This offseason is going to be one of the biggest offseason for the Rockets in years. From the stand point that they have to fiquire out what direction they want to take this team. Honestly speaking this team does not really have an identity and with that being said I believe RA knows that just as well. If the Rockets decided to keep Tracy then I'm fine with that but we need some more pieces around Yao. Would be really nice to get a guy like Ron Artest who to me has a well rounded game spite the fact that he shoots too damn much.
i agree we should look to trade tmac if we can get a very good PG and SF/SG back in return. but i don't think we should be completely around yao. he hasn't proved he can be the top dog (and he wasn't very dominant in the playoffs last yr as the first yr with superstar riding on his shoulders). and he's also injury-proned. what i see is stick with these 2 guys ONE MORE YEAR next yr and see if they can prove they can stay healthy (b/c it appears we are championship caliber now with the supporting cast). if not, look to trade BOTH. trade tmac for 2 very good players, esp. for a PG trade yao for 2-3 very good players, or more importantly a VERY VERY high draft pick (top 3). then we're back to being a young, athletic team with tons of potential, and potentially drafting a franchise player
I've always thought it best to talk about trading away your best player when your team is winning over 90% of it's games and playing for 1st place in it's division. in all honesty of honestness, pmac and dadakota rule.
Truth is, until both Yao and TMac show they can stay healthy for 82 games no one is going to give you valuable durable players for them, maybe for Yao because of his marketeable image, but for sure not for T-Mac. I would say trading Yao+Battier+Scola for a good PG and a good Inside player would be the best the rockets can do now. Why, keep T-Mac as a Third and occasional first offensive option to keep him healthy and playing at SF (HIS POSITION). Scola and Battier are the only players that seem tradeable and can get us a good player without them being so popular.
I really don't think T-Mac's the most important piece of the Rockets' game. That said, chemistry is a hard thing to come by, and it's even harder to predict. If Kobe were a Rocket instead of T-Mac would the locker room still have a good vibe? I'd be cautious about trading away major pieces of a team which has shown that its biggest asset is its chemistry.
LOL - I will talk about anything Rockets related, no matter what the team is doing and to me it is all about winning that championship, if trading the best player gets the team closer, than so be it. My issue with Tmac is how much longer can he play at an all star level? Is it one year, or 5? And at what point do you trade him to somewhere like Chicago for a lot of good players that compliment our one lead player Yao? I don't know, I am really on the fence about it, but if there is a trade out there that gets the team better, I would seriously look at it. As a general rule teams that trade the best player usually end up worse off.....but I guess that depends on when in that players career he was traded. DD
well if they're both injured again NEXT YEAR, what do you want the team to do? yao would be injured for 3 STRAIGHT YEARS tmac would be injured for 4 STRAIGHT YEARS you still want to build around one of those 2? morey is different, he'll do something radical and IMPROVE the team.
I was not saying we have to, i was just saying that if the rockets are on a trade away move, i think the best chance to rebuild is that direction.
One more thing with Yao's injury: correct me if I'm wrong but his last two big absences were a broken leg on court when somebody rolled into him and an infected toe due to improper grooming of an ingrown toenail. Those are the equivalent of somebody slamming a car door on your leg. This is the first year he's shad a major stress related injury. I think it's a bit too early to be drawing any conclusions now about Yao's susceptibility to injury.
Don't think about next year. Now we have a lot of think to think about. We are great team in the west but we don't have Yao. Can we pass the 1st round of the playoffs?
guys as tall as yao will always be susceptible to injuries as they get older. it's not a coincidence he was able to play basically the entire season his first few yrs, and unable to do so his last few. the stress fracture is a really scary sign b/c that's basically an injury due to wear and tear.
Your issue is the winning streak spoiled you. You don't know how to recover. But you better hurry cause the playoffs are about to start and theres a hell of shot that this team will have homecourt through out with Tmac leading the charge.
You are right. We don't have to UNTIL AFTER we win the championship this year. Then we can trade because it's fun....trading!
there's a reason tmac can shoot poorly and coaches (JVG or adelman) will still play him a lot of minutes. he's the only rocket that can do that. tmac's impact goes beyond his shooting (which can always be improved). though his #s are down, he's still the most impactful player on this team. it's not a coincidence our record is 8-7 without him, 40-16 with him. that trend has been the case in all the years he has been here, regardless of the coaching, role players... changes.
I think there comes a time in a bball star player's career when his skill level and play exceed his value to other teams because of age or injury. I think, even though tracy's still young, his play has exceeded the value that other teams put on him. I think people look at him more on the lower level of star players now. I just don't see him getting traded. I think if you trade him you have to get a great playmaker back because Yao isn't that type of player, he's more of a play finisher. Tracy's biggest asset to this team is his ability to set guys up more than it is to shoot the ball.
