I have to admit, I enjoy this part of the year. I like taking things apart and building them better. So, I play this game I call, "If I was CD ..." Needless to say, the data we have, and the opportunities will change, as the summer goes on. But, now that we know the lottery order, and have heard from some of the possible players we might have opportunity to get. We've also had more chance to brainstorm on this BBS of what works and what doesn't. I AM AWARE THIS IS DREAMCASTING. But, this is what I'd want try to pull off, at this stage of the game, if I was CD. 1 - Trade Francis to CHI for #3/Chandler/Pippen. This would give us more flexibility in trades, and ultimately more for Francis, IMO. For Chicago, they get a star to put fans in the seats, whether he plays at PG or SG, and provides immediate help to lead them to the playoffs this year. Francis would love being "the man," following Jordan. Pippen would be valuable for us, since he has only 1 year left on his contract, and would only be here a day or two, as a good trading chit. 2 - Trade Cat/Cato/JJ/Pippen/#3/2005+7 picks/6.9 mil Trade Exception/2004 2nd round pick to ORL for TMac/Hill/#1/2-2004 2nd round picks. Houston get's superstar McGrady and the #1 pick to take Okafor. Orlando gets 3 proven starters, the #3 pick to take Livingston, who would be better for rebuilding than the #1 pick, when they already have Howard and Gooden, they get Hill's contract off their back, our 6.9 TE, 4.5 TE from this trade, and Pippen's 5.4 mil off the books next year to drastically reduce thier salary and luxury cap issues. Right now they are hampered in trades, because anyone they sign costs them twice as much. I think Orlando might attempt to trade with CHA for their #4 pick, using Gooden or Howard as bait. That would allow them to pick up Smith, giving them 2 new future stars, and 5 good starters that could take them to the playoffs in the East, with more picks. Houston gets their superstar, get's a hometown solution at PF, but lose depth and are up in luxury tax territory for 3 years without draft picks. Its a costly trade for both sides, but both come out ahead for the future. 3 - Trade Chandler/Taylor to SEA for Lewis/Booth/Murray. Seattle get's the up and coming PF they covet (top 2 draft pick), while letting go of extra parts in Lewis and Murray, gaining depth at PF, and rid of a bad contract with Booth. Houston get's the guy they should have had all along from the hometown at SF, and depth at SG and Center, with Cato gone. SEA is convinced that Lewis's contract is too high, and that the Radman will do just as well, and they always liked Taylor. Seattle is stronger, Houston is stronger ... swapping better fitting parts. 4 - Sign Brent Barry with the MLE. He's just the best fit for what we need to go along with Yao, and is already experienced with Lewis and Murray. I really hope we can get him. 5 - Sign Eddie Griffin, if he's got his head back on straight. I know he's hurt us, but he owes us, if he get's his life back straight, and really would be a huge help to us, more than anyone else we could sign for the price. He no longer would be the bad influence he was, nor have Taylor around to share a joint, and hopefully he appreciates the tough love we gave. I love that Lucas is helping him out. I'd hope we'd hire Lucas to continue assisting him. He'd be a very valuable investment. 5 - Draft Okafor with the first pick. I don't think he'll be another Olajuwon. But, I do think he'd bring the intelligence, court sense, and hard work ethic that this team needs for the long term, and he's a home town product. I'd love to see us have home team guys, like we did with Olajuwon and Drexler. He and Lewis would put more fans in the seats, and be great fits with Yao. 6 - Draft Seung-Jin and Duhon. In the second round, using ORL 2 picks, take Ha Seung-Jin, the 7-3, 300 pound center from S.Korea to learn from Yao, and then Chris Duhon, the PG from Duke, who we could bring along slowly, but has the attributes we'd love to have in a future PG, once Barry leaves. 7 - Hang on to Rudy. Whatever we have to do, I want us to keep Rudy a Rocket. We need him for our championship runs, once the young guys get trained. If Rudy will stay calm for another season, then let JVG do his thing, and teach these guys defense. But, we shouldn't lose Rudy to another team as a coach. If we have to cut JVG now, to keep Rudy, then let's do it. JVG is NOT the future, and certainly is not the spirit of the Rockets. He needs to go back northeast where his surlyness is not considered so rude. If we could have gotten Larry Brown, it'd be different, but we didn't. We DO need coaches that teach our players, though. Rudy is great at leading, but not at teaching. Its obvious that his easy hand doesn't work with young rookies like Francis, Cat, and Griffin. He did do great with Yao and Thomas, though, but that was because they had a great work ethic, and good fundamentals already. If Rudy comes back, we must have good teaching assistant coaches, and someone to help with the X's and O's. So, that would give us: Yao/Booth/Seung-Jin Okafor/Grffin/Spoon Lewis/Boki/Hill/Griffin TMac/Murray/Pike Barry/Duhon TMac would be "the man," but eveyone else would be intelligent, hard working, athletic, less glory hounds, and they'd fit nicely with Yao and McGrady, IMHO. Now THAT team would go to the championships for many years to come. Its probably too many moves to pull off, and we might not have enough pieces to sweeten the deals, or the time to do them, but, that's my ideal dreamcast, at the moment.
Not rudy again. Can we plz give up on him brining him back. You know how stupid the organization would look if they did that.
I donlt see any way no. 2 happens. Orlando has two extreme assets, McGrady and the No.1, and this trade would have them regressing in both areas of strength ( 1>3, McGrady >>>>Mobley), for a bunch of role players, 2 what would be late first picks, and unloading Hill. No way they even think about it, IMO.
Macbeth, I value your opinion, and appreciate the sharpening of ideas. You don't think that Hill's contract and extra cap room is worth losing on the other two? Is there anything else we could do to sweeten it up for them? How valuable to Orlando is losing Hill's contract, in your opinion?
I don't actually think it's that big of a deal for them. They're in a position where they feel they need, I hear, to rebuild quickly, for a few reasons, one of them is McGrady. If they can't persuade him that they're going to be competitive soon, they'll move him, and maybe look at unloading Hill as an automatic caveat to any deal, but the deal itself would be primarily about value. And if they do unload McGrady they're looking for someone else to build around, and the presence of a Howard won't deter them from making that Okefor, certainly not for a HS point who might yet drop ( in many eyes) to 9th or so, though unlikely. Deng ( or howard if the clips go Deng) would be more likely in that scenario, but even that's a long shot; if they move T-Mac they need name recognition, because another reason they're looking to reload quickly is that the locals are getting restless. But if they keep T-Mac, then of course unloading Hill only matters to them if it allows them to add talent immediately. Either way, I donlt see this happening at all. Any deal we make for McGrady alone, let alone McGrady and the 1st will have to include Francis + just for starters.
CD would have to be God to be able to assemble a team like that. Lewis, Murry, T-Mac, Barry, AND Okafor. I would be estatic just to get two of the players on that list, let alone all five of them.
I would enjoy USING Pippen for increasing the success of the Rockets. I'd enjoy trading him to a bad team. I'd enjoy trading for him, but having NO press conference, snubbing him. I'd like to motivate him to retire, and not in Chicago. I'd enjoy treating him like a bad contract and trading chit, since I'd never want him playing on my team. EVER. So, MacBeth, what is a trade for TMac that Orlando would make with the Rockets that would enable us to also get a good PF somehow? If we lose Cato, Taylor just isn't going to cut it, nor do I see future MLE's or draft choices solving that issue for the long haul. OOPS... sorry, I didn't see you'd started a thread on this subject... cool.
Yeah, I was just joking. Of course Okafor and T-Mac would be an upgrade. But there are question marks behind the names of Brent Barry and Rashard Lewis. I don't think it's a good idea to make Brent Barry our starting pg. He might be capable of playing the point, but he is a SG who should only get few minutes at the 1. And Rashard Lewis? Well, he is a soft tweener with a weak defense. And on the other hand how realistic is such a trade szenario? I don't think ist realistic at all. But if you want to play that game...
