Damn! Things are really the same for us just like last year. We need to make some changes. Les,CD ang JVG should be busy on thinking what has to be done until the deadline. We need some positives right now!
Yeah, let's blow this team up. Even if we make the playoffs, we'll get our asses whipped out of the 1st round. Time to take a few more steps back, change the way this team plays, and rebuild for the future.
No move will go down until, say, right at the deadline, when the All-Star game is over. This team makes me sick.
Thats all we need, the Lottery for a couple more years, what happened to gearing up and going to battle with what you have. So what that the Lakers have Shaq, so what that the Kings can pass and razzle dazzle, so what that the Mavs can score 120 points in a game. This team just needs to man up and play some tough hard-nosed grind-it-out to the end basketball. On the plus side the Rockets actually do play suffocating defense, but the offense is inept, its a problem, but thats what they get paid to do...win, figure out how to beat the other team. Isn't that what advance scouts and breaking down game film are for? Enough with the blowing up the team and starting over, lets just win, for the love of God, just get it done.
No, let's keep our team centered around a PG who can't pass, lead, or run a fast break. We already have a starting center who needs oxygen just to get off the bench, an overpaid backup center at power forward, an overpaid power forward first off the bench, three shooting guards that rotate at small forward. Yes, by all means, let's keep this team intact. Now for my own:
1) I wouldn't trade Yao. Potential franchise centers only come around once or twice a decade. 2) I wouldn't trade Steve unless we get another star player back, and the ages would have to be comparable. Waiting for Steve and Yao to develop is taking a chance, but it's got much better odds than trying to win with one star. It might take a while, it might not work, but then again, it might. They don't just hand out rings because you signed up. 3) I would be completely ok with trading anyone else. Steve and Yao are our cornerstones; the rest are just extras, and finding the right extras is a hell of a lot easier than finding stars. I personally am not convinced that any of our other starting 5, or our better bench players are all that suited o their roles, or all that invaluable, as well as some of them are playing. But I wouldn't make a trade just to do something.
I would like to see us trade Cato for a starting 3. We then put Mo in the starting lineup, move JJ to the 2 and Cat to the bench. Granted we have to find a backup center since Yao can only play 3 minutes at a time, but overall I think that making such a move would be very beneficial. We get bigger for one, Cat has proved he is adept at coming off the pine, Mo plays better with Yao anyway, and we would have a lineup where all 5 guys can actually score. In my dreams I see a Cato for Harrington/Croshere deal but neither of those guys are really 3s.
come to think about it, talent wise we are not that good as last year i think. All i know is we are playing with 2 centers and basically 2 SG in the starting lineups, add in steve its 3. I guess JVG can coach. BUT WE NEED MORE TALENT AND MAKE A TRADE.
It was also around this time last year that the Rockets were 23-15, 8 games over .500, and coming off a huge home win against the Lakers. They followed that up with 4 straight losses and were never the same the rest of the year. Flash forward to this season. The Rockets were 25-17, 8 games over .500, and coming off a huge road win against the Pacers. After beating the Magic(who isn't these days?), they followed that up with 3 straight losses. We'll know after this upcoming week how much(if any) the Rockets have grown this past year. At Phoenix, home for Milwaukee and Chicago, and at Atlanta. If that isn't a recipe for a quick turnaround, I don't know what is. The question is will the Rockets take advantage of the soft schedule, or lay down against inferior competition like last season?
When looking to make a trade you look at the place where you could most likely lose a player at a position and still have someone who could step in and fill that role. In Cuttino Mobley whose minutes could readily be eaten up by Steve and JJ with no real drop off in production from the spot not to mention Pike who I still think has done enough in the past to warrant another shot at valuable game minutes and the rumored Rocket Adrian Griffin and that's four players who could benefit from having Cat gone. Steve, JJ and Cat are redundant and I think this causes alot of the problems the Rox have on the offensive side of the ball. Trade cuttino for a starting caliber pg who can run an offense and let SF play his ISO game and worry about scoring and dishing to Yao on the drive and I think this team can get right back on track with minimal adjustment time.
I agree with your assessment of the Cat situation, although he is one of my favorite players and I would hate to see him gone, what you said makes sense. That being said, I dont know think we could get equal value for Cat. 2s not named McGrady or Bryant are almost a dime a dozen and Cat has a friendly contract so that further limits our options in a trade. Maybe Cat and Cato would get us something but then we got a problem when Yao has to take a break
With the trade exception we can take back more salary in a trade than we give, right? So we can get someone from a team that wants to dump salary and wants a cap-friendly contract. For value, it's hard to beat Cat. I think he would be great off the bench with JJ starting at the 2, but I don't know if he would accept that role any longer. I still think we won't make a move until the offseason, but you never know. What's frustrating is the way the Rocks play when they are clicking looks so bloody great. Maybe it's consistancy we need more than a change of personal. Well, I guess that's pretty obvious. Maybe a change of personal could eventually lead to consistancy? (arrgh!) I wish they would find consistancy and put it in chains... lug the damn thing around and not lose it every other game.
Kinf od off topic, but isn't it amazing how good teams have become since we won our titles? We basically took a team of Hakeem and a bunch of youngsters/scrubs in the first title and beat everybody's ass (although thank god we didn't have to play SEATTLE). Now we have two all stars and a borderline third and we are hovering around .500. Man I wish that we could bottle the chemistry of that team and the brilliance of the Dream......
It's going to be difficult to wait until the summer for another significant trade. Frankly, the sooner they bring Pau Gasol and Jason Williams to Houston, the better. Looking at a roster of ex-Knickerbocker scrubs and players that suddenly lose their shooting touch when they touchdown in Houston can be discouraging. But to be fair, Houston has an above average C playing PF; a SG with one of the better-developed offensive games in the league; a playoff-tested defensive specialist; and a proven sharp-shooter. Those are the components to a playoff team... University (Trading Blocks) Blue
I think Les should trade Yao while he still has value. Yao's not going to produce any meaningful improvements until after 2008 olymics if he's lucky. This whole time-sharing arrangement isn't working out if he is already tugging his shorts in the first quarter. Add the fact that he's a passive type player whos oversized for his position--yes I said oversized because he's slow as hell and he's not using his extra size--you have a waste of a future max contract. Trade Yao for someone who can come to the Rockets and bring some toughnes and intensity.
The team is far away from winning a championship. I think Yao would be better fit on a team on a team close to winning a championship. I think trading him would be the best course of action. However, I think they need to trade Cato, Cuttino, and Steve too.
