Interesting blurb from today's Chronicle: AROUND THE LEAGUE Gooden could be available -- While the Rockets are shopping for a full-time power forward, they shouldn't leave Drew Gooden out of the debate. He might not be enough of an upgrade. But he is young and tough enough to be worth consideration. The mix of Gooden and Juwan Howard was a disaster in Orlando. Howard could not play center, and Gooden was no small forward. "I'm sure there's a way we can have both Juwan and Drew come back next year, but I think it's fair to say that that's a chemistry issue and a maximizing-your-resources issue," Magic GM John Weisbrod said. "The way it looked this season, it would be less than ideal to put ourselves in that position again." http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/2544574 Could the Rockets obtain Gooden for as little as the trade exception and a #1 pick (in 2005)? If the Magic trade Gooden, and another salary, such as DeClercq, to the Rockets for the TE plus a pick(s), they would free up approximately $6 million. This would put them approx. $12 million under the cap, and make them major players in the free agent market this summer. If we could pull off this trade, we could keep our core, and add a 22-year-old pure talent at our weakest position.
I think the main knocks were he was a horrible physical player, couldn't rebound and wasn't much of a team guy. Jerry West admitted drafting him was a mistake.
How does that change anything? I think ORL would leave Grant Hill unprotected. But CHA won't take Howard anyway because he still has 5 more seasons on his contract. ORL is still going to have 2 similar PF's when the expansion draft is completed. Pau Gasol's not the toughest kid on the block but he made Gooden expendable. I'd pass unless Gooden were a throw-in with a McGrady trade.
Bring in Dwight Gooden... I am sure the Mets don't have anything against us borrowing their players... he's a free agent, right? I mean, after all his drug problems... the Knicks never had a problem letting us borrow their coach, best center ever, point guard, power forward, etc.... why should the Mets?
I would agree if several questions could be answered. First, I want to know how much he weighs now and is it translated to muscle strength. Second, I'd want to interview him extensively to see if he has an attitude change, particularly because he has to be cognizant of his rep as an under-achiever (something he wasn't at Kansas under a very structured program similar to JVG's). Third, I'd offer them Cato, but only if they tossed in their best draft pick of NEXT YEAR and an expiring contract suitable to make the deal work (but not Hill).
this would make the rockets better in what way? Howard is a decent PF but would he be able to contribute in the JVG system on both ends of the floor? Declerq is a hustle player but is more foul prone and lacks the athletcism of Cato to play D against the bigs of teh west. And if you guys were frustrated with SF, Lue is even worse. Cato, despite his large contract is valuable for our team and its defense, its not mere coincidence that the rockets lost something like 9 of the 12 games towards the end of the season without him in the lineup. Also I am sure the rockets can find a much better use for the TE
I don't understand your reasoning. Howard is better than all our PF's. Having a well-rounded PF, we could play him more minutes, with MoT or Spoon backing him up. Meaning, there wouldn't be many minutes for Cato at PF anyway, just backup C minutes. That's about 14 minutes a game backing up Yao, which Declerq can do, who cares if he's foul prone? It's 15 minutes max. Lue is not the player Steve is, but he is ten times the PG. His shooting is very good, and he has a terriffic asst/to ratio throughout his career. He is quick, can get to the basket, and works hard on defense too. The guy is solid. Let's not forget, he has championship experience, and has played with a dominant big man (Shaq) and a ball-dominating Guard (Kobe) before. I think he would be a great piece to play minutes at PG for us. For all this, we lose Cato, whose minutes would be reduced anyway because we'll get a better PF one way or the other, and because Yao's minutes will continue to increase steadily.
Are you joking Sane? God, I hope the Rox use the TE for more than that. Howard- nice player, kinda old, long contract. Declerq- could play some backup C, would much rather have Cato. Lue- I'll puke if I see Lue in a Rockets uni, would rather have Wilks. If it was btwn Rice's 9M coming off the books this season and Cato vs. Howard, Declerq, and Lue, I would pick the 9M and Cato. Let's say Yao/SF/JJ are untouchable, the Rox don't have much to offer with only players. But package a Cat/MoT/TE or Cat/Cato/TE and the Rox could make a nice deal.
you all should really watch other teams play mroe often Gooden got a bad rap becasue he played for a bad team. He "hogged" the ball because he was asked (LIKE MO T - since someone mentioned that comparison) to come off the bench and carry the load for the the second squad. He is a good talent and on a team where he could be the one and only PF on the floor (with a big man like Yao) I think he would do well. he is capable of getting double digit rebounds and scoring inside - the biggest problem he had was that the Magic had Howard and T-Mac - an HOward "couldn't play" with Gooden (so, since Gooden was the younger, less paid player he got benched). Also, they had coaching drama (big time) I will say it now, I have seen Magic games and watched GOoden several times last year - under JVG, he would fill the gap at the PF position (he woudl play D, get rebounds, and score some inside points ... certainly better than Cato) w should be so lucky as to get Gooden
More material: Interesting scouting report on Gooden - states he has "great rebounding skills": http://www.**************/players/drew_gooden.htm Florida news article on friction between Gooden and Howard on playing time - quote from the Magic GM that "Drew was as hard working a guy as we had", and the article's observation that "Gooden seemed ready for stardom following a dazzling performance against Ben Wallace and the Detroit Pistons in the 2003 playoffs.": http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/columnstoryS0429DRILLDENTON.htm Gooden 2003-04 stats (11.6pts/6.5rebs/.9blocks per game in 27 minutes per game): http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3602 MoT 2003-04 stats (11.5pts/5.1rebs/.6blocks per game in 27 minutes per game): http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3184 Cato 2003-04 stats (6.1pts/6.8rebs/1.4blocks per game in 25 minutes per game): http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3185 2003-2004 Field goal percentages: Gooden .445 (down from .457 in his rookie year); Cato .447; MoT .480 (career average .469). Summary - Gooden had more rebounds than MoT in the same number of minutes per game - close to the same rebounds as Cato (who played no offense and could concentrate on rebounding), more points per game than either MoT or Cato, and more blocks than MoT, less than Cato. And this was in only his second year in the league, in a year in which he was not comfortable with his role, when he was coming off the bench when he wanted to start, and with his numbers being down slightly from the year before. Is Gooden comparable to Elton Brand? No, but we wouldn't have to give up Francis to get him (if the Clips would even do that deal). I personally would like to try to improve our forward deficiences without breaking up our core, if that is possible.
Sane - FYI - The trade is within 200k of working capwise...not much TE needed. If we could get Reece Gaines instead of Lue, I'd do that all day. We'd still need a better low post defender than DeClerq but Elden Campbell might be left unprotected by DET and a deal could be worked out. thumbs - I've watched a lot of Gooden this past seaon (EC was time-filler until the Rox came on). Something is definitely wrong. Think about it ...Jerry West dealt him, he splits time with Juwan, he plays in the EC and for all of the doubles TMac gets Gooden can't step it up stats wise or attitude wise. And it's not like Doc Rivers is so old he's out of touch with today's players....To repeat...something is wrong and he may be worth a risk but definitely not a big risk.
Gooden isn't worth the TE, but he isn't a bad player. Think of him as a MoT with less range, more rebounds, better defense, and with A LOT of potential. The kid just needs some discipline and some good coaching. JVG was able to help Camby and Spree become all-stars. Not saying Gooden will be, but JVG can teach him some discipline, and he already is a pretty good defender. If JVG can get Gooden to play with some energy, he could easily be a young JYD.
