They also mentioned that Dajuan Wagner is available. I wouldnt mind taking a flier at Wagner. He has show signs of brillianc at times, but remains way too inconsistent for my taste.
i personally love the idea of eric williams joinging the rocks...but i have this feelin that the rocks always overloads themselves with SF? how many do we need? unless a trade is imminent which i highly think piat's days maybe numbered in houston or griffin..........
Eric Williams and Tony Battie for MoT would be nice. It would solve all our problems except for PG without taking away our TE or MLE. Follow it up by signing Mike James and we're set: Yao/Battie Howard/Battie/Spoon JJ/Williams/Boki T-Mac/Pike James/Lue/Gaines Battie, Spoon and Pike expire at the same time giving us a combined 14M off the cap in the year where Yao is eligible for extension.
They have Z (better, and true C) and Diop (younger) as 5s and neither Diop nor Battie are really very suited offensively for the 4 spot. In fact they don't have a legit power forward on their team and right now look to really have to play guys out of position there. I doubt they could find a better fitting PF to play off James and their other guys than MoT or JH without trading core members of the team.
Eric Williams as a Rocket would be AWESOME! Especially if we could trade Spoon for him. I'd still start JJ but i'd share t-mac, and jj minutes with him. I think he'd be a great spark off the bench.
That's what I was thinking, split some time between the 3/4, that way he doesn't cut into Boki's minutes at SF and SG.
Tony Battie? No thanks, definitely not for Juwan Howard. Some people really don't see how much of an upgrade Howard is at the PF spot, and how well his game fits on this current roster, most importantly how it fits with our main big man.
this could be a huge coup for the Rox. CLE should be angling for a PF. We have Howard, Taylor and Spoon to chose from. CLE would probably want Howard, but i'd push to dump taylor. he would provde a nice offensive compliment to Lebron. We also have Pike to offer, and it is well known that CLE wants proven outside shooting (thus the prior discussion re Ollie for Pike. As for the other suitors: Boston can offer up McCarty and Lafrenz. Personally, I think Lafrenz is horrendous, and he is a contractual albatross. McCarty is 3 happy and won't play the low post. Atlanta has close to diddly squat. ATL now has Harrington (who will blossom big time; ATL absolutely swindled INdiana). ATL can offer Alan Henderson, who is far less a player than Taylor. NJ can offer up Scalabrine or Aaron Williams. IMO, Williams is a better PF than Taylor. He is very physical but does not score well. Also, with the departure of Kmart, I doubt that the Nets really want to move Williams. Back to the Rockets. Williams would give us great flexibility at the 3 and 4. Frankly, because Howard is duplicative of Taylor, adding Eric Williams as a rotatoin player would be huge. We still lack a true PF banger but he can certainly handle the tough wing assignments and some of the finesse PF's. I can envision JVG going with JJax, Tmac and Ewilliams during stretches of ballgames. The points about Tmac conserving energy on defense and JJax cutting back his minutes are huge. The huge point is tha we lose close to nothing if we trade Taylor and Pike. I'd take Eric Williams and reasonable length/dollar contacts in return. I don't care what the hell they play. We win no matter what. This is a deal we must do. If we can get a backup C out of this, well hell, all the better. But this is a deal we must do.
pike and taylor for battie and williams sounds awesome! and then sign damon jones or mike james (preferrably damon jones) pg jones/lue/gaines sg mcgrady/nachbar/gaines sf jackson/williams/nachbar pf howard/battie/weatherspoon/williams c ming/battie
I somehow doubt we'll be giving up much more than somebody like Pike whom we've apparently already given up on. Eric Williams is an unrestricted free agent and we can sign him outright with out giving up anything.
what is the anticipated going rate for Eric Williams, adjusted for the GM's gone wild factor? full MLE?
Eric Williams brings a lot to the table (or the court and lockeroom if you prefer) and I'd like to see the Rox make a play for him. But IMVHO, Williams will not get full MLE $ from any of the teams which still have it. Unfortunately, if we prioritize a PG and then a C, a SF/PF becomes a luxury. If Williams feels he can get quality PT in HOU, he might be had for 4 years $12m-$15m. Or over half the MLE. Meaning that we have a ~$2m MLE, a $1.6m exception and a $1m vet minimum to sign a PG and C.
GATER, that's about where I see Williams salary value as well. I think slightly over half the MLE. I think if we could get Williams, he will turn out to be this year's Jim Jackson in terms of value. But overall I agree, SF is a luxary right now with PG and backup C the more pressing issues.
That's an option that I left out because I see the Rox wanting to hold onto Juwan and I don't see CLE as that interested in Mo T or Spoon. That means your down to Piatkowski who makes just about what a Williams SnT would be. Not sure how I'd feel about that. In a SnT don't lose sight of the fact that we'd have to offer CLE something they'd want. And also, that they don't have much to combine with Williams that the Rox might get excited about (they like McInnis, Snow can't be traded until 12.15, Diop IIRC has a questionable work ethic). Like many others, I'd like to get both Battie and Williams but agaIn I don't think CLE is that enamored with Mo T. Silas was a monster rebounder. saleem - If you mean sending CLE a draft pick to SnT Williams to us, that's actually a pretty good option. But there's not much motivation for us since Williams is unrestricted and we don't have to send CLE anything. However, if Williams is still on the market after we've handled the PG and backup C spots and we've used up the full MLE to accomplish that, we can make that trade getting Williams for part of the TE. Right now. I'd have to say we're holding on to the TE to see if we need it for Antonio Daniels. An interesting summer would be Damon Jones and Keon Clark splitting the MLE and Eric Williams for the TE.
DONE! PG: Jones/Lue/Gaines SG: McGrady/Pike/Griffin SF: Jackson/Williams/Nachbar PF: Howard/Taylor/Spoon C: Yao/Clark Lue, Williams, Taylor and Clark would be your 4 man bench rotation. Not bad. Plus you have Gaines and Nachbar that perhaps could crack that rotation depending on their play. GATER, I agree in your assesment that the Rockets are holding onto the T.E. for Daniels. I think they are holding out for him to see what they can work out.
