Notes on Maurice’s injury: 1. Maurice Taylor cried when he was told the result of his injury. He felt good about the summer, was really very happy with everything that had come together this off-season. He was playing some scrub games with some homeys and old college buddies and had a “freaky thing”. Came down a little awkward, not anything he hasn’t done a thousand times in his career. But this time he stretched the achilles when he contacted the floor. If there is no contact with any other player (and there wasn’t apparently) the injury usually occurs when the foot hits the floor, the tendon is stretched or torn when the foot attempts to balance the full weight coming down on it. This has a compounding effect when the angle of direct pressure is slightly obtuse. Next it was “oh oh!”. Made some calls and got Kieth Jones. Make no mistake – Maurice Taylor was pumped for the season …. Ready to get started …. Ready to get together with the guys (Steve and Cuttino, etc.. ) next week and start some light unofficial scrimmages with his teammates. He is heartbroke. 2. Mo Taylor will be out for a long time. The injury is not a simple affair afterall. Preliminary exam showed a Grade II and very probable Grade III tear of the achilles. An MRI this AM(Wed) will give a clearer picture of the extent of damage and direct the surgical repair. The rehab is varied depending on the injury site, extent of damage, etc …. but the most consistently agreeable prognosis indicates a long and arduous rehab regime. Count on a minimum of six months, and don’t be surprised if it is double that. The MRI as noted, will be done this morning (actually should be done by noon), a plan will be formulated and a press conference will be scheduled late tonight, or early on Thursday. 3. What now? Mason? White? Jackson? Two of the three? The NBA allows for this type of injury and the Rockets may get an medical exemption to the tune of about $4 -$4.5 M. What do they do? (a) Mason : Great motivator, will say what is on his mind, veteran, all of which will may help with Cato and the young guys. A take no prisoners style presence on the floor. Great work ethic. But he has some baggage too. He may be pricey, he will likely not like to be third tier when Taylor returns and although he has filled at the five spot a time or two, is way underweight (old?) for the West for that position. I can’t help thinking he wants to stay in the East … (b) White: a defensive stopper, and decent go to paint man, who we already had had some talks concerning and rehashed his pros and cons. (c) Jackson: who to my mind, because he can play effective PF and center in the West, may be the better move now that we have holes in both the four and five spots. (d) Davis: He could move right into the center spot but I have never been impressed with his PF play. It could be he was overshadowed with so many offensive centers (‘Saheed, etc …)demanding the ball away from Davis brief PF position when he played the four. The upside is he has excellent experience, a decent two way game, and he may be getting more and more affordable as Portland are attempting to trim … (e) Santiago: A filler to be sure, but cheap and available (last I heard anyway). The key is to NOT put too much pressure on Griffin in the first half of the season …. Santiago and maybe four other “also rans” still available may be the alternative. My Wish: A combo of Jackson (the medical exception if available makes that so much easier) because he can play both positions with ease, and someone else …… I have my fingers crossed on who ( I sure could live with Davis and Jackson(on a short ended contract) or Jackson and Mason (on a short ended contract) …. The key maybe what happens with some other moves that the Rockets are considering with recent events. Tidbit of the Day: Mooch has been given an ultimatum. Trades have to be made to cover for the holes. Some of those trades will effect money available and possible decisions on whether the Rockets are going with/without the Afro guard. A new PG prospect on the horizon? A couple as a matter of fact. Mooch is being given a final shot at it (present his case) today … he will be asked to give his answer to the Rocket’s offer soon after that. We won’t have to wait long. CD is busy as a bee this last 36 hours, dang. Crazy!
Thanks! Great update as always! Any idea if Mo would be back for any of the season, or do you think he`s lost for the year?
i still think this is a blessing in disguise. griff's gonna need PT to develop. more than 10 minutes per game. this injury affords just that. start him or KT, i don't care. but the kid need at least 20-25 minutes per game - RIGHT NOW. mo tay will be back next year...coming off the bench...and if he plays himself back into starting shape by the end of the year, will be excellent trade bait - assuming griff has not grown large enough (at that time) to play the 5.
I'd be happy with Jackson / White. I agree that Jackson is the more important sign, for the same reason - he fills two voids. Mason would be a great sign if he would do it for one year - ala Mo Taylor from the Clips. It really makes you feel for the guy the way he took the news. He is going to have a very tough year ahead of him...
oh yea, i wouldn't mind mase at all. much needed toughness, and the ability to play the one at spots...with steve and cat on the wings. can you say "matchup problem??"
Anyone think we could bring Carlos Rogers back? I want Moochie back, but not for anything over 2.5-3 mil a season.
I still can't figure out the logic of "This is a blessing in disguise". If people believe this, then why would a team want to trade for Mo even after he recovers? And if you thought our frontcourt was a bit weak or thin before how does our starting PF going down with an injury make it better!!!??? We are screwed royally up front. I actually saw someone say we're better off because now we have Griffin, KT and could get Pig Miller. Yeah ok. The last thing I want to do is put a ton of pressure and expectations on Griffin. Physically he isn't ready, he even had problems in the Summer League games. The pace of the NBA is much faster. And he isn't big enough to be a full-time PF yet. And mentally it will be tougher for him. Just throwing him out there isn't going to immediately make him develop faster and mature faster. In fact it could do some damage to him and set him back a bit mentally.
Hopefully, Mooch will go with his heart and tell his agent to keep his mouth shut and do the deal. Pops, I thought the medical exemption was for like 3.25mil. Will that be enough to get any of those guys?
no team will trade for Mo immediately after his injury. it will take a full year of playing and proving himself healthy first. the point is...you're looking at the END OF NEXT YEAR before mo is "tradeable". well, at that point eddie has a full 2 years of experience under his belt, is heading into "contract drive" time, and i probably a legit starter. he will have had motay backing up that 2nd year, as well. if motay's ready, and that's the big question, then we can move him...unless griff gets to 260 (which is ABSOLUTELY conceivable) then we keep mo @ the 4 and move griff to 5. i don't understand your comment about the backcourt physically, griff isn't ready for the bohemoths of the nba. zach randolph is a SOLID 265!!! that's a load! griff can handle the 220s and 230s well enough right now, IMO, to put him on the court. and i don't think it will stunt his development. look at jermaine oneal. he was firmly planted on the portland bench for years. did it help his development? nope. it hindered it, IMO. had jermaine gotten 15-25 minutes per game, he would have blossomed much earlier, IMO. and eddie has a better offensive game right now than jermaine did. and a better defensive game. the kid needs to play. i understand your concern about overburdening him right now, but he won't have that happen. cat, steve, and glen are gonna shoulder the scoring burden. defensively, (gulp) cato will have to shoulder the burden. he will be the weakside help defender for now.
The medical exception takes something like 45 days to get approved, I don't think the Rocks will wait that long. We could do a sign and trade for Jackson and a Williams - White deal. That really fills the hole in the middle and at the 4
So is there any chance the Rockets would be content to start Kenny this season, oiely? Is it pretty set in stone they are going to trade for or sign a C/PF sometime between now and when the season starts?
Keep a couple of things in mind: RockAss: Will know the parameters of treatment (and approx length of time of recovery) today or early tommorrow. I called someone just now and it does not look good so far. Later as I get it. SA: As it stands right now – losing MoTay effectively limits RT’s matchups and options. I know a lot of us look at this as a “blessing in disguise” for Griffin, but it really is not even close to that. I know the knee jerk reaction is to be posirtive … but Griffin would have got his minutes anyway. RT would have seen him develop at his own pace. This moving him into more time business basically suggests an accelerated move and that may not be in his or the teams best interest. Rice: The White/ Jackson combo thing looks good, but it presents a lot of barriers and creates a lot of money problems to do that. The key is to not lose any offense in MoTay’s spot and yet improve the center too. Therefore the reference to Jackson who can play both ends. I like both of these guys but as you pointed out a Jackson/Mason combo is also very attractive. The key is where does the money go? Mason on a one year? I don’t think he will buy it. Jackson on a limited year? Mmmmm,maybe. If it’s a sign and trade, both of these guys need to get three years according to the CBA. We can’t afford that from the onset. Now if it was possible to convince one of these to sign a “a la Shandon/MoTay” FA type deal for one or two, and take the other guy on fangdoodle contract … well that maybe possible. Riley and CD have talked. Riley may want to deal a little tighter now that we are in trouble. Remember these guys can smell blood a mile away. WinkCat: Carlos looks good lately and still has some rapport with the team, but frankly he would be improving in the areas that we need. We need offense from the PF and a strong showing/threat (defense and/or offense) from the pivot to compliment Cato and Collier. Carlos does not present any of thiose things. If he is picked up at all it will be as a filler with no alternatives available to us, or as an afterthought when we get the roster set. Rock2001: My thoughts too, man. QT: It is very unlikely that we will even get that exemption. But it is tied to the average, etc …. I quickly figured it at around or a bit above the $4Million mark, I could be wrong. We still have a couple of other options but if I remember correct we can combine that exemption with available options also. You guys are fast hard to keep up .......
Actually verse I edited the part about the backcourt just as you were typing that and changed it to the frontcourt. My mistake! I don't know, I HOPE Eddie Griffin comes around fast, I think he is capable of carrying a franchise like Garnett. He has the skills. But throwing him out there hurt the Rockets because physically he isn't ready for the NBA, and mentally and emotionally he isn't ready. I just don't feel comfortable with a rookie being a our number one option in the post. And I don't feel comfortable with him guarding the monsters of the West. That has injury written all over it, along with mental burn out. Remember he is a rookie, the West have the best big men in the game. Throwing him to the lions is big time trouble.
Oily, I agree it may be possible to sign Jackson on a one year "anderson/taylor" basis. I think this because he now would get a chance to come in and really shine and increase his value next year in free agency. Mason will be tough, if we sign and trade for him, then someone has to go in 2002 - Taylor or Mason I would think. If Mason's contract isn't too high, we could probably trade him without too much trouble. Taylor would be tough without proof he can perform after recovery. Someone like a Chris Gatling might not be bad as well with Jackson... Your thoughts?
I keep trying to keep on keeping up and keeping on ahead of ya’ll …. - KT will definitely get minutes this year and I don’t think that is going to be changed with Mo gone. If anything he may be getting some of those minutes. But we will miss the threat that MoTay brought to the spot and I think that is what they are trying to fill. - To be sure this does not help us at the five either, because MoTay was slated to take some spot work in there. They will continue to pursue a five but now maybe the urgency on settling the roster and depth chart has increased. - If (and I mean IF) the deal with Walt for White (plus extras and bows) gets a little more life to it … and you would think it most assuredly (I honestly do not know for sure) … then that would help us enormously. It would mean we gain a center who has played some PF, for relatively ( I am afraid of what MJ has demanded that slowed or stopped the talks) the same cost of our bench three. But I am afraid it may not stop there. To extrapolate that fearfulness a bit …. Moochie Norris in a Wizard uniform in a sign and trade to Washington may be one of the prices we have to pay. And if THAT were the case, we would be getting probably another of MJ’s castoffs or a third party player to complete the deal. This is not inconceivable, folks.
Rice: Mason on a an extended deal (over 2 years) would not be to our advantage, whatsoever. We need to get him to fill the hole. A 24 months thanks see ya - otta here contract. But he would love this situation. Honest to gawd he is a “calvary to the rescue” type of player and would really shine under that spotlight. I could see (and he could too which is more important I guess) the headlines : “ Anthony Mason Saves The Houston Rockets From Obscurity” or some equally nauseating drivel … but hey Mason could really shine and maybe demand an even bigger piece of the pie at the end of two years. The biggest hurdle with him right now is getting him to move out of the East. IMHO anyway. MoTay will not be traded anywhere near the next couple of years. RT likes him. Period. He is a Rocket type of guy, and believe me if you saw him 24-30 hours a go, you wouldn’t have had a dry eye. RT knows that. MoTay has grit. RT likes Grit. Taylor’s injury is not like an ACL or a nagging angry chronic ankle avulsion fracture. There is no reason he shouldn’t recover very well. Dallas (“Doc”) Rocket will probably address all of this as soon as the announcement is made …. watch for his thread.
