Don’t kill the messenger for the message but I just read this on the NBA draft forum… http://www.sportsonly.com/boards/nbadraft/forum I can stop politicking about the #1 pick. It is almost a done deal that the #1 pick is going to the clippers for Olowakandi and Lamar Odom. Another rockets player is in the deal to match up salaries, but that hasn't been determined. I eat at the same lunch place as Rudy here in Houston. He is a loud conversationalist. He was having a cell phone conversation with Carroll Dawson. I am not being facetious. It won't be announced until after the finals. Another poster asked, “Where did you eat lunch?” and his response was… Ziggy's Healthy Grill. Rudy and I are both regulars. West Alabama and Revere. Don’t know if this guy is on the up and up, especially since DocRocket is adamant that we will draft Ming, but just thought I would post it. Can anyone verify if Rudy eats at Ziggy’s Healthy Grill regularly?
Very interesting. I don't think it would ever go through though. I would want Brand or one or both of their picks (8,12) in the deal though.
So why not try to sign Kandi instead of trading? The owner is very tight with money and he may not pay. What are the restrictions on his FA? Is a career 9.7ppg and 7.8rpg center worth the max like he wants? If the LAC aren't serious about putting together a playoff team then Brand and Odom will be FA's in 2003, IF we have any cap room.
rudy does eat there regularly. I have seen him in there with his staff on numerous occassions. in fact, many of the rocket's coaches frequent there, Panda Garden, the other chinese restaurant on Richmond next to Luling, among others.
Interesting. I wonder if this is true. I looked up Ziggy's Healthy Grill. It's on West Alabama. So at least it exists! If we got Odom and Kandi, then this would be an awesome off-season. But we'd need to contract-dump. And Sterling might have to eat Rice's or Cato's contract to make it work. Cato's no Kandi, (and Kandi's no Olajuwon), but Cato will cost less than the Kandi-man. I think a trade involving Kandi couldn't be announced til later; as a restricted free agent, he can't be involved in (wink, wink) trade talks until after the draft. By the way, we have the #1 pick, not the "mega-#1" pick. Granted, J-Will is Prime Cut Grade A Trade Bait. And we should get everything we can out of a trade, yes. Maybe the #1, Cato, and either KT or #15 will net us Kandi (#1) and Odom (coulda-been #1). Maybe there will be a 3-way with Chicago and LAC after all?
Talking about seeing players, their is a person on the Chicago Boards (realgm.com), that just saw ODOM< JALEN<FINLEY together eating lunch. Point? I dont know
1. I don't know about Michael, but someone is to going to replace Cato as our teams starting 5. 2. Pre-order your Odom jersey.(he's coMING)
Because we are over the cap and only have the MCE to offer. Kandi-mans contract will be in excess of $6m - much more than the MCE. If Kandi is truly headed to the Rocks (which I personally doubt) then he will have to be resigned by the Clipps prior to a trade . Curiously > Kandi @ $8m + Odom ~= KT + Rice As much as I dislike Rice, I'm not sure I want Olowokandi.
I dont think thats a good trade at all , it does fill our need, but you trade and underachiever for an underachiever, the only one thats good is Od-man, and hes NOT worth the number one, please RUDY reconsider
I think Kandi's a good player, but not a great one. It seems like he turned it up a notch when he realized it's a contract year. I'm afraid he'll go back to being inconsistent after signing a huge FA deal. Look at his game log. Look at how he sucked in the 1st quarter of the year, and then turnedup the juice at the end of the year. Kinda makes you wonder.... http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/gamelog?statsId=3244 He ended with 11.1 pts, 8.9 rebs, and 1.8 blocks. Sure Ming has greater upside. I don't think that we can do much better than this deal. Two proven guys for a crapshoot Chinese center with a ton of ? marks. Hope this trade is being considered. We'd be strong at just about every position.
My offseason wish list: 1. Trade for Odom 2. Draft Yao Ming 3. Draft the mad Slovian: Nachbar I do not know how...I will leave that up to the Armchair GMs, but this would dramatically improve our chances in the West
It would be a pain to sign both Olowakandi and Odom at good contracts. We already have some bad contracts, and we're probably going to have to make some more long term decisions here - it's a hard decision. Both of these players might even demand the max, or very close. I would not sign either close to the max.
Rudy is a loud conversationalist. My dad was at a bar once and overheard Rudy T say: "Otis Thorpe is one of the biggest pu$$ies in the NBA." This was in response to someone asking about the OT for Drexler trade in 1995.
We already have one semi-bum center in Cato, we dont need another one is Olowakandi! Yao Ming is exactly what we need on this team. Center who can shoot, pass, reb and someone who loves the game.
