Jamison will get paid. I think we need to get a point gaurd who can take care of the ball like rafer, but who can shoot 40% from the three. Maybe a Kenny smith type player.
that may be but i just don't see it happening. no team thats under the cap (rebuilding) will invest big money in a 32yo former allstar. his main suitors will be contending teams that want him to put the over the top. if the wiz are smart, they will let the market dictate his value, which will be MLE. then they will probably offer a couple mil more to sweeten the idea of playing for a mediocre team rather than a contender, but in the end i'd bet he wants to win. i was thinking the same thing, maybe chris duhon. good defender. solid shooter. however, that all depends on how brooks develops this summer. that may be but i just don't see it happening.
Let's say Jamison and Arenas walk away from the Wizards. They would then be in rebuilding mode. The player I most want on this team that would not involve blowing it up would be Caron Butler. He is pretty cheap and a great all-around player that would be a great 3rd option on the team. I think in this situation he could be had for Jackson + Francis (2 expirings) + [Head or 1st round pick] + another 1st or maybe 2nd round pick. I think with him and a relatively healthy team next year we would win it all. You could follow this up by either moving Battier and others for an upgrade at PG or standing pat and having Battier play some at PF.
Gater, Great post, and while I disagree with what it takes to win in the league......most championship teams still have a post game......not just greyhounds......I understand where you are coming from. In reality it is Yao....as long as we are going to tether our franchise to the big fella, we need to surround him with players that can thrive in a half court setting....as well as get out and run...... I love Battier, love him, he plays hard and smart, always room for that.... Gay is an amazing athlete and a good scorer, but he is not exactly making Memphis better....his defense is.....not so hotra ! I do think Morey is getting more athleticism and I also want...nay expect the Rockets to go after Gerald Green again.....why not? The only issue is that he could really benefit from some D - League playing time and he can't be sent down anymore....sigh.... Also, I am not sure how everyone feels about it, but we need a PG that can attack the basket and finish and run the PnR ......there is one that we had last year that is now in Greece that has a very low buyout from his team....I would love it if Morey brought back V-Span.....we could use him as a 2nd attacking player.....on the perimeter...which we desperatly need. And I believe under Adelman he would thrive..... DD
I agree with you Dada. Championship teams are balanced. They have the ability to play D, play halfcourt O, and run the break when it is there. They have the ability to dictate tempo, to change tempo, to morph a game from a halfcourt to a fullcourt speed contest, or from a speed contest to a halfcourt chess match, or from shooting the 3 against the zone, to running the pick and roll against the man to man to running the post up swing it around the perimeter game against the double team on the post. The great teams have the ability to switch it up, switch it up, switch it up, and burn the elasticity out of their opponent until their opponent is D-E-A-D. That is why San Antonio and Detroit have dominated the league for the last several years. That is why one of San Antonio, Detroit, or Boston will likely win the championship this year. They all play good D. They all play very efficient half court O, and they all have the ability to get out on the break when it is there and FINISH the break. None of those teams would be considered fast greyhounds, even in this era of rules supposedly designed for fast break racers. Basketball is a multi-dimensional game and the rule changes were designed to make the game more competitive and LESS dominated by size and athleticism. Why else do you allow for a zone but to allow less athletic players to be able to stay on the court? Why else do you eliminate the handchecks but to allow talented but smaller players to thrive along with their bigger counterparts? The great mystery of David Stern and the great forte of David Stern is his ability to maintain competitive balance. He has made an NBA championship mean something. Because it is a dog fight and whoever wins it.............they deserve it. How many times in the era of David Stern can you say the best team DID NOT win the championship? I can't think of any. When I look back at the champions list, I see the best teams, not the fastest/most athletic teams. I see teams that played the game the best under a whole variety and plethera/myriad/kalidescope/universe of circumstances, playing styles, and strategies. What we want, and I believe what Adelman and Morey are after, are the best team basketball players that know how to play the game and create spread. That may mean running, that may mean slowing down, it may mean shooting the heck out of the 3, it may mean getting the ball in the post and blistering the opponent, it may mean faking and drawing fouls and knocking down FTs, it may mean digging it out defensively against another juggernaut half court offensive team. How would you build the ideal basketball player for a championship team or a dynasty? What would be your player recipe. Here's mine. 1. First thing I'm looking at is a quick fire brain. I mean a dude that understands the game, knows how to run a play, knows what to look for and can do it quickly in his head and has the ability to go to the next option in his head. 2. Second thing I'm looking for is basketball skill, the ability to shoot, dribble, box out and board, move your feet and get in good defensive position, block shots, etc. I want to see excellent skill level. 3. Third thing I'm looking at it athleticism, quickness, size, length, speed, etc., physical traits. If the first two areas I mentioned are equal in two given players, then you have to look at who fits the best physically. But if there is a sizable difference in the first two areas in two given players, then I'm always gonna take the guy that is better in the first two areas, I don't care if he is not as good an athlete, not as fast or as long or as strong or whatever as the other guy that is not nearly as smart and as skilled. Go back and look at all the championship teams for the last 20 years. How many of those teams had MORE THAN 1 knucklehead in their rotation? And how many of those teams had less than 6 guys in their rotation that you would consider high bball iq players, cerebral players that could understand systems and plays and could make adjustments to different game conditions/strategies and were multidimensional players? Now look at this current Rockets team and imagine what we would be if Yao was still playing? This current group with Yao I would put up against anybody in the West including Phoenix pre and post Shaq, including Phoenix last year, including San Antonio last year and this year, including Dallas last year and this year, including Golden State last year and this year, and definitely including Utah this year and last year. This current team with Yao was going to give the playoff teams HE.. this year. So, how in the world can you possibly say that Morey is moving in the wrong direction just amazes me. I may not agree with every little decision but I think this guy along with CD has got a little bit working under the hood. CD was no idiot either. We have needed to get more athletic and Morey has moved us in that direction. And we still need to get another scorer/creator or two that can get his and get some for everybody else. But this current team, as currently constructed, with a healthy Yao, was as good as any team in the league. It just didn't bounce right for us this year. And injuries may be our achiles heal. It may be a physical weakness that sinks us in our ability to win a championship but it won't be because we don't have enough greyhounds. It will be because we didn't have enough oxes, that is guys that can take an 82 game pounding, and come out and survive and thrive after the 82 games.
With Harris on board the Rockets could do with more 3P shooting on the bench at the 2/3. The Rockets are a poor 3P shooting team. 26th out of 30 teams in 3P%. http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2008.html I'd rather see Newley given a shot. Also just to see if the Rockets can make it 4/4 with the draft rights acquired in 2006.
Arenas is willing to take a pay cut for Jamison to stay so i dont see that happening, and the clips would do whatever to keep brand
I agree with gater and thats saying alot. We've had disagreement about SAR but this thing is dead on. As a team, u have to pick a lane. Barkley has always said the worse thing to be is mediocre. Although the rox are 50 win team, they are slightly above mediocre. Hear me out. They're "role" players have to play so much to their ceiling to even compete with good teams. I like the concept of playing to your ceiling, but when your ceiling i as low as rafer,battier,head, and hayes, that when you play a team with talent and they play to their ceiling, u lose. Its like tracy is stuck on another team with a oft injured sidekick and limited players like in orlando. The premise of trading Gay and swift for Battier was ignorant to say the least. I created a thread and was told how valuable Shane was or is. Thats cool, but why not get Childress with that lotto pick? What about getting a all around guy like Brewer? i mean if you honestly look at the rox, they have maybe to players with any upside. I'm not a fortune teller, but u can see guys when they hit their ceilings. The reason why there are bust in the nba is because gm's gamble that a atheletic guy will get his skill to catch up. Sometimes it works like Amare and howard, other times it doesnt like swift or kwame. The rox dont have guys with enough atheletic skill for their basketball skill to catch, thus they have peaked. Back to this whole moneyball or theory brought up. The rockets dont have enough basketball players. They have specialist that cant morph into something else like gater said. The spurs,pistons,suns,celtics have basketball players. In baseball they call it 5-tool players. The rox got guys to try to fit a outdated way of playing ball. i've heard the theory of 3pt shooters, but against really good defensive teams, they run those guys off the line. When teams chase head,rafer,battier and guy like that off the line, they struggle. Look at the spurs, the only guy you can chase off the line is bowen. Why? Barry,manu,Parker,Finley are all basketball players. Finley is a former all star and 20ppg guy. Barry is a former 15ppg.Parker and Manu reumes speak for themselves. So when you chase basketball players off a spot, they revert to basketball plays. They go to the rim, pull up mid range or pass to another basketball guy. The spurs didnt surround Duncan the best pf of all time with one dimensional stndstill guys, why did the rox? Just like the patriots of old, teams have to be able to morph to win ball games. The champion rox, lakers or the late 90's and spurs are prime exmples. Once they defended and forced bad shots or got rebounds, they were up the floor in transition. If it wasnt there, they pulled it out and ran the offense. These rox cant play alot of transition because they dont have finishers at the rim. The only guy thatcan finish is landry,mcgrady, and sometimes scola. It dosesnt even have to result in a dunk, just rebound get up and put pressure on the defense. A 2 on 2 is a fast break as well as 3 on 3 because u have guys backpeddling and ur attacking. I guess i become frustrated that this team after they are eliminated in the playoffs will look for a 3rd guy again. If they had a realistic chance to get artest, they should have pulled the trigger. This team would still be viable in the playoffs without ming and with artest. u can say it would have disturbed chemistry, but are we trying to win rings or regular season games? The gay trade has been bashed enough. i dont remember the last time a team gave up a top 10 lotto pick for a role player. i made the idea of james posey,odoke,james jones,rasuall butler, those guys can be had for cheap. They are never traded for lotto picks plus a player. The snyder for green, i guess i get that until u let green go. The Bonzi/james for jackson, i dont get that especially since u traded the only guard we had over 6'5 for green then let him go. If you want james/head for jackson i'll give you that, but to give away the only other guy that can draw fouls,rebound, and get his own shot in the playoffs that can back up tracy and shane ofr another tweener, i dont get. The 2nd unti would be great with jackson,bonzi,and landry in the 2nd unti, but oh well. Someone posted the greatness of morey in boston which is a laugh unto itself. The celts made terrible decision after terrible deceision until this yr. The one thing they did do is stockpile young talents. The Lafrent for walker deal was terrible. That team was lotto the last 2 or 3 yrs until they made it happen this season. One minute we're trying to win now, the next we're looking to next season. One minute we cant wait on Gay, the next we draft another undersized player that wasnt a true pg. Maybe in the off season the tem will make up their mind. I dont think they're that far away, but the clock is tickingfast. We have 2 old stars in milage getting a yr older that have 2-3 yrs tops. the only way to stretch them out is to get basketball players to take pressure off them offensively. I can easily see tracy playing at this level for 2-3 more yrs. I can see say dropping minutes and being 19 and 9 like he was earlier. the key is getting that young guy that can get 14ppg on his own shot, rebound,pass, and defend. Thats one reason why i like childress. Childress does everything for them that they dont have. he can get his own shot,score in traffic,great finisher and ft shooter, handle the ball and is young enough to get better. He can push shane to th bench or come off the bench. either way he's 12-16ppg on over 50% 5 rebs, 80% from ft line and gets there almost 300 times a season. Get a guy like that and dont worry that he doesnt take all thress like some of the other guys. Parker still doesnt shoot three and it doesn bother the spurs. take a chance on livingston. If nothing else, his contract willl be low and he is a natural pg. we will see though. After this playoff elimination, people will still talk about if we had that other guy.
Landry is a restricted free agent, but I have a question. If we can't come to terms with Landry, and the Rockets let him sign an offer sheet elsewhere only to match the offer, does that count against the MLE?
Rumors are circulating about Hinrich. Maybe a draft day deal for our expirings and pick? He makes $10 mill per.
well its easy (for those who doubt hinrich is available) to say they will just let duhon walk this summer, thus clearing the logjam. however, if they plan on resigning gordon for anywhere around $8M per that means they will have about $30 in their backcourt of gordon, houghes and hinrich. it's much more in the bulls favor to resign one of their best scorers (since that's been the trouble for them), and keep the cheaper of the two PG's (duhon). i don't doubt that hinrich will be available for endings and young talent.
my line up are Yao, draft picks ,deke(if possible) socla, landry,Mike Harris Shane,Steve Novak,draft picks Tmac,Steve Francis Bobby Jackson,Steve Francis,brook
I'm sure the Bulls would too. Hinrich has had an awful year but I'd give him a serious look if he indeed is available. If we can get him relatively cheap that is.
