You can rest assured he'll be the next Diaw. We either need to tap Colangelo's phone or hire Kyle MacDonald as our new GM because a big red paper clip is about equal to the tradeable assets this team has right now.
There are still options, however the field is narrowing. I'd like to see Fred Jones come in, that would be an excellent signing. I dont think Pacers will give him up easily. Ariza is also interesting, young, and athletic, something the rockets definitely need. Jeffries may be out of the price range. I'd love to add wilcox or Al Harrington to the mix, but i dont think they're available for the MLE. Maybe it's time to pick up a couple of young piece rather than spend it on one player, a combo of Banks, Ariza gives your depth, maybe even Ely. Please sign somebody, counting on old legs (backs) of Sura and Howard really really dont sound.
I basically feel like that's the best thing the Rockets can do right now. Sign some young guys with potential and hope to god they fill our needs, or at the very least, up their value enough that we actually have some tradable commodities again.
the Rockets were too scared to possibly overpay for MJ. now they will almost certainly overpay for worthless scrubs that can't start on any team or they sit with their thumbs up their butt and do nothing. either case being unacceptable.
guys we somehow get involved with the hornets and bulls trade and get JR SmIth and use the MLE to get jared jeffries...that sounds reasonable and not out of proportion to me...get r done today
banks and cato were possible we would be set with no weakness we finally have a good penetrater cato for mutumbo trade our defence will be very imposing detroit needs someone to replace wallace. im fine with hayes and howard we almost beat mavs with spoon/bowen/pagett spurs front court has shrunk they have no center banks is better option than james upcoming player attacks and is speedy strong defence keeps player in front of him compliments rafer cato brings defence we thought stro was going to bring to compliment yao I would even trade mutumbo for him and use trade exp on fred jones our in the paint defence was the best that year when he and yao played together our offence is better this year with battier and novak shooting yao/cato howard/hayes/battier tmac/battier head/battier alston/banks better why more size more speed more depth younger
The entire FA list is just a bunch of scrubs. The only talent is Bonzi Wells, but he is a bad fit for this team and won't come here for our money anyways. So we're picking amongst losers like Banks, Buckner, Cato, Ariza, etc. Great.....
ok Cato and banks would compliment the team well but i think that if we were to get JR SMith we would become a hell of alot better....with Tmac being one of his favorite players nd him looking up to him he would learn a lot about the game and his defense would improve making the team a hell more athletic...who disagrees
use the bulk of the MLE to sign Lorenzen Wright. use the T.E. and a 2008 second rounder to sign Ariza. use the rest of the MLE and the $1.7 exception to sign the merry men of minimum. throw John Lucas into the fire. then pray that Yao and TMac and Battier and Alston stay healthy. still a lousy offseason.
I'd look at splitting the MLE. Rockets need to eye defense & shooting in the backcourt PG: 1)Fred Jones 2)Tony Delk SG: 1)Rasual Butler & Buckner/Ariza 2)Qyntel Woods & Buckner/Ariza
while some may really balk at some of these characters, i think finding the right mix of hustle and heart is what the rockets really need. and i know mike james would've given us that. i've said this before, but stromile taught us all a lesson: it doesn't matter how sexy a lineup looks or how many skills a player has if they don't play smart and play hard. stromile was a disaster and noone can deny that. the question now is: can jvg get these guys to play together and to hustle? really build some team chemistry? will these come here for a paycheck or do any of these guys want to win? that is to be determined... i think banks, salmons, and ariza have some fire and some great potential. let's not forget cato is out there for cheap too. he would do well for us. a jvg fav. the scola guy from the spurs is intruiging. all hope is not lost yet.... (yet!)
What's next? By targetting James we were more or less just going for the best and most feasible player available. We were attemping to sign him with the intention of probably making him our starting shooting guard, which under normal circumstances isn't ideal. Now, that we managed to screw this situation up there is no need to go after PG's like Marcus Banks and all these other jokers. What we have needed all along and unfortunately still do need is a shooting guard. A LEGIT shooting guard. You know, the type that everybody else seems to have that usually are under 35-years of age. They usually are young and pretty athletic and they usually contribute something else offensively besides camping out at the 3-pt line anxiously awaiting their opportunity to fire up a brick that Juwan Howard would undoubtedly be either boxed out or completely out of position to even rebound in the first place. So who's the best out of the "bunch"? Who's garbage are we picking up and depending upon to be our key free agent addition? I think at this point our best option has to be Flip Murray. Certainly not ideal, I know...... 1) Not a high percentage shooter 2) Not exactly known for his defense 3) Needs the ball in his hands to be effective But who are we kidding here, we absolutely and desperately need a 3rd scorer on this team! It's a priority that simply cannot be overlooked. Flip Murray can at least create his own shot and be the reliable 3rd gun we've been so desperately lacking. My "NO" or "GET REAL" List: -Jared Jeffries: I would take him because he's a solid player but he certainly wouldn't be one of my top choices. I just can't help but thinking Battier and Jeffries on the same team would be kind of redundant. -Freddie Jones: Restricted free agent that probably isn't much better than Luther Head at this point. More athletic and physically develped for sure, but I don't consider him a considerable upgrade or starter material. -Marcus Banks: As I previously mentioned, the whole "sacrifice height for talent" arguement only works in the case of Mike James. -Chris Wilcox: Not worth giving up the arm & leg it would require to get a player with similar career averages to Stro Swift. I know I am probably ticking a lot of people off by saying this but you all know damn well his value is up right now, is he really worth what it would require in a S&T to get him? Hell, the Sonics are trying to pry away freaking Shawn Marion for him! -Bonzi Wells: Would be great. Can we afford him? Absolutely not. -Al Harrington: See Bonzi Wells. So where does this leave us? It leaves us picking through the trash hoping to land somebody like Murray, Jumaine Jones or somebody along those lines. I think at this point you have to start to wonder if anybody still available is outright worth your entire MLE. I would probably give it to Flip Murray but other than him, I don't really consider anybody that's actually attainable worth the full MLE. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- As for a good under the radar player that I like: give me Alan Anderson from Charlotte. He's a 6'6" 220 lb GF out of Michigan State that played sparingly for Charlotte this past season. I have NBA league pass, watched it as much as I could and Anderson is a guy that stuck out to me as a player who is much better than the role being given. He has great size, high basketball IQ, 3-pt range and is a tough defender. He barely makes anything and barely played. Now with Charlotte taking Morrison that can't help out his situation and the Bobcats are all about penny pinching so I think a trade exception could get the job done.
There's nothing out there. I don't see Houston wanting to make enough of a splash, or spend the cash to go for a player who fits their ideals like Troy Murphy (who IS available). We have no assets to trade, no money to sign FA's, and would most likely have to give up next seasons first rounder for a team to even consider listening to us. I think the best thing to do is probably just play with what we have, better that than to sign a player we have no intention of keeping, no more gap fillers. Maybe next season a player falls out of favour with his club and becomes available for 50cents on the dollar. You never know.
Right now we will get our butts handed to us by Phx or Dallas because they are too athletic and too efficient offensively. James was the best counter that MLE money could land, time to look at plan b and c. I think we should go hard after Fred Jones (plan b), and hope between Alston, Jones and Head at least one of them shoots like Mike James did last year. We run a much greater risk overpaying for Fred Jones or Marcus Banks (plan c) than we did with James, but they seem like the best targets to me--athletic and strong guys who can cover the perimeter and with a decent probability to be relatively offensively efficient. Buckner or R Butler, DerMarr Johnson, Stevenson and Jumaine Jones are fall backs to me. Someone who absolutely can't hit a 3 (Flip Murray, Ariza, Dupree) has to have everything else (defense, smarts, some spots they are offensively effective) going for them or they are going to be too limited to have much of an impact IMO.
Exactly. I don't think that there's anyone left on the market to blow their wad on (that they can afford...ie Bonzi). Gamble on some potential. Spend the chips that you have left on some affordable commodities and see who pans out. Phoenix has had luck in that aspect, right?
Salmons will be exactly the piece that the Rox needs. According to the East Valley Tribune, Phoenix wants to use its 3.6 million exception plus a second-round draft pick to acquire im from Philadelphia. So we just use the 4.2 exception plus a scond-round draft(even a first-round one) to steal him before Pheonix does so. Then we can split our MLE for Jefferies(3 millions) & VSpan(2.3 millions). If the MLE can only get us one of them, take Jefferies who is capable of playing three positions and is rising as a huge defensive presence in the league. At last, keep the vet minimum or the smaller trade exception for Cato. Hopefully Sura will stay healthy...he will fill in the 2nd pg followed by Head. The lineup next season will be: C: Yao/Cato/Deke PF:Jefferies/Howard/Hayes SF:Battier/Novak/Bowen SG:Tmac/Salmons/VSpan PG:Alston/Sura/Head Look very competitive..humm
