Uhh.... we won a championship with Drexler, if that isn't capitalizing I don't know what is... Barkley and Pippen were way past their prime when they came here. MacGrady is 25 years old. We have a good seven to ten years to find the right pieces to put around Yao and TMac. There is not comparison whatsoever. Everybody chill the **** out. CD will do what he can to improve the team and fill the holes but the fact of the matter is that we just don't have the ability to patch all the leaks right now. We are going to have to set ourself up so that when the time comes (ie certain contracts have run out, we have draft picks, etc....) we can do what we have to do to make this a better team. Right now I think we are going to have to settle for mediocrity at the PG position. On the bright side we do have the best 2 and 5 in the league, so don't whine too much.
You know this is kind of funny... We had all those terrible contracts (the old been there, done that scenario). We finally have cleared all of them out (Rice, Moochie, Cato) except two - MoT and Spoon. Ironically, at this point and time, neither of these contracts are that bad, speaking from a comparitive market standpoint. Spoon's contract is done after next year/MoT's in three. Hell, MoT is even being considered reasonable value around the league for trades now (I NEVER thought I would see that day!) and Spoon may be a cap relief trade next year - although I seriously doubt it. You know, I am begining to think all this talk of our BIG holes is seriously overblown. We are rock solid in 4 of 5 positions and I'm just not all that worried about our PG issue. It has been discussed for years on this board how a servicable PG could be found (even when the move of Francis to the 2 spot was thrown around). That is all we really need at that position. Yes, I would like someone that can hit the more than occasional three to keep the pressure off of Yao/Mac and a guy with a super high A/T ratio. However, at this point, I just expect this position to be able to make a reasonable entry pass to the post...a skill of which Francis and Mobley were completely bereft. Yes, we do need to find a filler guy to relieve Yao. It just may be that a combination of our 4s and a guy like Padgett is our only option for this year and I can live with that, although you know we can do better than that. If...big if, we trade MOT for a Battie and Ollie type or whatever, I am not sure that we get any stronger doing it. In fact, I think it weakens our front line. Yes, Juwan is not Duncan and neither is MoT, but, how many teams have that kind of tandem in the post. The answer is - not many. That is constant scoring pressure on the opposing team's 4. We have NEVER had that in the history of this organization. Certainly not when OT or CB were manning the 4. Further, JJ is the best 3 the Rocks have EVER had. Don't talk to me about Horry in his prime. His scoring was nowhere near as consistant as JJ's and Horry didn't play a lick of D except the occasional blocked shot. Additonally, even though I am a HUGH fan of Drexler and his game. T-Mac is without question the best scoring SG in the history of the organization. (NOTE: Drexler didn't know what the word defense meant, but that was accepted.....then!) Yes, Yao is not Hakkem, but the league does not have the same level of centers patrolling the paint it did in Hakeem's day. Yao is young and is progressing just fine thank you. Okay ROCKET!!! get to the point. Here it is-I am very happy with where we are right now. We still have the MLE to get a reasonable PG. Notice I did not mention the TE. I would only use that to get someone truely superior. Otherwise it just escalates our payroll. Alright, I'm done with my diatribe now. Thoughts????
Loved your post Rocket!!!, I couldn't have said it better. I wish more people had a level head about them around here. WE DON'T NEED A TRADE OR HUGE FREE AGENT SIGNING TO HELP US WIN! We just need some good role players and a few years to get rid of bad contracts. After that we'll be fine.
LeGrouper, Thanks! Now just to clarify, I am not saying we should absolutely not make a trade, but, it should strangthen our line...not weaken it. Battie for MoT is not strengthen our line (I don't care what if it included Ollie or not.......McInnis MIGHT be another story fi we could assure him resigning. All that being said, Juwan and MoT is a hell of alot stronger post position than Juwan and Spoon. FYI for all those interested, my wife is a Greek national. (So what ROCKET!!!) Well, I will tell you what.... Her folks are Greek, they live in Greece-logically (Duh! ROCKET!!!). This means we go to Greece quite often. My brother-in-law is a giant sports fan - especially basketball. Once again, your point is..... I have seen Spanoulis play many times. He is exceptional! He is just the guy we are looking for. He can hit the occasional three; he takes care of the ball and most importantly, he knows both what an entry pass is and how to make one. My gut tells me that Lue and Wilks are one year tie overs until Spanoulis comes.
Two words, BAD CONTRACTS. Just let it sink in and you will realize that the "don't do anything now" is the BEST course of action. After the madness settles, the Rockets can go for a backup C or maybe better PG then the 3 they got now. It's not the end of the world if the PG position is a committee of Lue/Gaines/Wilks. It's not the best but it's servicable. Besides, after 1 year, is Gaines a certified bust??? Maybe a change in enviroment is all he needs and a 6'6" PG would be pretty good to go with our 6'8" SG. As for bakup for Yao. That is more of a need for Yao to feel comfortable sitting. He doesn't want the team to suffer too much when he sits so I don't think the 4 PFs we have right now can do the job well enough for him to feel good.
This team was not assembled for next year. Our stars are young. We have a poor supporting caste. Not every year, even with a fairly good team, is a "win now" year.
Yao and T-mac are enough. If the Rockets are not playing .600 ball this season (50+ wins), Jeff Van Gundy MUST be "Jimyed."
There's a big difference between being just over .500 and making the playoffs and winning 21 games. Are you saying they haven't been able to put the right players around their superstars in the past or specifically Yao? If you're saying they haven't put the right players around their superstar I'd argue that our two championships are proof they did put the right players around Hakeem. If you're arguing that over the past 2 seasons they haven't put the right players around Yao, well, that's two seasons and two seasons ago we weren't sure if Yao would be a star in this league or not. I believe the McGrady trade was the first major step in putting the right players around Yao. The Drexler trade got us another championship. After the Barkley trade we were a strong contender for several years. The Pippen trade was a bust but I don't think anybody could have forseen that. I agree we may have a somewhat rocky season this year (assuming we don't pull off a miraculous deal for a quality starting point guard) but I don't expect it will be any rockier than last season and last season we made it to the playoffs.
Off topic maybe, but I actually like the Howard and MoT platoon, at least from an offensive standpoint. These are two guys that you have to guard when we have the ball along with J-Jax. Look at it, when you double Yao or T-Mac, at the same time you still have to honor Howards/MoT's shot and J-Jax's shot. That leaves only the point guard, which if he is a shooter, they have to honor thier shot as well. The Lakers didn't have that, so they got taken apart relatively easy, and they still won the West with what they had. A Rick Fox or Bob Horry of two years ago and Lakers may have won it all. A consistant passer and jump shot is all we need from PG, and someone to spell Yao and we have close to if not more, than a 50 win season.
Hilarious. It's July 18th, we just traded for the best player on the market, CD finally seems to have learned his lesson in giving out big deals, and we have people complaining that the organization isn't doing anything. Good stuff.
Just another quick thought.... I don't know anything about the kid, but, this young guy playing on the Chinese team that Yao says is going to be better than he is. Since he is now supposedly of age, can we go after him and put him behind Yao? Again, I don't know if he is worth a flip, but, you never know. If he is going to be another Yao, two on the same team would seem to be a good thing. As to the CBA rules, etc., I do not knopw if he is eligible. Anyone know?
mayurpatel, I might be one of the few.... But I'm one that really believes that LES HATES LOSING! I really like his energy in management. But I also think that he gave Rudy and CD too much leeway. If we are mediocre, Les will be the first one up to make changes. I'm so happy that we made the change to get TMac. But if it would been up to CD, we'd still have Francis. Les is a man of action. But yes. I wish he'd do something great; like surprise us with a VERY good PG. Not just an average one. Maybe next year. It all depends on how well McGrady/Yao play together and what pieces we need to address the weaknesses.
A monster trade it was but what happened to "Every free agent in the NBA is going to want to sign with Houston b/c of T-macYao"??????? Seems like no one wants to come here b/c we have no $ to offer and are still 3 or 4 solid contributors away from being a top 4 or 5 in the west!!! We have Juwanaman Howard as PF in the tough west which is packed with real power forwards. We have no PG at all, don't tell me that WNBA lookalike Lue is going to help us to elite status...and never mind that we don't have a backup Center....We are going to be in deep $HIT if these voids aren't filled. I really hope JVG isn't going to persue anymore former knicks cause I am sick of all them, they are all past their days and worthless. Lay off mayurpatel, he like me isn't blinded by T-Mac like most of you on here....He is a great player but we need more than Yao & T-Mac in order to win. The Lakers had a dominant Shaq and a great Kobe and couldn't win the title...we have a developing Yao and a T-Mac who hasn't played in the biggest of games like Kobe and we're expected to be a great team? If Shaq/Kobe couldn't do it with a ****ty surrounding cast, Yao/T-mac will be out in the second round at best with this current roster....we need to 2 PG's, a real PF who can bang down low and do the dirty work, and a back-up center, and most free-agents are gone....we are in trouble...Peace.
1. We are already well aware of what we need. It's July 18, the season hasn't begun yet, things aren't finished. 2. Some of those players that were signed were signed for way too damn much. I'd rather get some average players, let our team grow or find a steal then pay out too much money for guys that shouldn't be getting that much money. You know...LIKE WE HAVE DONE BEFORE. 3. We made a huge trade this offseason. And it's not over yet. There is still a lot to do...but to criticise what we have done so far is absolutely rediculous.
So what do you propose we had done? Sign Derek Fisher for 6 years, $37million? Noone said we didn't need more than T-Mac and Yao to win. Noone said we were going to be a great team next year. It's only people like you who are panicking on July 18th that we haven't overpaid for garbage because only you seem to think next year is the be-all-end-all.
thus far, the only deals in the FA market that I wish we made were: 1. Brent Barry- his 4year 24 mill contract with Spurs was very fair 2. Chris Anderson- signed a 2 yr deal with Charlotte i hear all of your comments and although I agree that some are more worrisome than most, the fact is we have 3 big holes to fill and if we dont, we essentially waste Yao and TMACS skills because our record will be pretty much the same as last year
Maybe you should go to this website and read up... www.nba.com/lakers/history/lakers_history_new.html All I can say about this is that time is on our side. Do you guys wish that we would have kept the same team and stayed mediocre, or are you glad that we made one step in the right direction and got a superstar? I'm sure there were a lot of people like you two before the Lakers started winning.
