MoT: The third best player of the team. Good offense player but below average on rebound and defense. He may be a good sixth man. But he is not a good fit with Ming who himself is great on offense and short on rebound and defense, too. The fact he was unprotected and was not picked by Bobcats tell you his trade value. Juwan Howard: Similar to MoT but with more milage. He will make 6 mil/year until 2008. JJ: Career journey man but finally find a home in JVG's system. A good player for his age. The problem is he is trying to do too much on the court and also talk too mcuh about his teammates facing the media. He won't be a significant part of the Rockets' championship run except some limited bench role. Motumbo: A great player but won't be here for too long. CWard: The reason he is still playing in NBA is because JVG is a head coach. Lue: Maybe a good backup. But he was one of the teammates TMac quitted on. He is in contract year and Houston hasn't show intention to resign him. Boki: A young player who never get chance to develop. The key fact is the team which drafted him high didn't pick up his option. He will sign with somebody else next year. Weatherspoon: A old undersized PF who is short on talent but big on efforts will collect his six millions for two more years. Reece Gaines: A trade throw in. I don't believe that he will keep collecting his money on IR until 2007. Bob Sura: Jury is still out. The fact that he scheduled his surgery at the end of off season tells you his commitment, although Shaq and alike usually do this kind of thing. Scott Padgett: You can find a lot of guys like him in CBA. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In summary, we don't have too much talent and trade value in our supporting cast. Now It is time to criticize the management. While players and coaches fight in regular season and playoff time, GMs fight their war in off season. A good GM should figure out what his team is for the next season and try to vison a team three years down the road. For this Rockets team, three years down the road, only very limited positions are figured out. TMac will be our starting two guard. His backup ??? If we are lucky, Ming signs an extension. Backup center ??? Starting SF ??? JJ may still be a servicable backup Starting PF ??? Backup: MoT/Howard Starting PG ??? Backup: Sura? Lue? With TMac's price tag, plus Yao's salary, this team will have life-time salary cap problem. No additional draft picks in next several years, no young talents on the team, no tradable role players. We can dream on improvement in next a few years. You may give me an example how Dallas rebuilds every year. But the fact is that Dallas team is overloaded with talents, expecially young talents. And they alway trade talent for talent. Not like our team. Trade KThomas for JPosey, then let Posey run away. Trade three 1nd picks for EG, then sat tight watching him go crazy (Can Rockets spent $20000 to hire a private eye investigating him a bit?) Now is this three starters-for-TMac trade. This really remind me of Herschel Walker.
Dude, you sure have been starting a lot of "we suck" threads lately. But, since you posted... First, it's Yao, not Ming. Ming is his first name. Second, he isn't a great fit with Yao for the reasons you mentioned, but he was left unprotected and was not selected because: 1. The Rockets knew Charlotte was not interested in players with large salaries. 2. The Bobcats wanted to build with young talent. There were quite a few decent players on that list that weren't taken and it had little to do with talent and a lot to do with contracts and age. Howard was someone we had to take as part of the T-Mac deal in order to make the whole thing work. I'm sure the Rockets didn't want to take on his contract given the similarities between he and Taylor, but those are the things you do to acquire a superstar like McGrady. I just disagree with this completely. I don't see him as doing any more than is asked of him on the floor. IMO, he could be this team's version of Mario Elie - good defender and outside shooter with limited abilities to get his shot and a willingness to be a vocal leader in the absence of other players. Mutumbo will be here for one more season and will probably retire. Ward would play this season but he shouldn't be starting and wouldn't be if Sura was healthy. What difference does it make if he was one of the teammates T-Mac allegedly quit on? He is a solid back up who should have an opportunity to return. The Rockets could not re-sign him before this season even if they had wanted to. He has been afforded a lot of opportunities, but just has not demonstrated skill in game situations. He's a good three point shooter so far this year and can be a valuable contributor if he continues to improve in that area. Whether or not he returns is completely dependent upon how he plays as it should be. Exactly - two fewer years than Moochie Norris will collect on his contract. I'm not sure we know what will happen with Gaines yet. No one does. No arguments. No you can't. 6'10" forwards who can shoot the three with consistency and aren't afraid to mix it up in the paint? Not a chance. Man, you are captain negative, aren't you. I think you SERIOUSLY under-value our best players. LA went through exactly the same issues with Shaq and Kobe and they managed to win three championships in 5 seasons. I just don't cannot imagine why you think that this team is going to suck forever. The Thomas for Posey trade was necessary with a glut of forwards. Thomas can't even get off the bench now. No way you give Posey $42 million. He's a good defender and decent shooter, but he got way too much money from the Grizz. The Griffin thing was a disaster for sure, but, how in God's name can you compare T-Mac to Herschel Walker? Are you serious? McGrady is, by all accounts, one of the 5 best players in the NBA and still in his mid-20's. The guy has 10 or 12 years of MVP calliber ball ahead of him. You are certainly entitled to your opinion no matter how nuts it may be, but, at some point, you are going to need to give it a rest. I'm starting to think you aren't much of a Rockets fan and, if that is the case, why do you even bother posting here.
Rockets wanted to reshape them. I think yaoming may be reshaped into a combination of Shaq and Dream someday in future
Bottom line: Eddie Griffin, Bostjian Nachbar, the trade to Utah, lack of good scouting, and very poor salary cap decisions have set us back big time. Rarely has 1 team had the multitude of draft choices and not picked up a single decent player. We were in salary cap hell b/c of poor contract decisions on Moochie, Mo Taylor, Rice, blah blah blah. We had 3 picks in the Griffin draft that was squandered for nothing. Nachbar has been a bust. Receiving Gaines as part of the McGrady deal was worth 0. We lost a 1st rounder to get rid of Glen Rice's contract (and picked up the trade exception which has yet to be fully utilized) Even signing Charlie Ward and Bobby Sura has paid 0 dividends compared to Damon Jones who signed with Miami and is playing very well. It will be virtually impossible for this team to reload purely through free agency. We need to find a Kyle Korver or Marquis Daniels type player. Finding Sleepers is not uncovering the Hope diamond. Over 1/2 the league has at least 1 good young sleeper player - unfortunately, we don't....
As goog as Jordan was, he still need help. After his first retirement, the MJ/Pippen/Kukoc trio are still not enough for a championship. The Bulls went all the way bringing erratic Rodman on board. For your Shaq/Kobe comparison, Ming will never be as dominant as Shaq, although I was labelled as a Yao fan. Talentwise, TMac is at the same level as Kobe, but desirewise, I don't know. But Even Shaq/Kobe duo still need help, otherwise Shaq wouldn't lobby the Mailman and the Glover. Their old players are full of championship experience, like Ron Happer, Horace Grant, and Robert Horry. Do you dare to put JJ and CWard in the same category as Horace Grant and Bob Horry?
Can you imagine in your wildest dream that JVG will try some sleepers? Hell, no! He would rather play CWard and JJ forever.
Hasn't the TE expired? Also, did we recieve another TE in the TMac trade? I remember people saying this but no one ever confirmed. This was a bad deal for the Rockets. It was all about $$$ in this case, but it would have been nice to have Rice's contract coming off the books. Well, we won't know how much dividends Sura will pay until he comes back in full health. But losing out on Jones was a bad mistake. I don't know how much he got, but I don't think it was too much-compared to Fisher/Barry. But we need to get some good draft picks, we need youth. We are the oldest team in the league and we are playing like it. However, I don't if draft picks will have as big impacts on this team as others. JVG doesn't have the rep of being able to develop players. We know he loves hard-nosed vets. But his rotation and the way he uses these vets don't really help young players. When Ewing/Oakley/LJ/Starks left, JVG was left with a bunch of young players and JVG lost it and quit.
This is a very fair assessment. As good as Jordan was, he still needed Pippen and Horace Grant (later Kukoc and Rodman). McGrady is not Jordan (no one will be - maybe Lebron) Yao is not Shaq (and will probably never be) Im not exactly sure who is running the show. When Van Gundy first signed, it appeared that Van Gundy was strictly coach and CD was GM. Now, who knows. The problem with Van Gundy is he has a grind it out style that creates very close ball games. Close ball games work when you have a very cohesive team with clutch players who play defense and rebound. Our defense is often suspect for stretches and our rebounding sucks. If you don't have enough fire power to blow people away, you'd better collect every loose ball. This is a recipe for disaster. As far as our management - Somehow we transformed from the youngest team in the league to Geritol land. We do not need veteran role players - we need good role players. We need to figure this out fast unless Malick Badienne is progressing at warp speed.
I am sure a Rockets fan. My NBA league pass in the past three years are solely dedicated to Rockets games. The reason I post here is very simple. I have two goals. 1) to evoke fan response to get JVG and CD fired and to start a Houston roster youth movement. 2) if JVG not fired. I would dedicate my time to Chinese board--**************.com to push fan opinion that Houston is no more a fitable place for Yao.
Before Pat Riley joined Knicks. NY played Chicago in first round of 1991 playoff. In the first game, Ewing had six shoot attempts and scored six points. Never underestimate a good coach. Pat Riley transformed John Starks and Anthony Mason from CBA refugees into NBA allstars. Can JVG do that?
If your love of the Rockets is predicated on who is the coach and, because of that, you would advocate on behalf of another team taking Yao away from us, you are not a Rockets fan. You are, in fact, the exact opposite of a Rockets fan. One might even call you a traitor. Oh, and you probably ought to go ahead and take yourself over to whatever board that is, because CD and JVG aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
You're kidding, right? I'm sure Van Gundy will be quivering over his job security any day now, as will the Dawson family. 13 games into a season with a complete roster overhaul now built around 2 mid 20s superstars will not force any front office overhauls. Period. I don't think anyone will deny the lack of talent, youth and depth that this team has behind Yao and TMac. Taylor and Jackson are solid role players, and even guys like Lue and Ward have their place on winning teams. Howard sorely looks out of place on this team- this team doesn't need his veteran leadership (TMac is well seasoned, Yao is well mannered, and JVG clearly has the reins of the team), and his talents don't mesh well. No one knew exactly what this team had when the trade was made, and we still don't. I trust that after this season, or even at the trade deadline (making use of the TE created in the TMac-Francis deal, and preserved in the Pike-Deke deal) assuming it continues as it has to date, that we will go out and acquire talent at the 1 or at one of the forward slots. Until it comes and passes that we don't, I just don't really see what there is to be moaning about.
the only thing that i would ad to this tread is that GOD is only one and he is the only who know were we go and Rudy T, JVG , CD are doing the best they can to bring good players to the team. if damon jones want to sing with another ball club (is a free world and we can't push them to sing with us,-- is the same case of brent barry we pay him more but the sing with spurs) we can't predic what will happen next
That was by far the biggest mistake of the offseason if Ward's signing at 3years/$7.5 million total prevented Jones from being signed. At first, I thought Damon Jones was trying to jam the Rockets up for a big contract since Fisher got a big contract. After the numbers got released to the public, it's pretty ludicrous to see Damon Jones who is a UH product get signed for such a minute contract. JVG did a favor for his brother. That's what it looked like. I was thinking Ward could at least can the 3. The guy is looking like a bust already. Sura better look like someone who can start because he has to take up the slack at that position.
Damon Jones wanted to go back to Houston. This guy is from Galveston. As much as he might like Miami, he knows Dwayne Wade is there in Miami. He had an opportunity to start with the Rockets. He wanted to be in Houston. Charlie Ward looks like he turning out to be a case of the old coach scratching the back of his former point guard.
