[Chron] Rockets must get smart about options, money

Another dismal offseason performance by CD. Last year he picks up bust Stromile Swift, lets go of Mike James. This year he dumps Stromile Swift and can't get Mike James to come back. Don't mention that he traded a vet (SS) for a vet (Battier) and gave up a potential Shawn Marion without getting back another late first rounder like Ager that might have translated into a PG for this team that we wouldn't have to use either of the exceptions to obtain now. CD also sits on his hands while the best FAs get taken and he gets to pick from the leftovers. Talk about spinning your wheels, Dawson can't leave fast enough for me. People talk about great GMs building great teams, CD is an example of a mediocre GM breeding mediocrity.

 

Don't forget we got Derrick Anderson last year too...and cut Jon Barry.

But all joking aside, for once I agree with Feigen. They were smart not to cave in to James' demands.

In fact, the only thing I'm soar about from this summer is that we didn't find a way to get our hands on Brandon Roy. That hurt. Ya, we gave up a little much in the Gay draft day trade, but I like Battier and I think we will come out ahead overall this summer just by addition of Battier. It's not that bad of a long term move(effectively Battier will burn about as long as Tmac), but more importantly it ought to be good for a team competing now....

 

You give entirely too much credit to CD. CD negotiates the deals but he doesn't make them. He didn't decide to trade Mike James for Alston that was JVG and he didn't refuse to throw in the Kicker that was Les. And while he may have been strongly involved in the negotiations to bring Swift here in the end it was Les and JVG's final approval that allowed it to Happen. And even with that said most people on this board loved the Swift deal. McGrady had proclaimed him a future all star and we all thought he would be a great improvement over Howard but it didn't happen. So go ahead and blame Swift or even his coach for his poor performance but not CD. THe one fault I have with CD is his lack of backbone to standup against JVG and say that is stupid to trade James away after it took alot of effort to get him or that is dumb to sign Bowen for more than 1 year minimum. He doesn't have the Jerry West or Colangelo type authority with the Rockets and thus he can't shape the team how he sees best. No that authority was JVG's and now seems to be done by committee. SO blaming it all on CD is giving him too much credit.

 

TMac and Yao already makes the max, what would a Trade Kicker be good for? It's not like their new team can pay them 15% above the max.

 

Ya'll are some whiny ass b****es.

Grow some balls, quit complaining, and see how the season plays out.

Everthing is not as cut and dry as ya'll make it to be...and I'm sure that this season is going to turn out fine.

Not signing Mike is a blessing in disguise.

 

Sounds like Les' embedded Minister of Propaganda has been given the go-ahead to spread the word early that we won't be spending any real cash the rest of this offseason......."there's just no one left who's worth it"

 

Not sure I follow the analogy. James has talent, Moochie doesn't. James has motivation, Cato and Taylor don't. James wants a 4 year MLE and a no trade clause, Cato and Taylor were max 7 year contracts for their era. More party line rhetoric. Wonder what the party line will be when James drops 30+ on Alston each of the 3 meetings.

 

You guys can't blame CD for Swift, Anderson or Barry. Did he suck the passion and energy out of Swift? Did he injure Anderson and Jon Barry? The moves that were made were great at the time. After the last offseason, we were all so excited about the team. Things didn't turn out right and you look for a scapegoat but its really not fair to use CD as one.

 

You missed the point of the article. The article is saying now that James is off the market, only scrubs are left, so the Rockets shouldn't overpay for the remaining scrubs, who are on the level of the aforementioned ex-Rockets. That's where the Moochie, Cato, and Taylor analogies come in.

 

On second reading, maybe I did. On second thought, we were too cheap to pay James, why would we overpay for scrubs.

 

Right no. Anyway, the article suggests that CD might become panic and then overpay. I am not worry, because there is no one left that CD can overpay now. However, I hope he will not be making silly trade.

 

As the level of whining on ClutchFans continues to grow to unprecedented proportions ...

Excellent article by Jonathan. Any level-headed manager would not lose sight of the fact that this was a weak year in free agency to begin with, and you came into it having very few tradeable assets. You're trying your best to transform a roster that has been decimated by injury and two complete free agent busts into a championship contender within one offseason. That's a pretty tall order, even with T-Mac and Yao already on your team. You've made one good move, but your second piece failed to sign. It would be stupid to panic at this point, overpay for less-capable options and ultimately sabotage your championship dreams altogether by locking yourself into a few extra garbage contracts.

So James rejected the Rockets. Fine. Let the fans whine and moan (it's somewhat understandable knowing that they are short on patience after the long season they've had), but as a manager you have to make a business decision to move on. Rounding out a championship-worthy roster within this offseason was a difficult proposition to begin with, so why cry over spilt milk? You've already acquired at least one good piece of the puzzle in Shane Battier. Do the best with what you have now, be prudent in your spending, and position yourself to improve even more come summer 2007.

 

Or for the trade deadline next February. Hopefully TMac does not break down before then, and his trade value goes up. I fear we are not going to be able to contend during the "Tracy McGrady-Yao Ming 'window'" Feigen talks about, and that we need to look at opening another window. That is, the "Yao Ming,Player A,Player B window."

 

Anger -- not whining -- has overtaken ClutchFans because the Rockets future is in jeopardy. Board members look around and see Portland remaking itself out of ashes, Minnesota improving itself at our expense, Dallas getting stronger despite its low draft position ... even Toronto making smooth moves.

Normally the board at this time of year is dreaming of a championship run. However, JeopardE, your Rockets management is driving board members to anticipate what our 2007 lotto rank will be -- and fearing the Rockets will trade our future draft assets as well.

The Chronicle is trying to pin the blame on Carroll Dawson. They refuse to print what everybody knows. Jeff Van Gundy is the man who chooses the players he wants. CD only makes the deals happen, usually skillfully at that.

JVG is like a cowbird. He lets other coaches raise young players. That wouldn't be so bad except that those young players either stay with their original teams or they become so expensive Les can't afford them. After they are old and hobbled, JVG can see what players have done. He doesn't understand that time has robbed them of the ability to continue at their old levels.

JeopardE, quit being such a shill for the Rockets management.

JVG and crew have made grave mistakes. When JVG is gone, we will breathe a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, he has damaged our Rockets even worse than Bill Fitch in the 80s. I never dreamed any coach could do as much damage as Fitch, but I was wrong. JVG is killing the fan spirit of the Houston Rockets.

We fans love our Rockets. Management loves money. That is understandable and necessary, but they must understand that if they want to fill seats with fans who are paying high concession and parking prices, they must put a watchable product on the court. No apologist can change that.

 

This is interesting. My wife is a bigger Rox fan than I am and I mentioned to her at the end of the regular season that we have too many holes right now to fill and make a championship contender in one off-season. However, the combination of this year's MLE, the two TEs, Sura's expiring contract, and the hope that overpriced guys like Howard and/or Alston might be trade bait for a contending team with holes at one of those spots, all mean the dealing on this team is not near completion.

Bring in Marcus Banks and maybe Spanoulis with the MLE, then sit tight waiting for a team trying to dump salary or one in desperate need of a veteran contributor at a certain position, and we may have some real options during the season.

 

Oh, my word. Could we be anymore melodramatic? I can understand disagreement with the personnel moves--that happens--but the histrionics on this site are unbelievable. You would think that Gay and James were can't-miss stars. Well, so far as I can recall, neither lay has every been a starter for a championship team on any level--high school, college, or the pros. Both are talented guys who have the ability add sometihing to our team, but neither are All-Stars and both have significant downside (James = age and expected length of contract; Gay = unpredictability and consistency).

The funniest part about all of this is I came into the offseason dreaming of pickups like James and Gay, but I can at least see the reasoning in these scenarios and don't think the sky is falling. Most around here, though, simply assume either A) management is incompetent, or B) management is sabatoging the organization. Only fans on a message board could be so arrogant as to assume either.

 

You really can't put this on Dawson or Gundy- Van Gundy was Clear he wanted James. And Dawson did his best- the strings were being pulled by Les from the Background.

Remember the silly talk of Alexander that they really tried to get Ron Artest last year? BS, Les is a Cheap SOB- sorry had to vent!

 

It looks more and more like they know Sura will be back...

 

I agree that the Rockets were right to not cave into James' two demands. Those things would have handcuffed the team. I mean, look at the two scenarios:

Scenario 1:
He plays like crap, especially in the third year of the contract because of age or whatever. He sees that he could not get anything close money-wise on th emarket and picks up his option. The Rockets are then tied to a 35 year old making $6+ million not playing anywhere near that contract.

Scenario 2:
He plays good to great the first two seasons of the contract and then holds the opt-out clause after the third year over the Rockets' heads to get an extension for a couple of more years at or more than the current salary.

Then add the fact that in either scenario, whether he is playing like crap or they don't want to lose him for nothing, they couldn't do anything about because no one is going to want to pay the trade kicker to acquire him.

Yes, it's dissapointing that he chose elsewhere, but the Rockets did the right thing. But, dispite all his talk of being the "cheap prostitute" and making himself out to be a victim, there is a reason he has never been given the chance to be a big time starter in his 5 years in the league. But, Kevin McHale will now hope to play the part of Richard Gere and good luck with that. Of course, just like Julia Roberts, Mike James has a big mouth which gave him his ticket out of here the first time.

Anyway, I digress after rambling on. Let's see what happens next. There is still a bunch of offseason to go and this could very well turn out well after all.