i dont understand how the rockets have all these guards, but cant get a legit PF?

I am with Guru and Solid. I have concerns with Snyder and Alston as our starters/primary backcourt, and questions about the subs (Head, VS, JL3, Abuz, Jac).

None of our guards have proven they are efficient and reliable NBA starting players, or even high quality role players.

IMO we really need Snyder, Abuz or VS to be a good quality, dynamic and athletic 2 guard to be a primary contender for the title (along with good health of course). This is the key piece, but Rafer/JL3/Head/VS being efficient the 1 role is not far behind. PF is a distant 3rd concern for me.

 

I am even more shocked that you would want Frahm on this team. What exactly did he do that you liked? Okay so he was better than Brunson, but so what?

Lampe is gone. so hoping he steps it up is not a good thing.

frahm wasnt that bad. he would be a guy off the bench but nothing wrong with that. be was a good passer, shooter, fairly athletic and wasnt horrible on defense. maybe im the only one that saw he did bring some assets. but considering the scramble for guards now and the guess work, we actually saw frahm play NBA games. i think i would take frahm over CJ.

the lampe comment was jokingly (which i thought was obvious), however i was curious if he was even on the roster.

 

IMO we really need Snyder, Abuz or VS to be a good quality, dynamic and athletic 2 guard to be a primary contender for the title (along with good health of course).

yup. i am on the fence with snyder, he has the tools that the rockets need but has been labeled a headcase. But if anyone can work with a player with that label its JVG> Snyder really is the biggest x-factor (imo) for the team. If he can give 25or so min of quality play then the rockets are going to be tough

 

What he said.

Cross your fingers for a healthy Yao.

 

I am with whoever said Kevin Willis. And I'm not kidding. I think Willis might have more juice left than Mutombo.

 

I wish they would sign a real pf like Ely, but I do believe they are signing guards because Sura is most likely not going to make a come back.

 

Because, don't you guys see what JVG is doing? He's gonna shock the world with a Phoenix Suns-style offense next season that'll blow other teams out of their mind!!! Rafer Alston for MVP!

 

I guess Matt Haryasz doesn't count as a legit PF?

 

Kelvin Cato is the only reasonable PF/C that I can think of. He's still young enough to play for a few more years and he's played well alongside Yao in the past. My ninja intuition says, 'go after Cato', but I have less ninja intuition than Haru. And he wasn't even the great white ninja that the books spoke of, though, some say it is so.

 

ive said it b4 and ill say it again the rockets are broke and cheap that combination will not get u anything

 

Cato would be nice for the veterans minimum. He'd provide us with a another big body that played well with the Rockets a couple years back. I dont see why we cant do it either. I mean the Suns got Jumaine Jones for the veterans minimum.

 

you get 2 SG piggyback on each other then you will have a PF which has size and power and good shooting touch

 

Because most guys 6'9" or taller want to either be the guy running the fast break (Magic Johnson, Chris Webber) or a outside shooter (Bird, Lambeer). Problem is that Magic, bird, and lambeer went into the paint and put bodies on people when needed. Something even Dirk learned to do MOST of the playoffs. Face it, The Thorpes and Oakleys of the world are not around because coaches don't play them. I bet there are atleast 4-5 more Ben Wallace's hiding on somebodies bench somewhere that will not get more than a few minutes a game because he is "limited offisively"



Ok that was my Rant for the month

 

FYI, Rockets aren't cheap. Sorry to shatter your illusions. They have never been afraid to spend money and actually being too generous has been problematic (MoT, Cato, Moochie, Bryce Drew, Matt Maloney, etc). The Rockets have dolled out 3 max contracts in the last few years. Rockets paid big bucks for Dream (obviously), Pippen, Barkley and Drexler. As recent as 1-2 seasons ago, the Rockets were flirting against the Luxery Tax threshhold. The Rockets now managed to dump a bunch of bad contracts (yeaaaa!!!!) and currently are ranked in the lower 1/3rd of team salaries but that is RECENT development. We were uppder 1/3rd for probably a decade or more.

Sorry, Rockets aren't cheap.
Make bad contract decisions, yes.
Sometimes get outbid, yes. (like for Derek Fisher ...which was good)
Cheap, no.

We were ready to pay Mike James but lost him on a non-monitary issue. So being cheap wasn't a factor on that one.

Anyway, Rockets don't need a PF. We need guys to hit wide open shots. Once we have some reliable shooters, then and only then, should we focus on upgrading PF.

 

Well we did lose Posey to 4 year MLE (pretty much his value, certainly not a major overpayment for a young servicable starter/excellent 6th man vet player) because we were worried about the lux tax. We tried to save a few dollars with Pike/Griffin to replace Posey and they failed misreably. I think our concern about it (lux tax) still tempers what we do.

Also, the James thing was about money. The trade kicker is about money tacked on the deal if you trade him. It does make trades a little harder to match-up, but the main aspect to it is a tax if you trade. We bungled that one too (James deal would still have been good value/production wise EVEN if you added the full trade kicker amount in the unlikely event you traded him), hopefully the young guys (VS, JL3) play us out of that mistake.

Overall I won't say we are cheap, but nor do we have one of the more free spending front offices and do concern ourselves with lux tax matters.

 

That was definately questionable but not obvious. I think the Rockets were gun shy after the Shandon Anderson fiasco.

I don't blame the Rockets for letting him walk. It was a calculated risk and I don't think that has proved to be an obvious mistake for MLE $$$. Posey's #'s were down to 8.1 and 7.2 ppg the last two seasons. Ideally, you want more production than that from a MLE guy. So in hindsight, that decision still could have gone either way.

As it should. The Rockets made some HORRIBLE decisions that pushed us close to the lux tax. As a result, we were unable to risk offering Posey another questionable contract.

Naw. The trade kicker was an 11th hour thing that poped up and surprised CD. CD said we've never done it before and 15 minutes later he agreed to terms with the Pups. CD was blind sided. Had James brought it up earlier, we probably could have worked that through.

Mike James wasn't about money. It was about stroking Mike Jame's ego.

Nor should we be free spending. What has it gotten Portland or New York? Dallas is the only free spending team with any success and it took them finally realizing that they need to dump some of their big name guys and find solid role players before they turned the corner.

I'd rather have high quality talent scouts and manager than a high payroll.

 

Posey's deal was not in the leagues of Taylor, Cato, Anderson, etc. His isn't even in the ballpark of other swingmen like Simmons, Richardson, and Battier (probably most comparable, SB is a little better spot up shooter and a little less athletic). 4 year 22.6 mil is very low for a decently productive young player on his 1st open market contract, had Memphis made it 6 years/36 mil (which they could have) then maybe one could make a case it was risky/questionable. Further he was our own FA (would not cut into our MLE and ability to sign other FAs), and we were going to be over the cap even letting him go, we lost him plain and simple IMO because of lux tax concerns. I remember pretty well because when the contract was only 4/22.6 I was releaved (could have been much more painfull 6 years, or an under the cap team could have made a higher play--all possibillities going into that free agency period) I was pretty happy as it seemed like we skated ever having to risk matching him to a big bad contract.

Everybody knew Posey could defend, finish the break, and was a good team guy. Yes his half court offense was so-so, that is why he was merely a good role player, rather than a star. 4 year 22.6 mil deals for young vets who will be no worse than excellent 6th men is not a risk. Posey well proved his value as a role player on a team built around superstars and it really should not have surprised anyone, let alone our front office.

Well it is hard to know. I do think we should have been prepared to sign James with a trade kicker, even offering him one in the 1st place. Even tacking on the extra 25% to his contract (that remaining) in the event he was traded he was a relative bargain, he was a super bargain if we kept him. It is possible James still would have gone to Minny had we agreed to a trade kicker, but most reports suggest otherwise, which leads me to think we did bungle it.

But Dallas has always been able to pick up better players than they give up by being free with the lux tax. The Rockets like most teams, are over the cap, and will be thay way. Of course you don't want to take on bad contract, even Dallas doesn't want to--though they are willing if it gains them a more valuable piece in the process. But it would be nice not to worry about the lux tax as a secondary cap. We let an asset go (should have had KT or Posey, both good solid young role players we had rights to) because of lux tax concern (total team salary) morse than a true risk/reward for their individual contracts they were offered (or KT likely would have received if he remained our RFA), and that is worthy for criticizing our front office for.

 

Lol, that is cold!

 

Who is the one?

By my accounts we have no sure fire legit guards. All (except Tmac, who is really a forward and if he is playing guard brings a whole set of other problems) have major question marks and/or weaknesses.

 

you're an idiot, juwan + battier = good enough rebounding for the 4 and 3 spot. juwan is very consistent, more so than reggie evans. hayes is a great back up who provides rebounding and more hustle than any other rocket except for battier. we don't need to overpay for a 4, we have good enough support there already