You probably could do that if you offered NY our 2006 1st round pick. NY is all about collecting 1st rounders these days, even if it means taking on more years or salary (see the Nzar for Rose + 1sts trade) regardless of the fact they have 8 million PFs on their roster. The big bonus of someone like Thomas is he is physical enough to slide over and play backup C. You could probably also move our 2006 1st rounder and some expiring contracts to get PJ Brown. But then you would have BOTH Brown's and Howard's contracts on the books and that's probably not wise. At the trading deadline last year David Aldridge reported the Rockets put a hault on a potential Howard for Cassell deal because we couldnt get Kurt Thomas to fill the void that would have been left by Howard. So clearly we were looking at him. I am sure NY wanted our 2005 1st round pick and we werent going to give that up.
I had heard whispers of the Howard for Cassell deal that apparently we would have accepted in any other lifetime but had to turn down since it would have left us with no PF. Could you please clarify the rumor you're mentioning. We turned down a Howard for Cassell deal.....how does that involve Kurt Thomas?
Great article, Clutch, but the one thing I didn't see mentioned was the fact that his teammates apparently labeled him as soft. Taking games off because he stubbed his toe or whatever; that's not what this team needs. A blue-collar team like this needs someone who will come to play game in and game out. After all, like other people have said, a PG should be first priority. Juwan proved that he was quite serviceable this past season.
How does that involve Kurt Thomas? Re-read my initial post It involved Thomas in that IF we were able to trade for Thomas last year we probably would have made the Howard for Cassell deal. But because we werent able to trade for Thomas we couldnt move Howard and thus looked to obtain a PG without giving up a PF and were able to make the Mike James trade.
Stromile Swift's game has every quality we need in a PF in terms of playing style. Unfortunately, he also lacks workrate and determination. It would be a big gamble, but maybe worth it. Moot point, as others have said, because someone will take a big, fat flyer contract on him.
I'd prefer to target SAR first, than Swift. If we landed either, brought back our own FAs (Deke/Barry), and added a back up quality guard/swingman via the draft or FA that would make a great offseason and put us top 3 in the West. Wesley, Sura, James and Barry make a much more servicable backcourt than what we have going in our PF spot. We can get away with more stop gap measures for the back-court this year and address our backcourt more substantially next year, but must address our PF spot now. Counting on a #24 pick to address your immediate PF needs, even as a back-up, is a very bad bet. Counting on a #24 pick or Spounalis to add a 4th or 5th guard/swingman alternative to Wesley, Barry, Sura or James and finding a new starting 2 in 06 via the MLE is a much better bet.
Athletic, weakside defensive minded PF has to be number 1 on this offseason's list if onyl because it keeps Yao out on the court more. Better interior defense equals less fouls on Yao. For all his problems - poor one on one defender, mainly mental issues - Stromile Swift does provide very active weakside shotblocking. Obviously, using the entire MLE on him, which is at the least what it would take, obviously leaves you with the same problems in the backcourt you had this season, which hopefully could be addressed elsewhere. Of course, I'd prefer Dalembert or Chandler as oppossed to Swift, but Swift is probably most achievable. I like SAR, and Donyell Marshall, and their offensive abilities to be sure, but they are lacking in the one key area - athletic weakside interior defense, while being just as poor man to man defenders.
Bingo! Players this team should target are players that would augment Yao's and Tmac's game. And clearly getting an upgrade at the PF spot to give us rebounding and shot blocking and basic overally quickness would really help out Yao.
If the goal is to help Yao, and prevent him from getting into foul trouble, then one could make the argument that getting guards who could limit dribble penetration would be more beneficial. If a team has a huge "need" for a shot blocking presence, it means that probably give up alot of penetration into the lane, thus exposing that area even more. Even if you get an athletic weakside shot blocker, if guys are consistently getting to the hoop, Yao is still gonna challenge the play and be vulnerable to foul trouble.
Great breakdown Clutch! How about future articles on SAR, D. Marshall, A. Daniels, B. Simmons, A. Walker, T. Chandler, J. Johnson, R. Evans.... uh, that is alot of work.
We can actually trade up and grab Jarret Jack who will likely fall into the teens in the upcoming draft. He is just as good as Paul. We can then go ahead and pursue Demar Johnson and Bobby Simmons. We can also add Othella Harrington as backup for Juwan. We can also pull off a trade to get a second rounder so that we can draft poimt-forward Julius Hodge. Here is hoping that Malick and Vassilis make the 2005-2006 team. We could use the youth and energy on the bench. We really need to get younger and deeper this summer. PS. Clutch, you spelled Stromile name as Stomile in that article. Was it intentional?
Pick up Aaron Miles & Travis Diener (i think they'll go undrafted) for the summer league, see what they can offer, but if they're good it'll only be as backups.
GREAT new feature, Clutch, topped off by the photoshopping. It should make the summer go a lot faster. About Swift, I wanted him a lot more before I read the article. The sentence that especially caught my attention was, "He's also not the most intelligent player on the floor by any stretch and suffers defensively despite having all the athletic tools." Rockets fans suffered through several years of unintelligent basketball before that was remedied last offseason. I say we pass on Stromile.
ok, he's young. Besides that I don't see how this guy takes Juwans place. Juwan Howard is still the starting PG> We'll see what else is out there. p.s. Clutch these reviews are very appreciated. When I read an outline that tells me this guy is clearly better night in and out over Juwan I'll be happy to say , JH, step aside... JH can get 16 points and 9 rb's in this offense..plus he has experience and is tight with van gundy..so show me the money..
Howard was averaging less than 10 pts and less than 7 rbs in this system before he got hurt so I dont see how he will suddenly start to average 16 and 9. When you look at the fact that he will be another year older and coming off of knee surgery I doubt he could put up those kind of numbers. If Howard is still the starting PF and gets about 28 mins a game I would be extremely happy if he gave us 11-12 pts and 7 rbs a game. We will all be dissappointed if we expect him to do a whole lot better on a consistent basis.
