The Rockets, currently have 16 players on the roster. They can have 12 on the active roster & 3 on the IL (or, whatever they call it now). The locks (imo) are: C: Ming/Cato/Collier PF: Griffin/KT/Taylor(IL) SF: Rice/Nachbar/T-Mo(IL) SG: Mobley/Hawkins(looks like he beat out Torres) PG: Francis/Moochie The remaining players are Brown, Mickeal, & Maddox as the bubble boys. Maddox is real raw right now, but shows great potential. I think they'll keep Maddox on the IL. That leaves Brown & Mickeal. Do they release Brown (ala, Damon Jones last year) & keep Mickeal, or do they keep Brown as insurance & release Mickeal? One of them will (in all likely hood) be released. Which one will it be? Or, will they cut more than one?
Can you put MT on IL for only 5 games? Mickeal has some sort of blood clot problem in his foot. That may put him on IL with TMo. Mooch and KT are supposedly OK and good to go. Tito and Tierre are extra PG's. Tierre is history and Tito is IL. I see it as: Yao Ming/Cato EG/MT Rice/KT/Boki Cat/Hawkins Steve/Mooch Collier TMo Tito That gives one of each type player on IL as reserve. KT can play 4 until MT is back. When TMo gets back, Boki or Hawkins can go IL. I've been saying that for awhile now, Tierre is too good for IL, he can latch with another team. The Rockets have been good to players like him about that. Good luck Tierre...
I checked both Mickeal and Brown. I think that is what will happen. Tough luck for Mickeal that he got injured and didn't have more of a chance to prove himself, but that's life... Brown should be cut because we do not need 4 point guards and Maddox has a guaranteed contract and might have more "potential".
I picked Brown which with my luck today pretty much makes him a shoe in to make the team. I just think that the Rockets like Tito's size and ability to play defense. Four point guards just does not make sense. I believe that Hawkins has earned his spot and that they have seen enough of Mickeal to want to see more before cutting him. Brown just seems like the logical choice.
i picked mickeal, but i have a feeling it will be tierre unfotunately. he has clearly out-played maddox but i don't know how much the semi-guaranteed contract will play in. does the fact that it's not fully guaranteed mean they're not worried about cutting him if he's not the right choice?
Don't forget Hawkins' ability, at least in the coaches' eyes, to guard some PGs. This makes 4 PGs even more unneccesary. But is it any more of a luxury than 3 SGs (Cat, Hawkins, Mickeal...not including Francis). I think it's definitely going to be Tierre or Mickeal receiving the pink slip. I'd rather keep Mickeal around, because he knows he's a roleplayer, and provides something that would be unique to our team-a physical player at the 2/3. Tierre is still short for a PG, can't beat a press, and hasn't shown much ability to lead this offense. Tito is bigger, plays much better defense, and in general has more potential. With a healthy Moochie, you can keep Tito on the bench and groom him with practice time for a year or two, plus garbage time minutes. He'd still only be a junior in college. Collier, IMO is still a good utility player. Not someone I want as a regular player in my rotation, but if a couple of our big men had to miss a short stretch, Collier could provide some decent minutes.
I do believe there is no more " Injured Reserve", just the inactive list(takes the place of ir). Anyway you slice it, we can only carry 15 players period, injured or not. I see Mickeal being the last cut although I'm not sure what the rules are about cutting an injured player. Anyone know?
Not being able to beat the press seems to have doomed Tierre, but he is a survivor so I won't bet against him. Have the Rockets hired Goodrich as a coach yet?
For anybody who has watched any of the preseason games, Tito is by far the weakest link. He just has to go. If he doesn't it will only be because he had a great agent. He's been horrible. IMO he's been the worst draft pick I can remember in a long time.
Tierre isn't needed. Bye. I say, why not dump Collier, too? Geez, I'd much rather have Oscar and Pete, if you have to choose. They already bid bye bye to Oscar, though. Geez. Tito does nothing for me. I like Pete. Hawkins has a nice edge.
I think it's worth to keep Tiere, Collier together with Mikael. So far I'm not impress with Tito Maddox and I think we should cut him loose!
Collier has one year left on a guaranteed contract and from what Ive heard on here, Maddox has a partically guaranteed contract (1 year only maybe?). Its probably that Collier will develop an abdominal strain and Maddox an inner ear infection and end up on the IR.
It seems to me that Tito would gain more valuable experiance if he were to play overseas. Then come back and tryout for a spot next year. This way we keep Brown who has more game experiance.
