Lucas for Kleiza would have been a steal. As good as JHo has been got to take the opportunity when stocks are high... No JHo also means Hayes spending less time at C.
is that a joke? I'm no mathematician, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night. Kleiza shoots 40%, as a PF?? And he doesn't shoot threes all that great either, really...not horrible, but 33%...avg.
just want to add even with keeping jho. lucas is deadweight rockets should've gone ahead with that trade and if kleiza produced they'd have more leverage in the draft/free agency.
I understand they have alot of big men (Camby, Hilario, Martin, Evans, and Sampson) But if Kleiza has the talent to be a decent player one day then Denver should be able to get more for him than a John Lucas. That would have been a steal for CD if he would have pulled that off. Not saying he will be an All Star but he could turn into a nice outside shooting big man.
Let me get this: on a team with Allen Iverson, Carmelo and J.R. Smith you want a shot-per-minute point guard? Had this deal gone through, I could really see poor JLIII getting smacked on the head by Iverson for not passing him the ball. The Nugs are a mess...
I took away the JVG told them he din't want Mike James or Eddie Griffin.... Why you guys still have this man love for Mike James is beyond me, he has basically sucked since getting paid by Minny. Or does getting benched for a rookie and the team wanting to trade you a half year after signing you make the player more appealing?
Agree completely. I wonder seriously how much they fought for James. It seems more and more like it was just a passing interest to see if they could get rid of Sura and filler. By Feigen's account, the deal was as good as dead by 12:30 pm, so it's not like they were fighting to the limit for him. But if they were truly concerned about upsetting chemistry, then I'm sure James never seriously was considered unless Minny would take Sura and maybe a pick. I'm pretty sure the Rockets felt giving up anything more than Sura was too much for Mike James. Have fun on the bench, Mike
well, i think if vg signed off on the deal for denver, rox would have gone ahead and done that deal with minny. however, they felt kleiza and james was not as good a fit as jho and head/rafer. jho is a VG guy, good attitude, works hard... this is the question i think
I'd add on to that that Howard's a classy veteran that's not likely to get hard feelings over the prospect of being traded. He understands that it's a business.
why woud james start in front of rafer yall complain about rafer shootin to much what u think and james is going to do rafer is much better
Somebody explain to me why Minnesota would be interested in Juwan Howard. They wanted him to back up Garnett? What?
We know he worked it for Mike James. I'm certain of last night's report that the Timberwolves insisted that teams take Eddie Griffin to get James. That would have pushed the money well past Bob Sura level, requiring the Rockets include someone from their rotation. No deal. from feigen. to match salaries?
We should have took it, JHo staying is fine, but we are short in the PF department. Lucus is okay sometimes, but I don't really think he has a lot to do with the way the Rockets have been playing. Bad move in my opinion. I think Luthur is being trained to be a Pg/Sg anyways.
i wouldn't want to trade juwan at all. he's been playing great for us this year. he can hit that jumper almost all the time and he shoots like 85% from the free throw line. he's a solid player for us.
i want mike james as much as anyone but not at the expense of juwan howard. he's been solid and when yao gets back he's going to be one of the leaders off the bench. now that some things have been revealed i'm glad we didn't go through with it. that said, wtf is mchale doing with minnesota? why on earth would they be interested in juwan and if they have no use for mike james now, and definitely not in the future, why did they hang onto him? i still think jvg has a mancrush on mike james, too bad it didn't get done.
The complaint is Rafer not MAKING. Mike James can make, therefore he'd be better. But its all just speculation now. Mike James will slowly fade away from the Rockets radar this point on (I think)
Here it comes, like clockwork -- the downplay. At some point, you need to find some credibility on this subject because none of us have found it for you. Last week you told us the T-Wolves would be buying out James' contract (LOL). That the Rockets are interested in Mike James is pretty undeniable at this stage. They offered him the full MLE in the offseason and didn't land him because of a trade kicker clause, and just tried to acquire him paying the trade kicker. I'm not sure the SI story is accurate, but if the Rockets considered dealing Juwan Howard, their starting power forward hitting nearly 50% of his shots with Yao out -- to the point where they worked on a backup deal to replace him -- that should tell you that the Rockets definitely see a weakness on this team ... and it's name is Rafer Alston. I would have a hard time dealing Juwan given our run (though it's funny how a few games changes things... most would have given their right nut just to get rid of Howard's contract just 3 months ago), but it's a crying shame they couldn't add James. I would have felt much better against the likes of Dallas and Phoenix with James on the team -- as-is I'd say Dallas will be tough (Yao will be a big boost in this particular matchup) and Phoenix near impossible. We have to hope to completely avoid Phoenix. We'll see, but anything short of an NBA championship this season and I'd put the odds of James being on the Rockets next season at about 75%. If Rafer proves unreliable in the postseason I'd call it a mortal lock.
But would James be the right point guard for this team? Thats the trouble I'm having with everyone seeing James as our savoir. I think on this team, when healthy, we need a PG that moves the ball well into the low post. As much as I cringe when Rafer has the ball, this is the one thing he could do well. And the thing I'm waiting to see (and am glad the Rockets decided to also wait and see) is when Yao comes back, and T-Mac is also in the lineup with him, how many shots Rafer will take. If Rafer takes around 12 shots max, and most of those wide open 3s, then I don't have a problem with Rafer was our PG. But if he continues to drive and blow tear-drops and ****, then I think we need another PG. But as far as Rafer's passing goes, I think thats a positive on this team. We need someone other than T-Mac who can get the ball to Yao b/c sure as hell Luther can't do it and we can't expect Shane to do this on top of hustling for loose balls, and defending the other team's best player.
