Good post Nike. the Lakers losing Butler and Atkins (thier #3 and 4 scorers) is going to hurt them a little bit. There is no gurantee that K. Brown improves his game to the point where he will have a huge impact on that team. No way the current lakers team is better than the Rockets current team. As for the Wolves, i dont see how by losing Spree and having an year older Cassell they suddenly jump ahead of the Rockets. One team Nike failed to mention was the Mavs who could lose Finley (thier second best player) and not get anything in return for him. Even if the Rockets lose out on getting Swift, their current team (with a heathy J. howard) is at WORST the #5 seed in the west (behind the Spurs, Mavs, Suns, and maybe the Nuggets).
Hillboy, you write much I agree with, but most of the time you make me want to bang my head against the wall. What terrible situation are we in? The EG deal was thought quite a coup at the time, and NBA GM's don't get fired for a missed shot: They get fired for fielding a pathetic team. Oh, and since you think when Rudy went down that CD should've followed suit I direct you to last year when we landed T-Mac, JHo, Sura, Wesley and James and either T-Mac and Yao are going to tear up this league soon or damned if all of those moves weren't perfect - rescuing us from a horrible start and fielding one hell of an exciting team. In addition as it, stands, we have around 22 mil. in expiring contracts and could cut Ward and make it $25. And we have T-Mac and Yao. CD sucks? Please tell me who you want to replace him with, and also what kind of anti-depressant medication that - in a perfect world - you'd be taking.
HillBoy: Man, no matter how many times I re-read your posts, you really confuse me. It's like on the one hand you're screaming that we aren't improving while at the same time you want to stand pat. It was basically the same story last summer and throughout the year. Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but you were against the McGrady trade because you thought it would deplete our roster too much and you didn't think Dawson had the capability of revamping it. Then when we landed Mutombo, you thought we were just getting rid of our trash. You were upset when they cleaned up the Mo Taylor mess by acquiring expiring contracts because you felt they should have never been in that position in the first place. Why not give credit where it is due? Through some smart personnel moves in the Gundy era, they're starting to clean house. How exactly has the West gotten tougher? We were the 5th seed last year and you're worried about two teams that didn't even make the playoffs? What has Minny done to improve? They're going to lose Sprewell and Cassell is on his last legs. L.A. is going to leap frog us because they added Kwame freaking Brown? The Spurs will always be the Spurs. The Suns might lose Joe Johnson and IMo are worse off without Richardson. The Sonics just lost Jerome James and could lose Daniels and Vlad Rad. Sacramento lost Mobley. Dallas hasn't done anything. Memphis is about to lose Swift. Denver hasn't done anything and missed out on their chance to land a shooter. You've been constantly saying you're against Stromile Swift but then at the same time you're criticizing the Rockets for not improving? Which is it that you want? And if they don't acquire a power forward through FA, please tell me how you plan on addressing the position? The FA forward crop next year is much worse and I wouldn't hold my breaht on acquiring a young power forward through trade. How do you know they don't plan on addressing the backcourt situation later in the summer? What young power forward is it that you are hoping we will be able to acquire at the trade deadline? Elton Brand? Carlos Boozer? Our expiring contracts are completely useless in trade unless we can attach some good young players onto them to make the deal attractive - and don't say Mike James. Those guys make $10+ million and it's not like their teams absolutely have to trade them. The Grizzlies could lose Swift for nothing so they may want to dump off JWill in the process and atleast net something from us like James and a draft pick. Swift's salary is low enough in comparison to Brand and whoever else you have in mind that Memphis can add in a player to dump and we can absorb it for their troubles. If we just stand pat and be patient like you are saying, you'll just come back and say that the West is improving and we've done nothing. Then what is it? Do you want to improve or do you want to stand pat? They ARE addressing their talent level given their salary cap situation and personnel makeup of their team. (A) They have no cap room so they are attempting to work a sign and trade or use the MLE. (B) They have no credible starting power forward so they are attempting to address that. You're criticizing us for going after Swift yet are commending L.A. for landing Kwame Brown? Why wouldn't Swift be a "good gamble on our part" given Gundy's previous success with a lanky, athletic forward (Camby)? They hit gold on every one of their deals last year.
http://www.basketball-reference.com...1:Juwan+Howard&y2=2005&s=r&t=t&submit=Compare This past season Swift played 1 game less than Juwan, while JHo averaged around 5 minutes & 1.12 rebounds more per game. http://www.basketball-reference.com...1:Reggie+Evans&y2=2005&s=r&t=t&submit=Compare Swift played 19 games less than Reggie Evans. Evans averaged around 2 minutes & 4.76 rebounds more per game. Is Swift really worth his asking price?
Hillboy is not the only one paranoid around here. I simply do not understand how ANYBODY can call Kwame Brown an upgrade. He is nothing else but a GAMBLE, and that is exactly what Hillboy has said repeatedly that he does not want us to do. Yet he praises the Fakers for doing that deal and incredibly thinks they are now closer to us or even ahead of us. Of the teams ahead of us in the standings last season, the Suns have lost Richardson, who was a starter for them, and who averaged double digits. They lose valuable outside shooting, and their new player, Kurt Thomas, will make their game much slower, no doubt about it, and a slow Phoenix doesn't give me the jitters - we split the series even when they were very fast. Seattle lost Jerome James, lost their coach, and will probably lose Daniels. The Spurs have done nothing, but they don't have to anyway, and the Mavs have done nothing and may lose Finley, their second leadding scorer, because they want to save some cash. As for those behind us, don't make me laugh. Which teams are so obviously better than last year as to scare us in any way? The Nugz have stood pat up till now. The Grizz are going to lose Swift, and haven't added anybody. The Fakers lost their third leading scorer in Butler, and replaced him with a loser, the Wolves have so far gotten only worse simply because Cassel is one year older, and they're gonna let Sprewell go for sure. Golden State is, well, Golden State ... don't let me go on. As for our team, many of us forget that the team was constantly adjusted as the season wore on. Almost half of the active roster did not go through training camp with rest. Howard, who was the starting PF, didn't finish the regular season and missed the playoffs, so there is certainly room for improvement, even within the team as it is now. I'm not suggesting that there is no need for an upgrade. There certainly are glaring holes. What I'm saying is that people should not be blind to the many positives our team has, even as it is, and they should stop panicking, simply because others are seen to be active and we are not. It's early days yet. Obviously
It is absolutely more about FIT than running to some stat sheet for a comparative evaluation. Do you envision Howard or Evans' defender leaving them to double Yao and either of them diving to the basket for a monster jam lob? Can we envison Reggie Evans quickly picking up the Nowitski's of the NBA in transition as far out as the 3 point line? How about a half-court trap with Reggie Evans doubling the ball handler? How about Evans or Juwan being the finishing trailer on a Rockets 3on2 or 4on3? There's more to an evaluation besides how many rebounds two players each gets in x minutes per game. Does one players' team shoot a lot of 3's where there are long rebounds? Could be the case with Evans. Is Swift worth the money? How much are we talking about? Anything from the MLE to $7.2m is a decent price to pay for a fit. More than that may be OK if (in a SnT) you are losing the contract of a player who can't get off of your IR. IMO, the line stops somewhere around $8m.
GATER, I think those that aren't in the Swift camp are those that look at those blanket stats. But those that like Swift like you and I are those that see, as you already said, the "fit" on this team. JVG sees this fit too. He knows that the skillset that Swift posesses is one that compliments Yao's weaknesses. JVG sees that the skillset that Swift has, are skills that would work well in JVG's defensive scheme. Tmac and Yao are the core players and now it is up to JVG/CD to find the right complimentary role players that will augment Yao's/Tmac's games. Swift does that. And then finding some shooters from the outside does that too.
Golden State will be significantly better in 2005-06 than in 04-05. They will be a playoff team. Seattle, Sacramento, and Memphis will be worse for sure. I think Memphis misses the playoffs replaced by Golden State. I wouldn't be surprised if Seattle missed the playoffs and flip flopped with Minny. Somebody's gotta win out there.
I feel like this has been said about the Clippers for like the last 5 years. Golden State put on a good run last year...but they're still Golden State until they actually do something. Remember how good Utah was supposed to be this year? They added Boozer and Okur...and fell flat on their face (yea yea, Kirilenko got hurt, but they were playing badly before he went down). We have a legit shot at Swift. We beat Seattle the last time it came to recruiting a MLE type PF (Mo Taylor), they don't have a coach, and may not even really want him, and New Jersey...well their point guard allegedly wants to play for us. Thank you, tcab, for pretty much laying everything out. I don't really have much to add to that. It's not like Eddie Griffin went Jermaine O'Neal on us, and we handled him wrong..he self-imploded. Perhaps Rockets management should have had a better system for "raising" him in place, but pinning that to CD is crazy. How Hillboy can pin that to CD, yet after Phil Jackson had an entire team self-implode on him and still praise him as the "Zenmaster" is just a little beyond me. After that debacle, managing to alienate two huge superstars (TMac, Yao, and JVG sure seem on the same page), how do you have confidence that PJ is the same coach?
I duno what's going to happen right now but I believe Swift is coming to Houston one way or the other. BTW, you the same cat from allhiphop.com?
...and it is rumored that Profit woke the next morning to an unexpected blue hummer parked in his driveway with custom plates "thx,wizgm". No one knows where it came from, but the keys were left in the freaking ignition and there was a mint on the drivers seat. so what's the over and under (in days) for Profit being cut by LA?
OK. It's now 2005 and the Rockets are basically starting over again. What I dislike about CD's tenure is the lack of good drafts and the inability of him and his guys to find and develop talent. As for fielding a pathetic team, have you forgotten all of those years in the lottery? If that's not the definition of pathetic, then I need a new dictionary. Under his tenure as GM, this franchise has just drifted along stuck in the middle. BTW, that so-called "missed shot" is the prime reason they have a hole at the 4 this year. Yeah, I gave them credit for somehow pulling out last season with those moves. What I do not give CD credit for is the thought process that led to the situation that forced that major overhaul. Specifically, I did not like how CD ignored obvious weaknesses in personnel (guard, PF) that were present BEFORE the season began. To me that sort of sums up his effectiveness as a GM. And tell me WHY do we have $22 million in exipiring contracts? Because under CD, we have managed to pick up $22 million of players that can't help us and whom nobody else wants. The prime reason they can't participate in the FA market is because they have no cap space due to all of the dead money sitting on the bench in those "expiring contracts". We do have Yao & T-Mac yes but not due to any smart or clever move on the part of CD. In fact, step back a minute and consider this: If they don't get the No. 1 pick in the 2002 draft and say T-Mac decided that he wanted to play in LA with Kobe, what does this team look then? All I'm saying is that I disagree with annoiting him with the "great GM" tag because as I see it, he's been anything but. However, that's simply how I happen to feel about his tenure here. Yes, the Rockets were fun to watch last year but last year's first round playoff with Dallas also showed just how far this team still has to go in order to truly contend in the West.
Whew. It makes me smile, knowing there are optimistic people out there. I actually believe we have something good going on, we just don't know what. There are cap-space teams that might be willing to facilitate deals for us; and CD might have been BSing with his "not gonna do a sign and trade" posture. Who knows? CD has his spectacular successes and spectacular failures. Let's see what transpires in the next week or two before we annoint him a failure.
