In terms of a sign-and-trade, I think a third team would have to be involved. Maybe Atlanta who has a ton of capspace to absorb a big contract. Maybe a deal that looks something like this: Houston trades: Spoon + 2 2nd-rounders Houston gets: Swift Memphis trades: JWill + Swift (S&T) + Wells + rights to Warrick Memphis gets: Harrington + Collier + Delk + 1st + future 2nd Atlanta trades: Harrington + future 1st Atlanta gets: JWill + Warrick + future 2nd a couple players could be switched out and/or added, but I think this would be the ideal way to get Swift in a deal. It gives Memphis incentive to do the deal in that they are getting rid of Wells & Williams and get a proven player back + picks. Hawks are trying to get a PG and would be a dangerous running team with JWill + Warrick ading to the athletes they already have. Just a thought
Maybe when Stro said, "It's about the money" he was being exactly like Beltran in that he was saying something in order to cover up something else. In other words, what Stromile meant was, "It's about getting on a winning team and being a starter, but I have to say 'It's about the money' in order to get paid the full MLE."
If he turns out to be the player Cato was under JVG, I'll take it. But I have a feeling Swift will improve a great deal with JVG as his coach - the greatest coach since.. well since any coach to ever coach. I'm thinking Marcus Camby in NY those couple of years - thats what Swift has the potential to be under JVG. And if it's Howard or if it's Antoine Walker who is the other PF, what Swift gives us is something totally different, so that'll be a nice changeup.
Good call on the Camby thing. They both have similar bodies, and Camby was a great player for a couple of years till he started getting hurt again. Man, I really like that comparison
Stromile would be a great fit, but it looks like we shouldnt get our hopes up. It looks like he wants to be here, but money is still his number one concern. I hope we can do a sign and trade, otherwise it looks like we are S.O.L. I hope we get him because he is an intense player and is simply a beast(I dont see any easier way of putting it). It sounds like he wants to be here, but it is obvious that its all about the benjamins wit 'stro. I hope we can pull it off, but I dont see Memphis helping us get even better than them, but only time will tell.
I've said this too many times, but... Rox record when Juwan gets 8 or more rebounds: 15-1 When he gets less than 8: 22-23 Juwan needs to rebound more. More importantly... Current streak of championship teams to have a player average 10 rpg or more: 12 and counting The rox need someone who will clean up the glass. Preferably, someone not named Bob Sura. Yao might get 10rpg next year, but he's not that rebounding beast we'd expect him to be. Any PF we bring in this offseason will not be that type of player either, but we could do a lot better than Swift. He wants 9 mil a year as a 9/5 guy. Pass. I'd go for him if for the MLE, though.
Marc Berman reported that CD had TMAC and Yao talked to swift, and then my cable cut out on me. Did anyone else catch the rest of the report?
Sounds like we want him..but he may go for money instead. Or sign & trade. I think Swift should be our #1 person to look at for a PF. I hope we get him. And sign a decent backup if Juwan can't play anymore. BADIANE!
So does anyone have an update on what happened today regarding Swift or what else Berman reported about T-Mac and Yao selling the rockets to swift???
i'm only sold on swift at this point because there is no way jvg pursues someone this hard unless he's done his homework. that says to me that he thinks he might be able to make a defensive beast out of a kid who has athletic ability out the a$$ but has been underachieving for the last five years. i think his worth is the mle and not much more. if we do a sign and trade i hope it's not so much to overpay as it is to keep the mle available for another good signing. walker for the mle > than swift at 8 million per.
Offer Swift 30 million over 4 years. Work a S&T with the Grizz where Rox trade Sura+Spoon for Swift+Tsakalidis. Use the MLE for Jasikevicius & James Jones and Rox are a deeper team. Rybo, Padge, & Barry over-achieved the last time round and still couldn't get the bench past double figures on some nights.
What is the problem with 5 years 30 mil plus a wink-wink of 2 more years at 15 mil (or 20 mil) at the players option? 7 years/ 45 mil or even 7 years 50/mil--with Swift opting out the last two years if he can do better than 15-20 mil, sounds a lot better than a S&T that makes us pick up a crappy player. Then again, if the "bad contract" is Williams, Cardinal, Miller, Battier or Gasol (all the Memphis guys with long term contracts), it could be worse. Even Williams is up in 08, and can do some basketball things OK. What I would worry about is Williams making Van Gundy's hair fall out. Oh wait, never mind. But you know as out of whack Cardinal's contract is, Cardinal and Swift for expring contracts plus a Rocket #1 would make the Rockets a really tough team. The problem with Cardinal is not that he isn't a decent back-up forward, the problem is he gets starters money. He would be a bad back-up role player just an over paid one. Yao/Deke/Badine Swift/JH/Cardinal Tmac/FA/Cardinal FA/Head/Barry Sura/James/Head All we would need to do is add one vet SG/SF, not even spend the whole MLE. In turth if JH was coming back or if Babine can do anything we could live with letting Deke go if we we felt we could not afford him after spending all that dough on Swift/Cardinal. Then JH/Swift/Badine splitting the back-up C minutes, and Cardinal getting most of the back-up 4 minutes.
No offense, but did you watch ANY of the games last season? I am the first to say that many people were 'key' people throughout the season, so it's hard to say that one was the best. But I GUARANTEE YOU that if Deke hadn't been here, we'd have been sitting around just below .500, maybe even worse. Many games he put up significant minutes b/c Yao couldn't stay out of foul trouble. But even when he didn't play significant minutes, his time counted for SO MUCH. Guards would drive to the lane at Yao, but when Deke was in, they'd chill out a bit 'cause they knew they'd get the finger wag! We add a back-up Center some other year when we're not trying to do so much at the other positions. Bottom line: We would NOT be the same team and we would CERTAINLY NOT be as good of a team without Deke. Ok, I'm done.
I think this is a pretty fair assesment of what Swift would bring to us. The Rockets just present the "right" situation for Swift to be very effective as a quality ROLE player where we dont put a ton of demands on Swift to ask him to do more than he is capable of. To me Swift's skillset would be very complimentary to Yao's and Tmac's. I also think Swift would enjoy playing the PF position instead of C. I think he would enjoy playing alongside Yao and not have to guard other team's centers all night long.
We go out and try to find another big man to back up Yao. But the point is, that will hopefully be in a couple years (or at least 1), but NOT this year. We should worry about that when we have to, not make it another issue to deal with this year. Another thing, as we've seen already, is that putting other non-centers at Center, even as back-ups, does not lend to having a championship team. We really need a true center, and CERTAINLY NOT someone like JH trying to put in back-up minutes there. Maybe when Dallas is going really small, this would be ok for a minute, but that would be a case you hope would never happen, and DEFINITELY NOT one you choose!
