Two slight improvements that I think our team could use is a lights out shooter ala Kyle Korver and some extra insurance at the 4 in case Howard goes down again. I would prefer somebody along the lines of a Samuel Dalembert that can knock guys around, block some shots, rebound and maybe even score. That would help Yao out a lot!
Yeah an athletic 2/3 like Posey or Mike Miller or Joe Johnson along with Tmac would be nice. A guy who can shoot and run and play defense and pass. Then the 4 athletic one..who can rebound and play good defense..Kurt Thomas, Antonio Davis, PJ Brown, Brian Grant..too bad they're all gettingo lder. We need some consistency..I still have a bit of hope for Badiane. It seems like we're still trying to find our identity..or maybe we do bad and we adjust and adapt during the game..I don't know
I agree. A great shooting 2 guard and a tough, post presence to back-up Howard would be great. We could also use someone who's not terrible at passing the ball to the post.
It is going to be tough to fill these needs in one offseason with only the MLE and a 1st round draft pick to work with. Best case senario is that the Rockets are able to land Marshall/Swift/Chandler/Evans/SAR and then draft an athletic swing man that can backup T-mac at the 3. The only other way we can get someone is through a sign and trade. Hopefully the expiring contracts of Moochie and Spoon are attractive to someone out there.
Good post. But it will be hard to just sign Marshall, Swift, Chadler, SAR w/ just the MLE. It would most likely have to be a sign and trade deal, hopefully those teams will be interested in expiring contracts. The draft will be very interesting this year. There are a lot of young players that seem like they could come in and help out little, but we'll see.
I'm hoping Chicago's FA's (Curry, Chandler, Duhon) demand too much money and one of them becomes expendable. I don't want Duhon, I think he stinks so basically what i'm saying is I hope Chicago ties up too much money in retaining Curry + Duhon, leaving Chandler out there for the picking.
it all starts with the draft IMO. thats what comes up first. I think we take the best front court player available. most likely all the good centers and PF's will be gone by our pick. I think that pick goes to an athletic 3 (or a big 2) to backup tmac. I think we then hit the FA market armed with the MLE and targetting our weakest positions (1,4). There are a lot of good point guards in the pool this summer. most of the 4's we want may be asking for too much/many years. I think we end up signing a PG like marco jaric or damon stoudamire. we then still need a 4. wesley becomes an ending contract next season...he can be packaged with ending contracts like spoon or baker.
90% chance we'll sign Marshall with our MLE. If I remember correctly CD inquired about Marshall's availibility during the seasson. JVG'd love Marshall's ability to rebound and shoot the 3-ball over 40% while play solid D. also, only Marshall will take the MLE; Swift, Chandler, and SAR will all ask for way more than we can afford; the Sonics will probably resign Evans for a little more than the MLE. we'll then draft an athletic 2/3 in the 1st rd. I also hope we can find a way to get a nature point and move Sura to the 2. Sura would match up better with 2 guards and his all-around skills is a perfect 2 beside T-Mac. we need a faster point guard who can shoot the 3 and handle/shoot the ball better. D. Stoudmire would be nice but don't know if we have a chance, words are he's going to NY.
Well what I remember is his shooting % was like 25% or something when he came..it improved. And as the season went on..he improved his 3 point shot..and when he has played against us with the Grizzlies, he makes those 3's. He has improved as a player. WHat I loved was his hustle and that he could run the length of the court alleyoop dunk it ...and well he's a little boneheaded..but he would look good with Tmac imo. Drafting a shooting guard/small forward sounds good. I don't think Sura would be very good at the 2 because he isn't really a pure shooter. I would rather have a guy like Wesley or Barry or Damon Stoudamire or Cassell or Mobley than Sura at the 2. He could play the 2 sometimes but not mainly.. Sura and Mike James are good imo..maybe move Sura to backup 2 and get a better point guard or a small forward so Tmac can return to the 2.
I would love to get Kurt Thomas, he would be perfect. Only problem is, he and Yao would form the most foul prone front court in NBA history. The Sixers are going to resign Kyle Korver, you can count on that. He's the perfect role player type for Iverson. It would be nice if we could get Josh Howard from the Mavs, but Cubes would never send us anything of value. If the Jazz get Bogut, what's everyone's opinion on Okur? His contract sucks, but he might be a good fit next to Yao. It'd be nice to get Cato back...
We need to get younger, more athletic and a little deeper for sure. I think with the draft we are going to take the best available player. Hopefully that will yield either a PF or a 2/3. Then in FA hopefully we can add a quality piece with our MLE. Probably are going to have to offer the FULL MLE to get one quality player. Ideally that would be a PF (assuming a 2/3 in the draft) and then that would put Howard as the backup PF. If we draft a PF then in FA we might have to look at 2/3 type players. We need more youth and athleticism on the perimeter. I would like to resign Jon Barry and Mutombo as long as they are reasonable with their contract demands. I think Barry is just about a lock but with Mutombo, you never know. Eventually we probably will need to find a "true" PG but I think if we can add more depth and quickness to this team then we can get away with Sura/James at the PG spot just fine for the short term. I think if things work out right we could have this type of lineup next year. PG: Sura / James / Moochie SG: Wesley / Barry SF: T-Mac / {Draft Pick} / Bowen PF: {MLE FA} / Howard / Padgett / Spoon / Baker C: Yao / Mutombo And that doesnt include Spanoulis or Badiane depending on how they develop over the summer. Although without them the roster is way full as it is and I dont even list Ward which would be the 16th guy. I also think that the Rockets will try to declutter their roster by trying to move the expiring contracts of Moochie/Spoon and Baker. Ideally I would like to see us move some expiring contracts to find a "3rd" scoring option for this team. Someone that can handle the scoring load if Yao or Tmac have a bad game or are out with an injury or something.
Goal #1 must be finding either a 4 who will start over JH or one good enough that you don't loose much subbing him in for JH (even better if this player offers something different). For this we will take the full MLE (Donyell? Evans? Swift?) or the threat of using a full MLE to facillitate a S&T (e.g., SAR)--thus the MLE should not be touched until we have another capable 4 on the roster. A distant 2nd priority is adding another vet 2 or 3. By resigning Barry (1 year deal for 1.1-1.6 mil) we can solve the immediate needs, at least for 1 year. Otherwise we can use the 1.6 mil exemption (might be needed to keep Barry) to find a back-up swing man. Then next offseason after Wesley's contracts are off the books we can have the whole MLE in play for this position. (I am assuming we resign Deke to address back-up C of course--I think Deke is more of a lock than Barry because it is an ideal situation here for Deke, he has already made his money, and most importantly, we have his early Bird rights and don't have to use other exemptions to sign hom over the vet min) Then we draft the best player period. In the late 1st round you just want to identify players who will belong in the NBA. It would be great if it was an atheletic 4 or 2, but at that point you can't be choosey. In sum you take care of your immediate (1-2 year) needs via FA or trades, and with non-lotto draft picks you hope to find a keeper at any position.
If I could choose a 4 from the Kings I wouldn't pick Thomas, I would take Skinner. He rebounds like crazy, can block shots like crazy, and is a bit of an afterthought on offense (but not horrible). Actually, I am just hoping we can find a guy like Skinner of two years ago - a decent, little used player on the verge of becoming a solid role player. Or maybe an Etan Thomas type - who had a year of injury and maybe made his team think that they didn't need him. One of those two scenarios would be ideal in our search for a PF. Or, of course, getting a sleeper/steal in the draft...but that seems less likely. We definitely need a solid 3 who can give McGrady a rest with regularity. He is too frail to be logging such high minutes.
#1 priority in the offseason has to be bringing in youth and athleticism. Doesn't matter what position. With the MLE, just bring in the best young talent that will come here for the MLE (Simmons, Radmanovic, Brown, Evans, etc). Unlike most here, I don't consider having Howard as the starting 4 to be significantly worse than Wesley as the starting 2 or Sura as the starting 1. I just hope the Rockets don't limit themselves to only going after a 4 with the MLE. Same with the draft pick. Just go for the best available player. After the draft and the free agent singings, hopefully the Rockets can use the expiring contract to address more specific needs (rebounding PF or defensive swingman). Maybe swing a deal for someone like Antonio McDyess.
