I think most of us are heavily leaning on the Rockets business side of things without ever considering what the player himself wants. Dude is a born New Yorker and New York is a serious ECF candidate and this might be the opportunity of a generation because the Knicks are not always this good, and to play in a Top 2 arena in the NBA while you are still young enough 29 years old I suppose to savor it. Stars aligning better for NYK. This one would be the one for their fans. Him and Brunson.
The ideal trade for him would be KD + whatever to get it done (provided the "whatever" isn't too much). Provided Mitchell will sign an extension, that sets us up for a longer period with a guy who can legitimately replace his shotmaking, albeit not quite as efficiently. I could see them biting depending on what other offers are out there; KD + Harden reunite and keep them in the playoffs with a chance at doing damage. The big questions would be, does anybody else offer a more attractive package that keeps them good and/or gives them more ammunition to rebuild / retool? Is KD willing to play in f***ing Cleveland? (Harden was, so who knows?) Is Mitchell willing to extend with us? As far as Sengun heading over there instead of KD, I don't know. Feels kind of iffy, but it does address the fit problem with Amen... except we'd still need a stretch 5 who can play defense, so we've created a new problem in this scenario Amen for Mitchell would be a hard pass for me
Do we even have a stretch 5 that can play defense currently? Sengun is not good at either of those things. You would ideally pair Mitchell with KD, Amen and Smith. The fitment would be worlds better than it is now and it would give this team 2 legit guys that go 1V1 and win.
Mitchell misses too many games. I don’t want to be pessimistic but what are the odds we have Durant as healthy as he’s been this season. Stone needs to add to his staff to become more resourceful and imaginative about potential trade targets. he doesn’t need to involve Ime, heavily, inthe process . The league is as talented as ever. We aren’t and haven’t been owner eclaie to the top of the mountain so why are we stuck stagnant at the base of the mountain. Im a freakin Nats fan(sorry)not sorry) to bring back old memories Astros fans) and we have the worse ownership since the elder Angelos was running things in Baltimore and even there front office are more active in moving parts around to try to improve the roster even though we operate on a budget as low as the A’s and white Sox
The stretch 5 should be Jabari. FVV Mitchell Amen Durant JSJ Only 1 non-shooter and Reed and Tari provide the bench scoring.
This would shorten our window and it would hurt, but (excluding draft pick compensation): Rockets receive: Mitchell & Giannis Cavs receive: Durant Bucks receive: Sengun & DFS Works in the trade machine but would take three to tango.
