OK, Insiders come clean on Yao trade offers.

why does it matter? i can understand you asking this in june or july but the seasons about 2 start and yao is not going to get traded so why dont we talk about what the Rockets will do this year. or sumthin besides old trade rumors

 

Because inquiring minds want to know.

 

BigBNLc, I think you misunderstand the question

Sounds like glynch is just asking in retrospect...
he doesnt want to trade him, just wants to know who was offering what...

but I could be wrong, it wouldnt be the first time

 

I'm curious as well.

Not that anything offered would have been really worth Ming, but still interesting.

Barros said we could have gotten Odom. Sweeet.

 

I would also like to hear what we have been offered. I don't want to get rid of Yao and I don't think that we will recieve any good offers, but it would still be interesting.

 

i found this thread..

http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37593&highlight=trade+number+one+pick

 

I, personally, didn't hear a damn thing, but why would ANYONE think that someone would reveal that type of information even now? If you are entrusted with info, you don't EVER give it out unless your source ok's it. If you do, you won't get any more info.

 

I havent read the insider article, but I did remember hearing these three rumors during before the draft.

Golden State supposedly offered their pick, Erick Dampier and Bob Sura for our pick (Yao), Kenny Thomas and Terrence Morris. We would have then used GS pick to draft Caron Butler.

Memphis supposedly offered their pick, and Stromile Swift for Yao and a future 2nd round pick. They had us using the Memphis pick to draft Mike Dunleavy.

L.A. Clipper supposedly offerered their pick, Darius Miles and Corey Maggette for our pick (Yao), Kenny Thomas and I think a future #1 (lottery protected). We would have then used that pick on Skitishvilli or however you spell his name.

Im not totally sure on all the names. I think I saw this on either cnnsi.com, streetandsmiths.com or tsn.com. Thats where I get most of my news.

Of course, take all this with a grain of salt. This could have just been fodder for all the readers to enjoy. Ya never know with people like Peter Vescey reporting.

 

I don't know but you can bet every GM that said "Yao's gonna be a bust" was on the phone to CD: "Carroll! Who loves ya? Did ya get that little CARE package I sent ya? Great! Say, you know, about that #1 pick..."

 

Like I said, this is just what I saw online. Whether these offers happened or not, will never be known like Jeff said. I never put it past an NBA beat write to make stuff up just to get the readers interested.

I think in retrospect, if we did have to give up someone else besides the #1 pick, then Tmoo and Ktom are the logical choices. Teams know that Griffin, Francis and Mobley arent going anywhere, no one, besides Scott Layden, is dumb enough to take our baggage (Cato, Rice and Taylor) and Collier, Torres and Brown aren't worth anything to anyone. So that pretty much leaves KTom and TMoo.

I think with Griff, Mobley and Francis in place, the only thing we need would be a center and a SF. Well, if we draft Yao, that means we really only need a SF. So in order for teams to entice us to give up the #1 pick, they would have had to offer us a starting center AND a starting SF. I guess as it turns out, no one had that to offer.

 

Says who? They might very well have offered a 3 and a 5, but I can't imagine any team who could have packaged a 5 with more potential than Yao with a 3 with more potential than Nachbar. And rumors or not, those internet trade proposals are awful.

 

Let me clarify my "no one had that to offer" statement into "no one was willing to offer that". These are just my guesses.

Precisely. Thats probably why Rudy wouldnt trade the pick. I can only assume that he felt Yao would be better than any center another team would be willing to offer him and that Nachbar would be better than any other 3 that was being offered to him.

Oh also, I did not see or hear of any rumors where Nachbar was part of the deal. Not sure where you got that from.

Darius Miles would have been an upgrade over Nachbar though IMO.

 

I wasn't implying that Nachbar was part of the deal -- only that we knew we'd be able to get at least a serviceable SF at 15. I agree that Miles would have been an upgrade. So would Odom. My point is that offering a SF upgrade wouldn't have been enough without a starting center. The closest thing to working would have been Kandi + Miles or Odom for #1 + KT or other filler. And I still wouldn't have done that deal. But by all accounts it wasn't even offered. I'd like to see the trades that didn't pan out just to reconcile the news that we wouldn't believe some of the proposals with how crappy every rumored proposal looked.

 

I agree. Yao has the potential to be one of those special centers that dont come along but once every 5 years or so. I dont think Rudy would give up that potential for anything really.

I wouldnt want Kandi cause hes going to be a FA. Plus Mings upside looks better.

I dont like the whole drug problem that Odom has. Im an old school Rockets fan from the 80s and drugs tore a potentially great team apart at its seams. Its bad enough we have one player with a history of drug problems, much less two.

 

I think we could have locked up Kandi pretty easily if we'd been willing to pony up, but I'd still way rather have Yao. We disagree on the drug thing. I was a fan in the 80s too. I don't remember weed tearing our team apart. And I don't remember Odom being a cokehead.

 

Well, thats a whole other topic probably better suited for another forum.

But you can be suspended for ganja use in today's NBA just like you could be suspeneded for coke use in the NBA of the 80s.

To me, drugs are drugs period. Im not in favor of professional athletes using them. They have too much thats on the line.

 

You've got me on the league rules, although they are tangibly less stringent with regard to pot than coke. But drugs are drugs? Yeah, I guess they are. Coke, heroin, ecstasy, weed, booze, nicotine, caffeine, aspirin, penicillin... You're right. I don't want any of our boys using any of those drugs. Especially booze. Good thing the Rockets all drink O'Douls...