[ClutchFans] Top 5 Teams For Rockets To Plunder in Trades

Interesting. I have always like Chandler a lot, despite the poor year he just had, and have been very surprised by how down people seem to be on him - making it seem like that toe injury is life threatening or something.

the reason i was surprised you had them/him at #2 is because i don't see any plausible scenario to acquiring him. we wouldn't waste mcgrady on him as they don't have anyone else of worth on that roster that we would want to fill out the remaining $10million of the salary match. and without mcgrady, we don't have anything they would want, ie: cook and landry wouldn't be enough of a financial relief or talent swap.

i would remove the clippers and charlotte from the list. i don't see morey taking on any of those clippers contracts and unless chris paul is in play, i don't think there's a match with new orleans.

phoenix and golden state look the most plausible as they are both unique in the sense of having young talent whom they have openly shopped and are expected to move.

this could be interesting i think:

PF Stoudemire/Scola
SF Battier
C Yao
SG Artest/Barbosa
PG Lowry

basically swapping landry for stoudemire and brooks for barbosa, with lowry assuming the lead guard role.

 

Interesting article. I have had the feeling for a while now that the rockets won't change much until the offseason. At that point there will be teams in panic mode, that's when we come in. There will be losing teams looking at the possibility of walking into another season of bloated contracts AND missing out on the 2010 free agency. I think getting a star type player is a very attainable goal.

 

The house always wins, except when morey is playing. I think the maloof brothers and the kings can be hustled.

aaron brooks+another contract for the 4th pick and nocioni's contract.
=)

 

chandler is absolutely useless without CP3..please dont go for him

sure he may get some rebounds maybe a block or 2...but thats it...

 

What I take from all this is that the Rockets will be in no hurry to dump T Mac, and that they'll wait as long as possible, figuring that the best deals will be closer to the trade deadline.

 

great summary clutch

 

We don't need anyone from Suns.

Overall Scola > Amare we don't need a PF that can only score when you have Yao, Artest, Brooks doing the loads and not to mention the talent we have to trade away for him.

Nash is... just too old and would probably opt out when his contract expire. When he become a free agent his value will go down and that's the time to net him for cheap.. maybe, he is not a big priority regardless.

Shaq will not backup Yao period and will consider retiring.

Other player on the roster just doesn't interest me in anyway.

 

I believe that only the NJ trade would give us a guy that we can depend on in crunch time. Besides Carter, no one in the 5 proposed trade will land us a guy who can score down the stretch. Amare is good offensive weapon, but he doesnt play defense, so the team could have trouble with him. CP3 and Chandler would be a blessing, however i do not want to give up Battier or Scola for those two. It will completely change the face of this team. The Warrior trade would land us a explosive scorer but can Ellis regain the 2007-08 form that we seen before, if he can, then i have no problem dealing Mcgrady away for Ellis and maybe a young big they have. I actually believe we should make a run at Bosh, i believe he is a better fit then Amare. Maybe Landry+Mac for Bosh+guard however i dont think anyone else on the raptor team is good except Bosh, so this trade might be bad for us.
The best option right now is still hope Mcgrady become T-mac that we know, and maybe buy a draft pick, and sign a decent big man.

 

If we can workout some kind of 3way and get Nash/Camby or Nash/Ellis or Chandler/Ellis for McGrady. Ill be thrilled.

 

I want Anthony Randolph from GSW. He needs to add weight, but might have potential to play the 4 and the 5. Highly underrated IMHO.

 

Milwaukee seems like a top team to trade with.

They under performed. Milwaukee is going nowhere right now....

If we can pull Michael Redd or even Richard Jefferson, I'd be happy.

 

I think if the Rockets can get Amare Stoudemire or Vince Carter in the offseason, they'll do it. Carter isn't as complete a player as a healthy TMac would be, but he's about the closet we'd be able to get. Carter's likely the better scorer at this point. If they were able to get Carter, I'm not so sure it would make sense to resign Artest. Stoudemire would allow the Rockets to change up their offense considerably when Yao is neutralized or goes to the bench, giving them a good running lineup with Amare at center. He'd make it more difficult to double Yao, as well; he's definitely more feared on the offensive end than Scola. I don't know that he's much worse defensively than Scola or Landry, either.

If the Rockets can't get either of those guys, I think they'll see what McGrady can do and try to move his contract at the deadline if he doesn't work out. I agree that Chris Paul would be the best guy possible to get, but there's nothing but conjecture at this point that the Hornets might look to deal him.

 

That Amare trade sounds nice, but I doubt it happens if they can get rid of Shaq's contract.

It's nice to have an owner not named Sarver, that guy is such a horrible owner, he's almost worse than Sterling. Sterling never had a good team but Sarver destroyed his contender bit by bit.

 

I think moving shaq's contract will be impossible. Combining him with anyone makes the cap number too high.

I think amare+barbosa for brooks, landry, tmac is a good deal for pheonix. They get 2 young players and get to dump barbosa as well. Amare is set on leaving so it is better than nothing.

 

Nice article, Clutch. I have said all along if the plan is to move McGrady and play "vulture" then my two primary targets are: Amare or Kevin Martin. You mentioned Sacramento as a team looking to unload salary. Do you think Martin is a realistic option if, say, he was packaged along with Beno Udrih's nasty contract? Your proposal for Amare was fair too. Another big "IF" but hopefully Amare's combination of wanting to play for a contender and straight getting out of Phoenix could be enough to persuade him to say post-2010.

I have to agree with smoothie that the Warriors are probably our most likely trade partner due to their jumbled up mess of big contracts and players that don't fit. They are one of the few teams out there actually capable of bringing the salary needed to the table to match any wild McGrady scenario. Plus, they're never afraid to shake things up. The problem? I don't like any of their players. Now when I say "like", I mean like as in on this team. Most of those guys are all low basketball IQ, ball stoppers and selfish chuckers. Ellis is garbage. Biedrens is way overpaid. I like Turiaf but that's not exactly the wild idea befitting of the main purpose behind this thread.

Agreed on Camby being a solid fit for this team. I have noticed he seems to be a huge whipping boy around here due to his contract, overrated on-ball defense and the Nuggets' statistical improvement defensively. [Mind you, I don't think there's a poster out there capable of convincing me this Nuggets team couldn't have used Camby in that Lakers series....but that's a different discussion]. So yeah, Camby is a solid fit. The main question? What kind of deal are we talking since he makes roughly 1/3 of what McGrady makes? Baron Davis makes the deal work but he scares the crap out of me.

Zach Randolph makes the deal work too but about 95% of this board generally considers him about as nuclear as they come. As for me? Generally, I agree but i'm a fan of good systems and coaching -- two strong points for our team. Adelman has had success transforming a "damaged goods" player like Artest into a winner capable of leading a team deep into the playoffs. He's proven that so why is the idea of Randolph working any different? 27-years-old, legit 20-10 player, only under contract one more year after next season. He's agile enough to slide out to the perimeter to defend those mid-range and beyond 4/5's that give us trouble. He has mid-range game of his own so not to worry about spacing and crowding Yao down low. All i'm saying is feasibly this idea works. Is it a little crazy? Yes. Do I think it will happen? No. Hell, would I even do it myself? Probably not.

Just saying, if the right package comes along (say...McGrady for Camby/Randolph/draft picks) we could probably do a lot worse than biting on a deal like that. And yes, I realize I just posted earlier condemning those GS Warriors players for being exactly like Randolph (selfish, chuckers, low bball IQ) but the difference is none of those players can score in the low post the way Randolph can. I may be in the minority on my openness to a deal like this, but I PRAY that there are many more besides me that are cognizant enough to realize that we have lost in the playoffs the past two years due to our inability to consistently score on the low block without Yao. That's simply an unavoidable truth. Another unavoidable truth is that Yao's durability is probably going to continue being an issue going forward. In that case, it's up to us to safeguard ourselves in the event he gets hurt again. Randolph is a decent insurance policy in that mindset. Is it perfect? No. Is Randolph my first choice? Nope.

Think about it....

Randolph's 20-10 fortifying our front line @ 2 years/$33M

vs.

Baron Davis: 4 years/$54M
Vince Carter: 3 years/$51M
Michael Redd: 2 years/$35M
Antawn Jamison 3 years/$39M
Monta Ellis: 5 years/$55M
Corey Maggette: 4 years/$40M
Stephen Jackson: 4 years/$35M
Gilbert Arenas: 5 years/$96M ( )

Just throwing some names out there that we've seen discussed in potential McGrady-for-whoever's. All things considered now, is Randolph REALLY that big of a risk? Food for thought, people. Food for thought.

But yeah, I'm done ranting about that topic. Feel free to flame away.

 

obviously the best case scenario is to not trade Mcgrady and still upgrade at the 1 or the 4. I think Camby is the ultimate add to our team. His got that jumper that can punish people for doubling Yao and he will seal up the defence as well. No longer will we be abused by teams with a good 5 and 4 (celtics, Lakers, Orlando). But how attainable is he?

 

Interesting, I never thought about that. I would be all over a package that landed us [guard = Ellis/Nash/whoever] + Chandler. that would be huge.

 

Shaq's contract expires at the end of next season. He's owed $20M for 2009-10. Unless he is traded to a team with significant cap room, there is not much financial benefit to Robert Sarver in trading Shaq. I suppose he could save up to $4M under the "125% + $100k" rule, though, if Shaq is traded for a package totaling just under $16M.

 

I like Amare and Barbosa for T-Mac and Brooks.

No way I would let go of Landry. I would move him to the 3 position. He's undersized for a 4 and with his nice jumper he'd be perfect.

Lowry/Barbosa
Artest/Barbosa
Battier/Landry
Stoudemire/Scola
Yao/Scola

 

As always excellent analysis. I agree thatt this summer will be unprecedented in terms of teams making deals