The trade deadline has past and David Wesely and his $5 million expiring contract are still on the roster. This would indicate to fans that the Rockets are serious about making a push for the playoffs. However, now the team releases Jon Barry, another expiring contract and gets nothing in return. The team also received virtually nothing in the Derek Anderson trade. The Rockets say they are going in a new direction. But I can see no clear direction except for young scrub direction. In order to go young, you must obtain young talent. Not young fringe NBA talent. If the goal of this team was to make the playoffs and seriously contend, they should have made a dramatic move at the deadline by obtaining that desperatly needed 3rd scorer. This could have been achieved with a combination of draft picks, expiring contracts, and Head. On the other hand, if the team was actually serious about rebuilding, they should have packaged their veteran players, such as Anderson, Barry, and Wesely and recieved something of value to help them achieve that future goal. Now we are on a course to barely make the playoffs or slip in as the 8th spot. Given our current backcourt situation and lack of shooting, we have no chance to upset Dallas or SA in a seven game series. Moreover, cutting JB and Derek Anderson over Bowen makes no sense if our goal was to compete. We will approach the offseaon over the cap and armed only with a mid 1st round pick. The draft this year is not particularly strong. Thus, I do not see how we can possibly improve our team dramatically this offseaon given those circumstances. Our personnel decisions do not seem to favor one direction over the other. This a concern as we will be stuck with those consequences in the future.
I dont know I actually see the Rox going towards a youth movement. Look at all the young players they have picked up and the ones we have waiting in the wings. Our Superstars Tmac (27) and Yao (26) Lampe (21) - im actually wondering what he can contribute and if his outside touch is really as good as adverstised he will become a staple off our bench. Did I mention he was 6'11'' and only 21? Stromile (27) - was our first attempt at getting younger and more athletic. he still needs more time to develop but I have been encouraged by his play before the ankle injury. Bogans (26) - looks old but he is only twenty six LOL. I like his defense, and the way he slashes to the basket. If he starts hitting the midrange J consistently I can see him moved into the starting lineup. Our Kiddie Corp Head / Hayes / Fitch are all rookies.. im pretty happy with the vision of the team to get younger and more athletic once we find some outside shooting watch out! J
You must have inside information saying that the Rockets didn't try to make a deal like this before the deadline. Please share your source. Sorry, I just don't understand people who assume that just because a big trade didn't happen, it's because the Rockets didn't try to make a deal. Just because a trade works on Real GM doesn't mean other teams are going to line up to do a deal with us. Perhaps, just perhaps there were no takers for any of our players.
I agree and we have been playing fairly well as of late. A question for the thread starter....which stud 3rd option were we going to pick up at the trading deadline with the assest we had?
well , the answer is we'll see ... basically we had a direction but things deteriorated... injuries aside, at best we aren't a top 5 team ... thank god we have our draft picks and maybe we can make some deals in the offseason pending our performance in the playoffs (let's hope we get in) ... with all the juggling hopefully we can pick out the keepers and a more cohesive unit, a group of guys that can play well together in time for next year's playoffs...i'm confident we'll be contenders by then
we are going into a youth movement. good young players are hard to get because if they are good when they are young then they are very good later on. usually that means they are a high draft pick. or have some problems (reason for team trading them). we get the best/youngest players available. fitch may suck, but luther is good, bogans is good, and swift is a big guy. we are trying to make the playoffs this year (reason for not trading wesley's contract). as for our direction over the summer: we will be looking to add a young 3rd scorer, probably at the 2 spot since tmac is becoming more and more inconsistant.
Let's see, Last year's playoff team Yao Bowen T-mac Wesley Sura This year's team Yao Howard T-mac Wesley Alston It looks like this year's team is better than last year's playoff team. Sura provides more rebounds and energy, Alston is better with court vision.
The Rockets direction will depend on Tracy's back and physical fitness. If Tracy is healthy, good direction. If Tracy's back betrayes him and turns him into a 35% outside shooter, the direction is bad.
i think if this keeps up, we are gonna be that atlanta charlotte portland team that just SUCKS for a couple of years then gets better...
As far as I'm concerned, the team has been rebuilding for years. Problem is, the franchise has been really limited in its ability to draft young talent; the Eddie Griffin fiasco has been like a punch in the gut, and has hurt the team as badly as the Joe Smith incident has damaged Minnesota. Can you imagine where we would be now if we had kept the three first rounders instead of trading them for EG? Two of the three would probably be starters now, or at least be superior backups, and we would be in far better shape. I think Rudy eventually paid for his decision. My feeling is that he was forced out for the EG blunder more than for anything else. As for next season, I don't know. With the revolving door of a roster we've had this year, I am totally confused about our cap situation.
We wouldn't have Yao (I'm assumign we wouldn't have been in the lotto that season) or McGrady (who we got because of Yao).
If you have followed the Rockets for long, this is an old problem. The personnel decisions of this organization are at times inexplicable. I sometimes think they are not very good at recognizing or developing talent. The role players on this team are largely at the NBDL level and do not compare favorably with very many other teams. The idea at the beginning of the season that the Rockets had all the pieces to be a contender was nonsense, healthy or not. The absense of James, Sura, and now Barry has doomed this team to its present state of mediocrity. And where is the trading capital? Add in TMac's physical/mental/emotional struggles, and it is hard to be optimistic. Right now Ming and Hayes are the two bright spots.
