All that will happen? Moving maybe 15 mil of salaries for maybe 15 mil is 'all'? I'm hoping for 'all'. I'm counting on 'all'.
The Rockets need players that can develop with the young team. What good would it be to bring Oakley in for ane/two seasons and have him upset the Team and the Coaches, destroy our long time reputation for fair play.
I too have followed Oakley over the years, but with the Knicks. And curiously there are many parallels that I see btw the Riley/Van Gundy Knicks of the early/mid 90s and that of the Rox here in the early 2000s. Also, as I'm sure most knowledgeable Rox fans can attest to, half the battle in making to most of a franchise center is surrounding him with quality role players. x
As I look at our roster of players, it's an interesting mix that we present. While its nice to have a classic center in Yao, we don't exactly have your prototypical classic backcourt. However, that's OK, b/c I think a Cat + SF offense can work nicely with a more traditional frontcourt. But here's the problem. As if most of you haven't already discovered, our front court is lacking. Even though we're getting the rebounds, we're not getting them when the game gets ugly. Moreover, something is wrong when a team as talented as the Rox experiences as many 'lapses' in defensive intensity as it does. Inasmuch as I like EG's shot blocking capability, EG doesn't bring that kind of defensive intensity each and every game. Posey likewise has been a hot then cold kind of player. What I like about Oakley is that he doesn't need the ball much to be effective. He's cool about ripping rebounds and having no FGAs in a game. While some people may say that this makes him a liability on the offensive end, I would reply by saying, "given how talented our offensive players are at center and at the guard positions, we're better off with more FGAs flowing through our big three (Cat, SF and Yao)." The Knicks struggled with Ewing, not b/c Oakley wasn't a prolific scorer, but b/c they didn't have a strong guard, let alone, a pair of strong guards. We do. What's been most disappointing about our recent spate of losses has been the "defensive energy", or rather, the lack thereof. Maybe it's a function of youth that our team's energy level is so up and down, but IMHO, Oakley represents patience and consistent contribution. We could use some of that on our team. JMHO theSAGE
What do you mean by "moving 15 mil of salaries"? I am assuming that you know the Rockets are over the cap and will have to receive almost the same value as they ship out, right? I am also assuming that you know in order to get a player who will make a contribution to the Rox for Rice's expiring contract, the Rox will also have to take on a "bad" contract to balance the trade $, right? Or, is your perception that the Rockets will be able to move both Rice and Cato and receive some near All Star caliber player and no other contract? This is just not going to happen...you know that, right?
