Amare's defense definitely is worse than TMac. Tmac can play defense if he had to, but Amare can play defense whatsoever. It's big difference. Now Rockets are full of offense weapons but need a pg to distribute the ball, Amare will only make things worse.
Totally Agreed. Besides, although Amare is very talented, he's not very efficient to create his own shot and he isn't a proved winner such as Battier/Scola. I think it's a crucial moneyball factor.
Again, how is Stoudemire's defense any worse than Scola or Landry? Why am I comparing him to these two? Because they play the same position. Why bother comparing Amare to McGrady, especially when McGrady's defense is as spotty as how you make it out to be? As for the Rockets being "full of offensive weapons", what playoffs were you watching?
I'm still in favor of keeping our team (and its tremendous chemistry) in tact. No need to swing for the fences; if anything go get a reliable wing scorer in the mold of Joe Johnson, Michael Redd, Rudy Gay etc and a competent backup center with size. All the other pieces we have are in place, with or without Ron even though he makes us much tougher, especially during the season. I think this would be a better approach since we're a young enough team.
Agreed I would do the deal Amare + J. Rich for T-Slack and AB Trade Landry for a draft pick I think Amare will come off the bench. 1st unit Yao, Scola, Battier, Artest, Lowery (Basically what we had last year) 2nd unit Darft pick PG (Hopefully Lawson he's the most NBA ready PG in the draft and would be an upgrade over Brooks IMO) Lawson, J.Rich, Amare, Scola or Yao whichever one isn't resting same with Artset and Battier 1st unit is a solid defensive unit 2nd is a fast offensive unit that is not bad defensive unit. Lawson is a defensive upgrade over Brooks. I think Morey will pick up an Anthony Johnson type PG for veteran leadership at some point this offseason. This trade will give the Rox size and atheletesism they were lacking last season. I really dont see a down side to this trade.
I think the plan all along when we got Lowry was to make him the starting PG. Morey showcased Brooks in order to make him valuable. Rondo is kind of the same deal. Sell high buy low. Getting Amare solves two things we didn't have last year. 1)Length and athleticism in the back court when Yao is out. 2) a Legitimate Scorer that can take over a game. Losing Brooks stinks but in this case you take Great Size, Speed, Athletism that can Help beating the Lakers.
I don't really have anything against Amare, but I don't think he solves our problems. He's better than Scola and Landry, but our weakness is at the wing not the post. We need people who can shoot at an efficient clip and create shots.
How is Amare more of a malcontent than our own Ron Artest? I'm really at a lost when people say Amare is a chemistry killer or what not when the Rockets and Adelman, specifically, did a great job of handling Ron Artest. I must have missed Amare's debut Rap CD or his turn at the Brawl at the Palace His deal is one year longer than McGrady's and he has an opt out option after next season IIRC. So what, exactly, would the Rockets be losing? If it doesn't pan out, the worst thing that could happen is that he doesn't use his opt out clause and we still get a good power forward for a while longer. If he pans out, and Amare helps us get into the WCF or further, his stock rises and he opts out and we can either try to re-sign him or have valuable cap space. And the whole Yao-losing-BFF angle? Two Words: Bostjan Nachbar Brooks found his game against a Laker team that had Old Man River Fisher at the point. Even Rafer Alston exploited the Laker PG hole last year. Brooks simply went up against a team that let him play to his strength--speed. And if you weren't at the Laker games, DD, I'd like to remind you of the errant passing done by Mr. Brooks. "Dribble, dribble, penetrate inside the lane, nowhere to go, jump, still nowhere to go, throws the ball up and hope, TO" I'm not saying these are things Brooks can't fix but to waive off a trade for a PROVEN All-Star power forward because our non-prototypical 2nd Round Point Guard has "upside" is an eye opener. And I'm also pretty sure Morey IS smarter than that.
And you don't give up on the Tribe of Benjamin just because you don't like a particular idea. Sheesh DD, you must say things to be the first credible poster to say it. Can you at least wait until DM actually screws up before you start to loose faith or try to tarnish his rep? (Love to read you DD, but your post count makes you an easy target )
It doesn't matter if he starts or not as long as he gets the minutes. He could start and still play with the 2nd unit. Minutes would look like this Yao 30 mins Scola 33 mins Amare 33 mins We would have well rested bigs no matter who starts.
Amare had Nash & Shaq yet he still complained about his role. Yao & Amare are similiar talent level players. It wouldn't be far-fetched if Amare thought he was a better player than Yao. In that situation I can't see him being happy with Yao as the no.1 guy. As for Ron. Adelman didn't really handle Artest it was more McGrady going down for the season. Remember the Rockets nearly traded Artest during the season because he was becoming a handful. Ron was unhappy over his role coming off the bench. Clutch mentioned that Amare would want an extension possibly agreed to before a trade was consummated.
In the middle of the season, some source said Suns shopped around Amare with no success and Rockets was interested. Later on other source revealed Rocketss target was Nash. It made more sense. Rockets now have many offense weapons, what they need most is a good ball distributor. now Amare rumor raised again. I doubt how true it could be. It should be top business secret unless it is a done deal. How could the media and fans get it so easily? See the ratio of how many times did the trades surprised fans or not. I think it's unlikely that Amare is the true target of Rockets. It's probably DM just played around with media and removed the attentions from media and other teams. that's my 2 cents.
His role diminished when they went away from their D'Antoni defense and his role further diminished when Shaq came in and clogged up the paint. Yao and Shaq commands the paint with roughly the same frequency but the difference between Yao and present-Shaq is that Yao works on either side of the paint while Shaq likes to work the middle--the very section that clogs everything up for any front court player. There's no way Yao and Amare CAN'T exist since their offensive styles should mesh pretty well. You can have one player on one side of the paint while the other has the other side. Amare's game sometimes starts at the top of the key and works itself inside. And as we can see from this past season and in the playoffs, players like Scola and Landry starts outside of the paint (17-18ft) and can work themselves into the lane if they want. Amare has decent range and he does a better job getting to the rim than both Scola and landry. And why did Scola and Landry get those open looks? Because Yao commands that kind of defense. If Amare is playing alongside Yao, who gets the double team? There's no way a team can double team both guys on a possession without getting burned badly. As far as Ron goes, of course the rough patches were there but winning cures all and that's what happened. Granted McGrady going down helped put Ron into the starting lineup, but who could or would supplant Amare for the starting role in houston? Scola? And Yao has never been a type of player to b**** about getting the ball WHEN THE ROCKETS ARE SCORING. If Amare and lift some burden off of Yao, I'm sure Yao would welcome him with open arms. It's only when the offense gets stagnant and his teammates start jacking up shots that Yao feels he needs to carry the team. Amare and Yao might have some bad blood between them and both will have some to lose if paired up but they have lots more to gain if they can work together and I don't see how they can't. Unless Amare has a no-trade clause in his present contract, he has no say in whether or not he gets an extension. If he plays the prima donna role and decides to mail it in, he has exactly ZERO to gain. He plays the good guy role, he'll get money in the bank. If Amare is smart, he should be worried about getting that ring before wanting an extension. Getting that hardware would gain him more money than anything else.
If we can get Amare+Barbosa for Tmac+Brooks (fillers where necessary) then we do that in a heartbeat. Amare is an ALLSTAR PF, something this team hasn't had since God knows when. He gives us the added offense that we've always needed. Does he solve all our problems? No. But, we need his size and athleticism to play with LA next year. I'm sorry, remember he's an allstar! He's younger than Scola and maybe he can learn some defense (it's not like Landry or Scola plays very good defense). ALSO, Barbosa is pretty much just like Brooks. Both want to be PGs but are probably really short SGs. Both come off the bench and score points. Both are fast. What are we losing in that deal? Now if we have to include Scola then I'd think about what else we can get from Phoenix. I don't want to lose Scola but it's hard to not consider it when we'd be getting a younger ALLSTAR power forward in return. And I agree with some posters that Morey wanted Lowry to be our starting PG over Brooks. Now he can move to that role and we can draft a PG (by trading Landry) to start in a few years. Lawson and Collison could both be good and had for the mid teens.
Could be true. But, you know Morey never made so big trade before, he is probably a little unsure. He may want to see people's response.
Yao will want a Contract in 2010 and Just like Morey brought in James White and signed him for Wafer insurance, He'll sign Amare as Yao insurance. Maybe Morey is planning for 2010 after all?
