I am going to reserve judgement on this trade for now. JJ had a great game against the Clippers last night, one of his best, but with the open looks he gets, he should have more games like last night's but he does not. He's been too inconsistent on the offesnive end shooting the ball, and that has led to inconsitency in the Rockets record. The bottom line is that JJ has had many more erratic games than games like last night vs the Clips. The problem about Wesley is that he shooting percentage have been below JJs for the last 3 seasons. But Wesley's surrounding cast has been worse than JJs in that time period. Perhaps Wesley's shooting numbers will rise playing with T-Mac and Yao. That is what the Rockets are banking on. If Wesley consistently misses his wide open shots, this trade will be a bust.
If Sura goes on the IL we are looking at the following lineup: Wesley/??? Barry/Gaines T-Mac/Padgett (not sure if he can play the 3) Howard/Mo Yao/Deke Thats just sad...especially the rotation at PG and SG.
I would not be surprised if TMac approved this deal. This is more about him needing another ball handler in the court to take the burden off his shoulders so he can score more. TMac has played against Wesley plenty of times when he was with the Magic. With Baron Davis going down, Wesley has had to take on the position of point guard. He averages 4.2 assists with 2.1 turnovers. I've seen Wesley shoot the ball. The guy can shoot, and I doubt he's ever had the open shots that he will have with the Rockets. Jon Barry will play a very large role with the team now. He'll get enough minutes to make his knees explode.
Who is next on the block, Yao? Since MO and Howard are unmovable, it makes sense that they will move Yao to get one all star + one good role player.
It is a daydream I have to say that Den will trade Nene for any other players in our lineup except MM.
JJ is a good player. There must be reasons for him to be traded around. He is a solid role player, but not a star player. If a role player behaves like a leader of a team, it is going to create problems. Let's face it, the leader of a team has to be one of its best players, not one of its role players.
Geez I just read about the trade...I feel so horrible I don't know what to say! JJ was a real leader for us and I hoped he would retire a rocket. DAMMIT. And Boki brought some high energy on the court to a team full of geezers. Great. This is the best trade of the century.
I liked JJ a lot, but Im not so sure that this was a bad trade. I think we need to give it some time to see how it plays out. I think it did a couple of things for us. 1. Improved our fast break (Wesley likes to run the court) 2. We have another player that can create for other players (JJ was really not that good at it) Once Sura is off the IL I think our team should look like this... PG- Wesley/Barrett SG- Sura/Barry SF- TMac/Bowen PF- Howard/Taylor C- Yao/Dik I think it pretty much played out like we were in desperate need of a point since Sura was injured. So who else was going to fill in? It actually wasnt a bad trade at all because JJ for Wesley is pretty even skill wise. It was more of how do we better our offense? Wesley can hit the outside shot and create for other players. When u have a lot of players that can just create their own shot, the offense can get really stagnant. TMac will play just fine at the 3. He is good at slashing into the lane and hitting 3s. Now we have 4 guys in our starting rotation (Wesley, Sura, TMac, and Yao) who are good at finding other people their shots. Thats why I like the trade because it was a lot more of what the team needed, rather than the pursuit of talent. Our problem was with the amount of energy and intensity our players have been bringing to the court every night. I would not be surprised if management tries to fix our 4 spot next.
hahaha everytime they bring up another PF CD is saying well sura rebounds well he avg's 6 a game.. and last night our pf's did really well. He also said he is on the phones all day trying to see if there is anything that can make us even better.
Can you name one player that has actually increased his production in JVG's system? Not including Oakley or Marc Jackson since they weren't playing to begin with.
How long will we have Wesly locked up for. In other words, when does his contract expire. Also, do we still have the TE? I thought it expired one year from the day the Glenn Rice deal was made. If not, we need to find a big man now!
So who's going to play at SF now? The Rox needed JJ, Rox frontcourt just got weaker, scary. There better be another trade coming up and soon.
Davids on his way here right now. CD talked to Jims agent. Heavy dissapointment from that side. Jims always been very professional, expects no problems. If everyone reports and get their physicals done before tomorrow nights game, the league approves the trade, Wesley can play tomorrow night.
