If you were GM what moves would you make August 1st.

Thanks Sherlock.

If we were able to get Duhon, I very seriously doubt that we'd also sign Stoudamire. Your suggestions would add 6 new players. As someone else in this thread pointed out, we won 51 games last year. Unless their players are real old, or the players are a huge upgrade, most GM's will only tweak the roster.

Also, I'd hate to give up Howard for Duhon. I'd do it if I had to, but only because I believe that Duhon will be worth it. Swift & Howard should be a very nice PF combo & give JVG several different looks to throw at the opposing teams.

I thought about making a trade for Eric Williams to be T-Mac's back up, but I felt it would take a draft pick, along with an expiring contract, to get him. However, if he's disgruntled & Toronto wants to move him as you imply, then I'd have to take another look at that possibility.

 

If Ryan Bowen could hit the open 3 like bruce Bowen we would have alot of problems solved.

 

Duhon is their starting PG albeit at 20mins per game . They only got good last season when they started Duhon and moved Hinrich over to SG.

 

• Trade Howard, Weatherspoon, Vin Baker for Ratliff and Damon Stoudamire (sign-and-trade) - Ratliff's contract is ridiculous, but Howard's is a year longer and the combined contracts of Howard and Weatherspoon over the term of the contracts come out almost even to Ratliff's. Plus, we would have someone else to play backup PF/C, should Mutombo retire after this season. Stoudamire should be signed to a 3-year deal starting at about 3.5-4.5M with a fourth-year team option
• Pick up Finley after he is waived by Dallas - what could be sweeter than seeing Finley kill Dallas while they still pay for him? (Alternatively, if Finley is not available, pick up Houston after New York cuts him)
• Trade Wesley, Moochie and Ward to New Orleans for PJ Brown and a draft pick (because we take on the more expensive contract in this deal) (and someone to make the numbers work, like Lynch, who should possibly then be cut, or maybe Lampe)
• Re-sign Mutombo and Barry (for the vet's minimum or somewhere around that)
• Sign Wesley Person for the vet's minimum - Can't have enough 3-point threats
• Sign Baxter and possibly Glover to non-guaranteed contracts

(I'm assuming Jaric and Jasikevicius are out of the question, those are two players I would also love to see on the Rockets - Jaric would be perfect because he has a good three-point shot, is very tall and can play PG, SG, SF.)

Roster (with minutes at the respective position added, starters bolded - keep in mind that due to injuries, etc., players will play more than the minutes indicated averaged over a season, if the DNP do not count as 0 minutes for the average)

PG: Stoudamire (32), Sura (8), Mike James (8)
SG: Finley (32), Sura (6), Head (8), Barry (2)
SF: T-Mac (38), Barry (8), Person (2)
PF: Swift (30), Ratliff (10), PJ Brown (8)
C: Yao Ming (34), Mutombo (10), Ratliff (4)

IR: Baxter, Glover

Size of the perimeter players would be a bit of a concern, but with Ming, Mutombo, Swift and Ratliff swatting everything out of the paint, I would not be too worried about that. Quickness (Stoudamire, Mike James, Head, Swift) and athleticism (Swift, Head, Mike James) would be much less of a concern than in the past. The PJ Brown move does not seem to make too much sense, until you realize how many games Swift and Ratliff have missed over the past few seasons, and how old Mutombo is. PJ Brown is not a spring chicken either, but can still bring much more to this team than Wesley, Moochie or Ward.

A starting five of Stoudamire, Finley, T-Mac, Swift and Yao Ming would be pretty amazing .

 

Sir Chiles

So you would trade 2 starters (Welsey and Howard) whose contracts are reasonable (5mill and 6mill) for two bench players who will play 10 minutes and 8 minutes according to you (Ratliff 11mill/yr + Brown 10mill/year). That doesn't make any sense especially when PF is the least of our concerns.

 

Finley isn't coming to Houston. Someone will offer the MLE for him. Denver or Chicago maybe.

 

In my plan, with Swift and Finley here, Wesley and Howard would not be starters. Brown gets 8M/yr, not 10M. Ratliff would play 14 min. in my plan, not 10.

Ratliff is also insurance at the C position. What if Yao Ming goes down for a few weeks? Do you want to play Mutombo 40 minutes a game? Also, personally, I doubt that Stoudamire would actually sign for the LLE. We would probably need to do some sort of sign-and-trade where he would get more money.

I explained that Howard's and Weatherspoon's contracts combined almost equal Ratliff's contract (Howard's contract goes up each year, Ratliff's doesn't.). Weatherspoon plays even less than Ratliff would play. Howard has career-threatening health concerns and his contract runs longer than Ratliff's.

Is it more understandable to you now, macfan?

 

I would be fine with picking up Allan Houston instead.

Also, I am still not 100 % sure about how this whole thing with a player getting cut to avoid the luxury tax works - I mean, isn't the funny effect that an already overpaid player will get overpaid even more (think Allan Houston cashing in in addition to what he already gets from New York, being one of the most overpaid NBA players ever)? Perhaps there might be a limit on what those players getting cut can get from other teams? Has there been an official announcement yet on how this will work?

 

All of our bad contracts expire after this year. Ratliff has 3 years 35mill left. We can't afford to pay 12mill/year to a starter never mind a back up. Ratliff's contract is horrible. That's a salary cap killer for the next 3 years. Injuries are part of the game. Nobody in their right mind would pay 12mill/year to a 40 year old back up.

 

Ratliff will not be 40 at the end of his contract. Howard at the end of his contract will be a year older than Ratliff would be at the end of his contract.

Weatherspoon: (6.35M) + Howard: (5.9M + 6.4M + 6.9M + 7.4M) = approx. $ 33M

Ratliff: 3 x 11.66 M = $ 35M

The difference being that we would still be paying Howard in 2008/2009, while Ratliff's contract ends after the 2007/2008 season. We will be over the cap for the next three years anyway. This year, we would actually pay LESS by doing this deal - we would pay 5M/4.5M more the next year and the year after that, but then 7.4M less in 2008/2009.

Over the duration of these contracts, we would only pay 2M more in total. That would be the downside.

The upside would be that this would probably be a pretty sure way to get Stoudamire, and to unload a PF with very serious health concerns who does not block shots and whose contract runs through 2008/2009 (last year being a player option, but he would be crazy not to use the option). Also, we would get someone who blocks tons of shots, in contrast to Howard, and who can play some center.

What were you trying to say?

 

So I guess you consider Howard's contract a good one?

 

How can you complain about having a former all star and 17ppg carrer player for the MLE? He is very productive. Ratliff didn't even play last year. You can trade Howard anytime you want. There are many teams who a scoring PF. Ratliff can't be moved until the last year of his contract.

 

Howard's contract is way above the current MLE starting level. Ratliff played in 63 games last year (two more than Howard), starting 45 of them, 2.5 blocks a game, averaging 27.5 minutes. He had 9 blocks in a game against the LA Clippers in November. Two years ago, he averaged a whopping 4.41 blocks per game.

Please stop making up facts to support your opinion.

I think shot-blocking and rebounding is much more valuable to us from the backup PF/C position than scoring. Besides, Howard's career fg % is lower than Ratliff's anyway. Howard is not going to average 17ppg for us ever. Ratliff seems to fit our needs better, imho, and, as I showed, while his contract is horrible, it is almost equal to Howard's plus Weatherspoon's, and runs a year shorter (so we have the load off our shoulders sooner). I don't care if Ratliff only averages 4 pts a game, as long as he swats two or three shots in the minutes he is in the game... last year in the playoffs, we have seen with Mutombo how much that can change the momentum.

Good luck.

 

You are correct it is not final how they will do it. Maybe they will limit it to the minimum if a player makes the max already. We will see on the 28th.

I would certainly want Finley over Allan Houston. I think Houston is washed up just like Ward.

 

I agree. But I think if we could get Houston for the vet minimum, he could still be nice as a spot-up three point shooter.

 

I would not call him a "full time" shooting guard. But I want more of Sura's minutes at the two and three. He has better size there, and his level of quickness matches up better to most opposing swingmen than it does to most opposing point guards (on defense). Besides, you can always hybrid roles. No reason on offense Sura in the SG slot (next to James in particular) he could not still do a lot of PG roles while MJ plays more SG role in the offense, but on defense and with rebounding responsibilities they switch roles. I think JVG would have really liked to play James and Sura together, he just couldn't do it much because they had to handle all the PG duties. I think with Sura and DS out there you could also do this (have them sharing traditional PG duties), and be even more effective with two guys who can penetrate and make good decisions set up others.

I think with the 2nd unit being able to beat your man off the dribble or do a basic pick role like James does fairly well is much better bread and butter type way to score than counting on penetration and dishes (more to Sura's strengths). The best way to set up shooters (Wesley, Barry) is have Yao or Tmac control the ball, not having them out of the offense but trying dribble penetration. However with James, his game is less drastically different with Yao/Tmac not running the offenses, thus makes the better back-up when those guys are out or even when Tmac is still in but needs a break on trying to carry the offense.

1st, there is no more complete PG in the league than Billups. No back-up in the league would have got more than James 9 minutes that year. Still, despite Billups being as outstanding as he is and an ironman, Detroit suffered this year without James. The shooting challenged Arroyo and Hunter just could not fill that role (which could be our Head and Sura if pressed in those kinds of roles), probably cost them a title.

2nd DS is not going to play 35 minutes in the playoffs, particularly not with a backup the quality of James. DS career playoff average minutes average is just under 32MPG, most of which done when he was in his mid 20s, not early 30s like he would be with us. I would expect the playoff minutes to be something like 26-32 for DS and 16-22 for MJ. Both players would be in a position to give 100% every minute they are out there, which is a good thing.

If he leaves because he can make more than 3.7 mil, so what. It meant he had a very productive year for us and a good price. That in of itself is not worth the 2nd round pick you can get now for trading him. We also have the oppertunnity to keep our PG position solid without touching the MLE, so we have its full range to get that shooting guard next year when Barry and Wesley are probably gone.

If someone offers a better/younger player than Mike James who happens to be a shooting guard with the qualities we are looking for (proven defense and proven spot up shooting in a big package), sure we consider it. I have not heard any rumars about those kind of offers, and like I said it is a lot better to keep him at least for next year with an oppertunnity to resign than trade him for a 2nd round pick.

For someone who seems to value defense, athleticism, and knocking down the open J in the backcourt, I really have hard time seeing why you don't value James more considering he currently has the best blend of these things than any other Rocket guard. He has got his flaws, but pairing him with an SG with some PG skills and approach (Sura for sure, and even Barry to a degree) off the bench covers them up really well.

 

Hey Desert, you and I seem to agree on some things about the Rox. Like i said until McGrady said something about DS, no one ever brought him up. Whats a trip is Tracy only played a half a season b4 he was traded to Portland. Many people on this board think I'm anti DS which I'm not, I just think the Sura got too much of the blame. I think the 2 should be addressed b4 anything. People want to frown because Terry had a good series, but Terry is a very quick pg and a very good shooter. He didn't shoot 50 from the field and 42 from 3 for nothing.

I still think people on think people get hyped up over the pg not being able to do this or do that. I think the Rox should keep their cost down because next yr they can add a top flight 8-9m player to snug into Ming/McGrady. I think if Knight wasnt maybe so injury prone, then he would be ideal as a floor general. Avery Johnson couldn't shoot 3's but he has more titles than Nash,Marbury,Francis and all all these other shooting pg. So why cant Knight be like that.

 

jaric wants a three year contract worth around 5-6 million per season. it's also been reported the clips will do a S&T for anyone who obliges with jaric's asking price. clips need a backup centre and point rox have baker and ward.

 

If we could trade them Baker and Ward for Jaric (S&T), I would say bravo to CD!

I do think we might be paying just a little bit too much for Jaric then, though...but that will probably be what he will get in the market.

 

excellent point about D. Mason. they would prolly have to throw in Jiri Welsch or someone to make the salaries match, b/c Baker's + Wesley's are almost $9 mill while Mase's salary is almost $7.25 mill. it'd be funny if they sent us Reece Gaines back.

but you bring up a great point. w/ all of the ppl the Bucks are signing/re-signing this offseason, they won't be able to keep Desmond when his contract is up.

good post.