Not only is the draft class going to be deep and include potential franchise players...take a look at this list of potential free agents... Potential 2012 FA's: D. Will, CP3, D. Howard, D. Rose, Bynum, B. Lopez, Hibbert, Kaman, K. Love, Eric Gordon, Westbrook, Jrue Holiday (credit to Jason Quick's twitteR)
Most of them RFA and will most likely sign an extension... Dwight and CP3 gonna be on new teams soon. Nothing real big to look forward to in free agency. The team shouldn't waste time waiting for 2012 besides the draft.
Pretty sure the sixers will use their team option on Holiday. Same with Bynum. Hibbert's an interesting prospect. He will be offered a lot by someone. Same with Lopez. Gordon, westbrook, and Love will resign with their current teams. D12, D-will, and Cp3 aren't coming here. Kaman will go to a contending team. So Hibbert is our best shot and even that's a slim chance.
Does not matter. In order to be one of the top dogs of the league, we need a new owner and a new GM. The current ones will most probably keep this team mediocre. Thats what they have done for last several years and I do not see any indication that things will change. Besides, FAs arent exactly lining up to play in Houston. Houston isnt LA, NY, Miami or even Dallas for that matter.
What's bizarre to me is the way that these superstars are so preoccupied with where they're playing rather than who they're playing with (besides each other). What am I getting at? Excluding the rookies signed this year, the Rockets are only committed to $28 million for 2012. That money goes to K-Mart, Scola, Lowry. If they pick up options on Patterson and Budinger, $31.1 million. C-Lee's QO is $3.2. I suspect he'd be in the $5 mil range to keep. So that's around $36 million committed. Plenty of room left to get BOTH D-Will and DH12. And of course we'd trade Lowry opening up more money. What confuses me is that those D-Will and DH12 don't want to play with K-Mart, Scola, Patterson, Budinger, C-Lee, Morris, and at least two 2012 lottery players just because it's not in the glitz and glamour of NY or LA. If those 2 superstars were smart, they'd refuse to sign any extensions, hit free agency in the summer and come here to form this team: PG - Deron Williams, 2012 Lottery Pick SG - Kevin Martin, Courtney Lee SF - Marcus Morris, Chase Budinger PF - Luis Scola, Patrick Patterson C - Dwight Howard, 2012 Lottery Pick Alas, no one ever said NBA players were smart.
Working Title of Film: Captain Obvious Rescues Everyone Scene 1: Captain Obvious to the Rescue Captain Obvious: "Hello everyone. I'm Captain Obvious and I'm here to rescue everyone.
So Pau Gasol (lol Pau and his brilliant performance in the playoffs last year) was his ONE master plan and once that fell through this team is set back for 3 years?! First of all, its Pau, not Lebron, not Howard, not CP3 etc. Second, if I tried that lame excuse at my work, I would be shown the door. It is embarassing to even think that Rockets management would use that excuse to avoid responsibility.
I agree. Any plan that involves spending 2-3 years after your two superstars become worthless to rebuild into a 50+ win team again must be nothing but a joke. I mean, seriously, any GM with a brain can do that. I mean, look at Sam Petrie. He is the greatest GM ever. It only took him 4 years of horrendous record and 4 top-5 picks to get his team relevant again. Morey needed freaking half that time and no top-10 picks. He's nothing but a bum compared to other great GMs who do nothing but churn out 60 win teams out of thin air.
Here's a pretty good indication -- 2 max salaries that rarely played are off the books. Spoiler sucker