9 man rotation ???? Yao Ming Juwan Howard Tracy Mcgrady Jim Jackson Bob Sura Tyrron Lue Dikembe Mutombo Maurice Taylor Bostjan Nachbar ????
Some of you guys are high! Having Mutumbo will be similar to having Cato when he played center...good D, no O. Answer this question: what did Wilks, Pike and Griffin contribute last year? Bottom line is that the Rockets will always have a shot blocker in the lane...that's a good thing for this system. Another thing I haven't seen mentioned: With 2 good swing-men on the team (T-Mac and JJ), there is a lot of flexibility at the 3 spot. JVG does not need to rely on Boki to play well (I hope he does but he may not). T-Mac can move to the 3, Sura to the 2 and one of the 3 other PG can play the point. 90% sure the starting line up will be: Sura T-Mac JJ Howard Ming I just don't see Ward or MoT starting.
This is what I was wondering as well (see thacabbage's post). So, we got the TE timeframe extended in the McGrady trade? Was that nailed down? I know there was some discussion about it, but if it's "for sure", I must have missed it. I'm one of the people who'll be most unhappy if it does expire. And, like thacabbage, I'm not crazy about the PG rotation, but we'll see how that plays out. Either the Rockets "braintrust" thinks Ward is a starting caliber point at this stage of his career, or that Lue is. Or that Sura will be a surprise at the position. I just wouldn't be surprised if we made another move. I'm also not wild about Deke, but if he stays healthy and fills the role we have for him, without complaint, which Cato did very well (especially the "not complaining "part), then I'm not upset about what we gave up for him. I wish Piatkowski could have been healthy and produced last year, but he wasn't and he didn't. Moving him for the backup 5 we needed, even if it's not a younger guy with more mobility, which I would have preferred, is OK. Maybe Deke can teach Yao a few things. I don't get the complaints about someone discussing the TE expiring or our PG rotation. We've made a tremendous move this summer to get McGrady, and Howard is an improvement over Taylor, although we still have Taylor. And I don't think we were going to "fix" everything in one offseason. Seriously, you though they would solve every position for the longterm in (not even) one summer? I don't want them to do that because the best long-term options are not available all at once. Ward will be a two-year bandaid, most likely as a backup. Sura will be a three-year badaid, as both a starter and a sub. Mutombo is obviously a one-year bandaid. (posted by rimbaud) No, again, I didn't think everything would be "fixed" in one season. I just don't think they are through making moves. If I'm wrong, then I'm just wrong. I don't "hate" any of these players... at least now that they are currently Rockets. I would like to be clear on the TE, because I will hate it expiring without us using it, if that has been the case. If it was "cleaned and pressed" in the Francis trade, and it's use extended, then that's another thing altogether.
Even without Deke and Lue, we're still over the cap. So those expiring contracts aren't going to turn into cap space. The thing that interests me in this deal is the fact that Les/CD wanted to match salaries instead of using the TE. Since Wilks was a FA, the net difference in savings is just Griffin's contract. And that's only $800,000. You can't tell me that an owner that's ready and willing to give a player a max extention will go out of his way to shave 800K. Especially when he just handed that out to a 4th string PF. When does the TE expire anyway. Now I'm getting anxious.
NIKE: Perhaps I missed something but was the TE extended? I was under the impression that reports were false that a new one had been created in the McGrady deal and that it was still the same original $6.9million exception we always had.
I'm not necessarily against this trade. We gave up little and got little in return (probably the biggest "little" in the league...but that's tangental). What we got filled our last official "hole" on the team, but I have to take exception to this comment. The ridiculous finger wagging horse**** was enough to take Mutombo out of the list of classy players, but does everyone forget the chicken**** accusations he made of Hakeem back when he was still a superstar? Claiming Dream didn't do enough charity work for his home country, Nigeria. In reality, Mutombo didn't know of Dream's activity back home because Hakeem never cared to have cameras running ever minute he was doing something sacrificial of his time and/or money. I don't know what made Deke say what he did, but that he made such a ridiculous statement at the time without at least researching or talking to Hakeem seems more than a little classless to me.
I was thinking the exact same thing (except I had a hard time remembering who Hakeem's backups were)! LOL I think this trade is a good fit for the Rockets. Most of the people posting negative comments probably haven't even seen Dikembe play in years. Don't you all think that Jeff and CD did their homework on this? I'm willing to bet that they have seen more tape on Mutombo this summer than most of us have seen of him his entire career. Let's let the guy get out there on the court and show us what he can do before everyone just says "He's old and slow".
The way I understand it is that we used the trade exception in the McGrady trade, but then got another one in the neighborhood of $5+ million. This was never confirmed, however, to my knowledge, but was mentioned in passing in a couple of articles. It would be great if we retained the trade exception until the end of next season, which would be ideal since there's really nothing out there right now.
I wasn't talking about you per se... I was commenting on the "WTF" statement by Jeff But since you thought it was you, I will direct my question your way - what do you do to fill the immediate need for a backup center on this team ? but remember... 1) Pike has 2 years left on his contract (Deke is only signed for next season) 2) JVG likes athletic defenders (and ex-Knicks.. ) 3) Boki needs more PT and you already have JJ, T-mac, Padgett, Sura, Gaines, and Boki - for the 2 & 3 spots 4) there is a shortage on big men in the league 5) the anti-PS2 rule is in effect (i.e. just because you want to sign some one...like Steven Hunter - doesn't mean they will accept your offer and play here) 6) oh yeah .... you have 2 all stars so you have limited salary cap sapce What do you do !!?!?!?! what do you do !?!?! do not attempt to grow a brain Jack
perfect fit He can play limited minutes He can block shots He can throw elbows. As long as Yao stays healthy that is exactly what we needed. If Yao gets hurt then yeah we would need a stud backup But forget that thought And TMac and Yao will rock and Mutumbo will be fine for 15 min. of pushing and shoving in the paint.
We've seen what he can do for the last 3 years, and it's not a whole lot. I'm not thrilled with the trade, but at least we're not giving up much.
5) Yao Ming/Dikembe Mutombo 4) Juwan Howard/Maurice Taylor/Scott Padgett/Clarence Weatherspoon 3) Bostjan Nachbar/Jim Jackson 2) Tracy McGrady/Reece Gaines 1) Bob Sura/Tyronn Lue/Charlie Ward Something's gotta give with that roster. You have some versatility -- Mo and Howard can play spot minutes at the 5 in a small-ball lineup; Sura and Jackson can play 1, 2, or 3; T-Mac 2 or 3, etc. -- but it seems that Juwan can play 30 mpg, but we have three power forwards, including Mo, to divide 18 minutes between them. Granted, CD's probably ready for a nap and no more dealin'. Still...
it would have been nice to have Pike drain three's all day from passes from Yao and Tmac. too bad. Zeke will play 15 min. a game and i would be satisfied with him just playing 110% on D and going after boards. he is obviously past his prime athletically but i'm sure he can push his body hard enough to make a difference. a 7'2 Defensive minded C with the second unit, i'll take that any day, its just too bad we had to give up Pike. I hope that Ward, Tmac, Padgett, JJ, and Lue can sustain a high % from the three and I don't expect (hope) that Sura all the sudden becomes a spot up shooter. I've always thought of his game as being a "slashing" player a la Manu. Welcome to H-town Zeke. Your window of opportunity just opened for another year.
This is just unnecessary. The PG signings were fine. They didn't succumb to the fad and overpay any of the others out there. I'd rather have slightly lower caliber players at reasonable prices than slightly higher caliber (and still average at best) players at ridiculous prices (read: Fisher, Alston, etc.) Ward can't hit the 3 with a center? Whatever. Lue is a great backup/change-of-pace PG and a terrible starter. And Sura can back up 3 positions...a utility player who can score, pass, and defend. You can't be unhappy with that...especially when he's not even a starter. With your deals, the only pertinent one is Terrell Brandon. The others involve serviceable players, which we all know Rice wasn't. And in our case, Rice was necessary to move right away because a) Jim Jackson needed to be signed ASAP and b) they had to move him to get under the luxury-tax threshold...so it everyone knew it was essential for the Rockets to move him. Which gave them leverage. (And let's not forget that a then-useful-Marc Jackson was sent from Minnesota too).
