Ok gurus..... Who is the missing link to take us to the next level?

#1-Lamar Odom-playmaking 3 who many of our players are already friends with (Cat, Steve, and MoT for sure). Makes our break better and takes some of the heat off Steve, Pippen without the D

#2-Corey Maggette-athletic 2/3, Posey with more scoring potential

 

#3 Lewis

 

Brent Barry

 

Sane, I totally agree that this team would benefit greatly if they could get an Elton Brand. I just don't see it happening. Brand is probably going to take the one year tender offer from the Clippers this summer to make him an unrestrictd FA after next season (similar to what Kandi is doing this year). From all reports, Brand is not going to accept any FA offers for him this summer because his agent fears that the Clippers will match it and he will be stuck in Clipperdom for years with the team going nowhere. We can only hope to try to force a sign and trade with us. Hope to stress upon LA that if they don't sign and trade him they will get NOTHING for him after next season. For some reason I don't see it happening but we can hope!

I do think in general that the Rockets need one more "star" player. The Rockets need more consistancy from their 2 star players as it is and one more star player and a cast of decent role players would help flesh out this team.

I also think it is imparitive that the Rockets find a consistant 3 point shooter to stretch defenses to keep them honest on double teams of Yao. Far too often our team is inconsistant with the jumpshot allowing teams to sag in and double team Yao or go into a zone to clog the middle. This doesn't necessarily have to be a star player as much as a decent "role" player such as a Brent Barry.

Francis and Mobley are not really "shooters" but "scorers" and with zone defenses and clogging up the lanes their ability to cut and drive for shots is limited, forcing them to take tough outside shots that really is not their forte.
You add Posey into that mix as a starter and the outside shooting gets worse!

Consistency in scoring in general is needed. Not people that are hot one night and cold the next. That is why I think this team needs one more star to compliment Yao and Steve.

Dallas has Dirk, Nash and Finley.
Sacramento has Bibby, Peja and Webber.
Lakers have Shaq & Kobe (which equals 3 stars).
Rockets have Yao and Francis.....need one more star player here to get to the next level.
The same can be said for San Antonio as well. They only have Duncan. They need at least one more star and some role players.
Minnesota is also in the same boat. They have KG and Wally and need one more star to elevate their team.

Who is going to be the Rockets next star player? I think initially we all hoped it would be Griffin. And it still might. I am a bit uncertain about this. I think Griffin will end up being one of our better "role players".

As it was said above, Mobley, Rice, and Cato all for various reasons are nice trade bait to acquire a better single player. The Rockets have pretty good DEPTH on the team but the depth is not "consistant". The Rockets need to translate their QUANTITY into QUALITY by trading a few players to obtain one better player that can bring more consistency to the lineup.

Chris

 

16,285

 

we need a shooter, who can hit open..

how angry are you to see eg or cat miss open 3s one by one, if they hit one more per game, i think we would not be struggling for 8th .

 

SAR can play the three pretty well in the west. I'd like him there teamed with a MCE banger low. I really like Odom, but it doesn't look like he's available. Maggette is also nice.

 

Actually, if SAR did make it here and played the 3 then I would like a 4 ala Garrity ala strong back Bull to spread the D a long way.

 

SAR shoots 31.1% from the 3pt line. Not what I want from SF my especially one that doesn't play much D. We could keep Posey for a lot less $.

 

Our SF, obviously, needs to be able to hit 3's. Either tha, or our 2-guard needs to be one of the best at hitting 3's (Person, Murray, Dickerson...)

 

Eduardo Najera

 

defensive, banging, bruising, rebounding POWER Forward

 

For a guy who likes bangers, you really do like stars who are pathetically weak wimpy wombly p***y ass players. You're like schizophrenic in your "I like bangers" but "I want SAR."

SAR and Odom

pahlease, a team of defensive softies like Glenn Robinson and SAR and Odom and Maggette doesn't even make you .500. Planting one bruiser in there with them, when Francis sucks at defense, MoT is your backup PF and Yao doesn't look like he'll be better than Jabbar at defense ... well, you better be signing Ben Wallace at PF, or no one else will matter. Oh, and pasox2, Martin gets you nowhere with that pansy rebounding of his.

 

Relistically we need a couple players, a PF and a PG. If it is one missign peice I will take a PG.
My idea would be to get a true distributing PG (ie Eric Snow) and keep Francis and Mobley. Play small ball about 15-20 minutes a game with all 3 guards. Keep Yao and Griffen as our 4 and 5 and Cato as their sub (twin towers) which would give us 3 shotblockers who could help with our SF being too short. I would use Rice (don't know if he fits salary wise next year) and Posey as our wings. I think Rice can be a killer once Yao gets the ball in the post. Just hav eRice spot up and wait for the double. Posey would also be a nice athlete to keep around who can better matchup with athletic SFs when needed.
As far as minutes:
Francis 38
Mobley 36
Yao 30 (more minutes depending on conditioning)
EG 28
PG (Snow) 30
Cato 24
Rice 24
Posey 15
Moochie 10 (4th guard)
Others 5 (T-mo, etc)

So my thought is trade Mo-T for a true PG and let these guys run! Keep 2 shotblockers int eh game when we play 3 guards (for shot blocking help) plus all 3 can run pretty well.

So

 

What if you get SAR for Rice and Mobely? I'm pretty sure that's the flip side of the Rice/Griffin deal they offered. Then you have

Yao /Cato
Griffin /Taylor
SAR /Tmo
Posey/ Hawk
Francis/Moochie

Which is not bad. That's a big, long, strong team that can score and defend in the front and backcourt. SAR is versitile and very talented. I think you guys that call him a puss are just confusing him with Webber, and haven't seen his skills. We'd still do well to get a spot up shooter and a muscle forward, but they can be got as MCE/second-tier FAs.

So bleh back at you.

As much as I'd like a good pf, I'd like a really good 3 even better. 4's aren't all that. You need one, but they're just worker bees.