Houston intends to aggressively pursue Jimmy Butler in free agency and Kelly Iko of The Athletic hears that the Rockets will be just as determined to land Butler now as they were in prior to Minnesota dealing him to the Sixers. GM Daryl Morey reportedly offered four first-round picks in exchange for Butler during the season.
It’s no secret that the Rockets are looking to shake up their roster this offseason. They continue to discuss trades involving Clint Capela, and Iko hears that they’ve discussed sending him to the Pelicans for the No. 4 overall pick. In that scenario, Houston would look to insert that pick into a package in order to land another player.
Here’s more from Houston and rest of the Western Conference:
- The Rockets had interested in trading for Anthony Davis and reached out to the Pelicans prior to New Orleans making the deal with the Lakers. Houston was aware that it wasn’t high on Davis’ preferences and that a trade was not likely to happen.
- The Lakers could have asked Davis if he’d waive his trade bonus of roughly $4.1MM in order to make salary-matching easier, but they never broached it during negotiations, league sources tell Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck. Los Angeles is still attempting to maximize its cap room for an additional star after agreeing to the Davis deal.
- Several NBA executives are skeptical that the Lakers can build a title-winning team around Davis and LeBron James after the haul they just gave up, Beck relays in the same piece. “[The] Lakers overpaid by a significant margin, given the conditions,” one executive said, adding, “Never let your GM be in a spot where he needs to make a trade to save his job.”
- The Suns are not interested in Aaron Holiday, Phoenix-based radio host John Gambadoro tweets. J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star identified the Suns as one of a handful of teams that has interest in acquiring the Pacers point guard, mentioning the Timberwolves, Bulls, and Hawks as well.
As a laker fan i love false narratives, it usually means everyone is afraid of what is to come. I would be too if i was the rest of the league.
This right here is a false narrative. You must be afraid of what is to come.
The LA sports media tried to keep a lid on Pelinka’s latest debacles concerning Davis’ trade kicker and the inability to secure enough cap room, just so as not to harsh the fans’ buzz. But Howard Beck nails it — this was, once again, amateur hour by Pelinka and Buss.
Now watch as an exasperated Davis leaves after one year. He did not leave the Pelicans’ dysfunction (now cured by Griffin) for the even-worse dysfunction of the Lake Show.
It will be delectable to see Davis in a Clipper uniform in 2020.
So just a few things to clear up from the “league sources” cited by Beck: Rob Pelinka is not the Lakers’ GM anymore. LeBron James and Rich Paul are the GMs.
This is exactly why you see the Lakers trade all of their 1st round picks (or swap rights) for the next 5 years and their entire roster for a guy that would have signed anyway next year.
They also forgot to consider the right date to make the trade, and to ask AD about the trade kicker. Same exact thing he did for years in Cleveland, like trading two #1 picks for Timofy Mozgov and #1’s for Kyle Korver.
The Lakers are the complete basket case of professional sports.
such a stupid narrative. the Lakers sold lbj the idea that they’ll bring in other stars. lbj obviously isn’t running anything since they didn’t hire Keu, didn’t get AD earlier and has zero authority to force anything. stop it. Btw Griffin was the GM back then and the picks meant NOTHING since they were in the finals ever year, were in win now mode abd actually won a title which is why they brought LBJ to LA in the first place.
why the hate on lbj? is he responsible for pollution, the middle east crisis and problems with immigration too?
Finals every year?
For now there is a no-playoff year.
And DAR at ASG, and randle very good…
We’ll see next year, but if the 35 years old Lbj will suffer a injury, Will be another no-playoff year… Don’t you think?
when lbj was with the Cavs they were in the finals ever year and there picks were always at the end of the 1st round and thus expendable.
On the money. They should have traded the toxic, aging LeBron, stick with the young guys, use the #4 pick and then get AD next summer. You would have a real squad (add whatever you get on the LeBron trade), and loads of cap space left to add another star. But the LeBron mafia runs the show and they can’t waste another year.
This season is going to be very, very ugly. LeBron will pull a hammy and AD will do his usual Charmin paper act and they will each only play about 40 games. The only NBA caliber player they have left will be Kuzma, and LBJ and AD will throw him under the bus nonstop.
Then, AD will leave in 2020/2021; LeBron will retire to Space Jam-Land and the Lakers will be torched for the next 4 years with no draft picks and no way to fix what LeBron did.
Its a liarfest!
No, he made a good assessment of what’s going to happen with the Lakers. Truth hurts, huh?
You care about the Lakers more than I do. The lies were more widespread than that.
No one will like playing with Harden, he’s too ball dominate.
Or playing in the 3 point shooting session that is the Rockets offense…or their almost non-existent defense.
only second best defensive team in the league the second half, but please spew your ignorance.
The Aaron Holiday statement is a bit weird. He’s still under contract by the Pacers for another 3 years at the most so I dont know why Phoenix would have interest in him. Maybe you got confused with Darren Collison.
Trade interest, not free agent interest.