In hindsight, is it worth it?

CC, I agree with you. We do have too many young guns, and our front court is all for the future. EG has a big chance of becoming a big time star=big minutes. And they love Taylor so much to sign for a 6 year contract=big minutes. Now, Jax, the long term contract I think was a mistake, not so much that he might be a one year bust, but because we don't need another present/future starter. We need role players, not "could be" starters that want minutes. Do we even have enough money left to sign Francis to the max? And Griffin (later on) to close to a huge deal? One of our long term contract players has to go!

 

We would have bird rights on Francis and Griffin, thus we would be able to exceed the salary cap to sign em!

Woo Hoo! I feel like Crispee, Nike, Davo.

 

I've had the very same thought. We've made a lot of moves here in the short term that really limits our options in the long term.

But we got good pieces in place and hopefully it'll pan out and we are set. We do have rights on our players so we can sign EG and Wink but lux tax may come into play.

Rice will be off the payroll in 3 and thats a huge chunk. Also, Maloney comes off in 3-4. KT will obviously be gone.

With luck, Marc matures and Cato becomes tradeable in 1-2 years.

Hopefully we got our nucleous and basic role players are only needed in 2+ years.

-krosfyah

 

Cato will never be tradable unless it's for a scrubby headcase like Kenny Anderson. And now he's guaranteed to be a backup with Marc Jackson in town. Well, until Jackson turns out to be a bust and the Rockets end up with Ike Austin Jr.

 

counting crow-I disagree.

First of all, the luxury tax, like the salary cap, is a moving target, and will ascend.

The Rockets actually have their cap situation very much under control-Walt comes off the book next offseason, then a few years down the line Rice comes off. His 9 mill will come off before Griffin is eligible for an extension. At the time Griffin is eligible for an extension, Mobley, Taylor, Jackson, and Cato(!) will all be towards the back ends of their contracts, and therefore movable if that's a necessity. So unless the Rockets decide to spend their full MCE each year for the next 5 years, the luxury tax shouldn't pose any serious problem. Also worth noting, the tax doesn't always occur.

 

No way.

The Mo Taylor we get back may only ever be 70% the player he was...and never the player he could have been.

That injury is a carrer wrecker...and we have him for 6 seasons for $50 M.

 

I wonder how things would've been different had Mo injured himself before he got signed and Hakeem left.

Would we have gone after Webber?
Gave Dream what he wanted?

 

Dream was gone, unless the Rockets offered the max.

As for Webber, if we had known that BEFORE Aug 1 that Olajuwon and Taylor wouldn't play for us this year, then we 99% probably would have gone after him. Also, don't forget about Antonio Davis. I would think we would have gone pretty hard after him if we didn't land Webber.

 

Given the timing of Mo's injury and the late date at which we gained the medical exception, IT'S A MIRACLE THAT A BIG MAN OF JACKSON'S ABILITY WAS STILL AVAILABLE!!

Again, you gotta give CD and the Rox organization credit for making it happen. When you think about how quickly this team is being rebuilt into a real contender, it's unbelievable, and a tribute to a great organization. Not only do they do a great job of assessing talent, but they have created a team and playing environment that is the envy of the league...that attracts players.

It's ironic that in 2-3 years we will be better than if Taylor had not gone down. And I anticipate he'll get back very close to what he would have been this year; it will just take him a season or two to get there.

 

Yeah, a real miracle...

No strings attached, of course.

 

I'm excited to have Marc Jackson with the team. I think in all likelihood we got him for a very solid and reasonable long-term contract, if it's not a steal. He gives the team more depth, more options, if not as much hard-nosed defense as we'd like, but time will tell.

However, Marc Jackson is not Mo Taylor, and while it's such a relief to have Jackson here with Taylor down, I think it really hurts the team to have Taylor set back like he is. I really think he was ready to bloom this year, not necessarily emerge like Jamison has with GS or anything like that, but really bloom in terms of fitting well with the team on the court, and being that reliable frontcourt offensive presence we need to keep the pressure off Steve and Mobes. I'm glad to see Dallas Rocket's enthusiasm about Mo coming back strong since he more than any of us likely has the best insight into his injury. But Mo very well may never come back the same, not necessarily because of physical problems, but just in terms of finding his groove. Or if he does, that it may take years when we could really, really use him at his best.

Doubtless, a trio of Marc Jackson, Mo Taylor and Eddie Griffin all healthy and productive could pose a problem in terms of room on roster if none of them are happy coming off the bench long-term (and Jackson doesn't become our starting center), but as others have noted concerning crowding at the 3 with Rice, Langhi and TMo, this is a problem GMs love to have and probably don't have enough of. And unless Jackson just becomes completely unproductive, I think he should be a very good tradeable commodity.

In three years, I'd like to see a core of Francis, Mobley, Norris in the backcourt (i.e. - status quo) and Taylor, Griffin, Morris, Jackson and/or Collier, and maybe some other 5 in the frontcourt. I'd be happy keeping Thomas and Langhi, but at this point, I'm doubtful they can crack the core, and I think they're too good not to be significant parts of the rotation for some team.