CHRON: Rockets look to build on Yao-Tracy foundation & Landry wants to return

Hill played in 65 games last year,and 70 this year. He put up very similar numbers.

 

IF all of us stop saying "if ... both of them completely healthy," they WILL be completely health.

They WILL.

Oh my ... October ...

 

The quote from Tracy is encouraging. Every year, as we end the season with what seems like him and a bunch of scrubs, I keep expecting him to announce his retirement.

 

I agree, please don't roll out the 4 point guards. We need 6'7 - 6'9" guys to give Tmac and Shane a break. We suffer with the mini's on the court. We need to say bye bye to Steve, Luther, Novak (stop it, he only scores when wide open, after teams figure him out he's non factor because he can't put the ball on the floor), and our 1st round pick to move up and get a stud.

 

How much money do we need to spend to keep Landry?

 

Hope they don't go crazy on him. He is good but not much better than milsap, powe, jason maxiekll, etc. Scola is only making 3 mil a year.

 

I really don't want to start over and give up on yao and t-mac. I love how the team is being put together all we need is an injury free season and we can really go all the way.

 

I think it will be in the 2-3 mill range, maybe 2-3 years. I'm more concerned with the length of the contract considering his knee situation.

 

Why was there no mention of Scola?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=2008FreeAgents

According to the link, Francis is a UFA. What the hell is he going to be doing on this team if he's behind Alston, BJax, and AB?

Seriously they need to get rid of Head. No bigs at the 2/3 position except for Novak. I think we should go after Josh Childress, James Posey (Player Option), Devean George, Matt Barnes, Boki Nachbar, and James Jones (Player Option) for 2/3.

For backing up Yao, we should go after Theo Ratliff, DeSagana Diop, Chris Andersen, Kurt Thomas, Francisco Elson, and Primox Brezec.

 

He's unrestricted if he doesn't pick up his option which he has said he will do. I imagine he still has boxes of the 82 Rockets jerseys he bought to give away.

 

two things i can draw from this article to fuel pure speculation (which is the best kind).

1. upgrade in size/athleticism on the wing = head is gone

2. 4 PG's on the roster (francis will pick up his player option to stay next season) means one has to go. jacksons ending contract is the prime candidate.

jackson and head make a decent package (ending contract/young player). throw in a draft pick and you can go shopping for almost any wing player on the market!

m.miller, pietrus, mobely, childress, dunleavy, r.davis, q.rich, salmons, etc...

 

Mike Miller and Kyle Lowery - we have the expiring contracts to make it happen.

 

wow interesting that morey plans to match any offer landry receives. of course, anything offer that's reasonable/rational.

i like landry, scola, and brooks.

did we extend for mutombo? i can't remember. if not, and if he plans on retiring, we need to find a backup!

man, it'd be amazing if we got marion, arenas, or baron davis, but it's not likely.

i think we could use a 2/3 wing player added into the mix. from draft, trade, free agency..

and i wouldn't mind replacing our point guards with better ones.

so i guess i'm assuming that tmac and yao will be healthy

 

I think Rockets should trade Battier + Rafer or someone else for Artest. I see a HUGE upgrade with Artest on this team in terms of defense and interior toughness and leadership and post up. I mean this is one thing the Rockets lack beside Yao and Tmac, someone else to post up and drive at will to score. We lost that after trading Bonzi. We lost a bit of outside shooting but...Artest can shoot the light out if he's on fire. In terms of Rafer, i just think he's more of a liability than anything else...it's not that he's not good...i just felt that we need a superstar in that position. Someone like B Davis of Golden State. Maybe they can get Harris (former Mavs). I think we need someone that can drive to the hoop rather taking spot up 3....and when i say drive to hoop...it's not a matter of driving to the hoop, but good at finishing it like Parker and Chris Paul. Someone that just create problems for the other teams beside Yao and Tmac.

 

This season was great, I hope for better things to come next year just like they did one season before winning first championship!

 

The Landry situation could prove to be quite problematic for the Rockets when it comes to finding quality free agents for the MLE. Just as you say, Landry's hands will be tied by Morey's offer to match any offers for him. Unfortunately, any match by the Rockets would basically HAVE to be from the MLE. Therefore, the longer Landry waits to re-sign, the longer the Rockets have to wait to see how much they will have of the MLE to sign a quality free agent.

If I were Daryl Morey, I would offer Landry a two-year deal for the full biannual exception (~$1.8M next year, with a 12% raise for Year 2?), with some strong assurances that the Rockets will take care of Landry after that contract expires and the team has full Bird rights on him. The sooner that Landry can sign, the earlier that the Rockets can turn their attention to upgrading the team from the outside.

 

Sounds like the Rockets' plan on Landry is: hey Carl, go get a contract offer and we'll match it.

I hope that this doesn't come back and bite us.

 

I didn't see the documentary but I agree and have been saying something similar for some time. Makes you wonder if Tmac and Grant Hill may have never had their injuries or maybe had them once and then corrected had they had the Suns' type medical staff 10 years ago working on them. I definitely believe Grant Hills ankle problems would have been solved 3-4 years sooner.

Whatever it is they are doing in Phoenix needs to be imitated here. The Rockets' training staff seems to be living off of an outdated reputation. It's time to look at some new techniques to address the Rockets player's injuries.

 

Didn't he miss most of those games this season due to an appendectomy while last season in Orlando it was leg/ankle/knee problems? I'm not sure but I think that was the case.

 

Blah Blah....PR Speak, what else can they say? IN REALITY, the foundation of Yao and TMac is a FRAGILE one to build the team around. I think one must go, likely TMac. AND, the nature of Yao's injuries are very disconcerting as they appear to be a matter of basic physics. The probabilities of both players being healthy and together next playoffs appears to be very low.