Much has been made about the Rockets not being able to dirch the horrible contracts of Cato,Taylor or Moochie Norris. Personally, I believe in my heart , the Rockets aren't trying hard enough to do this. Many will jump down my throat about the Rockets plan and that they are trying to find suitors for these players, but I beg to differ. Last yr, the Sonics traded Vin Baker and his loaded contract on the books till 06 for Potepenko and cap filler who is on the books till 04. That same yr, after thinking they made a mistake, Dallas traded J. Howard and his 20m contract for Raef,Van Excel, and Abdul-Wahad. This past week, the T-Wolves manage to trade Joe Smith and his 6 yr 36 mill a yr contract for the ever productive,ever underrated Sam Cassell. This team has 3 bad contracts that can be traded if they try hard enough. If the T-Wolves can find a team dumb enough to take Joe Smith and his running contract to 07, surely the Rockets can find someone to take Cato,Taylor,or Norris contract without giving up the ship. A couple of teams that come to my mid are as following: Cato and Moochie Norris for Foyle and Sura or Mills. Norris gives them a pg in case Arenas leaves and Cato gives them a center who is signed through 06. Both Foyle and Dampier are free agents after this season and Cato gives them the same production. Sura gives the Rockets a combo guard andFoyle gives the Rockets a backup center/rebounder off the bench. Both comes off the books after this season. Mo Taylor for Zo Mourning sign and trade. Pat Riley is trying to move towards offense and in the East, Taylor could give it to them. Zo signed for 2 yrs + 2 t-opt at 8 mill a pop would give the Rockets a chance to add some muscle and rebounding, plus help Eddie with his development. Basically, Eddie could still play 30 mins a night off the bench and still develop while the Rockets get tougher and stronger. Its a risk, but not that big considering you're giving up Taylor's bloated contract. If B.Miller leaves Indy, would they be interested in Cato for Ron Mercer and his contract? Mercer could help play the backup 2 and play some 3 especially if Posey leaves. Anyone who don't want to lose Cato and his rebounding and points off the bench, players like Elden Campbell or Ty Hill can be brought in for probably half the mle to fill that bid. The Raptors drafted Bosh, who may not pay much this season, would they be interested in sending Hakeem back to us for Cato? Of course Dream can't or wouldn't play this yr, but his contract is only on the books for this season. Cato gives the raptors a chance to move Davis back to pf, and let Bosh develop slowly behind both of them. These are a couple of examples of how the Rockets can "dump " some of these contracts they have. The rpoblem seem to be that the Rockets are in a bit of limbo with the new coaching staff and things, but as Denver,Seattle, and more recently Minny has shown, someone still believes they could get something out of nothing.
Moochie Norris is quite possibly the most untradeable player in the entire league. While I am pissed at us for even signing him, let alone a longterm deal, I'm not gonna say the Rockets aren't trying to get rid of him... The only possible way the Rockets could move him, is as a salary filler in a big trade. And I still think the other team would do anything possible to keep him off their roster. Did you watch him play last year???
I agree. I think the rox like the team and don't want to admit they have mad gross mastakes in over paying their avrg players. They also want to keep their image of being a team that can be trusted and takes care of thieeir players. I do feel this is important and is one of the reason we have any chance of continuing to land any big free agents. I personly like the idea of going after R Wallace. Portland is one of the few teams that doesn't mind $$ contracts. They want to change their image and can only do that by changing some main players. He would play well being a contract year. We also would have options when his contract exspires. I belive our team has good connections with portland(drexlar, pippen). This is a way to dump some salary and still improve the team. I do still like some of the other examples you have also.
Moochies contract is not as bad as most people think. His little bit of salary doesn't stop us from sighning any major players. Look at it Collier got paid 1.5 mill. to ride the injured reserve ALL year. Mooch's contract seems bad only becuase it adds up for a long period of time, but its not alot in a short period or alot in a long period of time like some others. Rice, Cato, and MoT are the ones that hold us back. Plus remember when we sighned Norris he was important ( he was, really)and played a vital role in the 3 gaurd off. We didn't have another point in mind, Dallas was making a push at him, and his agent put us under the gun. I look for Mooch to make a big showing next year(rembr I said it first ). I hope he plays in the summer leauge.
How about a trade qith the Knicks for...Kurt Thomas! I can hear you from here: "What?Again?!" Here is part of an article from the NY Daily news and another one from the Nawsday saying Chaney wouldn't mind trading one of their PF. Basicly they need a C and we need a Hard nosed PF,so: a Cato+ for Thomas+ trade?... At least think about it before saying u want to keep Cato for whatever reason,or that this deal sucks. ALA
Here is an example: Cato+Norris+future pics for Thomas+Ward 2 problems for this trade though: -I don't h know if salaries match -I don't think the Knicks would do it ALA
The reason it may appear that the Rockets aren't trying hard enough to get rid of those contracts may be because they don't intend to, at least not Cato and Moochie. We need Cato, the Rockets should not trade him unless he's part of a deal to bring in a very good player. Another reason you sense a lack of effort may be that you and other fans are more desperate to dump those contracts than the Rockets are, so you percieve it as them not trying hard enough. They are just waiting for the right deal. Those 3 guys are important parts of our rotation, they're not going to trade them away for the sake of dumping their contracts.
Stop a minute ... Remember when Mooch actually played well for this team? Steve was out every other night with migraines, there were other injuries too, and mooch proved he could play in this league. But when Steve came back full strength, Mooch seemed lost, and Rudy either couldn't or wouldn't force him back into the support roel for which he was signed. Now, the Rockets are so unhappy with Mooch's play last year that they have even considered *eating* his contract, if nothing decent can be found in trade. When a team is in those straits, why would any other team bother to trade for him, when they can sign him for a min contract and let the Rockets pay him while he plays for the new team? Nobody is going to trade for Mooch. Now, if we actually CUT Mooch, he becomes radioactive. A high-salary guy gets CUT by his own team, he may as well have leprosy. Sure, some team or other may give him a sniff, but it would be as bench-warming mop minutes on a bottom-dweller. Mooch is a gym rat. He clearly loves basketball. So he kinda has two choices. He can either come in and bust his butt for JVG, improve his play and his image, and hope for another big payday when this one expires. Or, he can just sit back, collect his checks, and maybe even be stuck at home not playing, or facing the prospects of playing for the Wiz, Nuggets, or Clippers. Houston is where he got Bobblehead luv, became popular, and was able to tear his shirt off after hitting the big shot to win a game.. I think Houston is not trading mooch because they don't lose anything by NOT trading him, and they are hoping they can revive him back into a quality backup PG. They certainly don't need to trade just to get another horrible contract, especially if they are actually willing to eat Mooch's deal. And face it, Cato is just not going anywhere. Taylor, though, if we get a different-flavored veteran PF, maybe we can move him, along with GR.. but we'd have to have MoT's replacement in the bag FIRST. Hehehe.. yeah, I know, it's a lonnnnnng offseason. We all just can't stand it.. and go to any length to try to relive the stress of no basketballs going into the bucket..
You might be able to trade Cato, Mo, Rice, whomever, for Spree and Kurt Thomas. Spree's contract is up in 2 years; he still has some mileage on those legs. But how much? And what to do with Cuttino, whose ego won't let him be a 6th man? I'd love to have Kurt Thomas on the team. He's a mean, nasty sumummuabeeyotch. Cato + Mo + Rice + Mooch = Spree, Kurt, Othella my Fella, and Charlie Ward?
taylor for mouring intrigues me. you have to wonder how healthy zo is though. and if we traded for dream wouldnt it be cool if he "unretired" for just one game so that he could go out the way he came in, as a rocket? even if he came into a game long enough to give us one last dream-shake. that would be awesome! dream and ming get to play together, even if for a moment.
So Seattle can get rid of Vin Baker at 12m a season for the next 4 season and Minny can get rid of Joe Smith who's on the hook for 4 more yrs at 6mill a clip, yet the Rockets can't get rid of Norris at 3 mill per yr? Its not that Moochis is that bad of a player, its just that he,Francis and Cat are basically clones of each other. They all need the ball and all are penetrators which isn't very good for this team. He's not untradeable as many would think. Joe Smith, the formr number 1 has been hurt since he's been in the league. He cost minny 6 1st rd picks and they still signed him later for about 6 mill a season. Not only did they get rid of him, they got a 1st rate pg in Sam Cassell for him. Cassell makes about 5 mill and is signed for a couple of more season. Cato,Taylor and Norris may not be great players, but they're on par with Joe Smith and look what Minny got for him. Thats why i like the scenerio with Cato and Norris for Foyle and Sura. If nothing else, after the season we get rid of 10 mill in salary with those 2 and another 9 mill with Rice. Foyle can play cato's role probably better than Cato can. Sura can come in and play with Francis and handle the ball or with Mobley and handle the ball. He can also play off the ball with either of those two. Plus his contract comes off the books after this season.
As good as that sounds, but wouldn't it be better to get the salary off the books after this season by getting rid of Cato? For a million dollars as a backup, i wouldn't mind bringing Kevin Willis back in the fold. He has his ring, now all he wants to do is keep playing.
Pos. Players end of contract value of contract contract length -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C Jason Collier 2003 5 940 000 $ 4 ans SF James Posey 2003 1 870 000 $ 4 ans F Terence Morris 2003 1 002 000 $ 2 ans SF Glen Rice 2004 36 000 000 $ 4 ans F Eddie Griffin 2004 6 485 760 $ 3 ans C 01 MING Yao 2005 12 442 680 $ 3 ans F 15 NACHBAR Bostjan 2005 4 189 320 $ 3 ans C Kelvin Cato 2006 42 000 000 $ 6 ans SG Cuttino Mobley 2006 30 890 000 $ 6 ans PF Maurice Taylor 2007 48 000 000 $ 6 ans PG Moochie Norris 2007 22 700 000 $ 6 ans PG Steve Francis 2009 85 000 000 $ 6 ans G 37 MADDOX Tito Juaquin Hawkins
