9:24am: Both Jones and the No. 18 pick are very available as the Rockets look to shed salary, Stein tweets.
8:27am: The Rockets will try to get in the mix for Kevin Love and LaMarcus Aldridge this summer, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). The Rockets do not have a whole lot of cap space to work with this summer, but they are working to change that. Stein adds that Houston is likely to try to trade Terrence Jones at some point today (link).
Yesterday, we learned that Love will opt out of his contract with the Cavs to become a free agent. By opting out, the forward can make as much as the max, an estimated $18.96MM. Some executives have been predicting that the Cavs will sign-and-trade him to one of his many suitors, given the success Cleveland had without him while he was out with a shoulder injury during the playoffs, though Griffin insists he wants to keep the core of his team together, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe wrote earlier this week. There’s little doubt the Cavs will put a max offer of their own on the table for him, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com wrote in late April, several weeks after ESPN colleague Chris Broussard had heard from rival executives who’d begun to question that prospect.
Aldridge, meanwhile, is said to be coming increasingly fond of the Lakers. The big man will have tons of suitors this summer and the Blazers are reportedly concerned about him bolting.
Jones is scheduled to earn $2,489,530 during the 2015/16 season after having his fourth-year option exercised by Houston. He was selected with the 18th overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft.
How do these plans fit with the 2015 NBA Draft?
link to upallnightnews.com
I’m not sure if the Rockets would be a fit. Harden needs the ball in his hand so much. You can say the same for Irving and James but I think there’s more of culture to pass in Cleveland.
I’m still stunned that people in the media focus on the fact that the Cavs made it to game 6 of the finals w/o Love in the Bulls, Hawks and Warriors series and say the Cavs “don’t need him” and completely ignore HOW they struggled to get there. The Cavs shouldn’t rely on heroic efforts from LBJ and gutsy over achieving from role players. They NEED a healthy Kevin Love and Irving as well as an improved bench if they want a title. The other teams in the NBA are gearing themselves up to be better and so should the Cavs. Retaining Love is an easy step to get them where they want to be,
I think year 2 of the big three together should be amazing as the team will know how to work around each other AND the addition of a true big in Mozgov who was introduced in the during the season.
I would love to see Blatt scheme up a second unit that features Love as the main guy while resting LBJ. Let all 3 play together but feature Love as the go to guy and rest the other two some.
One loophole of the CBA that could help the Rockets if they cleared their maximum cap space is that they could renounce the rights of their Early Bird free agent (Corey Brewer, a valuable player on the team last year) but still sign him via non-Bird rights (~ the amount of the MLE, probably his price range). Other than that they’d be filling out their bench with the room exception and veteran minimum contracts.
LA is going to dallas
They aren’t going to be able to operate under the cap that far, so this discussion is complete baloney from folks that aren’t actually doing anything more than regurgitating bad/misinterpreted info. Of course the Rockets will try for Aldridge or Love. The only way they could get one would be a S&T. And they could easily do it within the cap/CBA without trading Trevor Ariza.