Numbers imply that Lue and/or Gaines + Pike will be gone. Griffin, too? Was he ever here? Padgett and/or Wilkes resigned? Doubtful. What about the 4? Mo is seemingly untradable, unless ERob or RubPat or someone like that is involved, so our 6th man/non-boarding/All Star paid Maurice is here. Spoon? He could go, but Howard, IMO, is likely the odd one out. Not due to talent, just #s, as in # of 4s, # of $$$s on his annual contract, and the # of teams suggested to be interested in him, including Bulls, Kings, Wolves, and Mavs. Interesting if Lue and Gaines and Howard all suit up in the visitor's locker room at the Toy Shop this year.
I doubt Howard gets traded. I think we have enough assets (Lue, Pike, Gaines, Griffin, TE) to bring in another quality player. I'm pretty sure that JVG/CD/Les would like to give Howard a chance to play here. He's always been a hard working guy who has always put up good numbers. If we could deal Pike/Griffin for Deke, and then the 6.9TE for Erob, I think we would be set.
Eddie Robinson would be a terrible acquisition. I don't think the Bulls value Mutombo so highly that they'd make us take his contract, and we could trade Pike and the TE for Mutombo instead of including Griffin. No way Howard gets traded in a salary cap dump, IMO. We'd need to be getting good talent in return. No way anyone in the Rockets brass is comfortable platooning Mo and Spoon. I think if the Pike for Mutombo swap takes place, the roster will be set for the season.
I don't see why ERob would be such a bad addition. Even he doesn't work out, his contract is up after next year anyways.
Because he's Darius Miles without the defensive ability. We need players that can shoot at the wing. All ERob does well is fill the lane. We shouldn't add a player we don't need, especially one who has the reputation of being an overpaid, disinterested, injury-prone underachiever.
Maybe Chi could throw in a future 1st rounder (top 10 protected) for taking ERob off their hands, since they have seem to have so many.
I'm thinking we ride the contracts out at 4. Nobody wants to help us. The price to entice them is too high. We just wait 'till the last year of Mo's contract. We void Spoon in 2 years, and give the money to Yao. Best we can do is pick up an EG or Badiane - ie, cba level scrubs that might pan out. Good luck with that Rox. The glut at backup 2 and 1 will need some trimming. I'm not sure we can trade any of them, but the more, the better. Just less cutting later. We can use some extra talent at 3. And of course we need a backup 5. That won't make or break us. Eventually, we need a real starting quality point. Basically, If the opportunity to upgrade any position but 2 or 5 presents itself, go to town. We'll work the rest out later, and make do now.
The Rockets don't have to get rid of contracts to sign Yao, they have his Bird Rights. The Rockets don't need CBA talent to round out the roster, all the positions are taken care of now except back-up Center and it's not CBA talent. I also don't think the Rockets need a big time PG that badly. The last couple of NBA champions have had decent but not spectacular PGs. Even Tony Parker wasn't that great in the Finals.
Do we have to sign Wilks? If not then he won't be signed. We now have 13 players under contract, but there is probably another trade in the works as we still need a backup C. The norm these days is 13-14 players under contract so I really don't see a problem. And Padgett could be the 14th player as JVG seemed to like him as an outside shooting 4.
