It's become obvious now that the Rockets number one goal this off-season is to acquire Chris Bosh and everything else is on the back burner. If the Rockets are able to get Bosh then kudos to Morey and the team. But in the event that Chris Bosh departs for another team then where do the Rockets turn to ? Do you keep Luis Scola and try to keep the current roster intact without adding a major piece. Putting all hope that Yao can come back and perform and wait for the 2011 off-season to make your moves with a better idea of Yao's status. Or do you go after David Lee/Amare or continue the pursuit of Ricky Rubio.
i don't like amare, so i don't think it will be out plan B. my plan B is, if we can't acquire bosh, we will change out target to wade or iggy, and use draft or MLE to acquire one or two big man who can block shot, rebound and play about 15 min per game. also, don't forget, we have jordan hill! he will be a beast next season !!!
Move up in the draft. Although this isn't mutually exclusive to getting Bosh. Also, while the focus are on the free agents, there's no reason to believe Morey won't also go after players under contract.
I'm pretty certain that Morey's determined to upgrade the power forward position this offseason. Not saying we're getting rid of Scola though.
Plan A Chris Bosh Plan B Call the Hornets and at least inquire about Chris Paul Plan C Acquire a True backup center, add a draft pick and move forward with this core. Emeka Okafor would be ideal, but i don't see Les taking on that Albatross contract If they wanted Amare that bad they could have had him. I like David Lee, but he's still going to command big money, he's good, but not THAT good. Other than these guys, i can't think of any other realistically available players that would improve the team that much.
Plan A is probably a pipe dream to begin with. Just like last year with Gortat. Trying to get him for a reasonable price would've been a great pickup... but it didn't happen. You can't win them all. If it wasn't for the fact that Morey seems to pull deals out of his ass every year, I would predict that we don't do anything major other than perhaps move up in the draft or stay at 14 and get a solid guy that can help us now. If we can't get Bosh. I'm kind of hoping we hold on to #14. I want to see what we can get with a relatively low pick. We pulled Brooks, Landry, Budinger and Greene (the guy that showed enough promise to Sac that we got Artest for him) out of the end of the first round. There are gems to be had at 14 as well.
If Bosh is a pipe dream, give me another team that is a more realistic destination for Bosh. Unless he's wants to leave 30 mill on the table, he'll need a sign and trade, and no team can top the rockets combo of young talent and draft picks.
Miami (Beasley), OKC (Green), Nets (Brook Lopez?), Chicago (Noah? ok... maybe Chicago doesn't do that), Sacramento (Landry, Hawes), Clippers (Kaman). Those are the teams that would do Toronto a favor by not forcing them to take back expiring contracts that they would still have to pay for a year. And then you have teams like Portland that could trade Toronto straight up for Aldridge. Utah has Andre Kerilinko's 17 million dollar expiring, Paul Milsap and New Yorks Lottery pick. Orlando has an outside chance with Vince Carter's expiring and Gortat (I think if you are Orlando you do that trade because Carter isn't going to stay at all-star level forever). Milwaukee could hypothetically trade Andrew Bogut and John Salmon's expiring. Obviously some of those you question whether both teams would do it (the Portland, Utah and Milwaukee deals for example). I mentioned 10 potential teams. And the principle young guy in the deal in most of the cases has more trade value than Jordan Hill right now. And obviously Bosh could say "well I want to go to team X", but we don't know how large or small his list is. It's possible, clearly, that we land him. But I just want people to be somewhat realistic so that when the day comes and we don't make a deal for Bosh, that people won't be calling for Morey's head. There are a lot of teams that would like to upgrade their low post talent and there are a lot of teams that have either cap space, expirings or some combination as well as 1 young big that Toronto would deal for.
While I do think that the acquisition of Bosh is very unlikely, you have to think they make a move. The 2010 offseason is just going to be way too busy for him to not make some kind of move. We don't know what it will be, but it's going to be something. Last season he grabbed David Anderson from the Hawks, signed Ariza and bought a few 2nd rounders (Taylor and Buddinger). Then of course there was the deal that got us Martin-Hill and picks. The season before that there was the trickery in the draft that eventually led to us trading for Artest, and then at the deadline Alston for Lowry. It seems like every year there is some kind of small move that will net us a solid rotation player or two (or in the case of Martin and Brooks, more than just solid). Something is going to happen. I imagine if the Bosh deal falls through we could potentially package our pick with an expiring and grab a guy for slightly above MLE money in a sign and trade (or just a trade... maybe it's a vet and the team wants to get younger). And then... if we don't make a major move in the offseason, we're poised to make a major trade at the deadline. 14 million in expiring contracts and extra picks. Alone that isn't enough for Bosh, but certainly enough for a team wanting to start over and they just want expiring contracts.
I have been asking myself this question, too. I'm also wondering how Morey's very determined public statement that Scola WILL be back would fit with targeting Bosh in the first place?
Look at how Morey handled you know who. He had (that we know of) discussions with NY, Sac, Phoenix, and Philadelphia. He never painted himself into a corner and patiently waited for the right deal. Nor did he lock in on one player, because that hurts your bargaining power. The Summer free agent class is the same way. Morey isn't thinking Bosh or nothing. That approach is disastrous. He's going to put out feelers and see if there are any options that he can exploit. Does Morey want Bosh, sure, but he's not going into this Summer without multiple back up plans.
Yep. If Bosh can get Amare say for next to nothing from the Suns compared to giving up key players for Bosh he'll probably go with the Amare deal. Either way this team is pretty good if it just stays in tact (and on the court..........) so I don't think there is much pressure here.
It's not possible to move up in the draft after losing out on Bosh in a sign and trade. The draft occurs before free agency.
Miami: Heats give up on Beasley for a reason, he's overated. plus Bosh doesn't want to be 2nd to anybody (D-Wade?). OKC: Ask Ric Bucher Bulls: you already answer yourself Nets/Kings/Clippers/Bucks: Bosh won't choose where he has zero chance to win a title after he got traded to. Utah: Jazz will deal w/ Boozer and just improve the wing/back up center. Milsap+AK's contract is also too much to pay even only one season. Orlando: there's no way Bosh want to be on Howard's team I think the only package/team compatiable to Rox's is the Blazers offering Aldridge + Oden(expiring) + Fermandez + Bayless or picks Miller Roy Batum/Martell Bosh Camby that's a scary team
