Potential Targets for Rockets at Center for 2011/12 Season - 1. Nene - Most likely retained by the Nuggets, has already addressed his desire to stay in Denver, and they will most likely re-sign at asking price. Look for the Rockets to place a bid for him, and get rejected. 2. Marc Gasol - Resigned at all costs by Memphis. No way they dont match offers unless a team is willing to shell out max dollars for him. Anything under will be matched. He is their one and only option to be their franchise center for the future. 3. Sammy Dalembert - Best option for the Rockets to look at for a decent price. Dalembert most likely wont be offerred the kind of money Philly signed him at on his last deal, but there will be some competition for him. The Rockets just have to ask themselves... Is he worth the money or should we go with option 5. 4. Chris Kaman/DeAndre Jordan (trade) - I expect that one of these guys will be available on a draft day deal. The Clippers will look to solidify who they expect to keep for the future and pair with Blake Griffin going forward. Kaman has a massive deal that is poison for teams without major capspace, and will likely be taken in the exchange for another large contract. Luis Scola would likely have to be involved if they want to take on Kaman. If they feel like Patterson is their guy going forward, then Scola might be moved anyways. If the Clipps try and move Jordan for any reason instead, look for the Rockets to jump on that opportunity immediately. 5. Thabeet/Hayes/ Miller/ Jordan Hill - The question here is.... Can any of the other three Centers actually beat out Chuck Hayes???... In all actuality, It might be hard for options 2 through 4 to even beat out Hayes. He is short, there is no doubt, but he continues to improve and become one of the best low post defensive presences in the game. With the NBA game going smaller and smaller, why spend top dollar for a Center that is going to be on the bench because Chuck Hayes is doing a better job defending the post??? The better options might be to work more with Hill/Thabeet to battle for minutes behind Hayes. Maybe eventually they can even beat out Chuck for minutes, and the team is better off because of it.
I agree that the NBA is moving away or moved away from being a big man game, but the elite teams have an above average big man/men. Chicago - Noah/Asik Boston - HAD Perkins, still have Shaq/Kristnic Orlando - DHoward...HAD Gortat Miami - Their biggest need and what will probably keep them from winning the East. SA - Exception to the rule but still have a double double machine in Duncan. Lakers - No explanation needed. Mavs - Chandler has made them contenders. OKC - Look at the deadline moves and with the exception of last night, what they have been doing since that deadline. We need a big man to compete with these guys or we will get stuck being a bottom half of the West playoff team. If Memphis re-signs Z-Bo, where do they get the money to re-sign Gasol?
The rockets are alot further away than Dalembert,deandre, or any other minor move people are bringing up in this thread. I really feel like morey is setting this team up with picks and money to get not 1 but 2 high end players. Here is what I propose. Trade scola and miller for kaman. Why? The rockets can more than manage with patterson and hill at the 4. Kaman is a better player when healthy. His biggest thing is if as with yao. The good thing about Kaman is he's a good young center and an expiring contract. Thabeet can be his primary backup. Sign Thadeus young or wilson chandler for 6 or 7m per. Why would this be done when the rockets are trying to streamline salaries. Attraction and upside. If the rockets are going to make a trade for Howard without an extension or go after williams next offseason, those guys are going to look really hard at the rosters.The roster needs to have young devloping player who can be part of a long,stretch of title runs. I like chase, but I think Young or chandlerhave more upside and are more versitile 2 way players. No extensions for hill,thabeet,or williams. This doesnt mean they cant be part of the future, but the rockets need their salary in case they have to wait till the end of 2012 season to get howard and williams. With those guys having the option picked up for the 2013 season, it really negates the money they can offer. If the new cba had a hard cap at the lt threshold, that means the rockets need to be at 30m in payroll at the end of 2012. Sorry chuck, thanks for the memories. In the past, i make that comment based on his limitations, but now I make these comments based on chucks increased value now. The rockets cant afford to tie up 5m in chuck hayes if they hope to have a shot at Howard and williams. Good player,great story, just the wrong time to be a rocket. So now what the rockets would have at the end of 2012 is this: Lowry-5.7m Dragic-2m Martin-11m-Lee-2m-Williams Young-6m-Chase-1m Patterson-2m That would put the rockets right at 30m worth of salary.Even if the old rules were broght back and the cap is at 60m, the rockets could offer Howard and williams 15m per year. After that, they could trade lowry for better depth at the 5 spot behind howard or picks. Williams-Dragic Martin-Lee Young-Chase Patterson-? Howard-? Thats a contending team for at least 5 years. Thats not a band aid or some wishful contender either. Thats a true contending where vets would take less to play for. Thats what I think should be done.
Oh I think they'll just let him go - but only if the price is too high. They'll match if it's an MLE type deal.
Chuckwagon is amazing at defending physical power forwards but he struggles with true 7-footers who understand that they just need to shoot over him. I would much rather him play 20 minutes at the 4 than 30+ minutes at the 5.
The guy I want the most is Deandre Jordan. I felt we should have drafted him but we didnt. Now we are gonna have to pay big time to get him. However I feel in the right system Deandre is gonna be every bit worth what we pay him. He is a franchise center under the right coach and team. Especially a team with high assists numbers and Rick Adelman running it. He is a perfect Rockets center.
I understand what you mean here, but anyone else other than Gasol/Nene probably wont be able to win minutes away from Chuck Hayes with the way he has been playing lately anyways. Even Dalembert. Chuck Hayes is NOT a center, he is a post player who typically guards the best offensive post player. The problem is he just needs to be matched up with another post player who play much better defense than Scola. If this team is really planning on keeping Scola (and starting him) for the remainder of his contract, then I agree they need a true 7'0" shot blocking center to try and make up for his deficiencys on defense. -If you compare the Rockets front line to teams like Boston/OKC/LA, yes they seem like they would just roll over the Rockets because of size, but adding size for the sake of adding size wont win you games anyways. You might be better off with what you have. -Those contending teams arent just big, their bigs are REAL good, and the team is designed to play around those players. Adding somebody like Dalembert to the team might look good on paper for matchups, but it doesn't mean that he would be able to outplay Chuck/Scola/Patterson/ in the rotation just because of size. If he might not even get playing time.... whats the point of wasting the cap space??? If a really good Center comes available then yes... get him, but the 2011 free agents aren't looking like that batch of Centers the Rockets really need. -Dalembert could still be a good pickup if its at a decent price. Even then, you need to think about moving a two player combination of Hill/Miller/Thabeet/ Scola to make room on the roster for PT.
Chuck struggles to defend about 5 Centers in the league. Pretty much every other one he consistently shuts down. Do you think any of the available free agents would be doing much better against these guys that give Chuck problems? 1. Dwight Howard 2. Al Jefferson 3. Andrew Bynum (Healthy) 4. Tyson Chandler 5. Zach Randolph(PF but gives Chuck problems.) -So thats 3 Centers in the league Chuck has problems with. Two of these are true PF's. -Out of 82 games, I would say 70 of them Chuck plays the PF position anyways when he is guarding the overall best post player who most likely is a PF, and Scola rolls over to guard the Center who usually isn't a major offensive threat. *Maybe the bigger problem is Scola's deficiency on defense that makes it seem like need a dominant big man to be efficient on defense. Notice how much better the defense gets when he goes out of the game. -My point is Scola is secretly playing the Center position more than Chuck most games. Unless he is playing next to a Yao Ming, its going to be real hard to hide him on defense with any of the available free agents, and will take minutes from Chuck guarding the oppositions best post player.
Problem with Chuck was evident last night, dude did a HECK of a job on big AL but the Jazz had 20 offensive boards and a constant layup drill. This has been the story all season long, bigger teams have and will just eat us alive on the offensive boards with Chuck in the game. Same thing happened in the Spurs game, PPat was holding his own and stopping constant layups but when Hayes returned, the layup line started again. Gasol, Nene is staying Denver so won't even mention him, is the ideal size to clog the lane, grab boards and just big a body. It would allow Chuck to play his natural position of the 4 and stop the offensive boards. I do agree, adding size for the sake some just adding it isn't smart, afterall Thabeet is already here, however adding a Gasol would be adding quality size. I don't want Dalembert because as much as we need what he brings, he isn't ideal for Adelman's system and would cause issues in the offense.
Last night was one example, and Al Jefferson constantly give Chuck issues every year, but Big Al and Zach Randolph are true PF's anyways. Notice though that the defense got much better once Patrick Patterson got into the game and gave them a post player who was sharp on his rotations, and got back in position on transition plays. What you mentioned in the last paragraph is how I feel too in some words. Half of the leagues Centers will not beat out Chuck anyways, Dalembert included. Gasol and Nene are the only two that could actually outperform him on a nightly basis, not just when Dwight Howard is in town, and not regarding Shot Blocking, which neither of those two guys are exceptional at anyways. They are just taller and better on offense. -Another option though is to deal for Kaman, who is an offensive Center who could match up well with Chuck in the Post, and would be an upgrade from Scola on defense. Something like that could be a workable matchup if they are able to move Scola.
