[Ch.2] Derek Anderson says Rockets his No.1 choice

I think Wesley is a better around the screen shooter (one of the better in the league), but Anderson can penetrate and finish at the basket much better than Wesley. Anderson is a good shooter, though he can be streaky at times, though Wesley was pretty streaky last year. Assuming we sign DA, I think he'll be the starting SG, because of his PG and ball handling abilities and penetration abilities he would be a good compliment to Sura in the backcourt.

Sura/Wesley/Head
DA/Barry/Wesley
TMac/Barry/Bowen
Stro/Juwon/Baker
Yao/Mutombo

I think that starting lineup and Stro and DA really add what we were missing last year. A weak side shotblocker, and athleticism in the 4 and 2 spot. Anderson is athletic and will get his hands on loose balls. I think our weakness was shown when Devon Harris, Josh Howard etc were stealing offensive rebounds and running circles around us. I think these are players that fill that deficiency.

I think with DA, Wesley could start at the point also to give us another 3-pt threat w/ DA and T-mac on the wings. With that lineup if we swing the ball well, there shouldn't be a double team on Yao we can't exploit. I especially think the quick penetration and finishing ability of Stro and DA will help even more the Yao/T-Mac pick'n'roll because if the other men come off the basket will be wide open.

 

From where we are today to last year we are already a much better team (depending on Howard's health).

The next move needs to be one that doesn't jack with team chemistry.

I don't think Stro' will hurt our chemistry one bit, but I don't know about LS or DA.

As long as the Deke is signed and Yao's ankle is healthy we will be a better team. Remember we started last season without Sura, Wesley, Barry, and Yao and TMac and JVG had to mesh.

Big questions are:

Yao- ankle
Howard- health

The rest is all a matter of staying injury free.
If we can stay healthy we are as good as any team in the west.

Remember when we ran Phoenix into the ground in their gym?
We could have hit some free throws and killed Dallas in 6 games.

I also remember the losses to Atlanta and NO (at home)
TMac beat SA with a miracle.

But over the course of the season, we are in this year.

Clutch City is back.

 

Assuming Derek Anderson signs here...

PG: Sura / James
SG: Anderson / Wesley / Head
SF: McGrady / Barry / Bowen
PF: Swift / Howard
C: Yao / Mutombo
Baker, Moochie {Baxter?}

That's a pretty darn good lineup. Especially with a Bench group of James, Wesley, Barry, Howard and Mutombo.

We cut Ward since his expiring deal is the smallest and then keep Baker and Moochie's expiring deals to perhaps use in conjunction with Wesley's expiring contract to get another good player closer to the trade deadline. We could then sign Baxter to a league minimum contract to be our 3rd PF.

I am comfortable going to war with that lineup.

 

Glad that trade fell through! Now we get DA at pennies to the dollars that portland is paying him, nice move, especially after that s**t they pulled with DS last month, serves 'em right...

 

He'll round out the roster for all of the games, but he probably can make 'the' difference in a decent number of games. Even Padgett swung a few games for us last year. DA will make much more of an impact.

 

If he's healthy he is......DA is NOT a better shooter than Wesley, overall....a a better player and a better fit.

 

Agreed, it is a long season to get to the playoffs. Last year was a great example. We were on a great roll after the all-Star game, and then Juwan went down. This team is shaping up very well to handle some injuries and still compete at a very high level during the injuries. Plus it will relieve some of the stress on the older legs, and make everybody fresher at playoff time.

Look at the Astros, and tell me they couldn't use some rest right about now.

 

If we donate the LLE to the police department and invest properly in hookers we could get a few more nba arrests and maybe 3-4 more home wins.

 

DA sounds like there really is no other team in the running. He'll "make a decision" by such-and-so day. Which means he's #1 on our list, too (Finley being out of the question...damn!)

So why not just sign the contract?

I can't help but wonder if CD is working on that 2-for-1 elsewhere and wants to get that done before DA puts ink to paper.

After all, Sura/James/Wesley/Head/Barry already. Add DA. Not to mention cap crap Moochie and Ward.

 

You forgot Bowen. That is 15 if we sign DA.

I think everyone will agree Baker(3.88M), Moochie(4.2M) & Ward(1.87M) have little to no value as players and the only difference is the size of their expiring contracts (Ward actually has a buyout clause for next year probably similar to Voshan Leonard had this year). If you cut one, then cut the one who is redundant. Moochie & Baker make nearly identical amounts so one of them should go. Now you have two different prices for trade filler. If we cut Ward then the only low priced guys for trade filler is Head & Bowen or DA (LLE guy). I think this is more logical to cut Moochie or Baker if anyone is to be cut.

 

The way I see it; our perimeter defense was pretty good last year. With a few exceptions, we pretty much stayed with most guards last year. Height was the real problem. Anytime you have Wesley defending a guy who's over 6'4", there are going to be a few problems. An Anderson/ Wesley combo gives us some flexiblility to defend 6'7" guards, and 6'4" guards.

We are seriously deep at the 2 with DA. How on earth will Barry Wesley and Anderson get enough minutes? It's a good problem to have. Definately looks like Head will be riding the pine all year.

Still, I don't see how we can keep 6 shooting guards (really, that's what we'll have, six shooting guards).

 

Trade "filler" isn't quite as important anymore. They increased the possible salary differential from 115% + $100,000 to 125% + $100,000. If we are picking up a big name player, I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to jetisoning Head or Bowen if "filler" is necessary, but the new CBA makes trades a bit easier.

EDIT: Those three guys (Ward, Baker, and Mooch) give us nearly $10 million in tradeable salaries, which could translate into a salary from $8-12 million. That could pick up a big name player from a team that is out of contention.

 

Huh? We traded MoT for Spoon whom we just released. That is flat out a waste of money...which could have been spent on DA last season.

He may have been the difference maker in our series with Dallas!!! We sorely needed somebody to keep up w/ their guards. With DA in the lineup, it's easy to imagine we could have taken the series in 5-6 games.

Yea, phew, glad we didn't make that trade.

 

All they are is filler so might as well evaluate their filler roles on the team.
Wesley, Moochie + Ward give us 11M in salary - same thing.

 

Get your facts straight. We traded Mo Taylor for Baker & Moochie.

 

We traded MoT for Moochie and Baker.

 

Beat me to it.

 

Thanks micah, yeah, not sure what you're smokin kros, but you should've realized by now that we got 2 expiring contracts and a 2nd rounder for Mo instead of DA straight up last season before you use the "rolleyes." And, if you really think not having DA on our roster cost us the Dallas series, then...

 

Woops.

Well, that actually strengthens my point cause Spoon at least was servicable. And Baker and Moochie are such good bargains?

Point being, if we managed to trade MoT for DA instead, then we'd given Dallas a tougher run and maybe even got past Dallas. Disagree?

 

More on this, please. Observations? Thoughts? Given our imbalance of SGs and PGs, it's pretty important.