Gundy took over a team with some mediocre players with too large contracts - except for Cuttino. Our drafts for whatever reason produced Steve, Cat and Yao and nothing else. I think that CD and Gundy have done about as much as is humanly possible TRYING to fix this team with what they had to trade. Luther Head is a great acquisition. But we still have major holes. We needed a PG and we bought on the cheap. We need a very good 2 and we have Head developing. We bought DA on the cheap. We need a backup 3 who can shoot the 3, and we let Padgett go and kept Bowen. But we need someone even better than either of those guys. We need an awesome 4 and we have Juwan and bought Swift on the cheap. We have a good combo at C this season. Our bench is filled with guys who would play 10th 11th or 12th on really good teams. Next draft we can only fill one hole, possibly one big hole and an 8th man if we draft perfect. So do we ride into the lottery this year and then also bust the cap to fill the other holes with really good people? Or do we bust the cap now? Either way I can't see this getting done without busting the cap. Les can make it up with a Championship, more hotdogs and beer sold, and the uniform and bobble head sales in Asia. Our skeletons in the closet from past mistakes are still haunting us.
I agree. The only way this team is going to get to championship caliber is to trade our expiring contracts for somewhat overpriced talent, with multiyear deals teams are looking to unload. But that's still a gamble, one that didn't work for the Mavs, Blazers & Knicks. I sincerely doubt if Les is ready to become Mark Cuban.
The Rox werent even willing to give Damon some $$$.he torched us for it last night anyway. PGamon SG:Head SF:T-MaC PF:Swift C:Yao. That would have been a sweet team. anyhow, the spurs proved you ca be successfull with the right amount of role players. unfortunatly we dont have anyone close to duncan, or there role players.
Hmmm... our 14 1st round picks for the last dozen or so years include 8 players who were NBA starters at some point in their careers (7 of whom are still playing) and only 3 guys who could really be called busts: Starters: --------- Luther Head Yao Ming Bostjan Nachbar Richard Jefferson Kenny Thomas Michael Dickerson Sam Cassell Robert Horry Roster guys: ------------ Brandon Armstrong Jason Collins Joel Przybilla Busts: ------ Bryce Drew Mirsad Turkcan Rodrick Rhodes It's not the drafting that's killed us, it's the trading of some of those drafted players.
Look, I wanted DS as much as anyone. But do you really think he would have made us a "sweet" team this year with StroGoofy starting at PF? You've gotta be kidding me! Wasting the MLE on a PF instead of using it in the backcourt was our #1 mistake of the offseason. Unless you blame it all on JVG, Stro's brainless play is a major factor our team is so sorry right now. Besides, it wasn't a lack of willingness to pay DS. We were locked in by the cap and the Blazers wouldn't facilitate a trade. DS chose to take the guaranteed $17MM vs $3.5MM LLE we could offer. (Can't blame him).
Please don't trade Head or Yao. Boki? Boki? Come on I was a Boki cheerleader and he is not an NBA starter. Richard Jefferson, etc. you mean Eddie Griffin? Kenny Thomas borderline short PF, 6th man. Michael Dickerson - good, not great, turns into Steve. Sam Cassell - great. Your point taken - trading him led to Maloney and we've never had a decent PG since. Horry - good role player. Langhi and Collier were probably two more Rudy draft day trades right? BUT my point remains that the stingy philosophy of this ownership team mixed with some bad talent assumptions by CD/Rudy has helped push us into the corner of making some really bad contract decisions, which has only made things more difficult the next year and so on. And then when we can't spend more on a few really good decisions, we spend mediocre money on mediocre role players. One or two injuries to key people and we are borderline NBADL competitive. I remember reading the revised Arena agreement (the 2nd one that took some $'s away fro Les) and he is not doing bad at all from peripheral income if he can keep the arena full. So the basic principle here is put a product on the floor so the people will come, park, buy hot dogs, buy jerseys and get China excited enough to spend some money. If he can't keep the arena full then he shoots himself in the foot. As it is now the major new money being spent is on broken keyboards by frustrated fans.
They should fire JVG. Give the team to Tmac. Let him and Yao take plenty of time off to rest and rehab. Trade the supporting cast. Move Howard, Swift, Alston, Wesley, Moochie. Have Sura retire. Open roster spots to try guys for the rest of the season. Develop Luther Head into a level 2 star. Try to get long, young talent caught in a numbers game on their current team that can play team ball around our stars. Al Harrington, Josh Childress, Fred Jones - you can come up with more names. Tank. Draft a power forward like LaMarcus Aldridge of UT. 6'11", 245, good post moves, good rebounder, complete player. Come back next year as a complete franchise with a future, with a couple of new young talents on good contracts to go with our maxes. It worked for San Antonio.
There are value guys out there that could be picked up for second picks, expiring contracts, or vets. These guys aren't starting material but... Salim Stoudamire -hawks need a vet to calm down their lockerroom and a pg, maybe Wesley. David Lee -he's rybo with an offensive game, rookie in a crowded roster in ny. Travis Diener -bob sura ultra light, can hit the 3, and dish out the assists. rookie behind too much talent at magic.
spoon, baker, and ward are being paid collectively around 12 mill not to play. sura and moochie add another 7. that's nearly 20 mill of salary with no return.
JVG has been the de facto GM getting nothing for Mo T. Rudy cannot be blamed for current problems. spoon, baker, and ward are being paid collectively around 12 mill not to play. sura and moochie add another 7. that's nearly 20 mill of salary with no return. Do not fire JVG - it will not help us this season. Too late.
Yes it's more then possible...only if we could have fooled some foolish team into taking on howards contract. sighhhhhh
the more i read about it the more i think al harrington is the answer. t-mac could be moved to plug the vacuum that is the rox sg position. the team would be more well rounded that way. it'd also give houston harringtons bird rights which would be important given their cap situation. alston, head tracy, wesley, barry harrington, anderson, juwan/swift, baxter yao, deke if cd can go further by adding jacque vaughn to the roster this season then even better. juwan's not as bad as people on this board make him out to be. if he were on another team he'd be getting his 17ppg and 7rpg averages.
Juwans 17 ans 7 boards are well and truly are over. his only real asset was his shot which helped to free yao up. but even his shot is starting to fail him. BTW, It would be Phenominal to get a beat like harrington, but we just dont have the baite to get him here. swift and wesely aint gonna cut it.
What a great idea! Let's tank the season less than 17 games into it for an inknown commodity! Not smart.
Anytime you are chronicling the trade and draft history of the Rockets from recent years, you must also include the colossal draft failure of historic proportions when the Rockets did not select Rashard Lewis, passing on him not just once, but all 3 times, choosing instead with their 3 glorious picks the really durable Dickerson, the indomitable Bryce Drew and the sure future Hall of Fame legend, Mirsad Turkan...!!!
Again! Anytime you are chronicling the trade and draft history of the Rockets from recent years, you must also include the colossal draft failure of historic proportions when the Rockets did not select Rashard Lewis, passing on him not just once, but all 3 times, choosing instead with their 3 glorious picks the really durable Dickerson, the indomitable Bryce Drew and the sure future Hall of Fame legend, Mirsad Turkan...!!!
According to the Chron, the cap is already "busted." Not only are we over the salary cap, but we are just over the lux cap. Any trades we make, we need to get that 10% back and not give it away.
