Would the Rockets be better off letting Tmac's contract expire, bring back Scola and Lowry, and pick up FA this summer. (See the BimaThug memorial thread). I think not. Let's take a hard look at the FA's available: Unrestricted Lebron/Wade - fuggetaboutit Bosh/Joe Johnson - Longshot Do any of the following names excite you: Brad Miller, Marcus Camby, Josh Powell, DJ Mbenga, Travis Outlaw, Carlos Boozer, Kyle Korver?? These aren't all the FA's, but they're among the best available for a straight signing. Restricted Rudy Gay- available for $$10-12MM? Josh Childress - no way ATL lets him go What's left? David Lee, JJ Redick (DaDa, that's just for you). Sure there are other names, so go ahead, look up the list of FA's. Not all that much there in terms of a legit No 1 or No 2 option. Where does this leave us? We have plenty of "competent" players. We need No 1 or No 2 players on this squad if we want to become a contender. Iggy, Kevin Martin and Caron Butler are all better than anything that's likely to be available by FA. Would you prefer to sign Rudy Gay for $12MM? Assuming that we could, which is far from given, is that a better value than Iggy at $12MM to $14MM as his contract escalates. How about Kevin Martin at $9.5MM. Butler for $9.8MM? If management really wants to return to contender status, we need to pull the trigger on a trade for Iggy or Martin. Both are still young enough to be No 2 options for a while. I'd sooner try for Gay than hitch my wagon to Butler for next season. As Leebigez has posted, in the absence of a true No 1 superstar, you need to compile multiple very good players at multiple positions. If we really need to avoid luxury tax resulting from an Iggy or Martin trade, then fine, let's move Battier. I love the guy, but he is on the decline. The dings and nicks are adding up and father time is undefeated. So, if Iggy, Martin or Butler are available, do you take that bird in hand, or wait for FAs in the summer? I don't think there's any question as to what you have to do if you want to be a contender. Morey has said as much when he said that the best opportunity to improve the team is through a trade. Personally, give me a deal like Martin and Nocioni for Tmac. Upgrades our talent, less salary cap hell, two functional players with offensive ability.
If i was the GM I would go after iggy now. Honestly I don't think Rockets can get anyone better then Iggy in FA. Yao/ Delmbbert Landy/ Hayes Shane/ Riza (or the other way around) Iggy/ Chase AB/ Lowery if we can keep him
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Agree, if we let him expire the best we would do is a Mike Miller type. Butler is the player I'd go after since he gives us flexibilty next yr and in 2011.
sorry, but after reading this i just thought, "DUH".....havent we known for a while we wouldnt have enough money to attract a big FA if we let tmac expire, so it was best to trade for one using tmac? I'm not sure there's anything to discuss here..
The only FA we are signing in 2010 is Yao Ming. We can't sign two all-stars in the same offseason, especially if we want to keep the key pieces we have now.
let his contract expire. it's a much better option than taking on Iggy's salary for the next couple of years. He's a good player but way overpaid. I like our core group of guys so let's keep em. The only way we break up our core is if we get a superstar in return like Wade or the likes of. Don't just settle for what you can get. Go after what you want.
Butler is starting to sound better by the minute. I wouldn't mind either him or Iggy at this point. Haven't been watching NBAtv so I haven't kept up. I assumed he wasn't doing that well because I havent heard anything about him special this year. Seeing how Arenas isn't there I thought he would really shine through like he did when Arenas went out for his injuries. My opinion has changed.. like it always does. Butler is looking like the swingman that makes sense. Martin though I do like his offensive skills he can't play a lick of defense. He was almost Luther Head bad at defense the last time I saw him.
You missed several big name guys What about Dirk, Amare, Paul Pierce, Michael Redd, Ray Allen, Peja Stojakovich, Manu Ganobli, TMac(lol), Jermaine O'neal, Ilgauskas, Bobby Simmons, Michael Finley? None of these guys will get max deals aside from Dirk and Amare (longhot). I could easily see the rockets get a few of those guys especially if someone bids Scola up too high. If the Rockets have 23 mil they can get 3 players who would have otherwise had to sign for the midlevel exception. I could easily see something like, Boozer and Peja, or Michael Redd and Jermaine O'neal, Or Paul Pierce, Ilgauskas, and Bobby Simmons
I would go after Butler, he gives us much flexibility for 2011 FA year, and I really like Iggy but damn 14M a year for the next 3 years, na way overpaid...
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Personally I say, let McGrady come off the books. None of the potential guys we are line up to get are superstars or stars that are really good enough to be worth taking on the salary being dumped on us for making that trade.
I think the Rockets main targets for trade are Monta Ellis, Andre Iguodala, Derrick Rose, and Caron Butler. However, they will not take any bad contracts for these deals. I am fairly certain that a deal will be done and that it will GREATLY favor the rockets because of the number of teams that are looking for valuable cap space. The Rockets have several offers on the table and arent desperate for any deal which gives them leverage and will probably cause a mini bidding war. The Rockets are one of the few teams that havent been greatly suffering in this economy and are willing to exceed the cap if the value is right.
Firstly let me just say "it's not my money" - but if we made no move, we'd have around $7million to spend in free agency. If we took the 'salary hit', we'd have around $5.5mill (whatever MLE works out to be) To be completely honest, you'd probably get exactly the same player for either amount of money - and neither amount gets you Iguodala, Butler or Martin. If there's a chance to get one of those guys without completely slaughtering the finances, then it's got to be worth it from a TALENT acquisition point of view. Who knows, if we got the right peice(s) we might be able to mortgage off Yao and Battier to dump $23 million in salary next season?
Exactly, we wont be paying any of them more than 9 mil or 10 mil and most of them closer to 7 or 8 mil. I would rather take a older player at a discount than a young one thats overpriced. ginobli, Stojacovich, Paul Pierce or Ray Allen @ 8 mil >>>>> Iguodala @ 14 mil or Dalembert 12 mil or Elton Brand 14 mil, or Kevin Martin 11 mil Especially when the contract wont have to be as long
DM better get Butler. there is no one we can get that plays both ends and has a contract that give us options depending on what happens with yao.
