Good post! Next year JVG will insist we trade Mike James back to the Raptors and he'll be begging Stro to come back to Houston. He's the king of mixed messages and I doubt he even understands himself most of the time.
There is a strong possibility that the CRAZY ROCKETS MANAGEMENT are thinking along that same line. If this is their plan I can see it changing as Battier is just not really able to play that role with much success.
If Dallas doesn't think that Daniels is good enough for them why should we consider him good enough for us?
Are you sure? Antwan Walker, Boris Diaw, Udanis Haslem, Shawn Marion are all examples of Players that spend a great deal of time at power forward and all seem to have a great deal of success there. Battier is about the same size as those guys and has the same tools and more in some cases. The only player on that list that I think is as good or better is Marion. So why can't Battier play the 4 spot? For that matter McGrady could play some at the 4 as well. McGrady shut down dirk in the play offs last year. Maybe the plan is to have two forwards with neither being designated as power forward or small forward.
I think Dallas likes Daniels but does his role on that team justify his cost? Especially with Terry getting ready for a big pay raise and Mo Auger coming in. BTW dallas really seams to like Auger and think they have another Josh Howard type steal at the end of the 1st round. I think Dallas wants to keep Terry, Stack, Howard, Harris and Auger with an addition of another point guard. The talk is moving Terry to shooting guard with Harris and someone else to play point guard which is why Dallas has shown interest in Mike James. Daniels has good all around offensive skills but is not what they want at the Point. Speedy Claxton has also been mentioned as a possible addition to the team so Terry could move full time to the shooting guard spot.
I hope we can get MJ back, this team needs scoring! I hope this team can get some nice pieces before the seasons starts. Hopefully Novak can develop quickly, this should relieve Yao inside. This kid looks like he has a nice stroke from the outside.
crash, you're point is well-taken, except for one thing: none of those guys plays in the Southwest Division. The Rockets are routinely going up against the league's biggest power forwards: Tim Duncan - 7'0" Dirk Nowitzki - 7'0" Pau Gasol - 7'1" Now, I know that most Western Conference teams play SA, Dallas and Memphis as often as we do, but the players you mentioned above are different in that: Marion - he's a freak of nature and is the exception to just about every rule categorizing a player. Walker - he'd get eaten alive playing PF full time in the West. Just ask Dallas. Haslem - he's a bigger, stronger player than the others. While not extremely tall, he is very strong. Diaw - he's an enigma. It would be interesting to see whether he could play PF on any other team in the league besides Phoenix. That being said, I like the idea of Battier playing the PF spot for STRETCHES during games, such as when the Rockets want to go small. A lineup of Rafer, James, T-Mac, Battier and Chuck Hayes could really get up and down the floor. Yes, I said Chuck Hayes. He'd complement a "very small" lineup well with his rebounding and ability to run the floor. Let Yao rest during that time so that the Rockets can go back to the half-court game when he returns.
I'd love to have Mike James. But my ideal world has him coming off the bench too. Not because Rafer is better than him, but because that is where we need him. Though the possible solutions are: A starting lineup of - Rafer / McGrady / Battier / Howard / Ming. There is plenty of offense there and Rafer is the right guy to distribute the ball - he does that part better than James. McGrady, Battier and Howard should spread the floor enough to give Ming room to work. However, when McGrady and/or Ming go out (please don't do it together so often like last year), and Deke and Head/Bogans/Bowen comes in, the offense drops off to a point that distributing to them (except maybe Head) is pointless. We need to bring in a shooter - in comes James with a green light. You could start James / McGrady / Battier / Howard / Ming. Plenty of offense there, but would James give it up to McGrady and Ming as often as he should? Howard would completely disappear. And I'm afraid that Battier would turn into a garbage man - picking up the scraps. You could move James to the 2 and start Rafer / James / McGrady / Battier / Ming. That leaves the bench as Howard, Deke, Head, etc. No offense at all and I think we lose leads faster than we drop 1st round picks once that crew comes in. Of course, they don't all come in at once, but I still think that Rafer would have a hard time keeping 3 offensive weapons happy and Battier would turn into a D only guy and I don't want to see that. Edit: You could start Rafer / James / McGrady / Howard / Ming. Same as above but Battier and Head would bring some offense off the bench. Kind of an expensive price to pay for a backup though. Either way we need some shooters in the backcourt bad. And if we do sign James (along with our Battier and Novak pickups), outside offense should not be a problem like it was last year.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FIXwkkZyi9k&search=mike james Remember this gem? If anyone can watch this and tell me they aren't scared about having Mike James on this team then I would be impressed. I think we need him, and hope we get him. But hearing that little rant scares me when we have Tmac and Yao on our team and MJ will still be lookin to "jack" up shots.
Dirk is a face the basket player not a back to the basket player. TMac could guard him and has done so with great success. No one guards Duncan worth a crap. SA is one of the teams that we just might have to rotate guys on Duncan similar to what Dallas did last year. Gasol is good but he does not have near the strength that Duncan has. IMO Battier could guard him.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2283987 I had also forgotten about this incident. Hope there wont be chemistry issues. Or hope Juwan is gone.
I just thought of something... could it be that we actually saved money by trading him away last year, while also picking up Alston? If we had held on to James last year, and then tried to re-sign him this offseason, we would be able to give him more than the MLE since you are allowed to sign your own players to any contract even if you are over the cap. James could've went out and got a couple of bids from teams under the cap, even if he knew he wanted to stay in Houston, and the Rockets would've been forced to pay more to match if they wanted to keep him. As it is now, James knows that all we can offer is the MLE so he can't force us to pay more. This could work out beautifully. As far as James' attitude, I don't mind it on this team...frankly, we need a couple of guys with fire. James and Battier both bring that (James more-so vocally while Battier does it with his play). That is an area we were definitely missing last year.
With James and another decent pf, we have a pretty good 7 men rotation. Given everyone is healthy of course.
No your Rockets management isn't that smart. 1. James couldn't possibly command more money had he played for Houston in stead of Toronta, where he basically had the offensive greenlight. 2. You don't risk losing the player you really want for the HOPE of saving a couple millions. The Rockets are reactionary and revisionary, it's that simple.
I wonder how long it is until fans are screaming to trade him away again. At least with him here, the Rafer vs. James debate will finally be solved once and for all. We'll see first hand which is best for the team.
Exactly! While James is a good player, he is not a good fit for this team when Yao is one of our two go-to guys. Yao needs teammates to set him up. We need a pass-first PG. And James is too small to play SG. On the other hand, James would be a good fit for the Mavs because their main guy Nowitzki can take the ball from outside himself. I don't want to see Yao get less touches once James comes back.
Because he is too expensive when they have many other good players who can play the position. Apparently they liked him a lot when they offered him the big contract. But he was then out for a long time due to injury. After they brought in Terry, Stack (plus A. Griffin) and drafted Harris and with Howard becoming better, their back court became too crowded and Daniels has a big and longest contract among them and certainly is not the best, so of course they now want to move him. But that doesn't mean they think he is bad.
The way I see it, if we sign james we still need another guard, preferably someone with height. We could use another power forward too, but with battier and novak it would have to be more of a banger than a 3pt light weight (no thomas or padgett). judging from the chronicle, I think this is what JVG is thinking: Alston/James James/Head McGrady/Battier Howard/battier/hayes/Novak Yao/mutumbo Battier might be in front of howard, its hard to tell. Could depend from game to game. That is a tiny backcourt. mcgrady could play some 2 but he doesn´t play that well there, battier really is not quick enough to guard 2´s. I think we should sign James for the full MLE and see if we can use our trade exception for someone like jared Jeffries. The guy is 6´11 and can play four positions. Anothe possibility I see is trading Head. He´s a good player but he´s still short and houston is looking to win now and not later. I´m not sure I would agree with it, but I could see Houston make a trade that involved head and a pick for a taller sg, and mortage our future even more.
lol..."you miss 100% of the shots you don't take" -Mike James classic Yeah he scares me, but that's what I like about him...that's what makes him so unique.
