Now is the perfect time to strike. Not Morey, well maybe Morey, but more importantly the fans. Everyone in favor of rebuilding needs to speak up, send Les emails, and let him know that we are willing to suffer for a season or 2 if we have too. We practically already are. We have been unable to beat the good teams and are merely racking up wins against the bottom feeders. No, this is not a reaction to the Spurs game, but rather a plan using the games like the last one as evidence example. Generally speaking, the biggest obstacle to rebuilding would be that our owner doesn’t want too. However, Les isn’t stupid and when faced with numbers like the 29th best attendance in the league, he should look to reason and realize that rebuilding is the best option. However before I go on any further…. I want to fully explore the pros and cons of rebuilding versus contending. I think everyone here will fully agree that barring a major move to make us better (and thus giving up something in return) we are not championship contenders. That being said the best thing that come from making the playoffs is that one of our players (Lowry) does extremely well and becomes a pseudo-star and we can get some national recognition. However even making the playoffs isn’t certain and then you have wasted precious time by not moving your veterans. Also if you make the playoffs we lose our pick in a very deep draft. So how do we get better, we have tried to make a move for a star and it got put down by Stern, Kaman is no answer and I think Jordan Hill is playing fine for a backup. In order to get better we would have to give up way more of our assets than we should and would most likely lose flexibility. In short, short of K-mart , Lowry , and Scola all happening to be on their A games in the same series I doubt we win one and we might not even make the playoffs. LA, LA, Port, OKC, MEM, SA, DAL, and DEN are all legitimately better than us. SO ….. as many people here agree with , I believe that rebuilding is the better option. As previously stated the main obstacle to that is getting Les to agree…. The facts are facts and they work in our favor. Our attendance is 29th in the league; it cant really get much worse. I don’t care that we haven’t played the big name teams at home yet, people will come to those games regardless of how much our players suck. Clutchfans, you can really make a difference here. Get to emailing , telling your friends who care about the Rockets to write, call into sports radio shows and garner support for the idea. Seriously we can just appoint someone to make a petition or nice letter and we can all sign/email it to management. Maybe I’m being too optimistic but with the way our team is set up and with how much cap room we can generate ….. we are in a great position to rebuild quickly. And now …. The opposition comes …. Its cool I can defend myself. You say … “ Lots of dumbasses have wanted to rebuild … how do you propose we do it .. ?? the generic trade vets for picks etc…. ? “ YUP Here are a few specific proposals. http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=73aj3oa Well , I think it’s realistic. But it might be a tough sell for Denver, we could always throw in Dragic instead of Flynn, but I really would rather not as , Dragic is used in the other Trade. Mil goes for it easily, Kevin is a upgrade over S-jax and provides a scoring punch Mil needs, plus he hasn’t been too terrible defensively this year. We get a Project Center in Larry Sanders who has lots of upside but hasn’t been playing a lot. I would also try to squeeze a pick out of Mil ….. Scola and Nene are a really good offensive PF/ C combo and they also get Flynn’s expiring which somewhat dampens the loss of Millers expiring. With the way Scola has been playing lately I think a salary dump is the best we are gonna be able to do. Next trade is a backup for that one http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=7nvsop2 It is probably a little more feasible .. considering Min is willing to give up Johnson…. This strengthens their team a lot. Giving up Randolph, Toliiver and Johnson for Martin and Bud is a steal …. So much a steal that I would want a future first from them. In this trade Mil is the hard one to convince… Scola/ Bogut/ Gooden is a pretty good big rotation … plus they get Johnson to fill in for s-jax … who really hasn’t been playing all that well lately. Maybe Mil liked Johnson in the draft. All they have to give up get those two is S-jax and Sanders. In short I think those two trades have a fairly good chance of being agreed to if they are actually proposed. Here’s one more trade that’s a longshot… but could actually happen if Morey negotiates the right way. http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=6tb2m5y Think about it …. Harden is a RFA … we are gonna have a lot of cap room especially if one of the previous scenarios goes down. Tell OKC that you plan to offer Harden the MAX he can get in FA … the important thing here is …. That could actually happen. Does OKC risk being outbid for harden … We give them Lee and Dragic. They need a good backup PG … dragon is the best in the league and although lee is no harden … he can fill a similar role. It’s a pretty good get for harden who I really like. So assume some combination of these goes down … how do we look ?? Trade 1 and 3 Lowry/Miller Harden/ Jackson/ Squid Jackson/ Parsons/ Bud/ Patterson/ Hill Dally/ Sanders Also in trade 1 … miller is a 7.8 mill expiring minus Flynn’s 3.5 that’s an extra 4 milly in possible cap room. We lose cap from Dragic and Lee assuming we try to resign Harden Trade 2 and 3 Lowry/ ish ??? Harden/ Squid S-jax/ Parson Pat/ Hill/ Randolph Dally/ Sanders / Tolliver We get 5 mil expiring of Randolph and Tolliver. So far we have 2 different scenarios…. I don’t know whether the trades make us worse or better… def worse if we don’t get Harden. Where to now ? Im fairly certain that either way .. the rockets are going to have a tough time making the playoffs. So our pick will be in the range of 8-14 most likely out of the top 10 … that’s fine … the important thing is to have 2 draft picks. The knicks pick is harder to predict. It could be anywhere from 8 to about 18 or so . Part of the reason why I want to deal with Mil (besides sanders) is that making them stronger makes it harder for the knicks to make the playoffs. How about our other future assests … Montiejunas/ Morris/ Smith 3 high to medium upside players you could be looking at Lowry Harden / Jackson ( 2 or 3 ) Morris/ parsons Pat/ Montiejunas Dalembert/ Sanders / Smith Not to mention 2 possible lottery picks in one of the deepest draft in recent memory. We could trade those 2 picks to move up in the top 5 or sweeten a sign and trade for a big name FA . Even if we don’t get harden We still have Cap space to possibly sign him in free agency or at worst you make SG a priority in the draft. Really does sucking this one year seem so bad a price to pay for all of that ?? we could be be done rebuilding in a year and only have the growth of our young players to look forward to. Taking a quick look at Bima’s cap numbers we could have up to 21 mil in space before the trade .. which create 4 or 5 million extra in space … easily enough to keep harden and make a serious run at DH .. Thank you those who read. And let’s get to work on making something like this happen !!
Its not just trade Ideas though ... it really is much more a a long- run plan involving the draft ... It could be moved i guess .. i just thought it was more than a random trade.
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I'm usually pretty subtle ... but im just really frustrated and feel that our window of action is closing quickly ... hence the impatient tone
Theres no problem with it. In fact I think it was such an outcry from Texans fans that got Frank Bush fired and Wade Phillips hired. There was a cry for defense and they drafted all defense in that draft. Sometimes what you say needs to be said by fans.
I would love a Lowry, Harden, Montiejunas core. I think that is a championship team down the line to be honest.
We do need to clear out some bodies. I like the way Hill has played the last few games and I would love a scenario where Scola is shipped to a contender and we can start PPat and let Hill come in and back up Scola... Scola+Budinger for Tiago Splitter and filler?
Yeah... nice enthusiasm but no. I dont have time to look through the trades to evalutate, but Im sure if Les could move Scola for something right now then he would. They already have one of the youngest rosters in the league, and have been rebuilding for some time now, they just dont suck enough to get a top draft pick. Do some research and find out that they have been making these kinds of moves the past two seasons to get younger. The Truth is Harden is not available, but guys like Terrence Williams are. Thats what Les and Morey are stuck choosing from now, and they refuse to ask their players to kick the ball out of bounds to loose games on purpose. These are the guys they are trying to get, but they just arent available. It is what it is, flooding Les' email to ask him to do something they are already trying to do makes no sense.
Les doesn't care about the fans. He cares about his paying customers. The corporate guys that pay for the expensive season tickets.
As soon as you had us getting Harden, you lost all credibility. He is the third best player on the team and the only scorer they have off the bench. They are going to give that away for Lee and Dragic? Keep dreaming. I know you all think you are smarter than these idiot GMs, but Morey has already shown he is willing to move Scola and Martin for the right price. Since they have not been moved, a rational person has to assume that the right price does not exist. Maybe it will once we get closer to the deadline, and then we will make the deal.
