How to Pick up a Difference Maker in a Series Against Lakers

Who else knows Pau better and would play him harder than his own brother? That's who we need..

 

Number One - We need a wing who can command double teams on the perimeter. If we had a healthy T-mac, we beat LA.

 

and a healthy Yao

 

Just imagine the Rockets beating the Lakers in game 7. That game 7 determines if we were champions or not.

But I believe we can take the Lakers in 7 game series when our whole team is healthy. Lakers destroyed Jazz, and the Nuggets when both team were full strength but the Rockets gave them the run for their money with both our superstars sideline with injuries.

Hopefully we can keep our core group of guys and do like a S&T for a player who can make the big shots and the scoring we need in order to make it over the hump.

Like a Rockets fan I am, I can only keep dreaming until it come true

 

So..our solution to an Odom killer is getting Lamar Odom. Makes sense to me!

 

Honestly though. I don't think Odom is going back to LA. I don't think they can afford him.

 

The key to landing Odom:

Spoiler

 

no to odom. no to rasheed wallace.

both are overpaid, both are inconsistent. rasheed played lazy this whole year, but he skated by on his rep. he's just not the player he used to be. odom is too much of a wildcard. hell, i know quite a few laker fans hope he leaves, because they hate his game so much, and don't want to overpay for his 1 good game out of 4, when he feels like it.

 

Would a deal for Marcin Gortat work as an UFA as he leads the NBA in rebounds per 48 minutes at 17.1 and is only making a little over $700,000.00 this past year? He'd be a big presense in the paint, is aggressive on shot blocking and runs the floor pretty decently and Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette and Rony Turiaf of Golden State for McGrady would give the team the wing in Jackson and the slasher and perimeter shooter in Maggette and Turiaf is downright hostile on the low block defensively at shot blocking.

These players would allow the team to let Wafer walk or play for the lower level exception, and all that would be left is to sign Artest. These players would change the entire offensive attack of the the Rockets and by keeping Barry and Battier the team would be loaded with perimeter threats and have a thick big man in the middle to even pair with Yao if the matchups dictated the two bigs approach.

 

I thought Artest did a great job on Lamar.
Hayes played well on Gasol.
Yao could slow down Gasol enough, but I like him on Bynum even better.

Honestly, healthy we beat the lakers. No doubt in my mind.



We could use a back up center with length, who can run.
No doubt Morey will find him for us.


I'm against lessening our defensive core. Our team has heart and its chemistry only grows. Pray it stays healthy, that is all.

 

Lakers have both Ariza and Odom into the FA. It will be nice to get either of the 2.

But the real difference maker will be health as usual.

 

The Odom negotiations are going to be very interesting. Only teams that can offer him a big contract are non-playoff teams who probably won't be interested. That makes it tight on him. He may have to use the leverage of signing with a contender like the Rockets for a modified MLE with an opt out to get LA to pony up for him.

Can you imagine Odom walking to the Rox for the MLE while we re-sign Artest? LA isn't going to let that happen. That is Odom's leverage with them.

 

One of the reason Odom want to leave LA is because he want to be the starter. But with Gasol as Lakers foward, he got no changce in LA.

If Rockets gets Odom and places him in the starting lineup. Then Scola has to move to bench. If Rockets don't trade him away.

It might work well if Scola becoming Yao's backup. Then you solve many problem.
1. Got a good Backup center(Scola). And in some case Scolar can start and Yao don't even need to play the whole game.
2. Neutralize Odom by take him away from Lakers.
3. Neutralize Gasol as Odom will play extra hard against Gasol to prove himself( hopefully)
4. Les willing to pay luxury tax only if he can get a good player, and this is the one.

Signed
NOLANOLA

 

x1,000,000

Many people don't want to wait and play the healthy game again, but it is just so tantalizing what this team could do.

We could beat the Lakers healthy. We have one of the most beastly defensive cores in the league (if not the most). Remember the "pitbulls" comment. I hope we don't break these guys up for one more year - only if it's to move non-essential guys like McGrady, Barry, Dorsey and (to an extent) Wafer.

 

I like and dislike the Wallace idea. Like it because he'd be great Yao insurance and can also play with Yao because of his range. Don't like it because we get much older (assuming either Scola or Landry would need to be moved or sit) and that's not the direction we want to go in.

 

I feel very sorry that there are so many disbelievers in this board. The current roster is good enough to dominate Fakers and NBA league if they are healthy. Even if without Tmac and rafer, they still had better chance to win.

For me, I think an experienced pure pg should be priority.

 

Exactly. Pretty much a healthy team and we beat the Lakers.