Ten reasons why rebuilding won't be as awful as it sounds.

I don't understand why we have to rebuild just because Yao is gone. We have been playing the past 3 years without him anyways. He missed 86 games in the past three years. Yao isn't the centerpiece of our success. We have proven we can win games without him. Yao is overvalued in this bbs GARM IMO.

 

Re sign Artest.
Sign Gortat for the MLE.
Get the Amare/Barbosa deal done.

And we are still good for next year.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-yaorockets062909&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

What the fxxxx

Rockets could lose Yao for season, if not longer
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
1 hour, 58 minutes ago

Buzz up!292 votes PrintMore From Adrian WojnarowskiDraft buzz: Trading game Jun 25, 2009 Magic agree to acquire Nets' Carter Jun 25, 2009
As the NBA draft approached, the grim truth about Yao Ming’s(notes) broken left foot hung like an anvil over the Houston Rockets. The fear isn’t that he’s just lost for next season, but longer.

The Rockets and Yao’s reps are frightened over his future, and the concern is the most base of all: Does Yao Ming ever play again?

“The realization has hit them that this is grave,” one NBA general manager said.


For now, the Rockets have privately told league peers it could be a full season before Yao might be able to return to basketball. Multiple league executives, officials close to Yao and two doctors with knowledge of the diagnoses are describing a troubling re-fracture of his navicular bone. Three pins were inserted a year ago, but the foot cracked in the playoffs and isn’t healing.


“It sounds like he’s missing most of next season, if not the entire 82 games,” one league executive who has had recent discussions with the Houston front office told Yahoo! Sports. “That’s all that [the Rockets] will concede quietly, but they know it’s probably much worse.”

Houston general manager Daryl Morey refused comment on Monday and a team spokesman said the Rockets will not have further comment until Yao undergoes additional medical tests.

There’s no reason for the Rockets to disclose the severity of the injury, nor the uncertainty over Yao’s future. Before the Rockets go public with a dire diagnosis, they plan to send him to three more specialists this week, a source said. For now, the Rockets have season tickets and sponsorships to sell. For now, the Rockets will publicly decry these doomsday revelations as premature, but this is the reality that they’re working under within the organization.

This has turned into an impossible situation for the Rockets’ capable GM. Even if Yao plays again, Morey knows it’s just a matter of time until his lower body breaks down. His feet and ankles just can’t support the mobility of his 7-foot-6 frame.

With four surgeries in three years, the Rockets worried they were reaching a breaking point. Well, it’s here. After missing 86 games in the previous three seasons, the 28-year-old Yao missed a mere five this past regular season before injuring his foot during the Rockets’ second-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers.


It wasn’t until last week when Houston issued a statement saying Yao’s fractured foot hadn’t healed properly, that he would be unavailable “indefinitely.” Prior to Thursday’s draft, Morey tried desperately to trade into the high lottery to take Spanish prodigy Ricky Rubio(notes). Houston needed a young star, but had too few assets to make a deal with Memphis or Sacramento. It seemed odd to teams that Houston had thrown Shane Battier(notes) and Aaron Brooks(notes) into offers within weeks of pushing the NBA champion Lakers to seven games in the Western Conference semifinals.


Now, the Rockets have tough decisions to make: Do they keep pushing Tracy McGrady(notes) and his expiring contract on the market or let the $22 million expire next summer? So far, Morey is getting offered bad contracts and junk talent for him. What’s more, does Houston re-sign Ron Artest(notes) to a $40 million-plus contract when contention is no longer viable? Why not create cap space for the summers of 2010 and 2011? Why not get younger now? Yao could opt out of his contract next summer, but odds are that Houston won’t be so fortunate.


The Rockets should do themselves a favor and just start over. That isn’t easy in a sophisticated and rabid NBA market like Houston, but what everyone long suspected has reached fruition: Yao and McGrady are no longer a faulty foundation, but a collapsed one. Houston needs to proceed with an understanding that they’re no longer chasing the Lakers, but beginning again.

 

Then we only have Lowry as our starting pg and no backup.

 

can u say 25-57.................

 

I always felt Barbosa could run a little pg. Especially in a push the ball speed line up.

 

We are still very close...We did well against the eventual champions of the league w/o Yao and Tracy. But obviously we are going to need a low post big man. There are free agent centers availiable that can help us without breaking the bank and rebuilding. We have a young group of core players(Landry, Brooks, Scola). I think re-signing RonRon is one of the top priorities and a veteran post player(or 2). For 'O' there is Rasho Nesterovic who last season posted 14.0 points and 3.2 assists per 36 minutes played, and he’s shot over 50% from the field 4 seasons in a row. For "D", there is Magloire or Ratliff. All 3 are in their 30's(Ratliff 36, Rasho 33 and Magloire 31)
All 3 are unrestricted..and can be had for cheap..

For a little bit more we can go for Gortat, Pachulia or Andersen...I love Andersen he will definitely take care of the 'D' and energy will never be a problem with him...Gortat and Pachulia now have a little playoff experience and both did quite well....

Does losing Yao hurt, of course, but it isn't the end of the world...Lets hold off on the whole rebuilding thing for now

 

Timm, I think you missed the thread that's been hovering around the top of the GARM, titled: "Rockets could lose Yao for season -- if not longer".

 

Even if Yao misses all of next season, I think they should still win 40-45 games -- enough to "contend" for an 8th seed.

 

I hope Yao does the team a favor and opts out after this season. I hope we can some how pull in Rubio and begin the rebuilding process through him. After that hope we get a good pick in next years draft and pick the BPA. Build around rubio and the first pick of next year. Sad that we never could see Tracy and Yao healthy together for a whole season but that's the breaks.

 

LOL. I love the scattered posts advocating various stop-gap measures to ensure a 42 win season.

It's over folks. Time to rebuild it.

 

Cant afford that. Artest raise and MLE, no way. Unless Les is willing to absord luxury tax in an effort to avoid rebuilding

 

Agreed. Given these facts, we should at least be optimistic.
1. We fared well against LA without Yao and Tmac.
2. We'll have Taylor/Budinger, and our roster is bound to change more with Artest's signing/expiring and other trade moves.
3. Who is going to beat us out? Phoenix?

 

False.

Without Yao, with last season's roster, we can make the playoffs. This season's roster is not set yet, so there are still room for improvement.

 

rockets are stupid they shouldn't have made any moves this season. 2010 Free agent showdown is what we need to focus on. We need to start talking to Wade now do whatever we can to get him.

 

The fact that we're still good enough to ensure 40 wins is probably the worst part of this. There's nothing worse in sports than mediocrity.

They need to trade off Battier and maybe Scola (he's 30), let Artest walk, and just start over. I'm sure Morey feels the same way, hence the Rubio rumors.

 

Yet they won 3 out of 7 against the eventual champion Laker team....interesting.

 

We played well against the Lakers 2 games without Yao. The other games we got smashed and those are facts. Rockets are a 25 win team without Yao.