Money in the mattress Les strikes again. As if it wasn't already bad enough he soldout w/ the asian uni's and arena sponsor to try and make some money in the East while spitting in the face of the people paying for said arena, now he's spent the whole summer downgrading the roster talent in order to collect luxury tax from all the other owners.
This sucks. I can't believe we gave oup Rice's expiring contract AND a first round pick for THAT?!?!?! MacBeth analyzed it correctly...I just can't understand CD's and Les' motives other than wanting to save money.
I'm really not sure about this move.... I mean you get a better SF than we have... It is an upgrade. And we have a better team than if we didn't make a move... But still... Unless there is another move for like artest or something. (something I would like to see) I say we got to little. Jackson is good enough but nothing more, and I expected more. It is ok... But I really hope there's another move...
Are you serious with the whole asian thing? Come on man, realize that Toyota probably offered the most money to get the naming rights, thats not trying to make money in the East, that's taking the highest bidder (I believe it's called economics).
It's not all about trading Rice + 1st rounder for Amechi + 2nd rounder. This deals gives us a trade exception of 6.5 million. If I'm correct in assuming, the exception lets us add the 6.5 million plus whatever salary the player to be traded be equal to 115% of the player on the other side of the trade.
For those upset because we cant unload Rice's contract at the end of the year, I just have to disagree. Jackson is better for our team now than Rice. I I know we may miss out on a free agent at the end of the year, but then again there is no telling who we could have gotten anyway. I think the bottom line is that the time to put up some wins is now. The Rockets are correct in doing what it takes to get a better team to compete with right now. We've been putting off for the future for awhile now, and keeping Rice around so we could unload his salary at the end of the season isn't worth it when we could get someone like Jackson to help the team start winning right now. The initial trade of course is worthless, but the fact that it enables us to get Jackson makes this trade a positive in my book.
So... Is the complaine here that we game up Rice for players of lesser value... Or just that we could've done better than this? In my mind, the team improved. That's all that matters to me at this point, since this can't really be changed. I'm not gonna worry about better moves that we might've been able to make. Jim Jackson is better than Rice. Amaechi is arguable better than Collier. Pike is better than Hawk. Moochie should be better this year than he was last year (good article about this in the Chron). The team has improved since last season. You should be happy about that, at least.
If you guys can bring yourselves to it, take a look at this. jazz fan forum http://pub76.ezboard.com/fnotmesutahjazzfrm1, they are saying some interesting things overthere: *(One poster, after hearing that a trade will be made for meech, though the player had not been named): So we are trading him for a case of beer and the rights to a preschooler to be named later? *So in other words, they'll take him off our hands for a second round pick, if we'll pay part/most/all? of his salary this year. GOOD RIDDANCE!!!! *I'm gonna miss the big guy... : lol *1280 reported is it meech for rice and an un-named draft pick. Also stated that the jazz will likely cut rice....
I should of known from cc.net being busy on a non game night (and summer one at that) that some semi significant trade just happened.
I'd agree with you except that one of the biggest need areas on the team is outside shooting. Rice might be old and broken down but he's a better shooter than Jackson. Jackson had great stats in Sactown because they're basically a fast break drill in action with people getting easy shots all over the place. I like Amaechi, I think he's a smart player who'll instantly have good chemistry with Yao and Jackson is excellent depth but I think unless we're going to use that $6.5 million to improve somewhere else that we didn't really address one of the problem areas on the team. In general though I like the direction of adding veteran players instead of relying on inexperienced draftees and CBA free agents. Right now the trade just looks all about saving money.
Second post because: Well, there goes the editing rights for the rest of the year. Pray for the servers.
Amaechi's contract expires in 2 years, not too bad. You cannot expect Jazz to pick up Rice's contract whithout moving a small headache they have to us. I am very happy with the trade with Jazz. Don't forget we have 6.5 mil trade exception now. Now we are a bit crowded on the 2, 3, 5 positions. With the 6.5 mil, we can trade Cato or Cat + trade exception for a first tier PF. 1.25 mil for J. Jackson is a much better deal compared with the 24 mil/4 year Posey deal. Does anyone know how long we signed Jackson for and what his salary will be down the road?
I was skeptical about the trade at first, but then realized a few points. 1. No way Rice was going to play the entire season, and even though his 9 mil would have been nice after next year, the FA market doesn't look to be too great next year (except KG). 2. Picking up Ameachi gives us a little more breathing room in trading Cato. 3. Even though we could have picked up JJ anyways, Rice gave us a 6.5M trade exception too. Cato, Cat, Griffin, 6.5M for JO, Artest? Things can get very interesting (trade?) or very bad (Les could just be a cheap ass).
How was Rice's contract of value? There are no reasonable free agents for the Rockets to pick up next season. KG is NOT coming to Houston no matter how much people want to dream of it. Why does everyone want to hate the deal right away. Be patient and see what comes of it. All summer everyone on here was crying for a trade or for something to be done. This must have been the best the Rockets could have done. We don't know everything that goes on behind the scenes. It is extremely hard to pull off a trade in the NBA especially with all the salary implications and so on. It's not as easy as oh let's trade Kato for Shaq like everyone seems to think.
Here is an interesting article on JJ. Veteran always adds scoring touch By Terry Brown NBA Insider Friday, September 26 Updated: September 29 11:19 AM ET Stephen Jackson may be worried. With training camps set to open any day now and the season officially beginning in a month, Dion Glover might be sweating it out as a fellow free agent who also plays shooting guard. And Dermarr Johnson is probably starring at the phone waiting for it to ring. But not Jim Jackson. In his last game of last season, which just so happened to be the seventh game of a conference semifinal series against the Dallas Mavericks and his Kings without their franchise player Chris Webber, Jackson scored 24 points on 10 of 12 shooting including a 3 for 3 clinic from long range. A game earlier, he scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in a Kings win that forced the final and deciding game in which his team was eliminated. Of course, there were other games, too. Like the 23 points he scored in a win against the Spurs in December. Or the 21 points he scored against the Sonics in January. Or the 19 he hung on the Hornets in a loss in February. He may have finished the season averaging a career-low in points, assists, steals, blocks and minutes but, of course, there were other seasons. In 1995 with the Mavericks, Jackson averaged a career-high 25.7 points per game shooting a very respectable 47 percent from the field. In 1997 with the Nets, his scoring had dipped to 16 points a game but he registered what would have been career-highs in rebounding and assists had he played the entire season in New Jersey. But, of course, he was traded that season by the Mavs but not before averaging 1.2 steals per game which would have been a career high if he had finished that season in Dallas. Since then, he's played for the Sixers, Warriors, Blazers, Hawks, Cavs, Heat and Kings in six seasons. Jim Jackson has scored points at every stage of his career. This, of course, is not the normal routine for a player who has scored 10,684 points in his 11-year career after being the No. 4 overall pick in the 1992 draft. Officially, he has been traded five times involving 24 other players not counting the three times he signed as a free agent. But him worry ... Last year, there were about 226,123 points scored during the regular season with each of the 29 teams averaging a shade over 95 points per game which is about 1.97 points per minute (forgetting all about overtimes for the moment), meaning that with five players on the court each one would have to score .39 points per minute to carry his own weight. Heck, in 1995, Jackson averaged a hearty .66 points per minute which isn't too bad considering that this year's scoring champ, Tracy McGrady was right around .81 points per minute while his nearest competitor, Kobe Bryant, was at .72 and three-time scoring champ Allen Iverson was at .65. Over his career, Jackson has averaged .46 points per minute played even when you count last year's .37 mark. The point, though, is that he can score. As a starter, as a sub, as a guy averaging 40 minutes a game like he did for the Warriors in 1998 or a guy averaging 20 minutes a game like he did for the Kings last season, he can still score. And NBA teams always need guys who can score. Let's not forget that Jackson's teammate Bobby Jackson won the Sixthman of the Year Award last year while averaging .47 points per minute when coming off the bench while Jackson averaged .45 points per minute while coming off the bench in the playoffs. Two years ago, Jackson waited until December 2 to sign with the Miami Heat and promptly became their third leading scorer behind Eddie Jones and Alonzo Mourning. Last year, he waited until November 30 to sign with the Sacramento Kings and quickly became the highest scoring player off the bench on the deepest team in the entire league that fully expected to win the NBA championship. Shoot, it's only September 26. What does Jackson have to worry about?
I like this trade *A LOT*. I'm a Kings fan in my other life, and Jim Jackson was a huge, key player for the Kings last year. This guy was a real, real asset. His statistics weren't great since he played off the bench, behind guys like Christie (who's on there for his defense) and Peja (perennial all-star), but when he was on the floor.. he was *the* go-to guy. He has a great post-up game, and can make the jumper with pretty good consistency. I think he's the perfect complement for Pike, and can be play some nasty defense as well. This guy's a great get. I can't believe he's available for the $1.5 mil exception. I thought he really proved himself last yea.r I think Rockets fans are going to be *very* pleased with this acquisition.
Can't agree with the points above... yea, there's no doubt Rice is a better shooter than Jim Jackson (and just about anyone else on the court)... but don't forget we added Piatkowski this year. We *have* a shooter. And you're wrong about Jim Jackson scoring primarily in transition. Again, as a Kings fan, while the guy *did* get involved in the transition game, he did a huge number of damage with his back to the basket. I really think he had a superior more unstoppable post-up game than even Maurice Taylor showed last year... and that's from the 2/3 spot! This is a trade about filling gaps. Coming in, I really didn't know how the Rockets planned to play Rice, Mobley, and Pike... what happens if they play against a squad with an athletic/scoring SG/SF that also happens to be a great perimeter defender? Jim Jackson fills that gap.
