CD and Rudy T. Ruined This Franchise More Than We Thought.

CD and Rudy T ruined things so badly they've handicapped ole man grumpy with two players that are guaranteed first & second options on almost any team in the NBA. Both in their mid twenties.

JVG, responding with great gusto to this dire plight, decides old and slow must be the way to go. CD & Rudy T may have crippled his championship aspirations with young talented athletic players but the remedy would be applied with ruthless abandon. Old & slow is the way to go ... throw in a healthy dose of negativity, a pinch of bah humbug ... and presto! the cured Rockets crawl their way to sub .500 ball.

Damn CD and Rudy T ruined this franchise more than we thought.

 

Only people that could be better than Tmac are

Duncan, Garnett, Kobe, Shaq, Lebron, Wade, or Nowitzki.

 

I would probably rank Amare Stoudamire and Jermaine O’Neal ahead of him. Amare has shown as much growth in his game as LeBron and Wade have this season. O’Neal has lead his team to much better records than Mcgrady.

Last season and this season has really hurt Mcgrady’s status. I think if you were to ask GM’s around the league what players they would build their team around, Mcgrady wouldn’t crack the top 10.

 

Damn, that's depressing.

 

Yao is not the problem. He is in his 3rd year and is showing signs of improvement. He is a problem for other teams on boths sides of the court. A pretty much must double team. That is not something you say about just any player in the NBA. Sure, Ducan, KG, Shaq, Kobe is better, but how many years have they been in the NBA? Amare? he's good and in a system that is allowing him to shine. He wouldn't do so well in JVG system.

And are you serious in saying he is not worth the #1 pick? Not only is Yao not bad on the court (sometimes, he is not as good as he can be) but his off court status brings the Rockets worldwide (China) exposure. He is worth $$$$ to the team. He is worth the max, no questions asked.

As for TMac. He is the man, or were you watching the Rockets lately?

 

DollarBill is a sick person.

 

DollarBill I think was joking.

 

It is true that drafting has been very poor since Mobley was taken. However, Yao would be one of the greatest #8 picks in history. Indeed, he's better than a great many other #1 picks. Apparently, he's not a Hakeem or LeBrown. Big freaking deal. Few are.

CD should be even more on the hot seat than JVG. His moves have been poor, lately, save for the blindingly obvious ones.

 

What people don't realize is that if we do draft Rashard and not waste the 3 picks on Eddie Griffin, we are in NO position to draft Yao.

So, CD's incompetence actually worked out for us in one case, sorta like falling into Yao backasswards.

 

Of course, if one tanks every year until one gets a franchise player, then you might get the next Hakeem. Let's do that, why don't we?

What you suggest is true of any franchise that gets a great player in the draft (well, almost). Lucky isn't the same thing as good.

 

Yao till now is a borderline disappointment. Well, at least he got
us Tmac. So it's not completely bad.

 

Well, let's get one thing straight (which is my fault for not saying it earlier) but I do not think that CD is doing a good job. The Wesley trade was one of the worst trades I have seen as it made no sense whatsoever. Signing Charlie Ward, Mo Taylor, Moochie, Maloney, etc to their long-term deals, passing on Rashard, drafting Turcan and Rodrick Rhodes (who was listed practically by every NBA team as a prospect that wouldn't get drafted except for one: guess who that was?), etc - the list goes on and on.

I just think it is ironic that maybe the best thing CD ever did was something that you said, he was lucky to have happen, and was caused by his own incompetence.

 

It sounds like you have come over to the dark side too. I'm in favor in trading Yao in a Herschel Walker-magnitude type trade to the Lakers.

 

I think the idea that Yao is a borderline disappointment is a very non-historical, objective statement. Yao is a decent #1 pick. He's not Hakeem. But compared to many others, we're fortunate.

Yeah, I understand your sentiments, because of all the hype about him changing the way the game is played. But that's definitely half-empty type thinking, considering that the other side of the argument is pretty damned persuasive as well. Why make yourself miserable?

 

I saw your proposed offer to the Fakers but I have to see more out of Chris Mihm before I would like to do that deal (as tempting as it would be to unload Mo Fatty Taylor).

 

yao may not be a mvp calibre player right now, or ever, but most people would love to have a 20-9 player in the post that draws so much attention.

 

That's a pretty damn good first post!

 

Well, let's get one thing straight (which is my fault for not saying it earlier) but I do not think that CD is doing a good job. The Wesley trade was one of the worst trades I have seen as it made no sense whatsoever. Signing Charlie Ward, Mo Taylor, Moochie, Maloney, etc to their long-term deals, passing on Rashard, drafting Turcan and Rodrick Rhodes (who was listed practically by every NBA team as a prospect that wouldn't get drafted except for one: guess who that was?), etc - the list goes on and on.

lets look at the deals that dawson made, and pretend that his magic 8 ball wasnt working. dont just look at what he has done as the "gm", but also the deals he worked on with rudy for the rockets.

mo was the worst one of these. but to their credit, mo was a top power forward who was seen as a guy who would score in the post and run with the guards. since the drafting of yao ming, our power forward application has changed, and he doesnt provide what we need from that spot. our team identity has changed drastically, and we have to wait out some of the old identity.

juwon, lue and gaines are players we had to take for tmac. we have tmac. who pulls off trades for stars like cd?? clyde, chuck, scottie, francis, tmac.

wesley and barry are good trades. even watching the games i feel more confident with those guys out there than with boki and jackson. on the court the confidence is probably higher. they can shoot, they are savy and they are trustworthy.

sura and ward were players everyone thought would do better. why would our gm not think the same??

moochie was a top backup at the time of his contract and deserved the money at the time. nobody knew he would struggle so much later. which leads to spoon.

steve francis. we traded players who arent even playing today for steve francis. steve was not only a great player for us, but he was the reason that houston was able to deal for tmac.

mutombo is one of the best backup centers in the game. i couldnt think of 1 other player i would rather have backing up yao.

eddie griffin. rockets fan patience didnt allow this guy to develope any better than jvg did. with his head on straight, this guy was the pf we are looking so hard for.

cat was one of the best 2nd round picks in rockets history. cassell, horry were also part of cd scouting for what we needed. an all-star and a 6x champ.

alot of teams will wait around for that one star to come about in a draft. the rockets are a team dedicated to winning. to get guys like that you sometimes will make big trades. we have yet to go through a year without a superstar player. every team dedicated to winning EVERY year will make some deals, good and bad, to stay in competition. we could have cleaned house and started from scratch like the bulls, waiting on draft picks to develope and hoping that one is going to lead us to the top. with little room now, it will take current bad contracts expiring, and us keeping our draft picks instead of trading them to try to get rid of bad players before we see a real payoff. we operate now with no room. when we have room, im confident that cd can get us what we need.

 

There are not many players left that "fit" into a JVG system???

 

Somewhat off-topic, but I think it is about time that we STOP saying that Amare is only good b/c of Nash. 12/28/04 against the Spurs, Nash had a pretty bad game, 12 points (4-14), only 4 assists and 3 TOs. What did Amare do? He shot 12-19 and picked up 37 points, also grabbed 7 boards. Even though they got smacked by the Spurs, he put up some monster numbers going against arguably the top PF in the league right now.

This is not meant to compare Yao vs. Amare, but to realize that this guy really is a stud PF, and we need to stop assuming that he is only putting up numbers just b/c Nash is there. If you watch him play, any real basketball fan can tell this guy has some talent.