The realistic window of opportunity we have is 2 years- maybe 3 if we are lucky. The only way for us to compete in the Western Conference is 1. Step into the Luxury tax area ( i am not suggesting a la NY , but a la Pacers) 2. Get lucky with our picks and find some gems.( Josh Howard, Ginobili, Parker calibre) Even if we get one All Star Calibre player, the rest of the slots will be filled by veterans wanting to be with us. I am not sure how else we will contend with Dallas or San Antonio ( in the enxt 2-3 years)- The pistons will only come later!
I was saying in the other thread ... we're actually going to have about $15 million worth of salary cap space free for next season due to expiring contracts, despite the doubling of Yao's salary. But I still like #3 best. I still think if all our guys got healthy, we could be the biggest threat to San Antonio in the west. IF all our guys got healthy and we made the playoffs.
do you honestly think the rockets have a championship team even if healthy. the threadstarter is addressing being a championship contender not just getting into playoffs. these guys are not a threat if they can't win a freakin game without Tracy and that includes a few with Yao.
where did you get that from? the expiring contracts will only ensure that we aren't in luxury tax territory after signing players with the exceptions. Even with the expiring contracts we will still have about $50M in committed contracts for 06-07 (which is either AT or a little over the projected salary cap).
Yeah, we can use the MLE and sign some players to minimum contracts, I guess. Since we used the LLE on DA this past offseason, I don't think we can use that. So basically, we have $4.9M(?) worth of spending money this offseason, the same as everyone else over the cap.
I honestly think so. I'm an eternal optimist as far as the Rockets are concerned, though. But, being as objective as possible, I believe that these players are supposed to lose without Yao and McGrady. They're nothing more than a supporting cast. Just look at how gun shy they are. They've been trained to defer. The Olajuwonettes would have fared horribly without Hakeem during their championship years. Not quite as horribly as this year's squad, because there was only one Hakeem so the cast had to be more independently talented - but pretty damn bad nonetheless.
We haven't been able to see what this team can do when healthy...hell, coming into the season a LOT of people here and in the media thought we'd be championship contenders, but everyone gets hurt and now we're not even close to being one in peoples' eyes. I know a lot of people have jumped off the bandwagon, but I'm not one of them.
Problem is you can't expect this group of players to ever be 100% healthy, either because of age, injury history, or the fact that some of them have the bad habit of taking their sweet ass time to come back. How does that saying go? Money is not an object? Something like that, Rockets have to think like that.
Just so you know, I'm not totally negative, I think Rafer can still work out, and I think even though Swift will never become the player people thought, I think about 10,6 is fine for what he gets paid. But I do not believe this team can contend, I just believe the better teams are too deep. when phoenix is healthy, they have three legit all-stars in Nash, Marion, and Stoudemire. the rockets only have two and then the drop off is severe. the suns also have guys who are legit rotation players in Jackson and Grant and others. After Yao and Tracy, none of the starters for the Rockets would start for Dallas, the suns, or san antonio. they'd have a hard time breaking the Clippers or Warriors rotation. they just don't have the depth. and now tracy's future is a legitimate concern, I say the rockets break the bank now.
Can we at least see what this team has to offer when healthy before disussing our long term championship hopes? What if this team was our best shot at a title and we tore it apart because of some injuries. I realize that it's not good to have injury-prone players, but the only guys I feel are injury-prone are Sura and DA. DA isn't that big of a piece anyway, and Sura is the reason that we traded for Alston.
i have to agree with you. a lot of people did think, including me, before the season started that we might so somewhere. but after watching them up till now, everyone knows our team has a lot of weak spots. all 3 new additions didnt go the way we expected. swift is still a r****d, da cant find his shot, and alston is not doing the best job as a pg. while i do like the fact he has hit some shots lately, i expect him to go inside.
I don't think we only have a 2-year window. Tmac and Yao are signed to 7 year extensions. They are 25. We shouldn't make a band-aid, desperation move. We should build a future. Get some young guys that make a core with our stars. There's a lot of back up centers on the market next year. We could get a Pollard/Cato/Battie/LoWright to help Yao. Get Tmac a decent backup so he can play less minutes. Get a new coach that can manage the grind of the season, not grind the season on our stars. What if we had a lineup like Yao/Cato L.Aldridge/A.Harrington A.Harrington/Tmac TMac/L.Head A.Daniels or E.Watson/Vspan Better, no? That team is bigger and stronger than our current one, and allows Yao and Tmac to rest for at least 10 minutes a game. It rebounds better. It can score and play defense. That's just two trades, a draft pick, and an offseason pick up of Cato, who should be at the right price and plays well with Yao. There will still be guys left we can't trade to fill out the roster, and vet minimums. You can change the names as you wish, but the plan is move toward a balanced team with a future, that takes some pressure off Tmac and Yao. It's an achieveable goal.
Exactly. Band aid moves are what we have made every since we got T-Mac. It was perhaps worth a try to see if we could have it both ways. Get some cheap old guys with two year contracts to see if we could win now and then, also later when we used their expiring contracts to really go for the gold. It did not work out. The old and or cheap guys either got hurt or could not play. Time to go in another direction. Our record this year is not the only thing depressing us. It is that we know that we have virtually nobody to build around besides Yao, McGrady and Head.
im still on too! until we are mathmatically eliminated i still believe we will make the playoffs. if everyone is healthy than we definately have as good a shot as anyone to take out a 3,2 or even 1 seed. we have spent the majority of the season with 5-6 of our top 9 players on the IL at any given time. yes, a legit contending team should be able to still win games w/out their star(s), but when the guys who should be able to step up in their absence are injured this is what you get.
I don't have a schedule in front of me, but I believe we are something like 10-3 when everyone is healthy. That gives me hope.
