Do we blow up the team or wait for MoTaylor and Rice to come back from injury. The only untradeable players are Steve, Cat, and Griffin. MoTaylor averages less boards than Steve and/or Cato at the 4 spot. Rice's lateral movement and jumping ability is shot. I'm concerned with their ability to come back from injuries. Let's shop the picks, #5 and/or #15 along with MoTaylor, Cato, Rice, Kenny Thomas (I would love to keep him) and see what teams offer. Especially the Clippers, Milwaukee (George is killing the team), Indiana, and/or Portland (Rasheed, Bonzi) Other thoughts on what we could receive.
Being that Mo and Rice currently own 2 of the perhaps the 5 or 6 most undesirable contracts in the league...its gonna be tough to move them. Rice is a possibilty being that his contract is up after another year (im pretty sure thats the case) and he could help clear cap room. Mo is coming off the worst injury you can have as a hoops player. Couple that with the fact that he sucks to begin with, and he doesnt exactly have other teams banging down our doors. Believe it or not, but Cato may have the most value of the three but his contract is pretty hefty too. I say hold onto the 5 and 15 and take our chances.
NJ - I don't think we need anymore younger players. Our core of Steve, Cat, Mo, Griffin and Kenny average around 24 or 25 years of age. We need to add some veteran post talent to our team unless we are going through a rebuilding process. I don't think the #5 and #15 pick will get us back in the playoff hunt.
I agree with NJRocket,that is gonna be tough to move them.But perhaps we could trade Cato,KT,Collier (Cap Filler) and #5 to the Clips for Odom,Olowokandi and their #8.Then get Wilcox at #8. New Rotation: C-Olowokandi-Wilcox-Griffin F-Taylor-Griffin-Wilcox F-Odom-Rice-Griffin G-Mobley-Norris-Rice G-Francis-Norris-Brown We would also have Morris,Torres,a secoundround pick and perhaps another one
I have an idea that I posted in another thread. Supposing we get a top 1-2 pick, why not draft Jason Williams, move Steve to SG, and trade Cat and KT for Odom? Sterling loves bargains (he's a stupid, cheap owner, but hey, it's his money), and there's no better bargains out there than Cat and KT. If we pulled that off, we'd still have our #15 pick to obtain a much-needed big man. Steve might object (and loudly), but if we packaged our 2 2nd rounders to move up and get, say, Juan Dixon (a fellow Terp), maybe Steve will cool down long enough to sign that extension. I like Cat, though (and his salary), and would hate to see him leave (a la Othella Harrington). Sacrifices might have to be made in order to improve this team, and both those guys have pretty high value right now. Face it: Trading garbage for superstars isn't realistic at all (unless a team really, really, really wants to dump salary). You have to give up quality (and value) to get quality.
Steve and Cat will not be broken up, like it or not. They are the dynamic duo, again, like it or not. Rudy and CD won't mess with Francis' imminent contract extension. Besides, Cat is probably the biggest advocate of trading for Odom; didn't they attend the University of Rhode Island? The idea would be to get Steve, Cat, and Lamar together. So good-bye draft picks. Sterling might go for it; he's cheap and refuses to pay players their market value.
Rice has 2 years left on his contract. He won't be able to be moved for cap relief until next summer or fall.
Fellas...isnt Cat makign a paltry 4.5 million a year? If so, that is quite a bargain compared to the other guys in the top 15 in scoring
I figure MoT is stuck because of his injury, his contract, and that he isn't the greatest player to hit the floor; so whether we like it or not he stays. Rice may be stuck unless we can find some sucker to take him, it's true we don't need anymore young guys on the team, but Rice definitely is not the answer. Cato......well again if we could find someone to take him, he would be a decent backup if he wasnt making so much freakin money, plus he would be a crybaby if he had to come off the bench so......I don't know what to say about him.......of course this is my opinion and I may be wrong, maybe..
I think it's safe to say that we're stuck with MoT for the foreseeable future - his trade value is not exactly high right now. Would you be happy the Rox traded away anybody decent for a PF coming off a torn ACL (its already been said - its one of the worst injuries for a bball player to recover from) and who averages 5 boards a game? If we traded him what would we get in return? Either a big stiff with a hefty contract, or lots of stiffs with smaller contracts. I think that if only for the sake of chemistry, we should keep him for now.
I'm sure the Rocks would like to unload Rice's contract and gimpy knee, but that won't happen with the money he's making. Taylor isn't going anywhere because of his injury and because, despite many here not liking it, the Rockets really believe he is part of their future. Listen to Rudy, CD and Les when they talk. Taylor is mentioned in the same breath as Francis, Mobley and Griffin. Cato and KT represent our most valuable trade commodities. Moving KT probably wouldn't be hard but Cato could prove tricky given his contract status. Personally, given his renewed semi-effort, I think Cato could be moved in the right package of players. We'll have to see what happens.
Yao Ming . I like the title of this thread and the idea behind it. If you want to get rid of lousy contracts, you have to offer a sweetener. I would do anything like for example #15 and Cato for Bo Outlaw and whatever. Or #15 and Mo Taylor for a sign-and-trade Rashard. Damn, I wish we could get Magloire. Or # 5, Rice and Cato for Glenn Robinson and Ervin Johnson and whatever could make the trade even cap-wise. Just some wild ideas. Or Cato for Croshere.
