We still need a backup center, no two ways about it. We've got a good back court and wings already. What we need is a developing young center (trade) or seasoned vet center (MLE or partial MLE) to backup Yao. Someone mentioned Foye as a possibility - I like that, with Shaq or Miller as a backup. Something like: PG - Brooks/Lowry/Foye (or Brooks/Foye/Lowry) SG - Martin/Taylor/CBud/Foye SF - Ariza/Battier/CBud/PPat PF - Scola/Hill/Hayes/PPat C - Yao/Shaq or Miller/Hill/Hayes
He doesn't have enough years left to be worth what he would cost. I'd rather take a calculated gamble on Little Ricky, assuming Minny would trade him, and I suspect they would if the price were right. .
why would we want Nash? Nash is old! Still good, but not too many years left! Brooks is still learning but good where he is now! I truly don't believe we need to lose any players, this year, especially if some haven't even played with Yao (Ariza, Martin, C-Bud, Hill).
I would only be interested if we were getting Bosh or another top-level talent. Nash is good, but I wouldn't want to trade/lose too many younger players for a years worth of Nash.
I think it possible with Rocket and yao ming's warm greetings and hospitality. plus Sun's bleam future.
Why do you make such comment? Is Nash a good player or teamate? he is a good friend of Yao. So i really think he and Yao could be a perfect match if he can joian Rocket.
We had just come off a 48 win season where we were swept out of the playoffs by Seattle. We were going nowhere, we had no future to mortgage. The problem wasn't that Horry and Cassell were gone. The problem was that Hakeem wasn't able to carry the team any longer. Without Hakeem being able to play at that level we were a middle of the road team with Horry and Cassell. We acquired Barkley and became a 57 win team (best record in franchise history btw) and made the WCF. We had two aging superstars and we took a shot to see if we could get one more title out of them. It almost worked, we finally got past Seattle but came up short in the conference finals. Personally, I enjoyed that season a lot more than another 48 win season with no chance of making a run in the playoffs. I'd much rather take a chance and have a chance to win a title than to accept mediocrity and have no chance whatsoever.
I do not agree. I think the maturation of Cassel would have definately made a difference. We gained advantages against the Sonics but lost some against Utah. Impressive regular seasons are nice but it was a GO FOR THE GUSTO Moment that set the Rockets back over a Decade. ReAssembling the Pieces has taken us this long. So we get a 60 win season with Nash Then maybe a 57 win season then Nash retires. We still have no rings and now we working with 28th picks in the draft. Rocket River
I'm 99.99% certain the Suns will not trade Nash this year. He's pretty much their heart and soul, and they've openly said so. We need to think about more likely candidates, like Lebron James.
Cassell bounced around a bit before hitting it big in Milwaukee and Horry was simply a role player, dam good one, so the Barkley move was the right one and it extended our Championship window for a few years. How long do you think the Yao window will be open? Even if Yao comes back semi-healthy, with the current team as is, 2 years of Nash is well worth it and then we get 11 million in cap space. I asked the guy who broke the Rox interest in Amar'e story if Nash would be available and he said at the deadline if the Suns are out of it.
Another thing about the Barkley trade that very few people care to mention (or simply just don't realize) was that both Horry and Cassell were looking to trade off of their championship roles in free agency. The Rockets were going to be raked over the coals by both players and realized very early on that they would likely only be able to re-sign one of them. So, when the Barkley trade came along, and Houston saw that it could get a bona fide All-Star in exchange for two good role players (only one of which they could keep long-term), it was a no-brainer for the franchise. But, alas, people seem to think that Horry and Cassell were definitely going to be Rockets lifers just because they helped Houston win a title. Go ask Otis Thorpe how that worked out for him.
Sam Cassell was a good ball player not a great one. He wasn't going to lead us anywhere. If you believe that Cassell was going to lead us to greatness for a decade , then you should be lobbying hard for us to acquire Bosh because he's light years better than Cassell. The Rockets rolled the dice with an older team and almost made it. Boston did the same thing a couple of years ago and it payed off for them. You might want to ask a Boston fan if winning a title with those aging guys was worth losing Al Jefferson.
The time to do this (make a play for Nash) was when Mark (Jenga) Cuban stupidly let him walk from the Mavericks.
