This is another Richard Justice article, so breathe deeply and let it out.... http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2694978 Getting Tracy McGrady may turn out to be only the second-best thing the Rockets have done this summer. Not doing anything crazy could turn out to be even smarter. Never mind that they don't have a starting point guard. Never mind that the list of available candidates shrinks by the week. Derek Fisher is off the market, and so are Troy Hudson, Brent Barry and Rafer Alston. Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson considered all of them, but he won't say which ones he really wanted. He surely could have had Fisher. He had a good shot at Hudson or Alston. Barry, who signed with San Antonio, may have been less interested in Houston. In the end, Dawson did the right thing. He passed. He still intends to acquire a point guard. He knows you're waiting, and he appreciates your patience. He wants you to know things are going to work out. Point guard options remain Maybe Dawson will trade for Seattle's Antonio Daniels. Maybe he'll sign free agent Charlie Ward. Or maybe he'll give the job to the only point guard on his roster — Tyronn Lue — and wait for a better alternative. What Dawson has refused to do is rush into the marketplace and write a check he'll later regret. The Rockets haven't always been so wise with their free-agent dollars. Maybe Dawson's inaction reflects a belief that the franchise is a season away from being good enough to make a deep run into the playoffs. Maybe he simply thinks the price for those available guys was too high. He liked Fisher. He liked the fact that he'd played on winning teams in Los Angeles. He liked his defensive skills. He liked his energy and personality and outside shot. Problem was, the Golden State Warriors liked Fisher more. They liked him enough to offer a six-year contract worth $37 million. Fisher will be 35 when that contract expires. He may even be back in the playoffs by then. Waiting out the market Hudson might have more talent than Fisher, but he's coming off a season in which he missed 53 games. Nevertheless, the Minnesota Timberwolves re-signed him to a five-year contract worth $31 million. Likewise, the Toronto Raptors gave Alston an extremely generous contract: $28 million over five years. So there. Dawson also wants to acquire a backup center and more bench help. He believes that by waiting until the market calms down, he'll find someone as good as Jim Jackson still available. Jackson was on the market last September and ended up being invaluable to the Rockets, both in the locker room and on the floor. No matter what happens with the point guard, it's important not to lose sight of the big picture. Even if Dawson doesn't make another move, he already has made the one that laid a terrific foundation for the future. He surely must daydream about finally seeing McGrady and Yao Ming on the court together this fall. "Not really," Dawson said. "It's hard to get excited until you're able to do everything you'd like to do. I'm happy with the McGrady trade. This is going to be a fun place for basketball the next few years. But I have to temper everything until the other stuff is done. You just hope everything fits into place." Dawson laughs when he hears people compare McGrady and Yao to Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. Maybe they'll someday be that successful. Until then, three championships and four trips to the NBA Finals as teammates separate them. Dawson, 66, jokes that by the time he finally leaves the Rockets he wants the franchise positioned for more championships. The McGrady trade may have done that. Dawson was at his East Texas best in finishing that deal. Before negotiations became serious, he flew to Orlando and spent a few days getting to know Magic general manager John Weisbrod. By the time Dawson returned to Houston, there was little question McGrady would become a Rocket. All Weisbrod had to do was name the players he wanted in return. What comes next for the Rockets won't be as difficult. Ward is 33 and available. He and Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy have a long relationship and mutual respect for one another, so in terms of being an extension of the head coach and getting the ball into the right hands, he would be more than adequate. Daniels, 29, played only 21 minutes a game for the SuperSonics last season, but he shot 47 percent from the field and 36 percent from 3-point land. His assist-to-turnover ratio was outstanding. His availability is unclear, so Dawson will continue to work the phones and explore his options. If the uncertainty is eating him up, he's not showing it. "It would be tense if we didn't have Lue," Dawson said. "We want to do some other things, but we already have someone we like. "The market changed for point guards early, and we didn't want to make a deal we weren't comfortable with. But we're not out of options yet."
i personally can't stand justice's writing style. way too damn dramatic. he writes articles on freakin' local sports stories for crying out loud and attempts to turn every one of them into a master class in writing. as far as the issue at hand, if those are are only 2 remaining options at pg (would much rather have b. jackson if that's somehow possible), i think daniels is far preferable to ward, and i think ward shouldn't even be on our radar. he was never good, and certainly isnt now. van gundy has to give this ex-lousy knick crap a rest. i'd rather lue start than ward anyway.
Dawson was at his East Texas best in finishing that deal. Before negotiations became serious, he flew to Orlando and spent a few days getting to know Magic general manager John Weisbrod. That's news to me. I don't think that info ever got out. Great column and a good post.
Why make Richard Justice the point of such intense criticism?? He's an excellent writer on a notoriously pathetic big-city newspaper. So what if he's trying to engage his readers and make his subjects interesting!!! Justice is an incredibly nice man in person!! He treats everyone with class and genuine respect. So, you may not appreciate his style, but I'm willing to defend the man, his work and his style. That's just my opinion... of course, I could be wrong!!
if i don't hold it against him that all of this has already been covered here (as rockingsoul pointed out), and i shouldn't, then this was actually a nice column. but i guess even chris dudley had good games every once in a while.
Let's be honest. Clutch fans cover every aspect of the NBA. We leave no stone unturned. It would be impossible for Justice to write anything about the Rox, that hasn't already been talked about here.
Well to each their own. IMO his opinionated writing style kind of forces you on the fence with this guy. You are either one side or the other. This is one article I will commend him on. I agree with him. Im by far not saying that I dont like the guy because I don't always agree with him. I have nothing against him personally. He just seems to have ALL the answers for EVERY one of our home town teams. In some ways, to me, he writes like Blinebury did. You either agree or you agree to disagree with him. Nonetheless, he does seem to have an intresting article no matter what your personal perspective is on his topic.
Justice, not formerly a basketball writer, started to take a lot of heat on this board when he suggested that Derek Fisher would be in line for a "max contract." Apparently having been educated on that one, he now suggests that Fisher was overpaid. That said, hearing him on 610, he sounds like a nice guy.
I believe he also stated in a previous article that Yao Ming was one of the top 5 best players in the NBA. As much as we all love Yao, I'm pretty sure everyone knows that that is a ridiculous statement. Justice does appear to be a nice guy, but it just seems like he doesn't know much about the NBA.
The problem with Justice is that he often writes about things even without a great deal of knowledge on them... This was from his Q&A on June 22: From his column on July 1, 2004: And then today... So, at first, no way we can get Fisher because he'll get the max. Then, he's going to cost less than Barry and we should get him. Then, he is too much at $37 million over 6 years and we were wise not to get him. That VERY MUCH to me sounds like a guy who is suddenly following a team and a sport he hasn't followed in a while.
It could be that when he said "max" he was referring to the entire MLE, which is what most teams had to offer. I can't belive that anyone would be stupid enough to think that Fisher would get $10m+. It was afterall, just a online chat, noa proofed article. I don't follow closely enough to truly say, but it seems that he is far better than some of the journalists the Chronicle has shoved down our throats over the years (Blinebury [clears throat]). For those of us that don't spend every waking moment on the internet, these articles are actually a good source of info. I can't even remeber when the last time was that I got good info from a newspaper before reading it on a bbs first. Anyway, cut a gut some slack... or don't. He is a journalist and sooner or later he'll earn whatever criticism he takes.
Actually, that isn't a chat transcript. People email in questions to columnists and they answer. Those are proofed by their editors.
