Pau and Nene isn't going to do jack **** against the hear or Lakers.......another Ho hum move. No superstar wants to come to Houston, we need to draft one. I hate tanking but it beats this crap.
I already said Martin is the better scorer. That doesn't automatically make him that much better than Courtney Lee. In my opinion, you are selling Lee short. He's athletic, can shoot the three, and put up solid scoring numbers when given the minutes last season. He's a well rounded starter. He's not battier defensively, but he's well above average. The Magic wouldn't have asked him(as a rookie) to cover Kobe one-on-one in the finals if he didn't have strong skills in that area. Conversely, Martin is a major negative on defense. He gives his opponent almost as much as he scores. If Martin was even average defensively, he'd be an untouchable piece that never comes up in trade talks. Pairing him, bud, and scola is a recipe for disaster defensively. As for tanking, I'm not in favor of it. It's a crapshoot on what pick you get, and drafting the future superstar is not an exact science. I build the best roster I can, and hope to complement it by striking gold in the draft. Furthermore, the lineup I endorsed was not the finished product, but it's a huge step in the right direction. They would be better than the nuggets if they added Nene after getting Gasol. They would have had a legit chance to win the Southwest Division, and winning matters to stars as well as talent. Gasol also has a better chance of attracting that star rather than Martin and Scola. He's the best player of the three and helps the team on the defensive end. Also if you wanted to tank, you could trade Pau for prospects and picks and not be burdened with Martin and Scola's long term contracts.
Ya tell me how this trade even makes us better? How does this trade allow us to beat the Heat or Lakers for the next 2-3 years when Pau and Nene(assuming Nene was going to sign because of Pau) are 30-31......
Where would paul go? Who would have the cap room? If he goes, then the rockets would have the cap room. If he stays, the rockets have cap room to go after Howard. Superstars want to play with other superstars. If the rockets dont have 1, they cant get the other.
Kyle Lowry with Pau and Nene would have been nasty. (Daryl Morey works his magic for some nice wing players...)
Because the Rockets would have Lowry to defend Paul. Lee would struggle defensively against Kobe, but the advantage between Pau/Nene vs. Bynum/? would somewhat make up for it. The major difference between to both team's benches would make up for the rest of it. Seriously, the Lakers bench consisted of Lamar Odom and Shannon Brown. Lamar would be on the Hornets, and Shannon is a free agent. I'll give you the Heat... but there aren't many teams that can compete with them at this point.
I wanted it because it sets up a few good ideas for players to come to the Rockets. It may be short sighted losses of Martin and Scola. It might have also ended up us getting Nene, Deandre, or Marc Gasol to go with Pau. Then maybe some other trade down the line for some guy who wnats to come to a contender with bigs like we have. Now our options are limited at least from a free agency standpoint.
Is Steve Francis responsible for all of this? Did Francis start all of this? He publicly announced that he did not want to play for the Grizzlies, citing the distance from his Maryland home, taxes, endorsements, and God's will. Heavily criticized for his antics, especially in Vancouver, he relented and briefly considered joining the Grizzlies before contentious negotiations and an incident at the Vancouver airport convinced both the franchise and Francis they needed to go separate ways. Francis got his wish, being traded before the 1999–2000 season began to the Houston Rockets in a three-team, 11-player deal that brought Michael Dickerson, Othella Harrington, Antoine Carr and Brent Price, plus first- and second-round picks to the Grizzlies. It was the largest trade in NBA history at that time. Followed by Alonzo Mourning who used the same excuse when Toronto traded Vince Carter for him. He said that it was too cold in Canada. He ended up winning a ring in Miami. Up next Jim Jackson, Steve's teammate, failed to report to Atlanta after a deal was finalized sending Bobby Sura to the Rockets. He didn't want to play for Atlanta because he was too old and they sucked. T-Mac created a list of acceptable trade destinations including Houston. LeBron, Bosh, and Melo pull the same stunt in similar fashion. This needs to stop now. Paul, Howard, and Williams are pretty much the last three players left to bid on for some time.
Like others, I was not comfortable with the trade, for some of the reasons Gilbert mentioned among others. I always felt the Lakers by far had the best deal, and we were entitled to another asset or at least force them to take on Thabeet. That said, the NBA had no right to veto this trade. Instead of a feeling of relief, Stern's decision left a sour taste in my mouth. The problem comes down to the NBA owning the Hornets. We all knew from the start that for that situation to have worked, the NBA needed to be entirely detached and impartial to the NO Hornets. Fans, players, and executives all thought Dell Demps had the authority to deal with other teams. Now we find out that the NBA can veto any deal involving Chris Paul? Not hard to see why the NBA community is full of bitterness. If i were Demps I would step down from that position and let the Stern buy another puppet. Again...we've all foreseen a situation like this, but when this situation actually arisen, the leagues ****s in their pants. To make matters worse, instead of telling the truth, they have the audacity to tell us that they declined the trade for "basketball reasons." All this resentment and backlash is certainly warranted.
I was curious of what Morey had in mind after the acquisition of Pau. I guess we'll never know. It's going to be a very awkward first day training camp for houston.
Right on, leebigez. I think this almost-trade shows us that McHale wants us to be better defensively. We would have traded away our two biggest defensive holes. Morey amazes me. We all know he'll come up with something else like this, some time this season. Well, not all of us know.
