I tip my cap to the Rockets Brass for going after Howard so brazenly. Howard should think about how badly the Rockets wanted him and the legacy of big men in Houston - Malone, Hakeem, Yao. But now, I hope we all finally realize that after all these years of trying to be semi-competitive while trying to grab Anthony, or Bosh, or Howard, or whomever, is not easy and in fact full of many many perils. So how can we build a contender? The same way ever other contender was built. 1. Trade away our good-but-not-great big 3 for expiring contracts/draft picks or anything that's not a long-term contract to be honest. Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, and Kyle Lowry. They are not going to take us anywhere, but they will take up lots of minutes and keep us in mediocrity. 3 straight years of 14? C'mon, how long are we going to suffer this as fans? We could have rebuilt by now. How valuable are these guys? Well, let's put it this way, how come no one is knocking on the door for anyone but Lowry? I say use Lowry to get rid of the other two. Scola and Martin will be happy to be on a winning team anyway. 2. Make no free-agent signings over the vet minimum and only bring in older players towards the end of their career. guys who just want a paycheck and know their role is to help younger guys develop. They are essentially player-coaches. Marcus Camby is a good one. 3. Do not get a center for this team. Instead play a scrub or go without one. 4. Play to develop players and build their confidence vs. worrying about winning games 5. Repeat this every year until we land a bona-fide franchise player in the draft. There are 15 franchise players currently in the NBA: Howard Rose Durant WestBrook Lebron Kobe Wade Dirk Duncan Garnett Pierce Nash Griffin Deron Love That's about 1-2 every year. So in 3 years we have a pretty good shot at landing someone of the above calibar. If you think that's long. Just ask yourself when was the last time we were in the playoffs? When was the last time we were in the conference finals? 6. After getting a bonafide star, do not make any free agent signings or trades (unless for future draft picks). Focus on developing star. 7. Try to get secondary star in next draft. If fail, try again next year. if fail, make free agent signing of big superstar with all the cap room you have save up for sucking for 5 years and not having a single player taking up more than a few million a year! 8. With one bona fide star from the draft, plus a lot of young talented players from the draft, and a great free agent signing, you can make some trade for some of your other young talent plus stockpile of draft picks to acquire another vet star player. Wallah - you have a big 3 and young players at the other position and are back in contention. I know a lot of people will say - oh, this is just tanking. Sure, whatever. Considering the core player of every championship team in the last 30 years was built through the draft with maybe Detroit as the sole exception, I feel pretty confident the data supports this track.
