he's moving over to boston sports guy's shop next week. solid pickup for them, his pieces are always quality.

https://sports.yahoo.com/jimmy-butler-missing-piece-houston-rockets-184046715.html

Yahoo Sports
Could Jimmy Butler be the missing piece for the Houston Rockets?
Dan Devine
September 28, 2018, 1:40 PM CDT

When the Houston Rockets opened free agency by losing Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute — two key cogs in the significant defensive improvement that helped the Rockets rise from 18th among 30 NBA teams in defensive efficiency in 2016-17 to sixth last season, which in turn helped Houston become the kind of balanced monster capable of competing for the NBA title — and signing Michael Carter-Williams, it looked like they’d taken a step back from pushing the Golden State Warriors to the brink in the Western Conference finals. Even as the summer progressed, with athletic swingman James Ennis, former All-Star scorer Carmelo Anthony, point guard Brandon Knight and ex-lottery big man Marquese Chriss all arriving via free agency or trade, the Rockets still seemed a touch less potent on both ends of the floor than last year’s model, which came within a brutally timed hamstring injury and a staggering string of missed jumpers of reaching the championship round.

As he surveyed the landscape, though, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey projected confidence and emphasized patience. “We need our best team on April 15,” he said, suggesting the possibility of a shake-up that might put Houston in better position to once again go toe-to-toe with the reloaded Warriors. Like … maybe … for example … bringing in an All-NBA small forward who’s one of the league’s best perimeter defenders?

We’ve known for a few days that the Rockets were one of the many teams who had expressed some level of interest in trading for Jimmy Butler, the four-time All-Star who formally requested one week before training camp that the Minnesota Timberwolves trade him out of the Twin Cities. Despite owner Glen Taylor’s reported interest in putting what’s become a messy situation behind his team as quickly as possible, Wolves coach/president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau and general manager Scott Layden have taken a more measured approach, refusing to be held hostage by the clock.

The Wolves’ top two decision-makers reportedly insist that any prospective suitor come to them with serious proposals commensurate with Butler’s status as one of the game’s best players, and they’re representing that — while they intend to honor Butler’s request — they’re willing to wait to do so until they’ve got a deal that keeps Minnesota competitive now and better positions the franchise for a Butler-less future. (No matter how much that might frustrate Butler.)

As the process wears on, with Butler reportedly most interested in making his way to the Miami Heat, the Rockets have remained in the mix, according to Mark Berman of Houston FOX affiliate KRIV-TV:

https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/1045511835804454914

Berman’s report comes on the heels of a similar note from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, suggesting that Houston might have some work to do to put together a package that might pique Minnesota’s interest, but that Morey and company are still in the business of doing that work:

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1045062983280447488

Creativity, as you might remember, is kind of Morey’s specialty. On his watch, the Rockets have:

• Devised the “poison pill” contracts that landed restricted free agents Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik in the summer of 2012;

• Constructed the right kind of now-and-later package to get the Oklahoma City Thunder to part ways with James Harden shortly thereafter;

• Waived or traded a handful of players in short order — Thomas Robinson, Furkan Aldemir, Royce White, James Anderson and Tim Ohlbrecht — to carve out just enough cap space to sign marquee free agent center Dwight Howard in 2013;

• Worked out a three-team, six-player deal to land Ariza in the summer of 2014, then a three-team, five-player swap to import wing Corey Brewer that December, with both playing important roles in Houston’s run to the 2015 Western finals;

• Started the movement toward teams renegotiating and extending the contracts of their star players to secure their services for even longer, re-upping Harden in 2016 and again in 2017; and

• Paid cash to pile up non-guaranteed contracts to add to guards Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams, forwards Montrezl Harrell and Sam Dekker, and a top-three-protected 2018 first-round pick in a package to send to the Los Angeles Clippers for superstar point guard Chris Paul last summer.

On that last one: despite lacking the cap space to add a max-salaried game-changer like Paul — who had reportedly informed the Clippers he wouldn’t be returning in unrestricted free agency the following summer, and was interested in being moved to a specific destination (sounds familiar!) — Morey still managed to find a way to send the Clips immediate starting-caliber players, including one who wound up meriting surprise All-Star consideration, young talent with upside, a draft pick, nearly $700,000 in cash, and three non-guaranteed contracts that L.A. could waive to lower its cap number.

According to the most recent rounds of reporting, what are the Wolves looking for to move Butler? “Stars, starters, draft picks and salary-cap relief.” Y’know, just in case you’re scoring at home.

“There’s always fine-tuning, you can always get better,” Morey recently said, according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic. “We have all our draft picks going forward, so if something presents itself that allows us to make a trade to improve the team, we won’t hesitate to do that.”

What form a Rockets offer might take remains to be seen. Michael Pina of VICE Sports and ESPN’s Zach Lowe have theorized about a framework built around Sixth Man of the Year Eric Gordon, tough-as-nails 3-and-D forward P.J. Tucker and an unprotected first-round pick, which would provide immediate help, two players on cost-effective contracts beyond this season, and a(n admittedly likely late) first-round selection to add more young talent moving forward.

Things get several orders of magnitude more complicated if the Wolves are indeed insisting on jettisoning the remaining three years and $48.7 million owed to backup big man Gorgui Dieng as part of any Butler deal. That would probably require Houston to loop in a third team, or maybe even third and fourth teams, to find the right combination of cap relief and assets going back the other way without giving up more than a couple of vital pieces of the Rockets’ own puzzle. We’ve seen Morey navigate those multi-team waters before, but they can get mighty choppy awfully quickly.

Plus, if it’d mean parting with Gordon, Tucker and another potential rotation piece, it would also require some serious risk analysis weighing the costs and prospective benefits of taking that kind of big swing. This is where we remind you that the Rockets’ were basically playing 6 1/2-man dudes by the end of the Western finals, and that Gordon and Tucker were two of the six. And if D’Antoni is, as ESPN’s Tim MacMahon suggests, thinking about starting Gordon while bringing Anthony off the bench, this 2-for-1 would necessitate a major shift in the starting five, including possibly reinserting ‘Melo, which could both lower the starters’ defensive ceiling and dampen the second unit’s offensive punch. Again: it’s complicated.

That said: depth matters, but stars matter more. The Rockets still have their taxpayer midlevel exception (worth just under $5.34 million) with which to shop for a down-the-rotation boost on the buyout market as the season goes on, but they might not have the opportunity to pick up a player that can matter the way Butler can.

Few front offices over the years have proven as willing as Morey’s to take that home-run cut, to “up (their) risk profile” in pursuit of bona fide stars and difference-makers who can not only close the gap with Golden State, but put Houston in position to actually topple the two-time-defending champs. Butler is excellent, a defensive monster with a versatile offensive game. (He’s not a knockdown 3-point shooter, although his stroke might play up in a spaced-out attack like the one Mike D’Antoni has designed with Harden and Paul at the controls; as Rahat Huq of Forbes notes, Butler shot better than 38 percent on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers and long balls fired within two seconds of the pass, and nearly 41 percent on wide-open triple-tries.)

Butler’s also got a relentless competitive streak that seems tailor-made for the heat of postseason battle against the likes of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. (Oh, and DeMarcus Cousins, who the Warriors totally have now.) He is the kind of player Houston has routinely sought since Morey took the reins in 2007.

“We go toward talent,” Morey told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. “ To me, it’s similar to our players, from one to 15, from the front office staff to the coaching staff, we have done everything but win the title. That’s what’s left.”

Taking that final step will require massive talent and the bold moves to bring it in; trading for Jimmy Butler would certainly seem to qualify. Now we wait and see if Morey can get creative enough to put together a package that catches Thibodeau’s eye.