I posted this in another thread, but the original post in that thread was so negative, I thought I'd start a new one dedicated to what you'd do if you were the GM from this point on. 1) I'd give MJ until the 12th to give me his decision. It's time the Rockets took back control of this negotiation. DONE 2) If MJ doesn't accept our offer by the 12th (& he didn't), I call New Jersey up & inquire about McInnis's availability. Since they have Kidd, Vaughn, & the new kid Marcus Williams, McInnis should be available. I then insure that he's fully recovered from his injury &, if he is, I offer the TE for him. NJ is at the top of the salary cap & should be willing to accept our offer. McInnis fills our need for a veteran PG that can distribute & shoots very well. He's 31 years old, but he'll be going into the last year of his current contract. Problem solved for this year. 3) On the 12th, I complete the Battier trade. Personally, I like the trade. We've got 2 Superstars on this team already. We need to start putting the support pieces around them now. Battier has been a player that I've liked for some time & he brings the kind of role player attributes that this team has needed for a long time. However, I will admit to being disappointed that the previous GM didn't at least get the 24th pick included in the deal. That would've allowed us to address the PF position, or add some depth to another position with players like James Augustine (PF), Leon Powe (PF), P.J. Tucker (SG/SF), Bobby Jones (SF), & Daniel Gibson (PG) still on the board. 4) Next, I'd offer the full MLE to Jared Jeffries. The Wizards are at $56+ million in signed contracts right now. Would they match the offer? I guess we'd find out. That'd take care of our starting PF. 5) Finally, I'd resign Bogans & Frahm for the minimum. I'm torn between signing Bogans, or attempting to trade the $1.7 mill TE & a 2nd round pick to Denver for a S&T of Buckner. Thus, our roster for this next year would look something like this: C: Yao/Mutombo PF: Jeffries/Howard/Hayes/Novak(IL?) SF: T-Mac/Battier/Novak/Bowen(IL?) SG: Battier/Head/Bogans/Sura(IL?)/Frahm(IL) PG: Alston/McInnis/Sura(IL?) Frahm would go on the IL & depending upon whether or not Sura is ready to play, either Sura & one of Novak/Bowen, or both Novak & Bowen would go on the IL. I sure hope Sura comes back strong. Well, that's what I'd do. What would you do?
so we went from trading a player who made the MLE and averaged 9 points a game (and called him a under achiver) to signing another player who averages 6.1 ppg?
You know, the Miami Heat's starting lineup last year averaged 81.0 points per game. If we had this starting lineup: Yao T-Mac Alston Battier Howard Based on their last season averages, that's 80.7- and this is with Yao averaging 22 (which might or should go up). With a bench of Head, Hayes, Bogans, and then throw in maybe Novak, perhaps Banks and/or Jeffries, you're looking at a team that can average 100 points per game. Defensively, who's better? Wade Williams Haslem Walker Shaq We could say that Yao is better than Shaq, Walker and Howard are even, Haslem and McGrady are even, Battier is better than Wade, and Alston-Williams is a draw. If we're modeling ourselves after the champs, shouldn't this work? Only problem we have is that we're in the Western Conference, so it's tougher to have a top seed, and the rule changes give more power to the perimeter players. All I'm saying is that Yao, McGrady, Battier, Howard, and Alston is NOT THAT BAD. I don't buy that 1-2 window thing. I believe our window is more 4-5 years. I think we can make a good playoff run with this team.
trade luther head for salim stoudamire. sign J.R. smith. more shooting, more athleticism, and not to mention, tons of potential. salim would be kept in check by superstars like t-mac anyways. i'm a bit partial to salim ever since i saw him during his senior year at arizona, and was a bit skeptical towards him coming in the first year in the nba, but he showed not only flashes of greatness by scoring 24 points in a 4th quarter against a pretty good hornets team, but showed a consistant positive output for a rookie by averaging nearly 10 points while averaging only 18-20 min. a game. i dont know if this trade would ever work, but i have a feeling salim will be an eventual all star, WATCH!
no reason for hawks to make that trade. luther head is a poor man's salim stoudamire at this point. salim is an excellent shooter and tearing up the summer leagues.
a TE for McInnis trade doen't make McInnis 4.2M a year. the 4.2M TE could be used to trade for any player making 4.2mil. or less. McInnis' making $3.6M so it works.
ya i know it would never happen, but if i were gm, i would make it happen. i have heard that luther has made some strides this offseason as well, but we'll just have to see.
"If I were GM," - Try Unloading to Charlotte The Rockets have no real tradeable and desireable assets except to one team - the Charlotte Bobcats. How could that be? Because the Bobcats are under the league minimum and need 12 million more on their payroll. Charlotte has the young pieces they need and I hypothesize they would 1. avoid signining/taking on long-term overpaid contracts (so over the next few years they can resign their talent freely) 2. take on large contracts for a year or two to meet the league minimum. Unfortunately, even our dump-on-someone contracts look even worse than other team's. There are a lot bloated contracts in the final year or two that are more productive that Juwan Howard. If they could try to convince the Bobcats of his "veteran leadership and tutelage," that would be great... but I seriously doubt it happens. That being said, Sura is a good personality in his final year and retirement looms... which may be the type of contracts Charlotte would consider taking on this year. Don't forget, Charlotte has a glut at PF and Ely is a FA. No he isn't the answer for a championship run but if you can get him for an attractive price, consider it. They also have Brevin Knight (FA) and a lot of young athleticism on their squad. Again, all hypothetical on my part and I don't understand the workings of the TE well enough to understand if somehow it could fit into this equation as well but if there would be any redeemable part of the Rocket's management, I would hope this is some fascimile of Plan B.
1) Sura has 2 more years totaling $7.8M. The Bobcats are never going to give up Ely or anyone for $3.8M/year for a player who will never suit up again. 2) Over the cap teams get a TE when they send out more salary than they take back. Under the cap teams get more cap space. IIRC, CHA now has the same cap as the other teams...$53M. With only $23m committed, they don't need another $3.8M to fill out their roster.
Juwan would be a good trade for them, especially since May & Emeka are going to go down for a stretch, at some point in the season. Their PF backups just weren't up to it when stepping into the starting lineup. The numbers Juwan put up near the end of the season would be what they're looking for. Juwan for Ely Pros: Salary dump Pick up a good promising F/C backup Cons: Jordan was responsible for trading the Wiz's 100 million dollar man. Trade starter for bench player.
no reason for the ROCKETS to make that trade - salim only plays on one end of the court - he's all offense and no defense. during the last year, that's been his overwhelming weakness. not JVG-ready.
salim dropped to the 2nd round in the 2005 draft because of a perceived attitude problem. hawks suspended him last season for acting up. he'll only be in jvg's doghouse.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/15019524.htm Rockets could throw in Juwan (3yrs) and take on Murphy as a favour to Atlanta & GS
Well since Jordan loves Rudy Gay, we could probably trade Gay+Swift for Adam Morrison, oh wait, nevermind
