[Done Deal] Rockets dealing Juwan Howard for Mike James

Finally!! A guy with some fire and character.

 

Dude... the Eddie Griffin deal was a GREAT deal (Seriously) IF he wouldve stayed off drugs and stopped beating his wife.

Griffin was an immensely talented young player with crazy atheleticism, Jefferson was only guy on that trade that was worth crap (collins/whoever the hell else were crap) and Jefferson is only as good as he is so fast because he actually has JKidd... JKidd makes EVERYONE BETTER. Jefferson if he stayed on Rockets would even today just be very decent nothing more.


Can't blame management for stuff, we all say we woudl do this and take but 3/4 of the GARM were ready to get rid of Tmac for whatever crap was lying around, if the Rockets did that they wouldve been screwed.

 

Harris is a premiere PG compared to anything we've got here but if you really think Alston is better then you are entitled to your opinion. My point concerned the stated objective that this team needed to get younger and more athletic - something this trade did not address. What the Rockets have to do and what I don't see them doing, is to do what Dallas did when they found Nash languishing on the Phoenix bench. They have to make the good draft choices like Dallas did when picking Josh Howard at 29. They have to be smart and very good at finding talent and make trades like the one Utah made with Indiana. That's how they will begin to turn this around. And above all, they have to get out of the place where their mistakes prove to be so handicapping to their overall prospects. All team make mistakes - it's inevitable - but it just seems to me that the Rockets' mistakes impact them far more because they keep making the same ones. That's the only way they can fix this mess. When I start to see evidence of this happening then I will start to feel satisfaction.

 

You add a third scoring threat (a guy that can get his own shot) and you get younger. His contract runs out the summer he turns thirty-five. All you gave up for him was an aging power forward that averaged five points a game in a seven game series against the Jazz. Five points...

How is this not a good trade?

 

Clutch, I have to know...did you have one of your sources tell you this rumored deal was going to happen before you did your Mike James Rocket Profile? I remember reading it at the time and thinking it was funny that you spent the time to photoshop up a picture of James standing next to Rafer than to just put a picture of James when he was actually on the Rockets. Now that he has been traded for, it is perfect because those two will be taking each other's minutes.

(I understand that Rafer was traded for James, I'm just wondering if there was any other motivation behind that photoshop when you made it).

 

Good trade.

I know mj was selfish in his play considering he had TMac and Yao to get the ball to, but I'm hoping that that was just his play style on a contract year. His contract is what it is now and I hope he can play for the good of the team. All in all though - even at his worst, he is an upgrade over Rafer.

And the cost? JH. I can't see how we could have gotten more with less. JH has negative value. The only way for his increased value is to wait another year. Even then you are looking at trades that take on a bloated contract player not playing to his value or we have to hope that some team is having a fire sale on good players because they want to start over. Big gamble on the later ever happening.

We gained a positive and lost a negative. I can understand the apprehensiveness of being overly giddy but I don't understand, "why'd we do that?" people. We traded a bloated contract of someone who's quite possibly lost the last basketball skill he had, for someone who is a upgrade over our current pg. Where's the downside?

Now it's time to go after Artest and take advantage of the rare fire sale that the Queens are having (Lewis is a pipe dream). Followed by getting the best 4 a Battier and Rafer will get you (then get a 2/3 filler(s) with MLE) or the best 4 you can sign with MLE. Then I can see us getting past the 1st round.

 

awsome move......for what we are giving up, I think its a steal.....now I hope tracy and mj can get along...

 

no team JHoward is on will ever get far in the playoffs. Just a fact of basketball. Good to get rid of him.

 

I didn't say I think Alston is better than Harris. I said that I don't think Harris is "far better" than our point guards - and I was including Mike James. I agree Harris is better than Alston and I'd probably give him a slight edge on Mike James too, though mostly only due to age.

It's true that Mike James is no spring chicken, but he is both younger and more athletic than Juwan Howard - so ...

Well, we'd all love to see the Rockets management performing at the level of the Mavericks, Suns and Spurs, and obviously any true Rockets fan gets sick when they remember moves like the Eddie Griffin trade (despite the fact we all supported it at the time), the bloated contracts of Matt Maloney, Maurice Taylor, Kelvin Cato, Moochie Norris and on. And some still cringe at the Battier trade and the Alston trade. I also don't think you'll find many folks here that were satisfied with Juwan Howard and Tyronn Lue as our starters after the McGrady trade (though the general consensus seems to be there was little to do about that at the time), but my problem with your rants here are that all of these moves are what you're actually angry about. You aren't mad at this move. This move isn't a bad move. So why decry it? This move did make us slightly younger and quite a bit more athletic. This move did deepen our point guard position even if it didn't net us an all-star to compete with the all-stars you've mentioned. And better still? This move is a strong indication that there are more moves to come. Clearly they'll need a new power forward. Clearly they'll need to be rid of some of the point guards on our roster. We all know you're unhappy with our management (despite the fact we've yet to see what the new GM can do) because we've seen these angry proclamations from you for years, but wouldn't it be wiser to see how Morey follows up this move before you lump him in with Carroll Dawson, Rudy Tomjanovich and whoever else you're still mad at?

p.s. the Utah/Indiana trade you mention - do you mean Golden State or did I miss something?

 

I still have a question that has been asked already, but I haven't seen it answered...

How are the Rockets and T-Wolves supposedly completing this deal today? Aren't they still in a "no trades, no signings" period until a particular date, the draft, the Finals ending, or whatever?

Sincerely,
Very confused and anxiously looking for an answer.

PS...also, the Chron clearly states that T-Wolves are picking up the trade kicker, but others in here are still saying the Rocks are paying it. What's the definitive answer on that one?

 

Good question(s), I think.

Perhaps Stern has decreed the Finals are finis? Actually, I thought there was a no-trade moratorium until the draft or 72 hrs after Finals, so - I hope you get your answer.

IIRC the trading team picks up the kicker, not the receiving team. How does it affect cap $s?

 

It might come in the form of cash considerations. Teams trading for a player usually pay for the trade kicker. Whatever the case the 15% rise in salary counts towards the Rockets salary cap and his remaining years will be calculated based on that figure.

 

I assumed that it would HAVE to be the team that traded him. Otherwise, why wouldn't you give someone a trade kicker if it really didn't affect you?

 

The league is pretending this dreadful finals isn't happening.

 

Update from Feigen's blog

At about 11 a.m., the deal was about done. There should be an announcement this afternoon. But the teams are stil talking about an addition, discussing forward Justin Reed.

 

HillBoy,

Would it be somewhat correct to say that you've been fed up with the last few years of of the mgmt team making far more mistakes than others on finding at least solid role players to put around their "big" acquisitions? And that you were hoping that the first "move" by the new GM and new coach would be something that would at least look like we're going swimming in a fresh new pond, rather than the same murky, stagnant watering hole we've been swimming in for years?

IOW, it sounds to me like you want some reassurance that this mgmt team will be more adept at finding good role players than the last one was. And that this move doesn't really signal that for you because it involves a player that the old regime already yo-yo'd through here.

 

is this official yet?

 

Update on Feigan's Blog:

http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2007/06/together_again_the_rockets_get.html

At about 11 a.m., the deal was about done. There should be an announcement this afternoon. But the teams are stil talking about an addition, discussing forward Justin Reed. He's a good athlete with a good power forward body. He does not execute well in a precision, play-calling offense, but in a more free-flowing offense, could be a good pickup. It probably still a bit of a longshot to get done, but he is what they're talking about.

 

Usually? What does that mean? First of all, I thought it was a relatively uncommon thing for a player to even get a trade kicker in the NBA so how does it even happen often enough for there to be a usually? Second, aren't there clear cut rules about these sorts of things? I find it doubtful that there isn't some clear cut rule about how these clauses work in the NBA. So I guess my questions is, do you really know what you're talking about or are you just pulling this out of your ass?

 

So funny but so true