15.5 million in dead wood?

Deadwood this year on,

Dallas: Finley $16MM, KVH $16MM, Dampier $7.7MM. In fact, Dampier has 5yrs/$50MM not including this season. Finley does not count against their cap. Their total team salaries are $97MM. I heard a radio guy call Mark Cuban the George Steinbrenner of the NBA. The Knicks had the highest payroll this year, $124MM.

San Antonio: Rasho $6.7MM, Nazr $5.5MM. Their total team salaries are $64MM. Spurs are much better off salarywise than the Mavs.

Did you eat lemons today? I didn't say it was a "rule"; it should be a goal. Get over yourself.

Yetti, I don't consider Stro deadwood because he (maybe) can be traded for an asset. JH is deadwood because we want to get rid of him but can't find a taker because of his contract.

 

This will be my last post in this thread before I go totally overboard

Did I not say that it's either you're using a figure of speech or you haven't been a Rockets fan for that long? I put out those two possible options because your rhetorical question is absurd. I hope you didn't wake up this morning and say "hey I know! This is a great idea! Why don't we deem Howard, Swift, and Sura deadwood and get rid of them? BRILLIANT!" Am I getting personal? Maybe, maybe not. I think the only way I'm getting personal is by stating that 95% of your threads don't make sense. "Then why are you so inclined to post in them?" Because I want to pretty much point out the idiocy that surrounds your threads--plain and simple.

Sports is cyclical to a certain extent. There will be a time when one team is good and then they start to suck and a few years later they might be good again. Who wouldn't want to get rid of the players we have right now (sans McGrady and Yao)? But since a) some of them aren't even tradeable and b) life and sports are never fair, we will have to deal with it. I'd like for you to try and find a deal where Swift, Howard, and Sura are all gone and we get back super subs like Stackhouse, Mike Miller, etc.. I am pretty sure the Rockets have tried their best to address this "situation" so why beat the deadhorse again and again?

This sounds sooo Tinmanesque to the point where I'm not even going to respond.

Please give me links or references to this percentage. I'm not saying you're wrong, but, like in your "Double Team/Yao" mess of a thread, I'd like to see some stats. And what am I suggesting? That someone that parties is in a better situation than a person on a drug posession charge. Don't think so? Ask the players in the league that has gotten suspended for said issue. What does that mean? Suspensions = DNPs. And I don't care if it's LeBron James; if he's not on the court and can't play because he's suspended, he's got as much use as Ryan Bowen.

Please reread this. The reason why teams might have wanted Wesley is because of his expiring contract. You DO realize that Howard is owed about 20 million for the next 3 years right? Swift might be easier to trade because of his contract. But I am willing to bet that the only thing that we get back for our 'deadwood' is more 'deadwood'

Wow...who else do we have? Bogans? Hayes? Outside of our 8th, Head is the only one with any trade value. You package the 8th and Luther you might have something there. But try to add on Howard's contract and see what kind of deals you get.

Fantasies (like getting Randolph and Miles) does not translate in the real world (try working THAT under the CBA where both teams will agree to the deal). There ARE players in the league that can fit my "defend/rebound" requisite but as much as the Rockets need said player, the team that he's playing on most likely won't let him go. A player like David West comes to mind.

Lets use logic since I haven't done so already and you seemed to have mastered it. Where's the logic in trading Howard for Miles?

-Why would Portland do this when they have Randolph already?
-Why would they even consider bringing in a player that's owed 20 mil more JUST to get rid of a player they don't like/want?
-What do we even do with a player like Miles? A player that, theoretically would start at the 4 for us, averaged just 4.6 rebounds last year along with his 2.48 TOs/game? A player that has been a malcontent ever since he came into the league?
-Why would the Rockets trade away your proclaimed 'deadwood' for a player that is still owed 34 million dollars over the next four years?

"No idiot. Miles wouldn't play PF for us. He'd be perfect as our starting SG" you might say

Okay, what is making you salivate more? His 53% FT% or his 20% 3PT%?

As for Hayes, the Rockets would be stupid NOT to re-sign him. He's on the books for cheap, he plays with full energy everytime he gets into the game, and he could very well be a Ben Wallace type of player. I like Hayes enough to think that the guy, with some more experience, could start at PF for us.

 

If you want to do something about Deadwood, sue HBO!

The Rockets' deadwood? As has been pointed out, all teams have it, in varying degrees. We could be worse off. Hopefully, we'll manage to unload some, probably getting some back that's a better fit for our team, and/or has a shorter contract. That's reasonably the best you can hope for, barring Isiah becoming the GM for the rest of the league's teams, a hell of a feat!

 

ani,

you're fighting a losing battle with these guys. I've already been there, done that. They'd rather Howard run the floor 30 minutes a game for the next 3 years or somehow hope and wish that Van Gundy benches him and he rides the bench for the next 3 years. So, basically they hope he either plays or doesn't play for us without any possibility of turning his salary into a positive. They'd rather have the tried and true negative than to try something different.

We'll have to watch him to to somebody like the Lakers and then deal with him terrorizing us in the playoffs. He is one of the best defenders in the whole league to use against McGrady.

 

I would do euther of theses trades if I could.

 

I thought the problem is nobody is willing to take him?

 

I would FINALLY be a happy rockets fan again if we got rid of nearly half of our team (Deadwood). if for some reason the blazers were even dumber than they already are (and frankly their franchise is worse off than ours) and we somehow got randolph and miles, and heck lets just throw in telfair because frankly this isnt going to happen that would be stupendous. lets get rid of everyone except for mac, yao, and luther. actually lets go ahead and trade mac and see what we could get for him.

 

Miles. We'll have to watch Miles get traded to a team like the Lakers (because another team will figure out they can just trade junk for him) and then be a nuisance to us in the playoffs, while we are still watching Juwan get the stuffing beat out of him every night.

 

The problem is always money, Les won't get over luxury threshold.

At the beginning of last year, they could dump J.Howard's contract without worrying about the Luxury Tax due to the Michael Finley rule.

In the middle of last year, they could trade Wesley for young talent or draft picks, they won't do it.

There are lots of chance of remaking the roster actually, but money and management ability are always the problem.

 

Well, on the one hand, if some trade or other does in fact happen, this team could be on the verge of potentially adding up to between 4 and six new players to the roster. Is that enough of a change for you?

JHo is not deadwood, he is just getting paid a fair bit more than his production. But, ok, because without JHo, we have no TMac. Would you undo the trade that brought TMac, just to be able to say we don't have Howard any more? Does anyone remember the common theme during our sad loss to the Mavs in the playoffs last year? 'If Juwan was healthy, we would have won that series..' ad infinitum commentus. he can shoot, and he is basketball smart, at least smart enough to remain the starter with a younger and more-athletic guy in Swift waiting in the wings. Howard will make a decent backup at the 4, and when his contract is down to 2 years or less, then he will be much more likely to be moved.

As far as Sura goes, well, if he can actually PLAY, then he will be a blessing for this team. And if he can't, I would imagine he would retire. Again, not deadwood.

Meanwhile, you would want to take on sleazy characters like Miles or Randolph, and their much higher salaries? Uh huh.

We need to focus on the future here. We are about to get at least one very good young player added to this team, and, depending on trades, maybe a couple more. Add in Mike James coming back, as well as V-Span, and Novak or Pittsnogle or someone like that in Rd2, a healthy TMac and an healthy Yao, this team is ready to go deep in the playoffs, at which time you will be thanking your lucky stars for deadwood like Howard and Sura as quality depth.

You know, Anita, there is this commonplace perception that 'Everyone's opinion should be respected,' floating around out there in the touchy-feely feel-good fantasy world that a lot of people like to live in. But none of that changes the fact that, very often, many peoples' opinions are just plain stupid. Doesn't mean we shouldn't respect your RIGHT to HAVE an opinion, but that does not equate in any way to having to respect your dumb opinions.

 

No, you don't undo the trade. You progress on from it. Gaines isn't still here. We moved him for an upgrade. Juwan could be moved.

 

honestly, and i dont care who backs me up or whatever, but we were a much better team before TMAC. stevie never got his respect, but thats neither here nor there. i would rather have mobley and stevie and cato, thats depth, not howard and tmac. sura and howard? thats not depth. thats a kiddie pool. we have 2 bench players worth mentioning in head and swift. the problem with swift is he is a flake. hell try one day and take a day off. we dont need this worthless streetball style of basketball, we need a fundamentally sound, good shooting, hardnosed team to take us somewhere, not some lameduck tmac (even though i like him, hes an injury liability) and some washed up guy from michigan that was a nobody after he was traded away from his buddy cweb. and for pittsnoggle, what is he ever going to do in the nba? there is a nobody. the only reason wv went anywhere is because of gainsey

 

With Miles it's the way he behaves as a basketball player. Cursing out his coach, taunting him by telling him he'll be fired soon. Dressing himself into street clothes at half time because he didn't get in the game. Taking himself out of games and playing with very little effort to try to make a point to his coach. He's a terrible team mate and a huge headache for a coach.

 

Just popping in to make a clarification: Finley was waived under the one-time amnesty clause and as such, his $16M does not count against the Mavs salary cap. KVH's $16M also comes off after this season because his contract is up and he's a free agent. Dampier's contract is actually a good deal when you take into consideration the fact that Cuban paid Shawn Bradley $6.6M for his last contract and Dampier gives them far more than Bradley ever did.

One last point: we should all try to maintain some perspective here. This roster can (and will) be reworked eventually. Just be thankful that at least we aren't in the same mess as the NY Knicks because that would REALLY suck.

 

Well said.