Even though the off-season hasn't officially begun yet, the Rockets may find themselves in a dilemna. Unless some superstar trade offer comes in, SF will most likely stay, especially w/ CD's and Les's conservaticism. Pending some offer that knocks our socks off, the Rockets don't have much to offer. 1. Cato- a lot of teams need a C, but his contract will be the biggest issue. 2. Cat- most abundant position in the league, as good as we think he is, most teams don't feel the same way, is also considered "old," compared to the young'ns coming in. 3. MoT- we need to get rid of this guy for a real PF. His contract almost makes him undealable. No one wants an overpaid PF that doesn't rebound or play defense. With these 3 players being our most valuable trade assets, the Rockets could be easily outbided by other teams, even with the 6.9TE. So the Rocket's best bet for improvement will be through FAs. If ya'll don't believe me, go to realgm.com and go to "trade checker." A lot of deals are not possible because of salary mismatches (mostly Cato and MoT). Also, even if the salaries match up, teams could get more than what we can package for them. Go ahead and do it, its the offseason, everyone's bored. Just my opinion. There are a lot FAs that could help us out a lot next season. B. Barry, Camby, Sheed (pipe), Travis Best, etc...
double post: Even if the Rockets are willing to part w/ SF, don't think that he will get us a deal that we would want for him. Especially if you package him with Cato or MoT, that would be an expensive duo to have coming on your salary. An expense most GMs aren't willing to deal with.
Well, I guess thats another reason why the McGrady trade would work. If we were to take on Hill's contract and give them MoT's or Cato's contract in return, they might go for it considering they are getting someone whothey know for certain is going to play and contribute, unlike Hill.
That's where the TE comes in. We can trade Steve alone for just about every contract in the league, short of a Shaq or a Garnett. So teams can certainly make a star-for-star trade with the Rockets w/o having to take on any of our bad contracts. But you're right in that basically most of our big contracts are unmovable except for Steve's. That's why there are so many "Trade SF3" threads. He's perhaps the only player that we could trade and make sense for both teams involved.
Cato is not overpaid. His contract is not a problem, if the Rox trade him. The problem with Cato is that the Rox need his minutes at the backup 5 since Yoa is only playing 32/33 mpg. Cato can defend most starting 5s, which is a huge plus when Yoa gets into foul trouble early. Cato's offensive skill set does not match Yoa's, which means the Rox can't run the same offense when Cato is at the 5. Moving Cato to get a 5 with an offensive skill set closer set closer to Yoa (Raef LaFrentz, Chris Mihm) might be a consideration.
This is why I don’t understand the people that say “keep Yao and Steve, trade everyone else”. If Yao and Steve are untouchable, I see no moves the Rockets would be able to make that would make anything more than a marginal difference. They have very little flexibility. There’s only one up and coming player on the team, Yao. Everyone else is either at their peak or near their peak. No other teams are going to trade anything worth value for role players that are as good as they’re going to get. If the best offer the Rockets have gotten so far for Steve Francis is Jalen Rose and Mo Peterson. What do you think the best offer the Rockets are going to get for Cat, Taylor, or Cato? Remember the rumored Cat to Boston deal for Eric Williams and Tony Battie deal? The Rocket would be lucky to get even that.
I'm not saying Cato is overpaid, he actually has a pretty standard contract for a C. But his contract does make him a lot harder to deal with. I want Cato to stay, I think he is the best backup for Yao. However, he might be the Rockets biggest trade asset we have outiside of SF/Yao.
I'm not even sure how many years Cato has left, maybe 2-3. I'm just saying that any deal that the Rockets can offer must include a BIG contract, either MoT or Cato's. And that is something a lot of teams aren't willing to deal with. My point is that we (fans) tend to overrate our player's trade value, everyone does it. And if the Rockets don't try to get some key players through Free-Agency, we might be left with some minor trades that won't fully satisfy our needs.
cato is overpaid, dont know why yall saying he is not. I gurantee we can pick up somoone for cheap who can block shots, rebound, play a little D, and has no offesnive skill once so ever.
Excuse me for being too nice Cato can dunk, if his defender ignores him long enough. On a good night Cato can break double digits in points. Cato can be the starter for some NBA teams (like the Rox before Yoa). All this should not confuse the casual reader into believing that Cato is an offensive presence on the court.
