[Chron] Rockets must get smart about options, money

So Battier only has 1 good season in him?

 

In 4 years Yao Ming will be 30. Do you think no FA's will want to come here in the next 4 years?

 

If we can get any combination of Ariza, F. Jones, and Banks, I'd be happy. Not to say any combo of the three is better than Mike James, but all of a sudden, we got younger, deeper, and more atheletic.

 

The BIGGEST factor into the success of this team is Yao and TMac. If either of them can become a dominant MVP type player, then this team will likely succeed.

James would have been nice but if Yao and TMac underperform, James is irrelevant.

 

Sure got the team out of the 1st round last year didnt it?

 

James got a 4 year deal with the T-wolves, but anyway (if true, there have been MANY conflicting reports at this point, so I don't know if you/we have the whole story) this just makes the Rockets look worse unless James becomes Ponce de Leon and becomes Dwayne Wade at age 33 (unlikely).

Trying to pin it on James for taking the option that gives him the most financial leverage/flexibility is simply laughable in my opinion, and not really worthy of comment.

 

He has a lot fewer seasons left in him than a 2006 rookie lottery pick.

I don't understand why you guys are fighting the notion that the Rockets are trying to win now - they have openly admitted this - it's not a secret or anything.

 

so does mike? the point is they seem to have a different policy for james than they did for battier.

 

That just shows how inept the Rockets have been to unite us in scorn.

 

Exactly my point. Neither of them had an MVP season. They played well but nobody confused either of them for an MVP.

In the NBA, 9x outta 10 the contending teams have an MVP caliber player. Only the Pistons come to mind as an exception but they had a solid team 1-5 that you rarely see.

So again, if Yao and TMac don't have near career years, Mike James is irrelevant.

 

You think a team wins with two players and you are sadly mistaken. Noone can put fungus around two stars and win.

Dont blame this on Yao and Tmac. Contending teams have front office people with common sense.

Tmac's playoff play was more than MVP-esque, but the reason they lost was because of no support

 

That, sir, is the question that begs to be answered. As I have posted before, this organization has no plan and no idea how to put together a contending team. They appear to be hoping that Yao & TMac alone will bring them a championship even though the events of the past two years have clearly demonstrated just the opposite is true - that these two need a better supporting cast. In retrospect, no one should be really surprised at what's transpired thus far since it was rather naive to expect that the same people who created this mess would be the ones to get us out of it.

 

With Mike James, with Sura, with a younger Wesley and Deke. And we still lost to a Dallas team much inferior to what they are now.

This is silly. The Heat didn't win in 2005. The Lakers lost multiple series with Shaq and Kobe as the best duo in the league (pre and post their 3 rings). Chicago lost with Jordan and Pippen (95). Houston lost series when Hakeem and Drex or Hakeem and Chuck were the best two players. All these teams lost because their role players were outclassed, and the fixes were important.

 

Tell that to David Robinson, Steve Nash, Karl Malone and many other MVPs that has fallen short when they didn't have enough quality players around them.

Thinking that TMac coming back and being the TMac of old is absurd. The reality is that his back is going to completely give out eventually. Yao? I want him to dominate like he did after the AS break but I'll hold onto my opinions until I see him play after he broke his foot.

 

James pissing on the Rockets doesn't mean we have fungus left. Rafer, TMac, Battier, Howard, Yao is a better starting 5 than what we had in 04.

Common sense? Everybody gave Miami crap for taking on Antoine Walker. They game them crap for having white chocolate as their starting PG. They gave them crap for flushing Van Gundy and bringing in Riley. They faired ok.

Its not blame ...its reality. If Yao and TMac never get better than they currently are, for whatever reasons, then we don't have a chance. But if one of them turns into a dominant force, our chances are good ...even with this team.

Objectively, I never heard anybody outside of Houston call TMac's playoff play MVP-esque. I agree he played well, but when we need points in cruch time, TMac didn't hit shots. Conversely, when Miami needed points in crunch time, Wade delivered ...not Posey ...not Antoine ...not white chocolate ...etc. Wade delivered.

TMac played very well, but the team cratered in the last 6 mintues of games 2, 3 and 6. Game 7, Mavs simply got hot and our old guys ran out of steam.

 

It amazing how most of yall wanted to get rid of mike james last year becuase he did not fit with JVG n Tmac. I remember everyone saying that he was not the pass first point guard and was selfish. I too was happy with James-Alston trade because last year James just did not fit in. Its the same thing what the Rox management noticed about James so they traded him.

James had a carrer performance with Toronto and I wanted him back in this team, but I am not upset that he signed with another team. Toronto were not even close to making the playoffs and James was all about stats rather than winning. He performed great with losses. Many other teams could have offered him more money but their GMs know its not worth it. Minnesota is desperate for another scorer because they want to make Garnett happy before he decides to leave. Even with James in Wolves, i highly doubt they even make playoffs.

My point is most of us see what CD and les is doing and obviously they are not stupid. They know that they need to sign quality players to surround Yao n tmac while they are at their prime to win championship so have some patience since free agent market has been terrible this year and everyone that has performed 1 good year is asking tons of money.

 

Of course it was us who pissed on him the previous two times, and him who wanted to come with some insurance it wouldn't happen a 3rd time, but whose counting.

The lineup above would have two of the worst starting players in the league at the 1 and 4. Not saying Howard and Alston are bad NBA players overall, but on any kind of good team they are bench players.

Also, our current backcourt is much inferior to the James, Sura, Wesley and Barry backcourt of that team (unless you play Tmac where he doesn't want to play, which then creates other problems). And at that time (2005) we thought our backcourt was outclassed by the Mavs, who now have an even better backcourt with Harris developing and Terry findind his role better.

The Heat were bold and acquired established NBA players--Walker, Posey, Williams and Payton. Don't count me as one who gave them crap. While Wade of course was the MVP, without a number of key plays by each of those guys and role players like Zo and Haslem they don't get Wade in a position to close out the games. The Dallas series was close and tough and the margin thin, if you think they would have one with lesser role players than Walker and Posey and Zo I don't think you were watching very closely.

Miami realized their role players in 2005 were not good enough, boldly addressed it, and it all came together.

 

It is not the loss or the non-signing of any single player. What is upsetting is the trend of foolhardy actions and inactions that the current Rockets management, i.e., Jeff Van Gundy, has established.

 

No, I can see exactly what CD and Les are doing. Les is trying to have is cake and eat it too, by having marketable stars like Tracy and Ming along with the shiny new-ish Toyota Center and maximize his team's value to potential buyers, but not having to assume any further salary obligations that will hurt the team's sale price.

Even the Battier move worked out this way, Swift's 24m remaining contract + Rudy Gay's rookie deal (10-12m + 5th year) is over 34-36m - which is more than the 30m remaining on Shane Battier's deal + the minimum salary scrub we replace Swift with).

I hope he sells quick so we can end this foolishness before it's too late.

I'll tell you what was stupid: trading james and then having to crawl back to him to get him back though. That's all time stupid.

 

Wait, didn't the Heat do OK with this philosophy?