While most of the reports out of Houston have been about the Chris Paul/James Harden relationship, yesterday things went in a different direction. There are a few reports out there that the Houston Rockets would be very interested in adding Jimmy Butler this off season. Now the Rockets aren’t the only team interested in acquiring Butler’s services, but they’d have to go about it an interesting way.
Butler is a free agent and what the Rockets would like to see happen is for the Philadelphia 76ers to re-sign Butler and then trade him to them. Now the 76ers have express interest in keeping Butler, so the Rockets would have to convince them to deal him.
In return for Butler the 76ers would receive two of these three players; Clint Capela, Eric Gordon or P.J. Tucker. All three are signed for at least four years, so that might be a lot of salary cap money for the 76ers to add. For this deal to get done, a third team might have to be added into it.
If the Rockets can’t find a way to add Butler, they have a list of seven other free agents they’d be interested in. Danny Green, Jeremy Lin, Brook Lopez, Kevin Looney, DeAndre Jordan and Al-Farouq Aminu are the players on that list.
If one of these players were to be signed by the Rockets, it would be for the mid-level exception. The Rockets exception would fall somewhere between $5.71 and $9.25 million dollars. This dollar amount may limit them from adding Green, Lin or Lopez unless that player would be willing to take a little less money to sign with the Rockets.
With the Western Conference looking to be wide open next season, if the Rockets add Butler, would a Big 3 of Harden, Paul and Butler be enough to win the West? If Houston ends up falling short in acquiring Butler could they still win the Western Conference with the addition of one of the seven other free agents they’re interested in?
As for the 76ers they have already expressed interest in re-signing Butler, but they also have two other free agents that they have said they’d also like to re-sign. Tobias Harris and J.J. Reddick will both draw interest from other team as will Butler. So it might be pretty tough for Philadelphia to bring all three back, but apparently they’re going to try.
It looks like it’s going to take a 5-year max or close to max deal to sign Butler. The Los Angeles Clippers are interested in bringing Harris back to California. The 76ers acquired Harris from the Clippers last season along with Boban Marjanovic and Mike Scott. In return the Clippers received Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala, Landry Shamet and four draft picks. There have yet to be any teams linked to Reddick, but free agency hasn’t even started and in today’s NBA there are going to be teams lining up tp bring in a player who shoots 41.3% from the 3-point line.
If the 76ers do re-sign all three of these players it will put them over the salary cap and put them out of contention for a number of free agents.
Would you like to see the 76ers bring all three of these players back? If not all three which combination of these three players would you like to see brought back? Or maybe you’d like to see them re-sign jut one of these players. Which one of the three would you like to see re-signed?
The Cincinnati Bengals used the #11 pick in this past draft to select Jonah Williams an offensive tackle out of the University of Alabama. The Bengals where hoping that Williams would move into their starting left tackle spot, but now they’re going to have to wait a year to make that move.
It was announced yesterday that Williams had shoulder surgery and is likely to miss the entire season. It seems likely that Williams will be placed on Injured Reserve soon, but Cincinnati hasn’t made any move yet.
With Williams set to take over at left tackle Cordy Glenn was all set to move inside to the left guard position. Now with Williams out Glenn will go back to the left tackle position and Cincinnati will have to find someone else for left guard. Christian Westerman took the bulk of the starters snaps while Williams was out injured during mini-camp should get the first look at left guard. The Bengals also have veteran guard John Jerry in camp; so he’ll probably get some reps at left guard as well.
The Bengals did announce some positive offensive line news. Last years #1 pick 28th overall center Billy Price has had a solid spring after missing most of his rookie season. Price played in and started 10 games for the Bengals last season before being injured.
Will Robbie Gould be with the San Francisco 49ers when the 2019 season starts?
Gould spent his last two seasons with the 49ers and reached free agency after last season. The 49ers put the franchise tag on Gould which means he would earn $5 million dollars next season, but Gould hasn’t signed the franchise tag ad has asked for a trade.
It appeared as though Gould was interested in returning to the Chicago Bears. Gould spent his first 11 seasons before the Bears released him. The Bears kicking situation is a mess and at one point I think Chicago had eight kickers under contract; so adding someone like Gould would quickly clear up that situation.
In his career Gould has made 358 of the 408 field goals he’s attempted in his career and he’s hit on 454 of the 465 extra points he’s attempted. That’s 87.7% on field goals and 97.6 on extra points. Gould made 33 of the 34 field goals he attempted last season; he led the league at 97.1% field goal accuracy.
It’s understandable with how accurate Gould is that the 49ers don’t want to lose him, but Gould has mentioned that he’d like to spend more time at home with his family and they’re in Chicago.
So what do you think; where does Robbie Gould end up playing next season?
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