Obviously not what any of us want to hear. We want to know that we can quickly make moves to become a contender. But the evidence has suggested that is not going to happen. 1. T-mac's contract is not as appealing as some had hoped, in fact, it generates little interest at this time. Teams want the cost savings, but not willing to give up anything attractive. 2. Package of Battier and Brooks - two of our most expendable assets - have not yielded much interest. This may be because of the glut of pg's coming out in this draft - but whatever the case, Minnie's and Memi's rejection is a clear signal we aren't going to get much in return. This leaves us with 3 scenarios: A. Yao retires Heartbreakening for sure, but if this is the case, then about $40 million dollars comes off the books in 2010. In this scenario, you don't resign artest, don't take on any contracts, and only trade for future picks. YOu aren't quite in rebuild for 2 reasons: First, an awful season can yield a very high pick in the draft. Second, the extra cap space may allow us to sign a key free agent or two to bounce back quickly to contention. Best to let t-mac's contract expire or trade him for picks before the trade deadline. If he comes back and plays well, you definitely try to trade him to a team desperate to make a playoff run for a young player or for future picks. Other guys you may consider trading are Shane Battier who probably will be too old in 3 to 4 years when we are back in contention. But the rest of the guys are young enough that you hold on to them as a basis for the future. Scola will last a while because of his game, and brooks is just getting started. B. Yao is out for next season only. This scenario means less cap space for next year. Again, don't resign artest (what's the point?), don't take on any contracts, but hold off on trading for future picks. The key question now will be what does T-mac do? If he comes back and plays well, that leaves a difficult scenario. With Yao excercising his option, we won't have cap space to sign a free agent. In this scenario, we may be stuck with t-mac. A team that is making a playoff run may not be willing to part with key personal unless they have a glut of talent at a position. It's hard to think of any contender with this problem. So the other scenario might be a 3-way deal worked with some team looking for major cap relieve and another team that wants a star like t-mac and willing to roll the dice. Re-signing t-mac for a 1 year extension to play with yao doesn't seem wise at this point, and therefore trading him will be a must. Particularly since we'd want to get a better draft pick. 3. Yao to make return later in the season. Probably the least likely scenario, but the one that makes you think the wisest choice today is not to make any moves. Because if this is possible, and T-mac's contract isn't moveable, and no one is biting on our other assets, it makes the most sense not to blow up this team for the 5% chance that we have a group of guys that struggles to be a .500 team but is fuel injected with Yao and T-mac in the second half. Timing is everything with this scenario, because whether or not to trade t-mac before the trade deadline depends on not only when T-mac returns and how he plays, but what the time-table for Yao's return would be, and what our chances of making the playoffs are. If all of those things don't align, then really we are in scenario 2. But if this scenario is a possibility, then we should try to re-sign artest, wafer, or other assets to leave the possibility of a run next season. In fact, it might be after this that we blow up the team, and by some chance if we do win a ring, I'd think Yao would retire anyway. Basically, there's no advantage to blowing up the team right now. It's a bit too early to rebuild, and I think standing pat is the wisest choice.
Agreed, Yao's timetable and prognosis are as yet unclear. You can't commit on anything but the status quo without more definitive information. I'd just pursue signing Ron to a market value contract, mainly because we can, and I don't think he will command any outrageous offers. Talent at a bargain price is always a good idea.
Common sense. I mean, Yao "Iron Man" Ming has such a long track record of staying injury-free. Obviously, he's going to come back at 100% and lead us to a championship. Just you wait.
haha, I thought so. But for real, I think this whole thing is a little extreme (or Im in denial). While it may not be healing, I think we will still see him next season. He may miss 50 games, but if we get someone good to play center while he is out, we will be fine. And that someone is not Gortat.
the injury isn't getting better...it's getting worse we were already hearing doctors on sports radio saying that the rockets can't keep trotting yao out every night...that they may have to limit his games he can't stay healthy through a full season even if he comes back...so what?? do you continue to build around that??
100% fully agreed. He'll be back and better than ever! This is just one of many minor blips in an otherwise healthy and injury-free career! Stay the course.
It is not a matter of blowing up the team right now it is about a new strategy for our future which should be to rebuild a championship team without the Yao/TMac core. The only bizarre yet plausible reason to do otherwise would be if both Yao and TMac are able to come back healthy and effective this season for a playoff run. Tank and blow up are 2 terms that should never be used in rebuilding. First of all rebuilding takes a very good strategy and also extremely wise execution. Three things are needed: 1. High Lottery Picks that are used on very good players or by chance getting a star player outside the lottery. 2. Winning every trade. If you trade you must get the better, for instance you must get a draft pick that will return a star player or you get a young player who becomes a star player. 3. Free agent steals. It takes a steal like the Lakers made with Memphis or the Celtics made with Minn. to rebuild a championship team through free agency. Just look at all the free agent signings in the last 5 years and ask yourself which ones that involved star players resulted in a championship. The reason we have to rebuild has become obvious: 1. If Yao returns again he is a greater risk for future injury than ever before and it is unknown at what level of performance he will return to and it will be towards the middle to end of next season and he is a year older. The best case scenario is that we are very unlikely to have enough healthy Yao to win the championship with Yao in his prime. 2. TMac may return but it is a definate risk to assume he will be dominant. As a role player and given Yao's condition it is almost impossible to assume that the Rockets would win the championship next season. To have a strategy based upon that kind of assumption is ridiculous. Tmac may play at some point next season but he won't carry the team and we don't need to try to resign him. At this point I would like for Yao to end his career as a Rocket which means whatever the future holds we hang on to him. But rebuild we must. We cannot stand pat. We need to look for any advantage we can find to start rebuilding especially by trades. Decide who you want to keep- I would say Scola and Brooks (I meant brooks). And don't trade anyone else unless you win the trade. I would go for draft picks and moveable players.
Before this problem came out, I was suggesting keeping Yao to a max 30 minutes, resting him on back to backs, and possibly not playing him against the lowest winning teams in the league. If he was healthy, I would have liked to see him play 65 games in the season. And along side that, we would need a good backup center for him to fill the void while he is resting those games. I'm not a doctor, and I don't know exactly what type of surgery he needs. But from the things im reading, I thought that if he got surgery, he would miss 50 or so games, which isnt the worse thing in the world, as long as we have someone good to play center in his absence.
It was nothing specific, just that if he got surgery now, he could potentially be out the majority of the regular season. I pulled 50 games outta my rear, since 50 games is more than 1/2 the season. But come on, this is all speculation, by me, by you, by these "experts" on ESPN, the chron, and Yahoo. Lets just wait and see what happens this week with all the tests that he has planned to get done. After we find out for sure what he is going to do, then we can start freaking out. Until then, your guess is as good as mine.
i'm not guessing about anything. i'm taking the doctor's comments at face value in the context of the history of yao's inability to stay healthy over the last 4-5 seasons.
if you've watched the rockets play the last 5 years and you read the doctor's comments made yesterday you know exactly what i'm talking about.
I've watched them play for the past 2 decades. I read all the comments in all the articles. I still don't know what you're trying to argue. All I said was that I think he should be able to come back sometime this season, and you're busting my balls for it. Relax bro, go drink a beer and chill.
trust me when i tell you i'm not busting your balls. and i'm absolutely relaxed. but i'm enjoying coffee instead of beer. i thought yao's injuries were a problem before yesterday...i wouldn't hitch my wagon to him. i've read and heard enough about how these fractures are very difficult to heal properly...and how they make it more likely to happen again. i think yao is a super nice guy and i wish him well....i just think the rockets need to stop pretending they can build around him. it's way too uncertain...given the context of his injury history and what doctors are saying today.
