Call me crazy, but I think IF Luther Head stays on this team, he will be a better player next year. This is just a crazy hunch I have. He has the athleticism, ability to move around on the court, and make hard cuts to improve and play well in Adelman's system. For sure, I don't think his passing and ball-handling skills are not gonna get any better, but this guy is a natural scorer. It's just that Adelman has tried to mold Luther into a playmaking player, which he isn't. He isn't a bad athlete or a bad shooter or bad at driving hard to the basket. But it's really a stretch that Luther will stay on this team considering his two years of choking in the playoffs, Morey probably feels the obligation to ship him out. But I really think this is a confidence issue. I've never seen a more hesitant player than Luther. If Luther had a little more confidence in his play, he could put up a lot of points on the board.
A substitute for Luther Head can be Jarvis Hayes who can come cheap.He is tall,can shoot,and is a UFA. He can split the MLE with Landry.
Whoever the team trys to bring in must know how to make free throws. This team was fun to watch for the most part of the season but became ugly on the FT lines. If the team can improve on this aspect, it will make the games more fun and yet better results in the standings/playoffs are bound to happen.
Jarvis Hayes isn't a bad player but I really question how much better he would be than just drafting Brandon Rush, CDR, Courtney Lee or another swingman with the same strengths and using the MLE elsewhere.
I would do the same thing as you are suggesting but I mentioned his name as an option if we can't get any of these swingmen in the draft.
Multi-tool players with atheletic ability. Players in: Artest, Dooling, tim thomas, mbenga, ricky davis. Players out: Alston, head, battier, jackson, francis, landry, te, mle, lle. Sounds like a lot of change, but we need to maximize and really put a quality cast around yao and tracy. Let me break it down. Battier,head,and 1st rd pick for Artest. Like what artest brings to this team offensively and defensively. Tough as nails, can score and creat for others. A 4yr 40m on a sign and trade will do it. Battier is a good player, but we paid too much for glue. Head is a 1 dimensional mistake. Jackson for dooling s&t at 3.5m per for 3yrs. Dooling is a 6'3 atheletic slashing pg. Finishes well, good ft shooter. Has played with 2 centers in shaq and howard. With the s&t, the rox get 2.5m te. Ricky Davis for 3.5m of mle. Once again another slashing 6'7 wingman. In 30mins will get 10-12ppg, a couple of boards and assist. 28 yrs old and shot 40% from 3pt land and 77 ft line. Mihm for the 2.5m te. Mbenga for 1.2 lle. Yao backups. Mihm can still play when healthy, mbenga is a 7 ft er for added insurance. This is the big that no one will like. Alston and landry signed@ 3yrs 9m for tim thomas and 2nd. Hear me on this one. Brand may opt out and livingston is coming off major injury. To me, scola and landry are too much alike. Opposing teams defend them the same. Enter Tim Thomas, a 6'10 guy with small forward skills. He's a proven playoff performer, can shoot from 3, run the floor and put the ball on the floor when teams run at him. His contract is up the same yr as mcgrady's deal. He can play 20 mins behind scola and force guys like boozer, gasol, oberto, and amare out to 3pt range. I didn't want to give up landry, but thomas give this team way too many options. Now let me look at the new rox. Brooks/Dooling/Francis Tracy/Davis/harris Artest/Davis/Novak Scola/Thomas/Hays Yao/Mihm/Mbenga I have Brooks and Scola playing 28mins per with Dooling and Thomas playing 20mins. I have Artest and Tracy playing 33mins per with Davis getting the other 30mins. I have Yao playing 30mins with Mihm getting 18mins. Hayes and novak are situational players, harris might be inactive. Francis is done until further notice.
I remain of the opinion that the TMac/Yao experiment has failed so far as advancing in the playoffs is concerned. In the regular season they perform quite famously until they are injured, which has become as predictable as a sunrise. The Rockets then play their hearts out, squeeze into the playoffs, and get ceremonially exited with a tad of drama. If this is what you want, then sign up for more. Frankly, I think the owner is fine with this. Virtually all the personnel moves this team has made in the last thirteen years scream that this is the organizations basic plan. Oh sure, they are on board for going further, they just don't plan on it, or spend for it, or commit to it. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time. Unless, you are a professional sport franchise where it is relatively easy to fool most of the fans most of the time. The only other explanation is that Les is just stupid, and believes that two fragile and relatively unaggressive "superstars" surrounded with inexpensive, undersized, unathletic, and marginally talented players who don't match up with any of the elite teams in the West is the formula for winning it all.
29 teams leave the season exactly this way every year. Shoot, 14 of them don't even make the playoffs. So it isn't like you are alone in feeling that way. To say that they aren't trying to win a championship is sort of silly though. The Memphis and Seattle organizations aren't trying to win a championship... the Rockets, and pretty much everyone else in the League is trying. Sometimes you have to cut your losses, yes. But unless you think you could do a better job than they have (which I seriously doubt) then you are disrespecting a group that puts together a really exciting team to cheer for together every year, one that - when healthy - is definitely a championship contender. The foundation is there, but with the cap and other restrictions you don't have the ability to just go out and buy all the great players that you want. They have worked within the system to find great people and players that will their way to wins. That should be commended not condemned. I think the disappointment of not making it out of the first round has you down, but don't doubt that this team is doing its best to create a team that will compete with everyone. Believe me, live in Cincinnati and root for the Bengals or Reds, then really see what a organization that isn't trying to build a team to win it all, but merely compete to win a few games is like.
I like it, but I would need the clippers 1st round pick (top 10 protected or something) and Tim Thomas for Landry and Skip. Otherwise, I do believe this team needs a shake-up like this... And when T-Mac comes off the books in 2 years, we will be major, major players to land a new all-star to help Yao out down the stretch.
Players in: Artest, TJ Ford, JR Smith, Mihm Players out: Jackson, Head, Francis, Battier, Hayes, Novac, Fist round pick. First person to figure out how this works gets a brownie button!
Your CRAZY!!!! Our needs this off-season are individuals who attack the basket (High FG%) and get to the free throw line. Also a back to Yao Ming.. The best one I see would be Disognia Diop ( I think he is an unrestricted free agent ).. Artest,J Johnson is a pipe dream... But boy can I dream..
Have yall heard what Calderon has been saying?? He will take less money to go with a team where he can start and be a contributor toward a championship. Think we could convince him to play here. That would make Rafer a back up... which is good right?
You're not crazy. He'll be better. But it won't be good enough. Luther is a case of a player with one decent skill but he's a mismatch at every position against. He has none of either size or quickness. He can't defend point guards, which is really where he should be playing opposite TMac. He can't defend swingmen. They take him into the post and kill him or square up and shoot right over him. He just doesn't fit on this team in the economy of the Western Conference except for spot minutes to matchup against Nelly ball and such stuff like that. And he's easily replacable. There will be a couple short 1/2 guards in the draft available in the 2nd round who can shoot it.....and frankly....they can probably shoot it better than Luther. He's a replacable part. I'd bet Milwaukee would be happy to send us Charlie Bell tomorrow in exchange for Luther Head straight up. Bell is taller, doesn't want to be in Milwaukee, and Bell is a better shooter, even though he did screw off last season. Luther Head is REPLACABLE. That kid from Kansas who will likely go in the 2nd round could replace Head. Cleveland has Daniel Gibson, another undersized shooting point guard, second round draft choice, minimal money, come in bang the 3, that's all he does. Those guys come around every year. They're all over the D-league, undersized shooting guards. Luther is replacable. Sure, he'll be better. He'll be a better shooter. But he won't be a better defender. He WILL NEVER be able to guards shooting guards because he is TOO SMALL. And he WILL NEVER be able to guard point guards because he is NOT QUICK ENOUGH. Those factors CANNOT BE IMPROVED UPON.
