Reading that article from the Chronicle, the Rockets had to give up some quality draft picks in the exchange of Rice and Amaechi. I know the Rockets were just looking to save money and acquire Jim Jackson, but the draft pick swaps looked kind of bad on the Rockets end..... Does anyone else agree w/ me on this?
if it was another team, i would care but for the rox, i dont. the draft is unpredictable and I would gladly give up our next boki or eg who were educated decisions as opposed to yao who was an obvious decision. ive noticed in the past drafts, players are based more on potential than impact. especially with all the international players, everyone has upside but is going to be a project. the rox have enough young players, its apparent that les is thinking big and is past rebuilding. so is jvg, he is not a rebuilding coach, he is a winning coach. its not like the rox have been great at scouting anyway if we have any middle range picks. we dont need another project, we dont need a risk. we are making a run to compete. with that said, I think the trade exception is much more useful for several reasons. 1) we can use it to get a proven player, hell, we can use it to get proven players. we can get a steady center and trade cato for a proven starter. As long as we use the exception, we have more flexibility in improving different positions in the roster, not just signing bench players. 2) now, because the exception gives the rox bartering power, anyone who doesnt play damn well is going to be trade bait. unless we have the perfect team now, which we dont, that trade exception is going to be used to get rid of our weakest links. This makes our players have to play hard, otherwise they get put on the block. 3) new arena, good, solid unselfish players at the 1 and 5, new unis, relentless coach and now all of a sudden we are rich and shopping for impact players? it does not need to be said that other players would be interested in playing for houston, but..uh, i just said it. Houston has become a desirable city to play in again. We got free agents and a coach that could have gotten more somewhere else but they chose the rox for a reason which is that we are a contender. as much as i like the excitement with a high draft pick i think we have outgrown it. Why wait for christmas to have your parents buy you a gift when you have enough cash in your pocket to buy what you want yourself?
Let's see... pay a #17 pick $1,017,700, $1,094,000, & $1,170,300 for 3 years starting in 2004-05 on a team that's already very youthful and hope the pick can produce at some future point (or at least quicker than Boki)... or hire a proven vet @ $1.25m/year to win now... I'll take the latter.
Very SAD that you think this is true!! An otherwise nice post, turned rotten with something that could not be further from the truth.
I'm in agreement we don't need any more projects and we don't need to get younger. Do I think we can get more out of a mid-teens to early twenties draft pick than the ability to sign Jim Jackson and a 6.5 million dollar trade exception? No. I don't. I'm excited about this move.
eh, he has his ups and downs, but im convinced after the all star game that steve will be unselfish if he has quality trustworthy players next to him. honestly, if i was steve, i wouldnt pass the ball to the rook, the soph, the new guy or cat (wouldnt see it in return) knowing my own abilities. i mean, he would have more assists if players on the team could make an open shot.
I too would take the later, but why not both? Didn't we sign JJ with the remainder of the MLE? Sure that 1.3 might have cost Les 2.6, I just find it hard that this was the best deal out there. And I can't believe we held on to Glen through these past 2 years and in the last year of his contract we have to pay someone 1 mid-first round, 2 low second round picks and take out Utah's trash to get Rice off the books 1 year sooner. Straight up John for Glen would have been fair. Why add a 1st rounder? Why add the Chicago obligation? Why add more cash? Did he want his car washed too? Too high a price to get save Les some money.
It takes jedi mind trick abilities to believe giving up first rounder(s) and/or second rounders for a really bad player doesn't matter. There are a ton of good players that have come from the middle of the first round recently. And not all of them are projects. BTW, when did Houston get so close to winning a title that projects are a bad idea? They haven't even made the playoffs yet.
for a second i was angry that the rockets are possibly giving up 2 first rounders. but then if you think about the way the rockets have drafted the past two years, it doesnt really matter. jason collier with the 9th pick??? i'd rather the rockets trade away the pics and save myself the aggravation of wondering for three years why the rockets drafted someone like jason collier.
Looking at mid-round Rocket picks have been sad to worthless. Though as sad as Jason was to us he's twice as good as Amaechi. But this is the old Knicks crew which had a little better "luck" getting some talent from the middle.
It's one thing if the "rook", as you say, is some SF fresh out of college. But the thing is the "rook" is 7'5'' has the best skills for his position in the game and is already the second best player at the center position in the NBA. Francis has already made it clear that he doesn't like the fact that Yao Ming is going to get more touches. Sounds pretty selfish to me. This coming from a PG. "he would have more assists if players on the team could make an open shot." Excuses, excuses!! Maybe if Francis acted like a team leader and set up and offense where players would get an open shot. Or found out where that player likes the ball and got his teammate the ball where he likes it. Thats what PGs do. PGs don't drive the lane in an uncontrolled manner into 3 defenders, hang in the air tell they either get fouled or decide to make a half-ass pass out to the arc. Ill-advised pass. Stupidity. 4 YEARS and ZERO IMPROVEMENT!!!!! I live for the day when Steve Francis is traded.
ArtV - We couldn't not have had both. Follow me on this, please. What is Glen Rice truly worth? I say nothing. And the basis for my statement is three fold - 1) The Jazz couldn't move Ostertag (30 yo and a center) who is also in the last year of his contract. 2) The Jazz (as of Dec 15th) have the option of moving Rice. Now if he has/had that much value, how do explain reports that they may cut him? Shouldn't the Jazz be able to move Rice's expiring contract for the same value you allege the Rockets could have? 3) The Jazz did not acquire Rice for cap space since they are now and would have been under the cap next summer with or without Rice. The picks were the only thing they cared about - no picks, no deal. No deal and signing JJ means your paying Rice $9+m to be JJ's backup. Or perhaps JJ and AGriff's backup because both of them at least play D. So, you would prefer paying Rice $9.6m to backup JJ so that we can have a #17+ pick next summer? I don't.
Gator, I'm not saying he had that much value but I don't think he was such a liability that we had to pay such a price to unload. John for Glen would have been fair. John was a cancer on Utah, overpaid and poor performer with 2 years left on his contract (plus I think Utah they needed more to make league minimum). Rice was way overpaid and old but still can hit the 3 from the top of the key. His reliability was greatly suspect but was in the last year of his contract. Straight up sounds fair. I just think could have done both. Les just didn't want to pay to have both which is fine but he paid too much in assets to save money. I'm not a Rice fan, but I can't believe we spent that much to jettison him on the last year of his contract. And again - if they use the TE to pick-up another player, then I'll change my tune.
NO, you wait until the trade deadline or draft day to move the pick. You will get probably get a better deal. There was no urgency to give the pick away this early. CD is not a wheeler and dealer. Next his he going to try to teach Amaechi his famous hook shot? LOL...
What in hell's name are you talking about? The Rockets were unable to move Glen Rice all summer and the Jazz are going to waive him and you think there is something magical about the Feb trade deadline that makes his value sky rocket? OK, OK, I get it...you're smarter than both the Rox and Jazz managements...
YES, I'm not the one who signed Maloney to long term big money guarantee deal then released him. The guy was out of the league for a season and still getting paid by Rockets. Then signed Cato to another lucrative deal after one good game in pre-season. Don’t even get me started on those now old uniforms. Come on it is a no brainier. If not the trade deadline then the draft day. It is very possible to move a 1st rd pick, especially to team that doesn't have 1st rd pick. Example, last year the Rockets didn't have a 1st rd pick (and again this year) but tried to move into the 1st rd (so they say). If the Jazz waive Amaechi then you pick him off waivers (if that is what you want) and give up nothing. My point is they gave up too much in picks for this guy. I don't care about losing Rice just the picks. We could have a better player at the same salary range.
