Chron ad:Rockets scramble to find a replacement for Sura

Bowen's a slightly more mobile version of Mark Madsen. He's not a solution as a G.

 

I still say that this is the opportunity to use part of the TE and get Jiri Welsch. He can play both guard and small forward spots, can hit the three, and Ainge (has been reported) is looking to deal him for cap/roster room.

 

I like Demarr Johnson.

 

Might want to invite Brandon Mouton to camp for some friendly competition.

 

Lucious Harris would be the best fit in this situation. He's a good shooter that can play some point and he is a winner. Basically, he could play in Sura's role while he is out minus the defense.

Harris needs to realize he's 33 and given that it is this late in the offseason, teams aren't exactly going to be knocking on the door to get an older guy demanding more than he's worth for reserve minutes. If we could get him cheap, we could let him and Sura play backup minutes to T-Mac which gives us plenty of depth in the backcourt.

 

The article makes it pretty clear that their pursuit of Bowen is unrelated to Sura's injury. Those of you who think Gaines will see any time this year are kidding yourselves. It looks like even Nachbar may not even see much court time, even with Sura going down. I think that's unfortunate.

 

They will have to perform well in the pre-season. Given that neither Gaines or Nachbar have ever really been a consistently productive player, they probably shouldn't be given the chance to play, unless they do well in preseason.

 

Bowen and Padgett are not the same player, even if they are both white 6'9" guys. Padgett has a good outside shot and unremarkable defense. Bowen is a good defender with a weak shot. They don't produce a redundency the way Howard and Taylor do.

We have 15 roster spots and currently have 13 guys. There's no reason not to fill those last 2 spots. So why not pick up Bowen? It won't preclude us from doing other things.

 

BR has nothing left, looked slow and what J he did have went completely South. I'd rather go with Padget.

Bowen doesn't seem to fit what we really need. Tmac and JJ off course can play some 3, but off the bench Boki and Padget can play some 3 too. Even Howard could play some spot 3 minutes perhaps. Rodney White, who looks like he might be able to hit a 3 and play some SG--would be preferrable.

I think we need another guard. Proven, even if slightly less talented, over unknown is generally the way to go (though I still like White over Bowen). We already have Boki and Gaines and Spanoulis as unknowns with some talent. Honestly Gaines I am less optimistic about than Boki. Compliment them with somebody we know we can get some solid and vet play from if possible.

Harris definetly fits the bill. Been a solid bench role player on a quality team. Good 3 point shooter and scoring spark plug on the bench. Doesn't help PG depth, but too much of a good offensive player to overlook. I'd offer a 2 year, 3.3 million exemption deal or his vet min (around 1 mil for him), definetly.

Greg Buckner is out there too, right? I think he is known as a defensive SG. Might not hurt to sign him for his vet min: 700-800K.

I'd say for another PG we scour the CBA, rookie FAs, and international ranks before giving Mark Jackson a 1.1 mil deal (his min)--as long as Lue and Ward are healthy. BTW Lue is NOT a marginal "NBA player" as a poster said. Lue is a marginal "NBA starter". But he is an above average NBA player and definetly a guy we can count on to be OK (not great, maybe not even good, but certainly OK). If Ward can gives us 18-24 minutes of OK-good PG play Lue can take up the rest, no problem. Lue could probably go up to 30MPG of reasonably efficient PG play if needed.

 

Spanoulis is playing overseas this year.

Relativist- Doubtful. They wouldn't delay surgery on Sura for that purpose.

Harris is an interesting option- I certainly wouldn't give him anything above the LLE though. He did play some pseudo-PG in NJ when they wanted to rest Kidd over the past couple years iirc.

 

It seems to me our only options are a vet min, contract starting at 1.1mil (for him) or a contract starting at 1.6 (through the former 1 mil exemtpion). Both can only go up to 2 years with 10% increases, 2.3 mil (min) and 3.3 mil (exemption) respectively.

What is the LLE? Is it related to the following:

http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm
One interesting thing about minimum-salary contracts is that for certain players, the league office actually pays part of their salary. This happens with players who have been in the NBA for five or more seasons and are playing under a one-year, ten-day or rest-of-season contract at the minimum salary. In these cases, the team pays the player at the minimum salary level for a four-year veteran, and the league pays the remainder. For example, in 99-00 the minimum salary for a four-year veteran is $510,000, so a ten-year veteran, with a minimum salary of $1,000,000, would be paid $510,000 by his team and $490,000 by the league. Only the four-year minimum is included in the team salary, not the player's full salary. The reason for doing this is so teams won't shy away from signing older veterans simply because they are more expensive.

So if we sign a 1 year 1.1 contract for Harris, we only pay for half. Besides being a no-brainer offer, that sure is a Les kind of move to me. But I sure hope we would not lose out on Harris because we don't offer 2 years, and perhaps even use the full 3.3 mil we could offer. Two years, 3.3 mil, is a real good deal for a vet bench player of Harris stature.

 

I guess some people owe me an apology over the argument on the other thread about Sura going down and Harris being a quality replacement...

* sigh *

Hate to say I told you so, but...

 

The LLE is the lower-level exception, aka the million dollar exception, aka the 1.6 mill you are referring to.

 

If you look, Russell was quite productive at the beginning of last season(When the Lakers were winning, even). I didn't see him much, so I can't comment on him too much, but he's always been a solid character guy and a good shooter.

On White -- What's wrong with him? Bad attitude?

 

I'm guessing you're not a usiness major. There's such a thing as too much competition:

With T-Mac playing playing 40 minutes, and Lue/Ward EASILY getting 40 minutes, that leaves 18 minutes between

Sura
Gaines
Harris (in your scenario)

That's too much competition because both Sura and Harris are new signings, not young, and are looking for minutes... Whoever doesn't play will be unhappy, at that will lead to a bad lockerroom atmosphere.

However, if you have Boki and Gaines fighting over 10 minutes, that's healthy competition because they weren't expecting much time anyway, and if they are benched, they are young, they know they still have to learn.

 

I had heard that Gaines was actually a good shooter in college. I don't watch college basketball, so can anyone verify?

 

SOMETHINGS FISHY!!

 

You mean like the possible acquisition of Bowen meaning the Rockets may be considering a trade involving Nachbar.

We do know that Gary Payton wants to come to Houston. And we do know that Ainge wanted Nachbar to be included in that trade involving Mobley and Griffin for Battie and Williams - that almost went down at this time last year. ya never know what the hells up cd's sleeve. he's a mad mad mannn.

 

Firearm discharge charges.

 

I definitely concur with your observations about Gaines and Nachbar. I also believe that Codell may be on to something in that all they (Rockets) may be looking for is training camp fodder. IF Sura's injuries are not all that serious and the surgery is a success, then he hopefully won't miss too much of the season. However, I do find this development to be quite troubling as should all Rockets fans.