after a player is signed or re-signed, the only way he can be traded within 90 days is if it's a straight up trade. You can not include other players.
Two positive things to take from this: 1. This is tell-tale sign of a SNT. If not with the Blazers along with SAR, then at the All-Star Break with expiring contracts. What would we have like 9, 10 guards on the active roster?!? MLE remains intact for a PF? 2. Damon Stoudamire is an absolute Rocket Killer!!! If you can't beat 'em...
If we do not get a four by the start of the season it does not mean that the need will not be addressed. Honestly, none of the 4s are ideal. They are all lacking in some area. Don't get me wrong 3 or 4 would be an upgrade over what we have, but not as much as some would on the board would think - I think this is why there is such a split on which to one get. SAR and AW are better offensively, but not much different the JH defensively. Swift has the most potential to help us, but if he were all that I would think Memphis would have done more to keep him. The thing that scares me about Swift is the lack of deisre/heart to play hard consistently. I have also heard that he is not the sharpest tool in the shed. Anyway, my point is I can guarantee that the 4 will be addressed, and if the don't do it at the start of the year we will make a trade later. The closer we get to the trade deadline the more our expiring contracts will be worth. BDavis and VC were obtained via trades for basically expiring contracts and draft picks. There is no reason we cannot do the same later on during the year.
You guys are so wrong about putting sura at the two. Let me ask you this, when did this team turn it around and start winning last year? WHEN WE GOT WESLEY. Thats because we finally had someone who could hit the open shots. Sure, Sura got healthy and a few other things came together, but the main thing is that we got a shooter, someone to hit 3's and bail out yao and tmac when they got in trouble or double teamed. I don't think most of you realize how important wesley is to this team. You have to have someone who can knock down open jumpers, we don't need anyone to create off the dribble or create their own shots, thats what tmac and yao are for. Look at all the great teams, you have a 1-2 punch and the rest of the role players either get rebounds, play defense or knock down open jumpers.
The Rockets need a true point guard running the show. Damon is coming off a max contract. He wants to win a title. He likely is willing to take less MONEY. The Rockets have a lot of point guards on the Roster who are combo guards; Sura, James, and Head. Norris and Ward should probably not even be in the NBA anymore. Wesley and Barry are strictly shooting guards. This team really needs Damon Stoudomire or another pure point guard. Someone that will lead the fast break. Currently we've had among the best rebounding point guards in the league with Francis and Sura. This is probably the reason the fast breaks aren't as prolific as they should be with McGrady. Welcome to Houston Stoudomire.
I like mighty mouse at the LLE. I think they will hold off making a bigger offer until after the Stro situation cleans up. IF we have to go sign and trade and we are forced to take a bad contract from Portland it seems the choice would be Theo Ratliff or Derek Anderson possibly Darius Miles but he would be worth more compensation. If they are trying to dump salary it could be Ratliff who has 3 years 33 million left. He isn't exactly what we need @ the 4, but he is the best shot blocker in the league and he could play next to Yao and would be a good defensive compliment to Howard. If its Derek Anderson its a guard that isn't undersized. We easily have enough in expiring contracts to make it work especially with the new CBA and more lax trade rules (from 15% to 25%) PLus we'd still have our MLE for whatever.
I like this idea very much. Ratliff will give us exactly what we had with Cato, and he would provide nice protection for Yao. A combination of Howard and Ratliff at the 4 will give the Rockets nicely contrasting pieces.
If we do end up getting mighty mouse, that also means JWill is probably not going to be involved in any trade if we do SNT for Stro.
Like I said, Mighty Mouse will be the one to knock down the open Js. Anyway, what about Wesley getting abused on the defensive end in the playoffs by bigger guards? The fact is that Wesley is undersized at off-guard -- no matter how many open Js he hits (or doesn't hit -- like he did at the end of the year). Sura gives you size at the 2; Mighty Mouse gives you the guy who can hit open Js. So you get the best of both worlds.
Wasn't likely to happen anyway. I doubt JVG is willing to put up with White Chocolate. Mighty Mouse has had his share of problems off-court, but as far as I know, he's always been easy to deal with as a player.
How was Wesley's D on Jason Terry? Look, we can go team-by-team and find bad matchups for any potential backcourt. I'm only trying to refute the point that many people made that we shouldn't sign Damon because he's 5'10" and, with Wesley at 6'1", our backcourt would be too small. What I'm saying is that we shouldn't let that stop us; we have interchangable guards and should take advantage of that -- and not let Damon's height scare us off because Wesley is also short (as some have suggested).
Don't get me wrong - I am not saying that DS being short, or wondering how his defense would be on Terry, are any reasons not to have him. I would liek to ahve the guy. I am just seriously wondering how he is defensively? We know JVG is a stickler for that, and so for DS to even be considered here, JVG must think he also has at least some decent ability defensively.. but never having watched him play much, I just don't know.. if anyone is able to speak about DS' defense, I am genuinely interested. Plus, I just can't stand that little twerp terry. Grr.
Wow.. you're putting the entire turnaround on Wesley's ability to hit shots. There were way too many factors to pin it on that. Plus, how is Sura/Wesley different from Damon/Sura in terms of shooting? I think Damon is as good a spot-up shooter as Wesley, if not better...I think Damon's %age goes down b/c of the other shots he has taken. He likes to create for himself (which Wesley can't do). Wesley was way too inconsistent to imply that we really need to keep him for this team to succeed.
I think we get Damon it clearly means there is going to be a trade of guards. I think one of the moves will be to add more size @ the 2. I just cant see us going in with 2 starting guards under 6'1.
Sura at the 2 is a joke. Noway in --- would I put Sura at the 2 trade him with wesley and get a real shooting guard.
You're calling Damon a "pure point guard"? First of all, why do the Rockets need a "true point guard" so badly? They need a shooter who can defend, penetrate and kick somewhat, and bring the ball up. They don't particularly need someone to handle the ball a lot because of T-Mac. It's not like we can run T off screens all game long.. I don't think having guys who can lead the fast break will suddenly turn us into a running team. We did what we could last year, but having Damon wouldn't have changed us THAT much in terms of running, imo. And yeah, second, since when has Damon been a pure point? He's a solid distributor, but he loves to score. He's a shooter, he likes to shoot the floaters and midrange J's. I think he's as much a scorer/shooter as Cassell..
