realistic trade to improve the rockets with chicago

There are so many unrealistic trades or FA signings posted, such as all-stars for MLE and crap. Or playoff contenders trading vital pieces for junk etc...

Usually the only teams that make big moves with negative talent coming in are non-playoff who want to shape up the roster and trim payroll.

Rockets basically need to make a trade where talent coming in is better than talent going out.

One of the only realistic trading partners I can see is Chicago.

1. They need to trim payroll since they need to extend both Ben Gordon and Luol Deng.

2. They significantly underachieved this season because of chemistry/leadership issues.

The following trade works for both teams.

Houston trades Shane Battier, Bobby Jackson and Luther Head.

Chicago trades Thabo Sefalosha and Larry Hughes +2009 1st round pick lottery protected.

Larry Hughes is a headcase, and will need to be managed carefully, however is perfect as the 6th man candidate, he is a BIG guard, can create his own shot, great handles, can run the point guard position, great defense. I think if he is on a team with veteran leadership, he can be controlled and play a good role.

Sefalosha is of course the rookie that we wanted in the rudy gay draft. His minutes have really been yanked around the past couple years but since playing consistent minutes post all-star break, he has been the best player on the bulls. He is athletic and is a good defender. I see him starting in battier's place and defending the best opposing wing player, i think he can develop to be like igoudala given the right coaching.

Now bobby jackson and luther head are basically just filler, battier is the real prize for chicago, basically their team needs a veteran leader to teach the young guys how to be professional players, I think they would really love to have battier mentor their young guys, plus they have a savvy defensive vet. I think they would make this move to improve chemistry on their team + get rid of hughes contract so they can pay gordon and deng.

For us, I think battier is a risky move, he is very respected teammate and everyone will be sad to see him go, but in the end, the bottom line is that in the playoffs he just doesn't have the impact that he does in the regular season. He is pretty much a non-factor on offense, and even his defense is neutralised to some extent in the playoffs. He is only useful if we meet the lakers or spurs in the playoffs and his value is only going to decrease in the future as he ages.

I think trading for sefalosha is a great move as i believe he can become a player in this league.

Larry hughe's contract doesn't really hurt is since he expires the same year that tmac's does and we can do a full rebuild then.

 

thabo sefolosha is the centerpeice of the trade, not larry hughes.

and battier has pretty much proven to be useless in the playoffs, check out his memphis performances as well, his style of defense is nullified when the games get physical.

Morey agrees with me since he nearly traded battier after last years playoffs, odds are he will trade him this year, since his value has never been higher.

 

The thing about hinrich is that his deal runs much longer than hughes and it would mean that in the summer when tmac's deal expires, we would not be able to make a FA splash.

It would basically prevent us from rebuilding post tmac around yao. I dun think the front office will take on any deal longer than t-macs

 

problem is that chicago will not trade their core this offseason without seeing how new coaching will affect the team. Core being Deng/Gordon/Hinrich. So the earliest a possible hinrich firesale could happen is allstar break next year if he continues to suck it up.

 

I hope bulls get someone like carlisle and JVG instead of D'antoni, if they get d'antoni, there's no chance that the battier trade will go through.