Big Men for Sale

I've heard Indiana and the lakers if they lose shaq are after him!. Infack, J'Oneal has been trying to get him to Sign With Indy!

 

I think the Rockets should look into the prospect of taking Brian Grant off the Heats' hands, but also try to pry Udonis Haslem away from Stan Van Gundy. Grant has a larger contract than Mo Taylor, but the same length and Haslem has one year left with a small number against the cap.

 

I read where the Nets are going to buy out Rodney Rogers. He was scheduled to make about $3.5 million next year. With a buyout, he could probably be picked up for half the MLE or maybe even vet. minimum. Might be interesting to see if he would play here for that. He is big, strong, plays a good defensive game, and has a nice jumper. Not a starter, but maybe for the bench.

 

I'd love to get Mark Blount, but he'll probably take the MLE from Philly and play with his old coach, Jim O'Brien. From the Boston Herald:

Center Mark Blount, an impending free agent who has openly wondered about the possibility of rejoining his former coach down the road, was sufficiently intrigued.

"I'm definitely happy for him,'' said Blount, clearly the team's most improved player this season. ``But nah, I wasn't surprised. When you're good people, good things happen, and that's where he's at.''

"Blount, who is reportedly looking for a $4.5 million mid-level-type contract this summer - the only kind the cap-bound Sixers will have available - certainly didn't rule out a move to Philadelphia next season.

"If you're looking for a good defender, if you're looking for a fighter, then we'll see what they've got,'' Blount said.

 

I'm coming around to the idea of Etan Thomas. He seems like a good replacement for Cato. However, I don't know if he's worth several years at the MLE. It would really hurt the Rockets to overpay for him.

I like the idea of trying to move Spoon or Taylor for one of Seattle's overpaid centers. Any of them would be a good temporary fix until we can find a good PF/C.

 

The nice thing about Etan is he could play some PF forward too. He would be more complimentary to MoT or Howard as a 4 than they are to each other, then we try to trade one of the latter.

MLE for 3 years for Etan, no problem. 4 years, probably. 5 years, tougher call. Another alternative is a S & T where Wash gets part of our trade exemption.

 

Spoon (bad contract) for James (bad contract) or even Booth (terrible contract), sure

MoT for either, no way, not only do we give up the much better player it doesn't work salary wise either. Salary wise Booth (or James, but I would think Sea would want us to take Booth) and Anthony Daniels = MoT. That I might do.

 

The guy that we need to go after is Adonal Foyle. He is a great rebounder, shot-blocker and a physical presence. He will be the perfect backup for both the 4 and 5 position.

I think he is a poor man's version of Ben Wallace. He would flourish under JVG's system.

I think he will come relatively cheap (3-4 million a year). However, I believe there will be many teams after him because he will be cheap.

I think the fact that we have a TE, we should use our MLE to either fill the PG postion or back up PF/C postion. Then use the TE by doing a sign and trade to fill the other position, giving up a maybe a 1st round pick as compensation for the other team.

I think the ideal situation would be trading either Taylor or Howard and get a physical PF or PG, but we may not be able to do that, as I doubt either has great trade value.

 

There is an article on ESPN about Erick Dampier where he says he expects Foyal to leave because he wants to be a strarter. If playing time is what he really covets, the Rockets will not be at the top of his list.

 

I like Foyle too. But Foyle is a back-up center all the way. He makes Cato look like a fluid offensive player.

We can offer 15 or so MPG on a title contender, last year he got 13MPG on a cellar dweller.

If we don't use up our MLE on Barry or use it to target someone like Camby or Etan Thomas--I would offer 1/2 of it Foyle (max 4 year contract starting at 2.5 mil, like close to 13 mil total--maybe even this is too much). That would leave the other half of the MLE to bring in another PG.

Despite a very solid rebounding and shot blocking presence, I don't believe Foyle will find the market much greater than that for a completely offensively inept 29 year old center without the greatest health record. He might be had for the 1.7 exemption once the market dries up.