trade for salim stoudamire. Atlanta after signing speedy claxton officially have too many guards, and salim is lights out from anywhere on the planet!!!
Precisley, Moon. After seeing so many average fours do well lately, I am surprised how much people want to concentrate our resources into one position that in today's NBA almost has to be a jack of all trades sort who can defend multiple positions and hit his jumpers, not someone who can dominate in the paint or requires tons of touches. I think our backcourt situation requires far more attention to get it ready to play. Unless Head is ready to play the one or Sura is healthy enough to contribute, I would much rather see a guy like Damon Jones brought in with the TE. I am not a big fan of his, but the shooting range and experience he brings to the table is very useful. Now if Head, Sura, or both can give us good combo minutes in the backcourt, our next move would be to get another wing who can shoot so McGrady does not have to play the two. I like Korver the most with the TE, but Bonzi Wells would be an interesting option. It would be a sign and trade, though I don't know if we have the assets to get him. The last think Sacramento needs is another slow power forward, so Howard is out of the deal. What else do we have? I really think a solid combo four/five defender like Lorenzen Wright, Tony Battie, or Melvin Ely can be had for the remaining MLE. This may not excite anyone, but he could come in very useful down the road either as a rotational player behind Yao or as a more powerful four against bigger power forwards assuming we trade Howard.
Still would much rather have a scoring enforcer (Otis Thorpe) than a jack it up guard that happens to have one good shooting year will detract from a team concept (most guards,especially mike james). Why don't any of you guys want a pf to compliment Yao for years to come and help him with rebounding and defense? We need to have inside presence for times when Yao needs a breather for D and offense. Watch the draft every year...there's plenty of guards to be had, that's why so many teams are adopting the run and gun mentality. We have a unique and special big man with a better shooting touch than most of the guards you guys are throwing out there. Lets get him some inside help to make it easier to score inside. All these guys have to do is D and hit a three pointer.WHOOPEE DOO. The majority of guards today can't shoot and can't finish. I'd rather give JHo for a JHOx2 for the future of yao's development. I still think Randolph with be good but noone ever told me what they thought about that trade....SO.....is that you Bonzi, Darius, and Damon Jones. You guys really want on the rockets, don't you? Welcome to the bbs.
Ooh ooh. Can I jump on the "trades that won't happen, but they worked in realgm wagon"? It's such a fun game. Philly Gets Szczerbiak Delonte West Head Howard Boston Gets Iverson Houston Gets Al Jefferson Korver Premise: 1) Boston wants Iverson.. 2) Philly needs to get younger athletic guys to rebuild with. 3) The rockets can rape, pillage, and give up nothing while getting future stars. (OK the last one is not so much reality but seems popular enough.) Hey what can I say? I'm new. We get the athletic PF we need (more than a SG). And everyone who has been jocking Korver gets their overpaid one-dimensional white guy... Who we can breed with Ryan Bowen... two get an adequately paid two-dimensional white guy... who will then be immediately hailed as the next Larry Bird.
Not that the trade idea is anywhere near realistic, but there are a few gms bad enough to take that on, and one of them is in Philly.
I understand what you are saying, but I really don't think we need a dominant 4. We need a younger more athletic JHo. We need a guy that can get to the boards, but that has a jumper - not someone that needs to be inside to score. If our 4 needs to be inside that would clog the lane for Yao - bad move. We need spacing to give Yao room to operate and make it harder for teams to double down on him. I know everyone hates JHo, but in 04 when everyone was healthy, before he went down with the knee, we were KILLING teams after the allstar break with JHo at the 4. He created proper spacing with his 15 foot jumper - that is what we need, but preferably we would find a guy that has JHo's range but is a better defender and rebounder - a new school Horace Grant. I would not call HG a dominant 4 though.
You are right, we need a 4 that can defend, board, and hit the jumper. However, I disagree with you on Juwan's effectiveness offensively any more. It should be obvious to all of us that he has no defensive ability, he's as slow as molasses and he can't jump over a piece of paper. But offensively, his jumper comes and goes and the one thing that I DO NOT think he does is give Yao enough space. Juwan takes 85% of his shots from the top of the key area down to the FT line. That is not enough space to get defenders off Yao. The reason he's getting those shots is because his defender is laying in Yao's lap. It's a lower percentage shot, and Juwan is getting less effective with it. What we need is what Battier is going to give us. We need to have a 4 that can hang out at the 3 point line on the wing or in the corner and nail that shot at a 40% clip instead of Juwan firing up a very pedestrian efg of 43%. No wonder his man sags in on Yao so much. In contrast, Shane's efg was right at 50% and he was shooting from downtown. We won't even go into defense. It's pretty plain to me that Shane is going to get a lot of minutes at the 4 this year.
I don't mean to sound as if I think JHo is still effective, I was only trying to point out that 2 years ago after the all star break we were killing teams with JHo at the 4. I am using this example to illustrate we don't need a dominant traditional PF. I would love to see a guy with more range.
You said you want a scoring enforcer, but randolph is hardly that. He is not the enforcer defensive presence that would benefit Yao. Also I dont like that his numbers have gone down in each of the last two years. Plus he is making way too much money. He actually will make a little bit more then Yao and is signed over the next four or five years. Having Yao, Tmac and Randolph would cripple us financially and he just doesnt provide the type of game or numbers that make it worth it.
Obviously the fine art of sarcasm escapes you. Let me take pains to explain that which was obvious to probably 99.2% of the people who read the post. Korver is one dimensional all shot, no d, or anything else for that matter. Ryan Bowen is one dimensional, all d, no shot, or anything else for that matter. Both are overpaid for what they bring to the game (in my opinion). The joke being that maybe if we bred them we would geta two dimensional player who is actually worth the money paid to either one of them. (That is impossible ofcourse. Just another bit of humor. I didn't want to assume that you caught that.) The Larry Bird reference is just a stab at the tendency mostly in the media to label anyone white with any skills as the next Larry Bird. (i.e. Keith Van Horn coming out of Utah, Adam Morrison) None of them ever measure up, but it seems like they are as desperate for the next LB as they are for the next MJ. By the way, I am white in case anyone thinks I'm being racist picking on the white kid. So let me be the first to apologize if my petty attempt at humor went slightly beyond your ability to read and understand. I will try much harder in the future.
Did anyone listen to espn radio this morning? howard being traded for someone young? some dude talked about it on a diff rockets board!?
At least we signed our pick! July 26, 2006, 2:02AM Rockets, second-round pick agree By FRAN BLINEBURY Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle The Rockets have agreed to terms on a two-year contract with second-round pick Steve Novak and will announce his signing today. The 6-9 forward from Marquette University, the No. 32 overall selection in the NBA draft, is a long-range shooter who can stretch defenses with his touch from the perimeter. Novak averaged 16 points and 4.5 rebounds while shooting 42.9 percent from behind the 3-point arc with the Rockets team that went 5-0 in the Las Vegas Summer League. His high game was 22 points (6-for-8 on treys) against Portland.
