Ok, the last few weeks here I've been watching ESPN, sports shows, basketball shows, and the Rockets are not making a move to get better at all? Why is this? We are moving into a brand new arena, why don't we want to increase our attendance by bringing in another name. This almost seems unreal we are letting people go but aren't going after anyone? Does anyone knwo what is going on? Could you please let me know more... Are there any whispers going around we're going to crack a big move?
I'm guessing that he heard about the coaching staff changes, but frankly when your watching the just about every wetsern conference team get better with the exception of Houston seeing Jeff Van Gundy isn't going to make me buy a ticket to see games. I know Houston is worried about luxury tax, but when are they going to worry about winning all the teams that look at luxury tax as the limit of what they can do, do not win if Houston wants to win they need to start acting like and definitely spending like it and stop using past mistakes of Mo Tay and Norris as excuses to do nothing
Some of you guys make me wonder if you actually like to flaunt your stupidity. We have a new coach. New coach needs to see what he has with his team. After new coach can thoroughly evaluate how his team responds to said new coach, new coach will then look to improve roster. It's really that simple. I hope my simplistic explaination is easy enough to understand.
Trade deadline. Although...Kurt Thomas is dangling. Me, I'd go with something bold to open the new stadium. I'd make an offer of our trade pieces - Rice, Cat, Eg - and try real hard to dump Taylor and Mooch. But I don't see it. I see the Rox cashing Rice's deal end of next year, at this point; or looking for a retirement. Personally, I'd move Rice and his 1 year for another short term contract that could stick longer term - like SAR. Short investment, future dividends. Other options are getting one good cheap player and 1 expiring contract - like ward-thomas, or maybe Hakeem-Williams, another 1 year who can fit better and still do some things like Wes Person.
You know Kidrock.... I was looking for the words to respond to this thread, the right words. Well that would be them in the exact same nutshell. Perfectly put. I will just add that people need to have some damn patience. Some wonder why we don't match this, offer that, go after him. Sure, sounds easy, it's not your money. Im tired of people with the name "burrito" in their name or others trying to tell CD how to do his job. Take a seat and relax people. There are 28 other teams that have fans asking the same questions (save LA and SA).
God you guys are in for a shock. When the rox start off the season sucking with piak and boki,I bet all of you will say "man,why didnt the new coaching staff make a move the season is going down the drain" Word of advice,we the rocket fans,have had plenty of time to realize they suck,JVG isnt going to make Mobley the next Kobe,or boki the next dirk or griffin the next duncan. Just have some self respect and just admit the team wil suck since they didnt trade for brand liKe THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO DO and just start counting ping pong balls. SO much for the big splash. Funny,didnt hire Dunleavy like I told you,now DUnleavy keeps brand away from oilys "cat packing his bags"..LOL
Listen to this guy..... "Like they were supposed to"?????? Funny, i don't remember CD saying, "Well, hey, we're supposed to sign Brand this offseason, or trade for him, so don't worry, if it's supposed to happen, then it will." Sometimes you get beat out by other teams mingonly. 29 teams, most vying to get better. **** happens. Deal with it, and roll with the punches. Like someone has been saying, next year isn't our year to win it all. Let's get some playoff experience, which with this team, we can. With Rice's figures coming off the books next offseason, if they don't do anything they're "supposed" to, (whatever that means), then you can post crap like that.
The word "handcuffed" comes to mind when I think of the Rockets trading options... They might be able to make a deal, but with the long term contracts of Taylor, Norris and Cato, its going to be extremely difficult.
New coach should know, he doesn't have much and should make deals. Yao and Steve need a better cast that know their roles and have heart doing it.
Wow. Is it possible I've just found the dumbest GARM post of the year? Could it be? mingonly: I am a Rockets fan (that includes Yao, but is not exclusive to him) and I never, ever, ever thought we were getting Brand or either (a) turning Cat/Boki/Grif into Kobe/Dirk/Tim, or (b) getting Kobe/Dirk/Tim in the offseason, and I'm actually STILL a Rockets fan. Will you only be happy with a lineup of Steve, Kobe, Dirk, Tim and Yao? Or will you only be happy with a lineup of Yao times 5? Or will I only be happy if I'm not reading your posts? More likely than not, all of the above. Yep. Dumbest GARM post of the week at least. You should be proud. It's not easy to do.
Gee, thanks for quoting that one guys..i would have never seen it otherwise. I would have hated to miss out on that gem of a post.
pasox2...you are one of the few people that see things the way i do and youre a genius. those extra guys may be "our boys"...cat, rice, EG... but they dont add to the team like some other guys could. cat tries too hard to run the team rather than sucking it up and knowing that stevie is this team. rice is old EG is developing but wont reach his prime til he is gone from here cat shoots too much quick question...why did we dump kenny thomas last year when we coulda dumped taylor
We need to get a better F. I'm comfortable with Mo Taylor, as long as he's in shape. But we need a better SF and a different SG. I wouldn't mind doing this though Anthony Mason Micheal Redd or Desmond Mason for Mobley Taylor If they choose Mason, we have to take on one more contract. I think at this point, MoT is a better option for them at PF, and Mobley is a better option at SG. With TJ Ford unable to score, and Tim Thomas being the main scorer, they need more scorers to take the preassure off, and they need to get rid of Mason's contract because he's old. We get tougher, improve our PF situation. Why do I say that? because I think Mason would bring toughness while ALSO pushing Griffin to improve. Replacing Mobley with either of those guys is great. I'd prefer Redd, because he doesn't need the ball in his hands to be effective, and it would eliminate the need to sign Piatowski. We'd be able to use ou MCE on a SF. Yao/Cato Mason/Griffin (to start the season) Rice/Boki (still need help here) Redd/Hawkins Francis/Moochie We're in slightly better shape. But we can add a SF through the MCE, if anyone's still out there.
Sorry Masons a cancer I would love to see the Rox go after R Wallace. I've felt he would be a better fit than O'neal and Brand. His game is compatible to Yao's. He is a true playoff tested vet. He is not too old. Very talented. Has a mean streak. He is also on the market. Griff may be good but we will not be able to afford him when its time to resighn him. Why? Some other team will over pay for potental when we need players that produce now. We will still be close to the lux tax and only need to pay big $s for bigtime producing players. If we got Wallace now and gave him one year to play with Yao; I think we could resighn him if we wanted. He will be on good behavor and will try to play well due to it being a contract year. This can only help the team. This one move would be considered a big splash making us alot better. *Of course Rice would have to be included and more likley other also* Go get Wallace!
The good thing about getting Wallace is that we'll, at most, be able to unload one PF onto them. meaning, we'll have at least 1 of our previously starting PF's backing him, so if he gets tossed, we don't suffer as much as Portland used to.
Now that Brand is gone, and it looks like Posey is gone, I think the Rockets have to be acquiring about Odom. We should do a sign and trade of some combination of Rice, Boki, EG, or Cato for Odom and Ely, if the Clips will go for it. It would work if Odom wanted to make it work. If Odom wants to be here, and the Rockets want him, I think he can be had, either now or in a year. Why Odom? Just my personal preference. I think the guy is what we need, a good ballhandler, good decision maker, good distributor, long defender, who can get up and down the floor, in the mold of Paul Pressey, except more talented. But again, it's just an opinion. I ain't a NBA GM. Realistically, what do I know? Just an observation from what I see on the floor. I ain't with them guys every day. I am not privy to their personal life, their interests, and don't know how they gell with their teammates, coaching staff, etc. Most of us only know what we read here or in the paper, which is about 20% truth and about 80 lies or extreme exaggeration. Bottom line, I think if CD feels like he can improve this club, he will do it. But not at the expense of mortgaging the future of this team at this moment. Now, when Hakeem was at his peak, it was a different story. It was time to mortgage the future in hopes of another championship ride. It was worth taking the risk. That's why the team took some of the risks that they took seeking immediate gratification. It worked. The Clyde deal worked. It got us a 2nd championship. But, the Quitten deal didn't work. Hey, I applaud CD and Rudy's efforts to make it work. When they had a limited window of opportunity, they made rash moves and made it work. They took advantage of the window of opportunity. Now is not the time to take gambles that will improve us for the next year, but jam us in the coming years. I think the Rockets are taking the right approach. This is a class organization, with a class owner, and class front office, and as far as I'm concerned, a class coaching staff. Would I have preferred Larry Brown? Sure. But I ain't writing the checks. If I was spending my money, I probably would have balked at Brown too. I think Les made the right decision there. And I think we have to trust that CD and JVG are making the right decisions too. If they decide not to match Posey, then I have to admit that they have better facts and reasons for their decision than I do for wanting to resign him. If they don't make a deal, I have to think that they have their reasons for it. Remember, the Rockets are trying to build for more than just next year. Yao is still developing and we haven't even reached our "window of opportunity" yet. Do we really think that CD wouldn't make a move if he felt it would improve the long term position of this team. No way, he bleeds Rocket Red. Has he made mistakes with contracts? Well, in hindsight, sure. But, hindsight is easy. What were the circumstances, what was the condition of the ballclub, what was the potential of the ballclub at the moment that he made such "boneheaded moves"? Man, I remember when MoTay was a FA and we were in a bidding war with Seattle over him. You'd have thought the dude was the 2nd coming of Karl Malone. We got him real cheap. And everybody thought it was great. Then we resigned him and some people didn't like that. Now, most of us can't figure out why we have MoTay and want to get rid of him. And we have to admit that at least some of us (probably most of us) that were wanting to sign him sooooo bad, want to trade him now. Cato? Same story. I remember when he had that monster game in preseason. I thought the Rockets were so smart to lock the guy up at that time. Hakeem's replacement. But, the dude faded as soon as the season started. And then we all wanted to get rid of him the next year and were cursing CD and Rudy T for being so "stupid" and giving him that monster deal. So, we would have dealt him last year, and then the dude comes back last year and matures, and is a monster off the bench for us. Most of us would have dealt him for a sack of potatoes a year ago. Now, some of us will be disappointed if we don't get enough for him in a trade. Do we really think that we could do a better job than CD. Most of us couldn't. There may be an insider or 2 lurking here that could, if given the chance, do better. But, I highly doubt it. If you can't tell yet, I get so sick of the "CD is stupid" or "Les is a cheapskate" cheapshots. Come on guys. We've got a class organization. They are playing to win...........championships. Les is a winner, he's proven it. CD is a winner, he's proven it. Rudy T was a winner. Jeff Van Gundy is a winner, he's proven it. And this team is gonna surprise some people this year and will be fun to watch. Just wait til JVG has them bumping and grinding on D and other teams are getting flusterated and getting in fights with our guys. I hated watching the Knicks play and hated when the Rockets played them because of all the physically intimidating D. But, now I'm gonna love our physically intimidating D. Can't wait to see Yao or Mo or Eddie bust up Shaq and Karl. Laugh all you want. It's gonna happen. This team is gonna turn into a fighting, clawing, scraping bunch, with an attitude! And we'll all be cheering our fool heads off when we see Eddie or somebody deliver a chop to the chops of King Chopper Karl himself. We'll be going crazy, when JVG turns Steve into a fighting defensive maniac who gets in the grill of the opposing teams PG and physically intimidates the dickens out of him, forcing the dude into poor decisions. And we'll all be cheering when Marbury drives the lane, and Eddie flattens the guy on the floor, and Marbury gets up wanting to fight, and then his whole game is off the rest of the night, if he manages not to get kicked out of the game. And then Eddie comes down the other end, and nails one of them stinky, nasty looking, knuckleball, line drive 3 point shots that makes the basket support rattle when it hits the back iron and goes down. And we'll all be laughing when Cat or Boki gives Rick Fox a chest bump and throws him into the bench or when they take a swipe at the ball in Kobe's hands, and miss and hit his head, and their fingernails leave a slash down the side of his face, and then pat him on the rump and say, "Sorry man". And then they go back to the bench and sharpen their fingernails again some more. Come on guys, lighten up. This team is improving. Just watch. Are we gonna win a championship in 2004? Probably not. The odds are against it. But are we going to be improved. Odds are, we will improve significantly.
