i have no doubt, all things equal money-wise, rashard would LOVE to play at home, but i don't know if that love means taking a significant pay cut. we'll see, stranger things have happened.
Per YugoRocketsfan: "Didnt Rashard Lewis say he would play for the Rockets?" I agree- I think he would play here for money we do not have, but he is not broke down enough for us to get him. When his knees get like Glen Rice, or his game like Rod Srickland we will sign him for a 3 year deal @ 18 mil
ya when they promised him that they were going to draft him. i cant believe that we didnt draft him. it would be incredible if he signed with us. then we need to go after brezec.
This offseason kind of soured me some, esp since I don't think the rox maximized what little assets they had to work with. But if the rockets have a big season this year, they may very well be able to lure a good player with the MLE.
Agree on both. Varejao did a very good job on defending their paint. He grasped lots of rebounds on both ends and also knocked down many jumpers. I am not sure if MLE is enough to get him. Any thoughts?
I don't seen Nocioni going anywhere...he's a key component for the Bulls. Varejao is a serious energy/hustle guy...you can't have too many of those on your squad. That being said, I don't see Cleveland letting him go unless someone throws serious money at him...at which point the Rockets likely would be unable to match.
Ex-President Jimmy Carter? Nick Carter of the Backdoor boys? I don't think either has place in Houston, not playing basketball anyhow.
oh you meant vince carter? silly me. yeah if we can sign him for the MLE - or better yet trade for him by shipping Bowen and Howard to New Jersey mid season it would be totally awesome.
I would love to see wilcox get in. He would make us a contender right away. The others, well i don't think we have enough cap space to sign them.
we won't have cap room, but neither will anyone else. Charlotte and Atlanta will have room, but they always do. Chicago will have room if they don't give extensions to their free agents (which they probably will). That means, unlike this summer, there will be a lot of good players that will have to settle for cheap contracts. I think in that situation we have an edge, because a lot of players want to play with yao and and mcgrady and houston is a popular spot for basketball players to live. Best case scenario, is that we do well this season (everyone stays healthy) so that players who want a championship will want to come here. If we don't do well, we could still lure players by firing JVG and hiring a more popular coach (like the zen master). For these reasons, we should target vets who have already had their payday and just want to win, or guys with ties to houston. That could be... Rashard Lewis Antonio Mcdyess Mike Bibby Antawn Jamison Grant Hill Jerry Stackhouse I'd love to put Billups on this list, but he's underpaid and might be looking for a huge payday late in his career to compensate.
Hopefully, we'll use our TE for something before it expires. But, when we gave away Swift like that, we reduced our options for trading for a major piece. I don't see many FA's who'll actually be available, that we could afford. All we'll have is the MLE. I'd like us to trade our draft choice to another team who'll end up higher in the draft for a serious piece of talent. I don't see players coming here for cheap now, though, partly due to lack of confidence in TMac's back, and VanGundy's wearisome approach to players. If you win big, no one minds that harshness, but if you don't, it's just no fun playing. And, I'm not so sure players are confident that we won't stab them in the back, if they sacrifice salary for us, like Swift did.
I really, really like Gerald Wallace. I may get flamed for this, but here goes anyway. Let's say that McGrady has a decent season next year, putting up around 24ppg. However, he is throwing up ~80% jump shots and only shooting ~40% ala last year. Not horrible, but not efficient at all. We send the Bobcats McGrady and Head for Gerald Wallace and [Raymond Felton or Sean May]. Salary wouldn't be an issue because the Bobcats are way under the cap. Jordan is the GM of the Bobcats now, and I'm sure he would love to have a dynamic scorer like McGrady. This would be a good trade for both sides because McGrady would be the face of the Bobcats until Morrison establishes himself, and we get the pieces to win a championship. Wallace is a beast on the defensive end, and is very efficient on the offensive end because of freakish athleticism and attacking the rim. He is probably good for about 18ppg in the season following the trade. Felton is an up and coming scorer who would easily replace [(McGrady)24ppg - (Wallace)18ppg + Head(12ppg)] = 18ppg. So the way I see it, we get better on the defensive end (Wallace is the shot-blocker we need beside Yao and a lockdown defender) and get about the same scoring as before, but more efficiently. I love TMac, but if he is going to be nothing more than a jump shooter and not abuse the hand check rules, then I think we would be doing injustice to Yao by refusing to make a change. I want a title!
