In the spirit of the Rockets contacting Eric Piatkowski today, I feel compelled to reiterate my contention that they look long and hard at making a trade offer to Memphis for Wesley Person. Person would be an ideal fit for the Rockets. He LED the league in 3-pt shooting last year. Offensively, if he can throw a good post entry pass, it would make him the perfect complement to Yao on the strong side. While he is not a very strong defender, he would still make a great SG to tandem with Mobley. Cuttino could play fewer minutes (something he must do) and could concentrate more on defense (something he's actually good at when he sets his mind to it). I'm not exactly sure what Memphis would want for Person, since they're pretty fully stocked with young talent at every position. But Person is in the final year of his contract, so he (along with Glen Rice) could come off the books after this season. If we can dump a contract (perhaps Cato), that might actually create a little bit of cap room for next summer. Besides Person, the Griz have the following guards and swingmen on their roster for 2003-04: Jason Williams, Brevin Knight, Earl Watson, Troy Bell, Shane Battier, Dahntay Jones, Michael Dickerson, and Mike Miller. That is way too many players (nine!) at the 1/2/3 positions. If we could possibly arrange a trade of Cato for Person and Brevin Knight (also coming off the books after next year I think), the Rockets could take substantial strides towards clearing up their poor salary cap situation. Just a thought.
The problem with your scenario is that we have no backup C for Yao. Cato proved to be a valuable part of the team last year as a backup, getting the 2nd most rebounds per 48 minutes (behind no less than Ben Wallace). We need someone who can come in and bang on the inside while Yao is resting. If we trade away Cato, we will have the weakest frontcourt in the history of the NBA. Wesley Person might be a good addition to the Rox, but at a lower cost.
Of course, the Rockets would have to replace Cato with another backup center. One free agent that comes to mind is Peja Drobnjak. He did a very good job in Seattle this past season. He would provide some toughness inside and a good outside shot. I lineup like this would be pretty good: Francis/Ollie/(Knight/Moochie - quasi-dead weight) Mobley/Person Posey/Rice/Nachbar Griffin/Taylor Yao/Drobnjak After next season, the Rockets could take the salaries of Rice, Person, and Knight off the books. This MIGHT open up some cap room (Francis, Taylor, Mobley, Yao, Mooch, and Griffin may take up almost all the salary cap room). At the very least, the Rockets would clear some salaries this way.
I highly doubt either team would make a deal that could potentially determine the playoff outcome (as in who makes them). The Rockets as we know are ahead of Memphis, but the difference may be neglible, and IMO neither team would make a deal that *might* better the other team. Rockets per our insiders are on record as saying that they typically do not deal with intra-conference teams. I don't doubt Person would be a Rich Man's Pike, but he's not for sale...at least not to us.
