Half of u are way to eager to trade

man, I agreed with you until you called McGrady a superstar. That is such a hugely premature statement and is what has people drooling over trade scenario anyhow.

For every superstar in this world, there are probably 10 monster dunkers with great athleticism, many never even become the #1 option on their team...Dee Brown is the prime example having won the All-Star Slamdunk competition, but what else.

Let's not call McGrady a star, yet, certainly not a superstar. I reserve that word for about 1 player per draft.

 

Don't you usually have to start on your own team before you become a star?

 

The reasons that a lot of us want to see the rox make a deal is this:
1)We are not good enough to win a championship, not even close.
2)We have a couple of players that are not needed by us, but have value oin other teams (Walt, Drew, TMass)
3)We are playing well enough to be in the bottom of the lottery (by probability) which will not net us a great player.

Would you rather have team like Utah who is good enough to consistently get to the playoffs and lose or a team like LA who has been a threat to win the title for the past decade? In the west, Francis alone cannot do it. Mobley is a good two as is Anderson. Our problem is that we need a complimentary scorer who can feed off of Stevie (ie Pippen, Worthy, Dumars, Robinson, Clyde, etc. all allstar sidekicks)

 

Utah has made it to the NBA Finals in the past decade and LA hasn't done anything since Magic left.

Mango

 

UTBaller,

"Utah who is good enough to consistently get to the playoffs and lose or a team like LA who has been a threat to win the title for the past decade?

That has to be the grossest misrepresentation of NBA history I've ever read. Time for me to leave this thread before it gets ugly.

 

Utah and L.A. are just two examples of how to accomplish the same thing in two totally different ways:

Utah makes very few changes, and plays very unspectacular or nonflashy ball.

L.A. makes big moves and brings in big names in order to have a shot at the title.

But, they've both accomplished the same thing in the past decade ZERO championships.

------------------
I have a dream.........his name's Hakeem.

 

Are you disagreeing that Utah had a very limited window to actually WIN the Trophy? LA has been a contender for much of the last two decades, they had a short period between Magic's retirement and their return to the forefront of the NBA. Granted they have not one the championship, but through TRADES they have solidified their shot at winning a title. Utah has played well throughout the the last ten years without making many moves, but their reluctance to make the big deal might have ruined Malone and Stockton's only shot at a title. In my view I would rather make any moves short of trading Francis, Dream, Mobley, Anderson, or Cato to either move up in the draft or get a young stud to ease the burden for Francis.
In conclusion, I dont think that I am far off in my analogy of the Jazz and Lakers as they pertain to us. The Jazz front office has proved inept at putting a championship calibre team on the floor since they got their two stars in the 80s. It is in fact their reluctance that has cost them the best shot that they might ever have to win. The Lakers on the other hand have made moves many times to put the best team on the court together. They have added in the past five years: Kobe, Shaq, Rice, Horry, and Fox for virtually nill (except for the Jones-Rice deal).

 

UT Baller,

Lets go with this for a moment.

If Jerry West and the Lakers front office swapped places with their Utah couonterparts, could they have enticed Shaq to come to Utah? They do lots of rap music production and movies in Utah.

Would Rick Fox sign with Utah for a low initial amount knowing he would have plenty of movie opportunities and celebs to date in Utah?

When Kobe was drafted by Charlotte, did he wail about wanting to play with Karl and John?

Wasn't Horry swapped for the Captain?

If they had to do it all over again, they probably would have taken a different deal than the Rice - E Jones.

Location means a lot and LA has the location and Utah doesn't.

Mango

[This message has been edited by Mango (edited February 17, 2000).]

 

Getting back to the original point of this post, I have stated repeatedly that I am in favor of a trade, if it gets the Rockets some quality BIG people.

With the exception of Kenny Thomas and Cato, all of our talent lies with our guards. Frankly we have 4 talented guards, and only 3 real spots for minutes.

One of the guards WILL leave when his contract is up in order to get more playing time. My prediction is that either Drew or Mobley will opt to leave if one is not traded.

Therefore, I look up and down the roster and the most glaring weaknesses are at the 3,4, and 5 spot.

So if we can get equal value for Drew or Mobley and throw in Walt, Tmass etc...I would do it in a heartbeat.

DaDakota

 

Utah's been to at least 5 conference finals in the 90s (at least once in '90 or '92, can't remember, as well as '94, '96, '97, and '98), and the Finals twice. The Lakers have been to the Finals once, and the conference finals no more than three times (maybe '90, can't remember, '91, and '98). The Jazz have had about as good a chance of anybody (anybody that didn't have Jordan, I suppose) to win the championship for pretty much the entire decade. I'd say that's a pretty large window. The Lakers really haven't done much for most of the decade.

I might add that I don't think the reason Utah didn't win the championship had anything to do with their supporting cast not being good enough (which would be what you think if you contend they should've made trades), but more to do with their stars just not being clutch enough. Malone's performance dropped off in both Finals appearances, when it should have increased. Your role players are only as good as your stars make them.

[This message has been edited by TheFreak (edited February 18, 2000).]