i'm not an insider but i'm sure if any of them are here they won't tell me i'm wrong. i don't know if it hit all of you yet but i just looked at the standings (don't ask me why i would put myself through that) and it nearly floored me. the hawks were 3 points away from passing us today. sure we have plenty of excuses. new players, injued players, ect... Les is a bottom line kind of owner. the bottom line is even with all of the excuses we shouldn't be this bad. the reason that i'm sure changes are on thier way is because i'm optimistic about the season, as we all should still be. look at the rest of the schedule, even if it takes us another month to get healthy and gel we can still win around 45 games. we will be in a close race to make the playoffs. our goals for the season (to get out of the first round, hopefully advance to the conferense finals if not the nba finals) are still within reach, but we need to address some problems if we are to avoid a repeat of last year. there are several problems with our team. chemistry and a healthy tmac will not solve all of them. there is no perimeter defense. in general, our guard play as a whole (ast, stl, shooting) is awefull. the problem is there aren't a lot of guys we can trade on this team. deke and JB can't be traded because we talked them out of retirement to play here. yao and tmac are franchise players. stro and head are our future. Jho's shooting and passing are needed. alston and DA are possible trading chips although DA was just signed so it wouldn't look good to trade him, and no one will take alstons contract. that leaves wesley who is playing well and moochie. expect one or both of them to be moved. season wins will take care of themselves once everyone gets healthy and developes chemistry. that will be enough to get us back to the playoffs. if we are going to advance then we need to make some changes. NOW is the BEST time to make changes since we have no chemistry anyway. Les, CD, and JVG want to win, and know that this team can still have a successful season. so forget TANKING! they are planning on a playoff run. we may not be over .500 until the end of january but by then we should be healthy and have made a few moves. MARK MY WORDS, we will only lose 2 games in february!! after that we are back on track. keep your heads up. the team isn't giving up, and rightfully so. niether should you!
when t-mac, sura, and alston come back and actually get to play with the team, things will be different.
I think it's wrong to assume Stro is part of the Rockets future. If he doesn't plug the holes in his brain, he might be outta here. The only 3 players I'm sure will be part of our foundation of the future are Tracy, Yao and Luther. No other rotation player is guaranteed to be here next year. If the team doesn't gel eventually, JVG may not be here either, though I think he is pretty safe.
i dont think we can make any moves without seeing how this team performs with tmac and alston back on the team
I think Juwan & Moochie will be here - no one will take those contracts. DA and RA have not shown enough in their "showcase play" to attract interest from other teams. We are stuck absolutely, though some components may change. Other teams would be interested in Luther Head, Yao Ming, Dikembe, and maybe Stromile. I see no wholesale changes on the horizon, though I'm sure the Rockets braintrust is working on possibillities-the phone is probably ringing out.
The scary part is if they trade Head. Maybe the playing time he's getting now is just a advertisement thing.
No GM in their right mind would trade away Head with the season he's had. He's been the only bright spot in this colossal failure of a season we've had so far, he's not going anywhere.
The Rox would trade Alston in a heartbeat if we got the right player in return. He's available for trade on December 4. True, it would be fair to see how well he does playing with the entire team etc etc; but if we could get a PG who COULD ACTUALLY PASS INTO THE POST... Stro? We recruited him pretty heavily and paid him what would seem less than he could have made. But teams with cap space didn't really step up (unless he had it in his mind to play HERE). Still, we haven't seen T-Mac throwing alley oops to Stro, T-Mac being in street clothes. Stro isn't the brightest star in the firmament but we would look pretty bad as an organization to give up on him this soon; and, in giving up on him, what kind of value would he have in trade (well, on a run-and-gun, don't-think-too-much team, he might do better).
I think Swift will be a starter before its all said and done, JVG needs more athletes to surround Yao. The guys that I see who could easily be gone before the trade deadline are Howard, Wesley, and Moochie with some sort of combination of a future 1st round draft pick. I would have loved to have seen the proposed Howard for Sam Cassell trade completed last season.
I was not a fan of Swift before we signed him, and I am not a fan now. I give CD credit for getting him at an attractive price (a very tradeable player). To be sure, he has exceptional talent, but also to be sure, he is dumb as a post, and lacks consistant intensity. He's not a good defender, and he most certainly is not a good rebounder (two things a power forward must be in this league). I really hope we ship him out for a 4 that does both of the above mentioned things. Talent is overrated in this league, and Stro is a perfect example of that. Personally, I'd like to see Wesley and Stro moved as soon as possible. This is not a knee-jerk reaction to our poor play. I just see both players as liabilities. If Wesley can't shoot, and can't stay with other guards defensively, he shouldn't be playing significant minutes on our team. I don't think we have a prayer to trade Howard or Alston because of thier contracts (Howard has actually played better than most of our players, and Alston needs a chance to show what he can do).
My prediction had us starting 15-23, when T-Mac went down in the first week. If we go 12-12, that will come true. Looking at the schedule, I see this: W - Tue 29 Atlanta L - Sat 3 Memphis L - Tue 6 Boston W - Thu 8 @ Sacramento L - Sun 11 @ Portland L - Wed 14 @ Golden State W - Thu 15 @ Seattle L - Sat 17 @ L.A. Clippers W - Sun 18 @ L.A. Lakers W - Wed 21 Toronto L - Fri 23 @ Denver W - Tue 27 Utah The good thing is that I had us finishing 35-9. 50-32 for a helluva comeback.
Agreed. Head has been very impressive so far and seems to be our only athletic guard. I also have a feeling that JVG is loving the opportunity to develop this kid.
Until the Rockets bring some more athletes on this team, there’s no way you trade Swift yet. Especially considering how slow and unathletic our front court is with Yao. We have other veteran players on this team smart enough (Yao, Mcgrady, Barry, Wesley, etc.) to compensate for Swift’s stupidity. We DO NOT have enough athletes on this team to compensate losing Swift’s athleticism.
Why wouldn't somebody take Moochie's contract? It's expiring. I mean, I can understand why they wouldn't take Moochie, but nobody is scared of expiring contracts. Those are actually relatively desirable.
I wouldn't be so sure about that. While I agree he's definitely been a bright spot and he's obviously impressed Van Gundy enough to make the starting rotation on an injury-depleted team, he could be used as trade bait just as easily as anyone on the roster at this point. Let's say the Rockets try to make a deal using David Wesley's expiring contract. Head could be packaged along with Wesley to make a more enticing deal; that way the other team would be getting rid of a contract they don't want and getting a young prospect back in return. That's the sort of deal (involving Jim Jackson and Boki) that netted us Wesley in the first place. Of course, Luther is playing a damn sight better than Boki ever did for the Rockets and we sure need the athleticism. All I'm saying is, don't rule it out. Our prospects of trading him depend entirely on what we'd be getting back, in my opinion.
JMWilliamson- I stand corrected- I should not have lumped Moochie with Howard - their trade value is different. Moochie' expiring contract could be useful to someone dumping salary-long term bad contract-like Howard's contract IHMO. In fairness to Moochie - he is playing and contributing now. As the Mo Taylor for vin Baker and Moochie trade - those deals like Sign and Trade Shanderson for Glen Rice tend to bring more garbage than we get rid of. Not fair to compare. I see us stuck with Howard though. He does and can contribute I do not see us having much to trade. Some parts we need to keep.....
I'm not saying its IMPOSSIBLE because given the right deal (i.e. involving a superstar--nothing short of that) then you have to consider the move. Otherwise, when you have a budding starter who is EXACTLY what the team has been lacking in the backcourt, he's comfortable with the offense and is a good team player you simply don't trade the guy in his rookie year. The JJ/Boki example doesn't apply at all because we're already 14 games into Head's rookie season and the guy is already starting. Boki is a bust, can't hack it, nobody that was a terrible disgrace as a Rocket. He hardly ever showed any signs of promise, much less become the best perimeter player (minus T-Mac, of course) on a team full of veterans. We have expiring contracts, we have draft picks, we have some tradable talent---that's enough. No need to do something foolish like trading away your prized rookie unless its a can't miss, no brainer kind of proposal.
