My sentiments exactly. The Rockets are going to be one of the most active teams in the offseason. By trading Rudy Gay and asevering ties with Swift in this trade with Memphis for a great role player in Battier the Rockets are in win-now mode and thats fine. However, the lack of depth on the bench is startling and has to be addressed this offseason. Battier is obviously not the player to put us over the top, but can contribute and do the intangible things needed on the court. Some of the acquisitions that I can see being made are: -PF (starter or backup) -SG (backup) -PG (backup) -C (backup) Thats four players that will need to come off the bench and contribute. I don't see TMac playing huge minutes this year and we'll have to see how Yao's foot will respond to surgery. I haven't looked what all free agents will be available, but I know Jared Jeffries (SF/PF), Reggie Evans (undersized PF) and Chris Wilcox (PF) will all be free agents. I kind of like Melvin Ely (PF) but he'll be restricted. I expect the Rockets to go after one if not all of those guys. Finally, I'm not thrilled with the trade, but I can see what the Rockets are trying to accomplish and I can respect that. What I don't like is that a good coach should be able to reach just about any player and inspire them to play at their best and I simply cannot see JVG inspiring anyone to play. If it is true that JVG didn't want Gay because he is a rookie and refused to play him or take time with him to help him along his way to being a good to great NBA player, then JVG needs to be shown the door. I don't mind a coach having his "favorites" around, but holding on to Juwan Howard and starting him when he should be relegated to the bench is something that wears on me. The same goes for Ryan Bowen, I like the guys hustle but he couldn't knock down a shot to save his life. Despite it all I'm a Rockets' fan through and through and am hoping that some great free agent signings are made that will the Rockets back into contention.
Giving away Stro deprived the Rockets of ANY quality backup they had whatsoever. Oh nevermind, Head's semi-serviceable.
the only depth Swift provided was quickly filled with a steaming pile of shiet that the Rockets have yet to clean up.
swift is more useful than juan. swift is younger (still can change) and more athletic. juan, is old, and not geting any younger. hes decreasing every year, the only good thing is hes a leader. his salary is like 6 million dollar per year. he has 3 years left. and imo hes going to break down after this season. so we waste 6 million dollars. who would u bet your money on?
Ditto. In a 2 to 1 rotation player trade, we lost depth. I thought Swift would make a servicable backup 4 when we signed him. No more than that. But I thought we would get more out of Swift than we did. I mean with Juwan being a marginal NBA 4 at best Swift battled for the PT he got. The Rox even brought in Hayes to challenge Swift for minutes.
That's close to how I feel. I don't necessarily agree with the decision to trade away Rudy, but if mgmt thought he was worth passing up, I can live with that. But I refuse to believe that we couldn't at least get a future first-round pick for Swift. Unless Hayes is all JVG hypes him up to be, we gave up one of our only decent bench players for nothing with a roster very short on depth.
Swift has serious problems, either mental, emotional, chemical, something. Houston gave him a chance to redeem himself from the "NBA Bust" label. He not only didn't do it, most of the time, he looked like he wasn't trying. He deserves the "Bust" label, he has earned it.
if you look at what the Rockets had last year as far as the bench goes, you'll see that Stro was one of our better bench players. THIS DOES NOT MEAN he is one of the better bench players IN THE LEAGUE. All I'm saying is ON THE ROCKETS BENCH LAST SEASON, Stro was one of the few good players. Now he's gone, and who do the Rockets have at the 4 now? Juwan Howard and Chuck Hayes...JVG could probably get away with this in the east, but NOT the West. Stro brought interior defense off the bench last season. I hope the Rockets' FO has an idea of who to bring in at the 4 this offseason. And I hope even more that they don't have a terrible "Plan B" as the draft day.
