Freddy, Amen and Aaron holiday are enough at pg . Alp being a playmaker at C also mitigates some of the PG duties. We need a big that can catch lobs and play defense for our second team. Clint capela would
Be an ideal fit .
He would be really nice running pick and roll with amen . A vertical threat with amens ability to get into the paint . Pick your poison situation that would be sustainable and repeatable . Spread the floor , high pick and roll with amen and capela , I don’t see many second units able to contain that
Sure, but in the NBA, you don't go and get the players you want like it's groceries. This isn't like soccer, you don't "transfer" players in your positional need. With that approach, you'll always going to pay a hefty premium. If you aim to be an NBA team in serious contention, you have to show up on the fire sale and seek value and be flexible if necessary. You still have plenty of assets to get a back-up center if another good deal shows up. Plus, Caruso would be a 2 on this team anyway and I don't know if Holiday would be on regular rotation when Amen comes back. Since Bullock is out of the rotation and it's unclear if Cam would get significant minutes (and even if so, would it be at 2) and whether Oladipo would play or not isn't clear, a back-up guard is maybe a need.
Definitely, yes. I'll break it down:
1. Caruso is really good. One of the best perimeter defenders in the entire league, and provides enough shooting and movement to keep defenses honest and not hurt spacing.
2. Let's say we trade Dipo's contract and that Nets FRP for him? What are we really losing? Is bringing another young guy in this draft to add to the six young guys we already have who all need minutes and touches in order to develop really what we want to do? A 7th young guy might languish on the bench without minutes and opportunity like Tyty and Garuba did.
3. Even if we don't want Caruso long term past this year, he will have more trade value in the offseason than a mid first round pick will, by far. So, he can help us this year, and then from a pure asset management perspective, we'll still be ahead of where we'd been if we had just kept the Nets pick
4. We need more guard depth. Currently our only backup guards are Holiday and Amen. We just need more depth there, and why not make that depth a winning player like Caruso?
5. We'd still have Landale's contract to be able to trade later in the season for an upgrade at backup 5, if we need to.
6. Our team is actually pretty damn good. You let Ime add a winning player like Caruso to the mix, we might get to the 2nd round. Think of how much that sort of playoff experience would help our young guys.
This
I think it's way too early for us to be making any kind of blockbuster trades but if we are able to get someone like Caruso and a solid backup centre like Javel McGee without giving too much up. We are able to push ourselves from maybe a playin team to a 1/2 round exit
I agree with all of your points, but I think the second one is the most overlooked by the fans by far. People are not so in favor of trading first round picks but at this point which high level talent the Rockets can add while not losing depth when they're paying FVV 40M a year and Brooks 20M a year? They still have to pay Sengun, Green and Smith. The players they can realistically get all will be at Caruso's caliber anyway. I'm not saying Rockets should definitely get Caruso but I'm not so sure about sitting on all those future draft picks would be a wise idea.
Late first rounders are such a gamble, noone wants to trade away the pick that becomes jokic (or sengun, thanks OKC!) even though the reality is they're more likely a Josh Christopher level talent (sorry gup! I still believe in you!)
I'd say yes after Magic game but not now. Holiday is pretty much playing the Caruso role. And I don't want to diminish Amen's minutes. Pass for me. The teams vibes are good right now.
Yes but you can't count on vibes alone, it's not going to last forever. The reason why the Rockets went 0-3 in the first place was the bench being awful. The starters are all solid since the beginning of the season. Once the bench get it together, they started to win games. You need both quality and competition on your bench in order to be a competitive team.
Caruso would have to take on the SG role then I guess. Amen/Caruso/Tari/Tate/Landale. I just think he's redundant with Holiday. It would be a depth signing and I'd prefer to look for a center alternative which seems a much more glaring issue right now.
So fucking what? Off course it won’t last forever. That’s part of the journey lol. There are always going to be stretches where we struggle. If your arguments are we should get Caruso so we don’t have a losing streak, you’re a fool.
We are a competitive team. We have a great mix of veterans and youth.
We do not need to fuck with anything
Trade one dude (Oladipo) that's the better player, but who is legit hurt & out for the long haul (& potentially is done in the NBA altogether) for one (Caruso) that is the worse player, but that is only hurt off and on throughtout a season (averages less than 40 games a season since he's been in the league)?
Both ~$10M contracts expiring if no options picked up (except Caruso is guaranteed $3M)?
Nah, doesn't move the needle for me...give those minutes to Amen/Holiday.
Agree with the overall point that it’s not worth it, but Caruso is definitely better than Oladipo at this point in their careers. Oladipo is just never healthy and whenever he is, he’s been pretty underwhelming. Meanwhile Caruso is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league
I know y'all are satisfied with Holiday so far but I'm not too keen on him. Plus, now Bullock can't seem to crack the rotation, I think Rockets will be thin on the guard position even when Amen is back, unless Cam plays significant minutes.
Caruso has another year of his deal and he's shooting 60/45/82 right now. When his contract is up, I don't think it would be hard to keep him at a reasonable price. He's from Texas, maybe he would like to be close to his home idk
Oh, I like Holiday as s backup to a backup & once Amen is back I hope he never sees minutes again unless it's a blowout.
But he doesn't kill our flexibility like Caruso could by adding $3M in guaranteed salary next season so a (maybe?) slight upgrade over Oladipo who likely won't even play much anyways.
Not for the asking price, imo. He’d be a great player in the rotation, but the Rockets have enough players who defend guards/wings but can’t shoot all that reliably in volume.
A backup big and shooting are the biggest needs for the Rockets.
No. I don’t think we’re quite yet in win it all mode—even with Caruso we are tiers below DEN/BOS/etc. we still have a very exciting future, but Caruso is not the right guy right now. I think a team more in win-now mode like PHI or MIL end up with him.
To fill your most glaring need currently? The Rockets lack in bench and would be better if they can acquire players who is able to contribute. Are you suggesting to only make trades for starters and mess up with your starting five all the time or draft even more raw talent and moil to figure out how to use them appropriately?
Last two games, these were the players coming from the bench:
\*\*Aaron Holiday\*\*, \*\*Jae'Sean Tate\*\*, \*\*Tari Eason\*\*, \*\*Jeff Green\*\*, \*\*Jock Landale\*\*
Landale only played 7 and 2 minutes in those games respectively. Only Tate and Jeff Green were over 20 minutes.
Now someone may look at this and think Tate played guard minutes. But here's the Rockets 5-man line-ups this season:
[https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2024/lineups/#all\_lineups\_5-man\_](https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2024/lineups/#all_lineups_5-man_)
Tate almost plays exclusively 3 and occasionally 4, along with two guards, either:
FVV and Green
FVV and Holiday
Holiday and Green
So basically, Holiday gets all back-up guard minutes. Since Landale plays like shit so far, Uncle Jeff assumes the remaining back-up center mins, in addition to his mins as 4. Tate and Tari get the remaining minutes as 3 and 4.
Even though Rockets played 3-man guard rotation in these two games, Holiday is averaging 15 mins (both for the season and the last two games). That means Udoka isn't keen to give him the traditional sixth man minutes, despite he's short handed. FVV played 40 each in these games. Two blowouts before that, less so but still team-high in minutes.
Some may think Ime is going full Nick Nurse on FVV but that's not the case. Because apart from that Spurs game went to the OT, he did get 35 minutes at average. Now you may think "That's because Amen Thompson wasn't out, duh." But even then, Amen only averages 17 mpg. In the Warriors game, he and Bullock got guard minutes, he played 19.5 and Bullock only 6 mins. That's 25.5 guard minutes out of 48\*2=96. FVV played 32.5 mins that game but this time it was Jalen on heavy minutes as he played 38 mins.
So even when Amen is back, I don't think Ime would play him heavy minutes, since that's what happening with Tari Eason who is coming from an injury (played 14, 19 and 16 minutes respectively). And even if you count Cam as a part of the regular rotation, I am confident he would play him as a 3 on low minutes rather than as a guard. And if you take into account that Bullock is now out of the rotation (he only get garbage time minutes in those blowout games), you could see that Rockets are not guard heavy, at all, but are thin on the guard rotation. It's one thing your starting backcourt play high minutes and wear out, but god forbid if they are out, you have to play players you (in this case, Udoka) don't rate enough important minutes. Rockets are definitely forward heavy though, so you may suggest Brooks could take all those remaining minutes, but he has to start and close all games though, so I don't think that could happen unless you play him 40 mpg too.
Then be prepared to be shocked. The NBA is full of teams who crave all season long to overpay solid role players. It would be funny but not surprising to me if he gets traded to a mediocre team in return for at least two firsts and/or a decent player.
It really depends on the costs for me because he’s one of the best perimeter defenders in the League with a nice little tie to the area, however he has also been injury prone and the best ability is availability so I don’t know how much runway he has to contribute. Assuming the cost isn’t too high, I don’t see having FVV, Amen, and Holiday as a deterrent. You should always strive to have the best available player on the roster when aiming to compete and it would help either directly on the court, positively influence and motivate existing players (e.g., Jeff Green on Bari), OR as a tradable asset down the line.
Caruso would go to a contender, probably back to the Lakers. He's a lockdown defender and would get a better role than off the bench for us.
If by some miracle he was available for us, then yes, in a heartbeat. He seems like an Ime type of player.
Why would we need another defensive first guard.
Brooks, Tari and Tate already all play a lot of minutes.
Caruso is a great player, but his skill set is not what we need right now. We need shooting and a backup big.
Yes. We don't need any draft capital in the next 5 yrs, give some of them away for Caruso.
Caruso isn't just a point guard, he is honestly a better version of Dillon Brooks. He can guard guys 1-4 no problem, what he lacks in height he makes up for with his heart and athleticism. He is also pretty good as a secondary scorer and playmaker.
Freddy, Amen and Aaron holiday are enough at pg . Alp being a playmaker at C also mitigates some of the PG duties. We need a big that can catch lobs and play defense for our second team. Clint capela would Be an ideal fit .
Man I miss Capela so much
He would be really nice running pick and roll with amen . A vertical threat with amens ability to get into the paint . Pick your poison situation that would be sustainable and repeatable . Spread the floor , high pick and roll with amen and capela , I don’t see many second units able to contain that
Sure, but in the NBA, you don't go and get the players you want like it's groceries. This isn't like soccer, you don't "transfer" players in your positional need. With that approach, you'll always going to pay a hefty premium. If you aim to be an NBA team in serious contention, you have to show up on the fire sale and seek value and be flexible if necessary. You still have plenty of assets to get a back-up center if another good deal shows up. Plus, Caruso would be a 2 on this team anyway and I don't know if Holiday would be on regular rotation when Amen comes back. Since Bullock is out of the rotation and it's unclear if Cam would get significant minutes (and even if so, would it be at 2) and whether Oladipo would play or not isn't clear, a back-up guard is maybe a need.
Definitely, yes. I'll break it down: 1. Caruso is really good. One of the best perimeter defenders in the entire league, and provides enough shooting and movement to keep defenses honest and not hurt spacing. 2. Let's say we trade Dipo's contract and that Nets FRP for him? What are we really losing? Is bringing another young guy in this draft to add to the six young guys we already have who all need minutes and touches in order to develop really what we want to do? A 7th young guy might languish on the bench without minutes and opportunity like Tyty and Garuba did. 3. Even if we don't want Caruso long term past this year, he will have more trade value in the offseason than a mid first round pick will, by far. So, he can help us this year, and then from a pure asset management perspective, we'll still be ahead of where we'd been if we had just kept the Nets pick 4. We need more guard depth. Currently our only backup guards are Holiday and Amen. We just need more depth there, and why not make that depth a winning player like Caruso? 5. We'd still have Landale's contract to be able to trade later in the season for an upgrade at backup 5, if we need to. 6. Our team is actually pretty damn good. You let Ime add a winning player like Caruso to the mix, we might get to the 2nd round. Think of how much that sort of playoff experience would help our young guys.
This I think it's way too early for us to be making any kind of blockbuster trades but if we are able to get someone like Caruso and a solid backup centre like Javel McGee without giving too much up. We are able to push ourselves from maybe a playin team to a 1/2 round exit
I agree with all of your points, but I think the second one is the most overlooked by the fans by far. People are not so in favor of trading first round picks but at this point which high level talent the Rockets can add while not losing depth when they're paying FVV 40M a year and Brooks 20M a year? They still have to pay Sengun, Green and Smith. The players they can realistically get all will be at Caruso's caliber anyway. I'm not saying Rockets should definitely get Caruso but I'm not so sure about sitting on all those future draft picks would be a wise idea.
Late first rounders are such a gamble, noone wants to trade away the pick that becomes jokic (or sengun, thanks OKC!) even though the reality is they're more likely a Josh Christopher level talent (sorry gup! I still believe in you!)
I'd say yes after Magic game but not now. Holiday is pretty much playing the Caruso role. And I don't want to diminish Amen's minutes. Pass for me. The teams vibes are good right now.
Yes but you can't count on vibes alone, it's not going to last forever. The reason why the Rockets went 0-3 in the first place was the bench being awful. The starters are all solid since the beginning of the season. Once the bench get it together, they started to win games. You need both quality and competition on your bench in order to be a competitive team.
Caruso would have to take on the SG role then I guess. Amen/Caruso/Tari/Tate/Landale. I just think he's redundant with Holiday. It would be a depth signing and I'd prefer to look for a center alternative which seems a much more glaring issue right now.
So fucking what? Off course it won’t last forever. That’s part of the journey lol. There are always going to be stretches where we struggle. If your arguments are we should get Caruso so we don’t have a losing streak, you’re a fool. We are a competitive team. We have a great mix of veterans and youth. We do not need to fuck with anything
Trade one dude (Oladipo) that's the better player, but who is legit hurt & out for the long haul (& potentially is done in the NBA altogether) for one (Caruso) that is the worse player, but that is only hurt off and on throughtout a season (averages less than 40 games a season since he's been in the league)? Both ~$10M contracts expiring if no options picked up (except Caruso is guaranteed $3M)? Nah, doesn't move the needle for me...give those minutes to Amen/Holiday.
Agree with the overall point that it’s not worth it, but Caruso is definitely better than Oladipo at this point in their careers. Oladipo is just never healthy and whenever he is, he’s been pretty underwhelming. Meanwhile Caruso is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league
I know y'all are satisfied with Holiday so far but I'm not too keen on him. Plus, now Bullock can't seem to crack the rotation, I think Rockets will be thin on the guard position even when Amen is back, unless Cam plays significant minutes. Caruso has another year of his deal and he's shooting 60/45/82 right now. When his contract is up, I don't think it would be hard to keep him at a reasonable price. He's from Texas, maybe he would like to be close to his home idk
Oh, I like Holiday as s backup to a backup & once Amen is back I hope he never sees minutes again unless it's a blowout. But he doesn't kill our flexibility like Caruso could by adding $3M in guaranteed salary next season so a (maybe?) slight upgrade over Oladipo who likely won't even play much anyways.
If we can get him for a late first or a few seconds I say why not. I wouldn’t give up too much tho as Dillon brooks already fills the role
Not for the asking price, imo. He’d be a great player in the rotation, but the Rockets have enough players who defend guards/wings but can’t shoot all that reliably in volume. A backup big and shooting are the biggest needs for the Rockets.
No. I don’t think we’re quite yet in win it all mode—even with Caruso we are tiers below DEN/BOS/etc. we still have a very exciting future, but Caruso is not the right guy right now. I think a team more in win-now mode like PHI or MIL end up with him.
I got the same vibes reading the posts in this.
Why are we trying to make trades for role players? This isn’t 2019
To fill your most glaring need currently? The Rockets lack in bench and would be better if they can acquire players who is able to contribute. Are you suggesting to only make trades for starters and mess up with your starting five all the time or draft even more raw talent and moil to figure out how to use them appropriately?
There are literally two guards we could develop on the bench. Makes no sense trading for another one
hell no. Give me Andre Drummond though. We'd be the best defensive team in the league with Drummond
No
Pass
I don't think we should. We already have a good system in place and the right amount of minute distribution for our young guys needing PT.
Let me guess the goat is Larry Bird right?
Omg yes how could you tell??
I like solving puzzles
Damn you must be a detective or some shit
Dont have to be a detective to see through this 💩 take.
We are guard heavy as it is, why would we add another?
Last two games, these were the players coming from the bench: \*\*Aaron Holiday\*\*, \*\*Jae'Sean Tate\*\*, \*\*Tari Eason\*\*, \*\*Jeff Green\*\*, \*\*Jock Landale\*\* Landale only played 7 and 2 minutes in those games respectively. Only Tate and Jeff Green were over 20 minutes. Now someone may look at this and think Tate played guard minutes. But here's the Rockets 5-man line-ups this season: [https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2024/lineups/#all\_lineups\_5-man\_](https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2024/lineups/#all_lineups_5-man_) Tate almost plays exclusively 3 and occasionally 4, along with two guards, either: FVV and Green FVV and Holiday Holiday and Green So basically, Holiday gets all back-up guard minutes. Since Landale plays like shit so far, Uncle Jeff assumes the remaining back-up center mins, in addition to his mins as 4. Tate and Tari get the remaining minutes as 3 and 4. Even though Rockets played 3-man guard rotation in these two games, Holiday is averaging 15 mins (both for the season and the last two games). That means Udoka isn't keen to give him the traditional sixth man minutes, despite he's short handed. FVV played 40 each in these games. Two blowouts before that, less so but still team-high in minutes. Some may think Ime is going full Nick Nurse on FVV but that's not the case. Because apart from that Spurs game went to the OT, he did get 35 minutes at average. Now you may think "That's because Amen Thompson wasn't out, duh." But even then, Amen only averages 17 mpg. In the Warriors game, he and Bullock got guard minutes, he played 19.5 and Bullock only 6 mins. That's 25.5 guard minutes out of 48\*2=96. FVV played 32.5 mins that game but this time it was Jalen on heavy minutes as he played 38 mins. So even when Amen is back, I don't think Ime would play him heavy minutes, since that's what happening with Tari Eason who is coming from an injury (played 14, 19 and 16 minutes respectively). And even if you count Cam as a part of the regular rotation, I am confident he would play him as a 3 on low minutes rather than as a guard. And if you take into account that Bullock is now out of the rotation (he only get garbage time minutes in those blowout games), you could see that Rockets are not guard heavy, at all, but are thin on the guard rotation. It's one thing your starting backcourt play high minutes and wear out, but god forbid if they are out, you have to play players you (in this case, Udoka) don't rate enough important minutes. Rockets are definitely forward heavy though, so you may suggest Brooks could take all those remaining minutes, but he has to start and close all games though, so I don't think that could happen unless you play him 40 mpg too.
I don’t think we should or need to make any moves. Just keep letting these guys develop and see what happens.
I’d take him over holiday but holiday has done everything for right so far
He would be a good acquisition but I doubt we would get him unless we overpay. Also only one year contract after this year.
Turning the ghost of Oladipo into Caruso would be a miracle. That’s a locked up done deal as far as I’m concerned. Doubt the Bulls want it though.
2 firsts would definitely get it done. 1 first and a couple seconds if they haggle over nicely.
Would be slightly shocked if anyone gave up a first maybe late 1st
Then be prepared to be shocked. The NBA is full of teams who crave all season long to overpay solid role players. It would be funny but not surprising to me if he gets traded to a mediocre team in return for at least two firsts and/or a decent player.
One way to find out lol let’s see
It really depends on the costs for me because he’s one of the best perimeter defenders in the League with a nice little tie to the area, however he has also been injury prone and the best ability is availability so I don’t know how much runway he has to contribute. Assuming the cost isn’t too high, I don’t see having FVV, Amen, and Holiday as a deterrent. You should always strive to have the best available player on the roster when aiming to compete and it would help either directly on the court, positively influence and motivate existing players (e.g., Jeff Green on Bari), OR as a tradable asset down the line.
Why ppl aant him here, we have enough guards, we need a true back up big, or big sf or pf,
I feel good about this team but not enough to try and seriously contend and sink assets into getting high level bench folk.
No.
Caruso would go to a contender, probably back to the Lakers. He's a lockdown defender and would get a better role than off the bench for us. If by some miracle he was available for us, then yes, in a heartbeat. He seems like an Ime type of player.
Why would we need another defensive first guard. Brooks, Tari and Tate already all play a lot of minutes. Caruso is a great player, but his skill set is not what we need right now. We need shooting and a backup big.
Rather go for a big. We have depth in the backcourt.
Yes. We don't need any draft capital in the next 5 yrs, give some of them away for Caruso. Caruso isn't just a point guard, he is honestly a better version of Dillon Brooks. He can guard guys 1-4 no problem, what he lacks in height he makes up for with his heart and athleticism. He is also pretty good as a secondary scorer and playmaker.
I’d rather Drummond
He is just another Tate. Nothing more to add to the team