no doubt

Hickory High said:

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Texaggie7nine said:

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Well the funny thing about the Championship is, you gotta make the playoffs first.

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Wow you're so clever, great one liner.

You know what, I shouldn't be surprised that so many of you feel this way. Most Aggies are perfectly comfortable not being great as long as the team wins a few games and everyone has fun.

It's this simple:
-What is the point of playing? To win a championship
-Can that happen with James Harden as your best player? Almost certainly not.

So if you're willing to concede that we'll just be doing a lot of nothing as long as Harden is here, then sure, I'm the ridiculous one. But I won't apologize for demanding greatness.

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Count me as an NBA fan who thinks that the West is all about Golden State Warriors right now. If they keep their Big 4 together (all guys still in their twenties with lots of prime playing seasons left) then the only way another franchise in the West is going to be able to get past them is they will have to build their own 'super team'. One superstar, probably even two superstars, isn't enough. Super team or GTFO. You ain't winning no dang NBA title.

You can dump Harden, but unless you replace him with like three All-Star players in return, then it won't matter. Your playoff ceiling is going to basically be that when you meet up with Golden State, then you are done.

So unless the Warriors break apart, for the next 2-3 years minimum...just enjoy the regular season and hope your team does good enough to avoid meeting up with the Warriors until as late as possible.

Look, Houston guys, that was an awful embarrassing loss and Harden looked like a complete turd. And he apparently has a history of looking worse in post-season play than regular season play.

But I recommend watching what happens to the Spurs against Golden State first before you let your frustrations go too over board. If the Spurs get quickly drummed in 5 or 4 games, then you can at least go to bed knowing with pretty convincing evidence that yeah, you don't have a team that can win a title, but neither does anybody else who isn't wearing a Golden State shirt. Houston just saved themselves from getting a beat down by the Warriors in similar fashion.

If the Spurs somehow pull off a huge upset as heavy dogs, then feel free to kick yourself that the Rockets basically choked away a Golden opportunity (pun intended).

Im gonna go ahead and make an offseason prediction... The Rockets go out and grab Carmelo.

Guitarsoup said:

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shano0603 said:

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Im gonna go ahead and make an offseason prediction... The Rockets go out and grab Carmelo.

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No trade clause AND a 15% trade kicker. Makes him 30mm for 2018 and 32mm for 2019.

To complicate things, Melo is the reason why MDA had to leave the Knicks.

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I'm not saying it's perfect by any means. I feel like he's done in NY and they will let him go on the cheap. It's obvious we need to add someone and it isn't clear which free agent we could get to sign here. I honestly don't want Melo, I just know we need to make some improvements and think it happens.

And Hoss, don't swear again. Your mom doesn't like it.

shano0603 said:

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Im gonna go ahead and make an offseason prediction... The Rockets go out and grab Carmelo.

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Aside from that being idiotic, it's impossible with our cap situation and Melo's contract.

Did you compare harden to Lebron James. I could see the dork comparisons but lebron?

Moves are definitely necessary, but adding Melo would be a disaster from a team fit standpoint, primarily because he and Harden are both ball-dominant players, and both of them are disinterested defenders, and I'm being charitable using disinterested. Plus, he's about to be 33 with 14 years of NBA tread.

This team is ****ty enough defensively. There is a need for another star player, one who can co-exist with Harden...question is, who fits that bill? A guy like KAT would be ideal, but that's fantasyland.

Out of all the free agents, which could we actually have a shot at getting?
Durant, Curry, Hayward, Griffin, Paul, Lowry, milsap, holiday, gallinari, Ibaka, Noel, Reddick?

shano0603 said:

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Out of all the free agents, which could we actually have a shot at getting?
Durant, Curry, Hayward, Griffin, Paul, Lowry, milsap, holiday, gallinari, Ibaka, Noel, Reddick?

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Durant, Curry, Paul, Lowry, Milsap are not coming to Houston. They'll either stay with current teams or sign where point guard isn't already occupied by a superstar.

I don't see Hayward having interest.

Holiday and Gallinari are not worth big money.

Noel, Ibaka, and possibly Griffin would be my top choices.

Hayward is a FA?

If so, back up the dump truck.if he says no, I think Obama would be a perfect fit.

NBA players live in a different time zone

I don't think y'all are getting that we CAN'T get anyone in free agency. We currently have ZERO cap space. Unless you're assuming someone bails us out of Ryan Anderson's contract, we have $150,000 of free payroll.

Anderson's contract is movable. Probably not an asset but definitely moveable. No bad contracts on this team.

Rockets have about 14mn in cap space if they let all FAs and unguaranteed players go.

Bev, Ariza and Lou are all easy to move for an additional ~19mm total.

samin23 said:

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Guitarsoup said:

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Rockets have about 14mn in cap space if they let all FAs and unguaranteed players go.

Bev, Ariza and Lou are all easy to move for an additional ~19mm total.

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We don't need to move Bev. You let him go and we are right back in chemistry turmoil from 2 years ago

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Kind of depends what you get.

mAgnoliAg said:

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Hickory High said:

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I don't think y'all are getting that we CAN'T get anyone in free agency. We currently have ZERO cap space. Unless you're assuming someone bails us out of Ryan Anderson's contract, we have $150,000 of free payroll.

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That's not true even this year, much less for next year.

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I didn't say anything about next year, but help me understand this year then. Admittedly, salary cap legalities always confuse me, but from everyplace I research it looks like we don't have hardly any money to spend.

CFTXAG10 said:

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Give @bimathug a follow on Twitter. He is pretty damn good with cap figures. Also, I didn't know until I went to his TL that D-Mo is suing the Rockets. What an a**hat

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I was the biggest D-Mo fan. So sad.

I still think this has to be the workings of his dumb agent

She them for what?

Hickory High said:

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CFTXAG10 said:

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Give @bimathug a follow on Twitter. He is pretty damn good with cap figures. Also, I didn't know until I went to his TL that D-Mo is suing the Rockets. What an a**hat

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I was the biggest D-Mo fan. So sad.

I still think this has to be the workings of his dumb agent

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I always hated D-Mo and even more after last offseason. You would like him. As for the salary cap, we have about $3 million in room currently and as guitarsoup said, a little less than $14 million this offseason. Then there's NeNe that we might bring back that'll cut into that.

What could DMo of all people do to make you hate him BEFORE the mess?

And that's not much of an explanation. Every link I see concerning our payroll for this offseason doesn't show any kind of numbers like that.