I realize that....that's why I've been in favor of trading away Snyder and his potential 3 million dollar salary in 2008, Reed and his 1.5 and possibly Butler's 2 million. Plus, we also have to look at winning now too.....we can wait for tomorrow, but tomorrow may never come.
you're previous post was dead on, I was going to use the kapono analogy myself. I just wanted to add that, not only was luther one of the best 6th men in the league last year after re-tooling his game to adjust to a mediocre offense, but it was only his second year. The calls for "Trade Luther" were almost this bad last year when we thought we were deep enough(bonzi) to make a run and people assumed that his value had peaked. If you guys recall correctly 13 and 8 wasn't terribly impressive at first but Yao has done nothing but improve since day one. Adelman says he looks great in the offense and we as fans have to wonder if Luther steadily improved once again. I use the word steadily loosely because last years shooting was instant. From 40% to 44% FG%, 70% to 79% FT, and 36% to over 44% from downtown. If that is what he was able to do after one off-season, the thought of anyone that doesn't want to hold out for off-season 2 improvements is crazy. Today I was entertained by the notion of trading butler, because Head is VITAL to this season whether he stays, or if he jacks his value high enough for the rockets to accept a deal they can't refuse.
You make a very good point. Luther was in a very predictable and hard to watch offensive scheme last year. Who's to say...he doesn't get better?This year, with Adelman, adding more motion, it's going to be a lot easier for everyone to shoot...especially Luther. It will be a lot harder to key in on Luther because there will be so much movement and we have so many other bona fide scorers to keep an eye on. Luther worked hard on his shot. He was the only guy on the "Luther bus" last year to get there early to work on his 3 point shooting. He has one of the best value contracts among the players at the end of our bench at just 1 million....we're not going to find another shooter as accurate as him (who shoots at as high a volume as he does) without the price being drastically jacked up Kapono style. Also, Luther has gotten alot stronger this year....his arms and shoulders looked absolutely ripped. At some point, we're going to need his barage of 3's to punish guys for packing the paint, trying to deter our cutters and post up guys. I value his 3 point shooting anyway. We have too many generals as it is that need the ball in their hands to create....Luther would be great feeding off our stud scorers. I'd get rid of the guys that haven't shown much up until now, before trading Luther----Lucas (who wants to be traded), Snyder, Reed....and maybe even Butler over getting rid of Luther. He's turned to be better than a 23rd pick.
No doubt in my mind that I want Luther to stay with this team. He's pretty young and still has plenty of time to improve. Alston, James, and Francis are all around 31 so it's nice to have the young developing talent of Luther Head waiting in the wings.
If you trade away a salary, you have to take some back. I doubt a team with cap space is going to take Snyder or Butler as temas with cap space are either cheap or saving it for a big name FA. You might be able to get an expiring contract at trade deadline for one of these guys. Usually the expiring contract player sucks and is being traded for a better player with a longer contract that he isn't worth. Getting an expiring contract wouldn't be bad, imho, but it isn't a win now move. The Rockets will win or lose based on Yao, Mutumbo, Scola, Hayes, Battier, McGrady, Bonzi, James, Francis, Alston, Head, and Brooks. If you can bump one of these guys to inactive list (most likely Brooks), you can get a spot on the team over a guaranteed contract. If not, the move isn't win now as the player is only in practice and it is fiscally responsible to keep the guaranteed contracts to protect the future's active roster. Granted, if another team wants to do something stupid, I have no problem with the Rockets jumping on it.
eh, I like Novak without and real reason..whatever! haha.. but yeah, I see that he pretty much needs to be cut. Sucks, but oh well. I was hoping he could turn into something in this offense, coming off screens and such
T-Mac's back, Stevie's knees, and Bonzi's back, ankles, thighs, groin, chest, teeth, hands all made a visit to Morey and said they think Luther ought to stick around.
Trading away a rotational guy just to make it easier on us to figure out our rotation is ridiculous. Unless we get top 15 talent from the pick, I don't see any reason to trade away Head. He is clearly better than several players picked before him in his draft. Remember he was on the rookie team for two years running, so why would you trade for someone who won't have as much skill. If you trust our front office to select another impact player with a low pick then you are delusional. They can't always be that lucky. I'm happy with Brooks, but he is 2-3 years away from making an impact if at all. I guarantee you if we make that trade then we will regret it next year.
Include Yao, he has still a lot to improve. Who has said that a guard should drive more? According to last season, we really need such style players. But, now, with the addition of SF3, James, wells(he had not played more last season), they are the players who are good at driving. Every style player has his advantage. Sometimes, we need a player find open space to shoot 3. We must copy another Brent Barry from Spurs.
luther will be less productive this year not more. the new offense will take a way from his greatest strength...spot shooting
Luther wil be less productive this year because he'll have a tough time getting into the game with Bonzi/SF/mj/Scola cutting into his time (Scola will put Shane onto the court more at the 3 and, thus, TMac at the 2). Thus, package Head and Rafe for an expiring and a draft pick - Miami?
your basing this off of 2 years playing under JVG? why not just wait. rafers greatest strength besides handling the ball could be spot shooting, since in jvg offense, all you do is wait on the 3 point line. we all have heard how great luther's cutting was. spot shooting may be the greatest, but dont' assume it. how do we know if hes better off the screen? we don't, since we never seen him do it.
in the trade t-mac trade thread i suggested that we trade yao for kobe but i just wanted to take shot at the people who were for the trade.the thing is that i love this rockets team as it is.i don't want to change the team at all,i don't want kobe ,i don't want duncan ,garnett shaq or nash or wadeor whatever.i just feel that we can win with this team.just cut the players that we have to cut.bonzi plays in the post rafer is a good distributor ,francis is a slasher james is a slasher shooter head is a shooter each one of them brings different things on the table.we can definitely win with this group of players.last year i said i believe in the team and this year also i believe .they are part of the rockets and i want to win the title with those guys
I would rather trade James and keep Head. Luther Head was the 4th best 3-point shooter last season. He is young and has a lot of upside. imo he has the highest trade value other than Tmac and Yao, because of his friendly contract. He is worth more than a late first round pick.
Thats a bad trade. The heat will be in the middle with a draft pick and we would be dumping them for practically nothing. Les doesn't mind spending the money so we don't have to worry about the salary cap. We just need to get value back...
Expiring contracts was what I was thinking for a few of those guys....with maybe a second rounder or two.....and we can cut the useless player we get back, if they have an expiring contract to make room for a player that might help the team. We were dumb enough to take on Snyder's contract....hopefully, there's got to be some sucker out there that would take him. Snyder and Reed will not help the team anyway and their contracts need to be shed. Snyder 3 million in 2008...Reed 1.5 right now. Being fiscally responsible doesn't mean we have to sit on their contracts, while cutting a player that might help the team more. We have other options and don't have to be stagnant. We can narrow down to the list of guys that will likely help the team....and then start looking for ways to ship out guys that won't help us anyway.
