I think a sign and trade would be logical for both teams...both could use their MLE and we might be able to scrounge something off the Lakers.
shandon anderson.......... hopefully morey is treating this like a video game is gonna ship him within a month
Shane Battier for Rudy Fernandez? Portland could also sign Von Wafer to replace Rudy's scoring of the bench.
First note: I think I've been a member since 2002 and this might be my first post ever. Besides that, I have a few questions I'd like to get your opinions on, especially from the older fellas that have been around on this board for quite a few years. 1. When you guys go to rockets.com and view the video of our prospects, you can see about six of our prospects scrimmaging with one another. First of all, who is the big tatted guy playing against Joey? Second of all, who has a list of all the prospects that we hold the rights to at this current moment? 2. Assuming Ariza does end up signing with us, and presumably, he will be starting at SG in place of Ron, we're still short a center. I know people mention Zaza and Hollins (who, by the way, is a RFA). However, 2 names I don't hear being mentioned much are Frye and Gooden. As we are a team without great scoring prowess without Yao/Mac/Ron, I feel like those two skinny pseudo-centers might fit in well with us. Plus, they're young as well. 3. Lastly, after signing Ariza and a center, and assuming we sign both Jermaine and Chase, we'll be at 16 players for this coming year. I know it's plenty early, but who do you see being traded, waived, etc? Brian is the most obvious answer, but we won't give away his $3.5M expiring for nothing either. See: (1) Brooks, (2) Lowry, (3) Barry, (4) Ariza, (5) McGrady, (6) Taylor, (7) Battier, (8) White, (9) Budinger, (10) Scola, (11) Landry, (12) Cook, (13) Yao, (14) Hayes, (15) Dorsey, and (16) Our new center. PS - who thinks we'll trade Shane and continue the semi-youth rebuilding process? I know Morey already tried offering him in a package to acquire the 2nd pick, and I feel like he'll do the same if the right play comes along. Sorry for the long post, and as always, Rockets fans, thanks for reading. - D
i think we need both battier and ariza. if battier leaves. are you so comforatble in leaving all perimeter defense on ariza? an unproven defender ( has he been on any all defensive teams?) i mean if we play against portland, who is gonna guard roy and hedo? if we play la who is gonna guard kobe and artest? we would feel more comfortable if battier and ariza are still on the team, we would have the best help defense in the league.
Ariza is a great pickup, although I personally would've preferred keeping Artest. The reason we got him in the first place was for Artest to be that enforcer to complement Yao's and Tmac's more passive personalities. Now, I don't know who on this team can give that to us.
I'm going to assume Lakers have Ariza's bird rights. Rockets sign Ariza to an offer sheet. Lakers sign Artest to an offer sheet. Then Rockets and Lakers match the offers. Then they trade. We'll get the players we want, without giving up the MLE.
I agree...we should definitely keep shane as the 6th man and solid veteran to come off the bench with some rookies and try and help lead the way...he can also help improve team defense and ariza's defense, even though he's already a beast (see key steals referenced earlier by someone in the playoffs this past year...)
I agree, we need someone BIG. Ariza is huge on the defensive end, great with steals and has improved his long range shooting out of sight, but we need a guy that can play 4 or 5....Stoudemire Please!!!!!
We've been waiting around on that IF ever since we got Tracy to team up with Yao. I'd have to say "not likely" on that happening.
Full MLE for a career backup SF? Man, I sure hope Ariza will further improved his overall performance the next few years!
does anyone else feel if we managed to sign artest, why would we be interested in trading him for ariza???
Mark Berman said Ariza said he gave up an offer that was $9 million more than what the Rockets offered to sign with Houston.
