Milwaukee is not going to take Howard in a trade for Magloire. Let's keep it real for once. I didn't suggest Swift even much less Juwan. I don't know if they would even do that. Don't know whether they plan on playing Bogut at the 5 or the 4 primarily. Looks like last year he played mostly the 4. In my opinion, he should be a 5 adn they should go after a PF and some depth to replace Magloire, so Swift would be a possibility there. But they've also got another jumping jack at the MLE in Gadzuric that looks to me like is pretty much a taller Swift. Toronto would essentially be getting a steal if they could move MJ for Magloire straight up. And just sending Swift to the Bucks for Magloire really doesn't seem fair to Milwaukee. How about throwing in Toronto's #5 pick to Milwaukee? Toronto gives up #5 pick and Mike James for Magloire. We give up Swift for MJ. Milwauke gives up Magloire for Swift and the #5 pick????? Or possibly we send our TE and #8 pick to Milwaukee along with Swift for Mike James and Mo Pete. Toronto gives up MJ and Mo Pete for a Magloire. They can then take Gay or Roy at #5 to replace Roy. Milwaukee gets the #8 and Swift for Magloire. ?????? That would leave us with a pretty good depth at the perimeter spots especially if we brought back one of Bogans, Frahm, or Wesley. Then we've got the MLE to add somebody like Gooden possibly. Possibly work a trade with Golden State for Murphy using Howard's contract adn Bowen plus a futrue #1 pick for Murphy.
If and if we can do a sign and trade for Mike James then that alone can open up alot of good things for Houston. Just say that we trade Stro and future pick for MJ. Once we sign and trade for MJ, we can use our MLE on Rasual Butler and Jumaine Jones. Both are athletic and can hit the 3s. Both can give us height and make us younger. Once we get those 2 guys then we can draft Sheldon Williams from Duke to help Howard at PF and protect Yao. These moves alone will make us fans die for the next season. Our lineup could be PG Rafer/James/Head????? SG D.Wesley/Butler/Head/jones/James SF Tracy/Jones/Butler/Bowen PF:J.Howard/Sheldon Williams/Chuck Hayes C: Yao Ming/Mutombo(last year)/Sheldon Williams I know our starting lineup doesn't look any different but look at our bench. James can fill SG and PG. We can put James/Jones/T-mac in the backcourt and have a very good offense and defense. JVG can work with this lineup all day. Also our bench just got way young and if we have a SG available on trade block, then we will have assets to trade for a player.
I think the whole problem of when mike james was here in the first place is that he was taking shots away from yao and tmac, and perhaps jvg didnt like that and tmac probably didnt like that either, so i guess if mike james comes back he has to acknowledge that this is tmac and yaos team and that the plays go through them, james is only there if he's open due to double teams.
here's more: http://torontosun.com/Sports/Basketball/2006/05/15/1580649-sun.html If the Houston Rockets offer Mike James a healthy portion of cash, the free-agent-to-be will say goodbye to the Raptors in a heartbeat. The point guard, who had a career-best 2005-06 season with Toronto after he was traded here from the Rockets for Rafer Alston, told the Houston Chronicle this weekend his "first choice" is to return to his adopted home-town of Houston and his "main focus is coming back to H-Town." The native of Amityville, N.Y., 30, maintained that stance in an interview with The Toronto Sun yesterday, despite the fact the Rockets traded him for another point guard in the first place and could offer him only the mid-level exception. "Understand one thing. Right here, Houston, is home," James -- whose wife, Angela, is from Houston -- said from his off-season home yesterday. "If a person has an opportunity in their career to be able to do something they love and doing it while sleeping in your own bed, driving into your own (driveway) and living in your own house, the house you spent money on, of course everybody wants to play where they want to live -- in their home-town ... My first option really is to go home because I love being back in Houston. I really miss being back at home and having my life here, with things set up and the business opportunities I have here." Raptors president/general manager Bryan Colangelo, who has expressed interest in re-signing James, did not sound overly concerned by the comments. The Raptors will be under the salary cap this summer. "(James) is going to exercise his rights as a free agent and he's going to see what's out there," Colangelo said. James recently built a home in Houston, but made it clear he has not ruled out re-signing with the Raptors. "I am not closing the door on Toronto at all," he said. "Me and Mo Pete (Morris Peterson) talk all the time. Me and Chris Bosh talk all the time and I let them know I'm going to come back even better. As of right now, I'm still a Toronto Raptor. Whatever I do, I say: 'I am Mike James of the Toronto Raptors' or 'I am Mike James, representing the Toronto Raptors.' " But, unfortunately for James, the Raptors do not play in Houston. "If I could take the team in Toronto and transfer it to Houston, I'd sure love to do that," he said. "I wouldn't trade the (current makeup of the) Raptors for nobody." Never shy, James said his "ultimate goal is to be the best basketball player of this era." To that end, he is planning to travel to Phoenix next month to take part in boxing training with Mike Tyson's group. He said after about a month of training, he would love to spar with Tyson. "Why not learn from the greatest ever to do it?" he said.
I would definitely try and get MJ with the MLE, but no way would I give up any assets to get him. It would be the MLE or nothing.
BJ Armstrong and Ron Harper, right? Are you talking about Ainge, Cousy, or Havlicek? Billups has turned into a VERY effective PG. Tyronn Lue won a ring with them.
] This team needs a 3rd option the hell what anybody else thinks. We don't know if t Mac will go down again anyway. I take depth over trying to let just 2 players get all the glory anyway could care less who score as long as they keep the ball in the basket whoever that is.
I agree with this sentiment. James is a decent player -- good in many ways, but with some significant flaws as well. If he's throwing himself at us, I'd be happy to take him, if the price is right. Giving him the MLE would be acceptable, though if they went elsewhere with the MLE, that'd be cool with me too. But, to give him more than the MLE and gave up talent assets as well would not make me happy. Imo, he didn't do a good job complementing the stars on the court, and I don't expect that will change. The last article is interesting because his loyalty seems to be to the city and not at all to the Rockets. Maybe that's PR spin; I don't know.
Yeah I remeber that too, that's why I think that he can only come back as the 6th man. He cannot start and play with T-mac and Yao. If he comes back, he plays when T-mac is on the bench when he can have the green light to shoot. Which is fine with me because it means we can also shorten T-mac's minutes. We'll see how sincere all this "the money doesn't matter to me" stuff is when they back up the truck full of money to the table. Although I guess there really aren't that many teams under the cap this summer.
I'm sure before making those comments, he knows the rockets don't hve much money to spend so i'm guessing he is willing to settle for the MLE ...he wants to come home...he better be willing to take less shots...we need a guy who can shoot but not jack up 20 shots a game....if he is willing, then i'm all for it...
Wow, after the year he just had with Toronto, you'd think he would be asking to make the big bucks. I would be all for it if he wants to come back for only the MLE.
He was asking for big bucks throughout the entire season, big bucks for multiple shorter deals is what he was asking for IIRC. Like I said, I thought MJ acted like a a$$ last season, he ran his mouth a lot and almost got into it w/ Juwan Howard (which is a good thing I guess). But he is a solid scorer and a very good shooter, at the MLE, I would welcome him back in a second.
What is he talking about? Everyone knows that MLE money is a guaranteed thing for him, so why would he be using a deal with Houston as posturing in Toronto? MJ... Either you want to play for Houston, or you don't. Toronto or Atlanta will offer you AT LEAST an MLE deal, so threatening to bolt to Houston for MLE money is an empty and useless statement. Now if you want to threaten to move to a team with some real money available, that might get you a better deal.
Maybe he would take a full MLE deal. The Rockets would surely listen, and truthfully would look like fools a 2nd time for letting him go for Rafer. I think a lot depends on V-span and our plans for him. DD
Well, I disagree. If I had two job offers, one in Houston (where my home and family is) and one in Toronto - it wouldn't matter that they were both offering me the same amount of money. I'm staying in Houston. Especially when you consider how high canadian taxes are and the fact that Houston doesn't have a state income tax. I'm sure Mike James understandes that he isn't going to get a max deal, but I think either Toronto or Atlanta are going to have to give him added incentive to come there if Houston is willing to offer him an MLE type deal. He might get a couple million extra, and that's all a guy over 30 can hope for.
Very intriguing, isn't it? If Mike James will sign for the MLE at four years, bring him in, NO PROBLEM. He learned to pass over the last year. And he can hit that 3 pointer. We'll try to ignore his talent of fouling 3 point shooters. Of course, you could say, He's looking to get paid, and you'd be right; so if his agent hems and haws about a sign and trade and getting his client XYZ amount of money, say, "I'm sorry, we need to move on this and can't afford to trade away our assets, because, basically, other than Yao and Tracy and the #8, and maybe Luther, we have no assets," then hang up the phone and move on. If you look at Toronto and look at the teams with cap room: Chicago doesn't really need him. Charlotte won't pay ANYBODY. Atlanta....maybe, but they wouldn't break the bank for him. Toronto has his Bird rights but the amount he would gain in Toronto (as opposed to signing with the Rockets) would dwindle significantly in comparison when you factor in the exchange rate, the cost of living, tax rate....and making himself and his family happy (priceless, just like the commercial). We should always be wary of contract-year players. But the guy wants to be here. You just have to get a tall PG/SG (Mardy Collins at #8?) and you'd be OK. Then you'd have to look at your options. Keep Vasilis? How? Will he wait another year? Will he want to play now? Do other teams know his value and would that translate well in a trade? Could you trade Luther and Swift and maybe the rights to Vasilis (if necessary, mind you) for Atlanta's (likely) #4 pick? Luther is the sort of guard they need, given Joe Johnson insisting (and costing them Chris Paul in the draft) that he play point guard.
Who said he wasn't asking for big money? He just said he wanted to play in Houston; he didn't say he'd accept an MLE deal. He may be hoping to get a sign-and-trade. I assume he is after all the talk he made about being paid what he is worth.
Good point Valdez. You know I didn't think about that. Mike James could say to Toronto heres what im going to do, im going to houston, i want to go to houston and houston wants me back, so look guys, im either going to take their full mle or you can work a sign and trade with them. you can lose me for nothing or get something in return for me. we could toss swift and head or swift and our trade exception, or some other combination with Swift as our main trading piece. just a thought.
