Which Free Agents will the Rockets pursue, if any?

I don't think people realise how valuable Walt really is. He maybe inconsistant at times and have little to no D, but if we could sign him anywhere near the minimum he would be a steal.

 

True, true.

 

It would seem to me that a player of Walt's marginal contributions belongs on a playoff team. I can't really justify keeping him around while he eats up minutes that could go to players who might have a future.

Is his lockerroom presence really that profound?

 

According to RealGM, the cap this last year was 42.5 mil, and we stand at $49,238,169. With increases of salaries and with Walt, Willis, Langhi, Brown and Torres coming off the payroll (a little over 9 mil), we will be at $44,309,810, still over the cap.

If we had made a trade before the deadline for an expiring contract, then we could have gone after Lewis, but getting under the cap to sign Lewis without a sign & trade is no longer an option.

We won't be able to go after any major free agents based on our cap. According to RealGM, we don't have any exceptions this next year.

It looks like we will have to use our picks and/or trading players to get someone else this summer.

 

How many signings of major talent are done without a sign-and-trade anyway?

 

Sherlock-we will be able to use our MCE next year. We lost it until this coming offseason when we went under the cap.

And, since we will be well under the luxury tax, we can make full use of our MCE. Teams at the tax seem very cautious about using their exceptions and going over.

It'll be interesting to see the market for Lewis. Probably his would-be biggest suitor, Chicago, just took their name out by acquiring Jalen Rose. The only other teams with serious capspace will be Washington and Detroit, and neither will have enough to support a max contract. Not only that, but Washington has Nesby, Hamilton, Alexander, Davis, and some guy named Jordan already sharing time at the wings, while Detroit has Stackhouse holding down the SG, and just used their lotto pick on Rodney White, whom they expect to become a SF, as well as recently giving Corliss Williamson a longterm deal. Of course there's the Clippers, but with Maggette, Odom, Miles, Richardson, and Piatkowski, they definitely won't be acquiring any swingmen, not to forget Sterling.

Seattle will be able to keep Lewis if they want him, by offering him a max contract. But, with Radmanovic coming on, with Mason and Barry getting some time too, do they really want to pay him? Assuming we don't/can't get a top-notch SF via draft/trade, we'll probably offer Lewis full MCE, which will be around 6 yrs, 40 mill. Lewis is young enough to get another long term deal in 6 years. If Houston's offer is even relatively close (what's 10 mill over 6 years?), I think we'd have a nice shot at getting him.

 

erm, are Wang and Bateer FA's?

how about sign torres, Wang, Bateer and draft Yao Ming...

might as well get the great wall of china to go along with our new stadium...

 

I was flipping around on the tv last night. As I went by nba.com I heard some guy on the phone say something like "I don't see the Sconics keeping Lewis, the kid really wants to go back home". I looked down at who the speaker was and it was a press person from Seattle. Of course the interview stopped right there.

 

Tree Rollins needs to be signed at whatever cost. He can reclaim the role of player/coach. He can teach his awesome array of polished low post moves to Cato. It's win win.

 

Lee Nailon, Rodney Rogers, Devean George, Jelani McCoy, Medvedenko, Stepania, Michael Redd, Loren Woods, Boumtje-Boumtje, Jerome James, & Popeye Jones are some of the unrestricted FA's that will be available. Although, some will be resigned by their own clubs.

Another possibility are restricted FA's like Keon Clark, Roshown McCleod, Doleac, Skinner, etc, if their respective clubs don't want to offer them the full MCE.

I'd love to get Rashard, but I wouldn't hold my breath on him accepting just the MCE or Seattle just letting him walk. Maybe a sign & trade could be worked out. But, since it was reported that the Rockets showed some interest in acquiring Odom, I wonder if they'll pursue that option more vigorously instead, this off season.

Here's the link to the available free agents this year.

http://www.realgm.com/src_freeagents.php?year=2002

According to RealGM's team salary cap projections for this off season, only Chicago(~$12 mill), Detroit(~$8.8 mill), the Clippers(~$21.8 mill), San Antonio (just barely)(~$5.06 mill), Utah(~$6.4 mill), & Washington(~$9.8 mill) will have more than the $5 million MCE in available cap space. I'm assuming that the MCE will be $5 million & that the cap will rise by 10% to ~$46.75 million. However, I've heard that the projections might not be that high, so that would further reduce the cap space available for free agents. Here's the link to the projected team caps for 02/03.

http://www.realgm.com/src_teamcap2.php

I wouldn't be surprised to see Washington make a run at Rashard. He's a definite upgrade to what they currently have at SF & they've got some players they could give up in a sign & trade with Seattle.

If Robinson continues to be injured, I could also see Chicago going after him. They could plug Rose in at the SG spot & put Rashard at the SF position, which could give them a starting lineup of:

C: Curry(6'11")
PF: Fizer(6'9")/Chandler(7'1")
SF: Rashard(6'10")
SG: Rose(6'8")
PG: Crawford(6'5") or Jason Williams if they get lucky in the draft.

Given some time together, that could be a very potent starting 5, with some size mismatches.

 

Here is full list of Free Agents

No Restriction

Zhizhi Wang
Jeff McInnis
Eric Piatkowski
Kendall Gill
Mark Blount
Walter McCarty
Hanno Mottola
Jacque Vaughn
Eric Strickland
Lee Nailon
Eldridge Recasner
AJ Guyton
Charles Oakley
Kevin Ollie
Trajan Langdon
Greg Buckner
Darrick Martin
Eduardo Najera
Ruben Wolkowyski
Calbert Cheaney
Zendon Hamilton
Voshon Lenard
Isaiah Rider
Kenny Satterfield
Shawnelle Scott
Scott Williams
Victor Alexander
Dana Barros
Damon Jones
Ratko Varda
Mookie Blaylock
Dean Oliver
Cedric Henderson
Tierre Brown
Dan Langhi
Oscar Torres
Walt Williams
Kevin Willis
Travis Best
Norm Richardson
Carlos Rogers
Bruno Sundov
Obinna Ekezie
Joe Crispin
Devean George
Jelani McCoy
Stanislav Medvedenko
Mike Penberthy
Mitch Richmond
Brian Shaw
Isaac Austin
Antonis Fotsis
Grant Long
Willie Solomon
Malik Allen
Tang Hamilton
Eddie House
Sam Mack
Sean Marks
Vladimir Stepania
Rod Strickland
Rafer Alston
Greg Foster
Darvin Ham
Mark Pope
Michael Redd
Rick Brunson
Mitchell Butler
Chris Dudley
Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje
Jabari Smith
Malik Rose
Terry Porter
Antonio Harvey
Jerome James
Art Long
Olumide Oyediji
Earl Watson
Dell Curry
Chris Childs
Carlos Arroyo
Jarron Collins
John Crotty
Quincy Lewis
Scott Padgett
Bryon Russell
John Starks
Tyrone Nesby
Popeye Jones
Bobby Simmons
Cal Bowdler
Dean Garret
Sam Mitchell
Gary Trent
Loren Woods
Derrick Dial
Reggie Slater
Lavor Postell
Larry Robinson
Felton Spencer
Troy Hudson
Monty Williams
Raja Bell
Corie Blount
Ira Bowman
Tim James
Charlie Bell
Dan Majerle
Vinny Del Negro
Rodney Rogers
Daniel Santiago
John Wallace

Team Option:

Bonzi Wells
Brian Scalabrine
Pat Garrity
Matt Harpring
Damone Brown
Vonteego Cummings
Alvin Jones
Alton Ford
Jake Voskuhl
Robert Traylor
Greg Anthony
Milt Palacio
Roshown McLeod
Ricky Davis
Michael Doleac
Jeff Trepagnier
Brian Skinner
Ryan Bowen
Raef LaFrentz
Larry Hughes
Gilbert Arenas
Zeljko Rebraca
Jamison Brewer
Ernest Brown
Michael Olowokandi
William Avery
Maurice Evans
Radoslav Nesterovic
Charles Smith
Donyell Marshall
Mike Bibby
Keon Clark

Player Option:

Rasheed Wallace
Rashard Lewis
Emanual Davis
Mikki Moore
Othella Harrington
Felipe Lopez
Samaki Walker
Bruce Bowen
Stephen Jackson
Cherokee Parks


And there you go....

 

Sorry, my earlier reply mustn't have worked... but here's wat I tried to post

Walt can spark an attack at the offensive end at any time, not all the time, and not always reliable, but he can spark this team as we've seen before. What I don't understand is that how Walt can't belong on a play-off team... where did Chris Jent belong on our play-off team in 94?

 

I'm no apologist for Chris Jent, but he was a young guy with potential. Walt is on his next-to-last or last contract.

Walt's occasional outbursts of offensive brilliance which pick up 3 wins per season would be meaningful on a team battling for home-court advantage in the playoffs-- whether first-round only or throught the playoffs.

For someone like the Rockets, it is the difference between 28 wins and 31 wins and it just doesn't matter.

We should be developing our players of the future it seems to me.

 

How about Michael Redd?

 

The point is, we shouldn't need him to take over the game. All we need him for is a 3 point threat off the bench. A role player. Role players are not supposed to score 20+ points, they are there to do what they do best. In Walt's case, hit 3's and score. What more do you want? Should we sign Rashard Lewis to play second string SF to do our three point shooting? Why do you think Matt Bullard was here all that time for? Walt, to me, would be a great bench player for us. Believe it or not, there is alot of interest for him in the league. If we could get him at the minimum, we have a good pickup.

 

This was one of two names on the list that stood out to me. The other was Othella Harrington.

We need the frontcourt help at I would love to have O back. He liked it here in Houston, I think, so we might have a legit shot at him. And he is young enough that he fits with this team. Nice replacement for Willis or Collier on the roster as a backup center.

Can Redd play SF? I am guessing he is strictly a shooting guard and that Milwaukee doesn't have a whole lot of use for him. That said, neither do we with Mobley around. If we had to deal Mobley, I would love for us to give Redd a shot. But I don't see that happening and I think Redd needs playing time, not what he would get coming off the bench for us. Although I would much rather see a 3 guard lineup of Francise, Redd, Mobley than anything involving Moochie. If Redd is big enough to play SF, then I would love to see us sign him. I saw this guy play a lot of ball at Ohio State and he is a scorer pure and simple, but he is also a good kid.

Other than those two, I really saw very little that interested me at all on the FA list.

 

your missing the larger picture..

in a few years we can sign and trade for duncan...

then using our mce we can get odom..

then mo and cat and odom can smoke dubbies together and on abc holding up trophy say "puff ,puff,pass"

also,i hear lakers are putting kenny in the same breath as kobe,with kobes fights,i see a kenny + odom trade for kobe in two years...

 

I took a closer look at the list. There were a few other guys that intrigued me.

Mookie Blaylock - much better PG backup than Moochie
Kenny Satterfield - raw but talented, Moochie prolly far better option
Jelani McCoy - might be a decent backup C
Loren Woods - backup center possibility
Rasheed Wallace - out of our league
Rashard Lewis - talked to death
Samaki Walker - like him, but why would he leave LA?

I am ignoring any of the team option guys because any of them that are worth anything will not be available (although candi would work here in a backup role if cheap)

Also, Redd is 6-6, so he could be a small forward but would be better served as a 6th man off the bench at SG and SF. And he can shoot the three, which is what everyone seems to think a Rudy T SF must do.