You have somewhat a point on the starters (Sura about = to Wesley about = to JH), however James and Jon Barry (assume we can resign) are about the same caliber as the starters and bring different facets make us overall much stronger in the 1 & 2. Right now at the 4 we have one servicable soon to be 32 year old and a bunch 10th man types for back-ups. That doesn't cut it. I'd like to have athletcism in general too, but we must get a 4 to share the load with Howard formost from the offseason. Agreed in terms of drafting and bringing in young FAs.
Okay. Well then Donyell Marshall sounds like a real possibility. Anyone know if he's interested? Or SAR? How old are they and would they fit for this team? They'd be good sharing minutes with Howard imo. And we can bring Badiane in too. Then we can draft an athletic 2/3..or we might draft a 4.
SAR is not too hard to get, but he is pretty much a higher scoring version of Juwon Howard, with a tad more athleticism. But his defense/rebounding won't plug the holes we need from a PF. However, if you do want SAR, just give Hakeem a call, they are pretty tight, SAR would be here for the MLE Marshall is good but I think he is a bit too weak physically to be an aggressive defender/rebounder that can bang with the best PFs in the western conference. Still, he ain't bad for the MLE. Swift can and WILL be had for the MLE, he won't be payed more. Chandler...umm...forget it! He will command more than the MLE. Tractor Traylor can be had for cheap There are others I am forgetting
Worse case scenario and the Rockets can't get a young athletic 4 with the MLE or the draft, I don't think it would be that difficult for the Rockets to acquire a decent backup for Howard via trade. They were able to get Barry for Tyronne Lue and James for a 2nd round draft pick. I just think that getting younger is a slightly bigger priority than finding a 4. If Simmons or Radman agreed to come here for the MLE, I certainly wouldn't pass them up simply because they're not power fowards. Simmons/Radman are a bigger upgrade to Wesley than SAR/Marshall are to Howard. Especially when you consider the age differences. Acquiring good young talent is much more difficult than acquiring a backup power forward. It's also just a more sound investment to go after someone young with the MLE. Teams that have given out long term deals to veteran free agents have tended to regret it (Orlando/Howard, Warriors/Fisher, Spurs/Barry, Divac and Payton/Lakers).
