This is great in my opinion. It allows us to shore up the C position with our 2nd round pick rather than our 1st, or possibly the LLE/MLE. At that point, we go through training camp and decide who gets the 3rd string job: Woods, or the 2nd rounder.
You can not ask for a better team man than Deke. A player like Deke makes me proud to support this organization.
Love Deke and glad he's back. OutSTANDING presense to have around, makes everything brighter and enjoyable wherever he goes. But now he's just a situational player like how he was the start of this past season. Not cuz he's a liability, cuz thats all his endurance can give. Deke can give 12-15 minutes every other game but give a max of 25 effictive minutes when put into the starter role. Rockets need a guy that has the legs to play FULL STARTER minutes if he had to, without hurting the team. And without moving players like Scola out of position to play center. Basically Mutombo needs to back up both Yao and the backup in Yao's place.
I might be wrong, but I thought minimum salary didn't count against the cap? Or is it that you can sign minimum salary players while over the cap?
Um... I can give you just about a 100% guarantee that Deke is not coming back for anything other than the vet minimum.
Even if we get that guy we STILL need someone to play "3rd string" centre. How can you not like this? We started the off-season needing 2 backups in the C role, and pretty well only the minimum to offer. Now we only need 1 miracle instead of 2! Fazekas/ Mihm here we go!
We definitely need have to have a "Cookie Night" if Deke is back next year. There needs to be free Nestle Chips-A-Hoy cookies for the first 12,000 fans.
As much as I like Mutombo, I am saddened by this news! The Rockets management will be just that more lax in getting a decent second string center. It releases their mind set from building the championship contender! When Mutombo retires and the new serious replacement comes in, he is going to have limited time to become a part of the team chemistry in respect to Yao's peak years. Give Mutombo a desk/ coachiing position and lets get on with our future team!!
Great way to start the offseason in Deke's return. He see's the potential if healthy...we can win it all
Not necessarily. The Rockets might go for the BPA in the draft. Players like Robin Lopez or perhaps even Nathan Jawai if he moves up could be available,if all SG or SF's that are worth going after are gone.In my opinion Robin Lopez might be a passable player if he can adjust to the speed of the game but I really don't care for him much.I only mentioned his name as a player that management might go after as a additional center. Jawai doesn't have college experience but he looks strong,quick and might be able to score at the NBA level after sometime. A lot will depend on how he will do in the workouts IMO.
Thank god! I know we need to replace Deke eventually, but in the FA market it's Diop and a bunch of scrubs. He's really as good as it gets as backup center this year.
