Well, if he's developed a consistent jumpshot, then I'd take that statement back. But I've honestly never seen one when he was here, only ridiculously low% 3s. Anyway, my point was that KT simply wasn't going to fit on this team. He's perfect in Philly, as he's the only low post man around. Besides, Keeping KT means eating up A LOT OF cap space. Something we simply didn't have, after overpaying for Taylor, Moochie, and Cato. The last thing we needed was to overpay for a player of KT caliber.
yeah - he had only played in about 48 games, and has only looked good in about 30 ...so what is your point ?!? oh yeah... he played well LAST WEEK - so NOW he's a candidate for MVP... right... I forgot
KT is playing well this year, but he wasn't doing that with yao and i'm sure if he were still playing with yao he wouldn't be doing that.
No, the last thing we needed to do was overreact to previous bad contracts and get gun shy about keeping young guys who actually were solid role players and who OTHER teams also sought after. Yes we made mistakes by signing big contracts for Cato and Moochie relative to their value (MoT is harder to judge b/c his injuries were unforseeable) and we made mistakes by not making efforts to retain KT or Posey with reasonable market based contracts. We componded previous mistakes (Cato/Mooch signings) with subequent mistakes (NOT signing KT or Posey). Tweedle dumb tweedle dee.
For a team who's other big man is Samuel Dalembert (ie: no other low post options), Kenny Thomas is a great fit in Philadelphia. He would have been a horrible fit offensively in Houston. He can't consistently hit the outside jumper that Mo Taylor brings, and requires too many low post touches. I don't know about you guys, but if the ball is going into the post, I'de much rather it be Yao Ming than Kenny Thomas. For a guy who's been fairly critical of Rockets' personnel policy over the last half decade, I have no remorse over letting Kenny go.
I'm not saying I would rather it turned out the way it did. What I'm saying is that, at that point in the season, the Rockets HAD to trade Kenny Thomas and there's nothing anyone can say to change that. I don't care if he's putting up 30 and 15 while challenging for MVP honors... The fact of the matter remains that it was NOT poor judgement on management's part and it was the best decision with the given situation: - 3 PF's weren't co-existing, were clearly frustrating each other. - MoT was absolutely untradeable (no debate here) - Eddie Griffin was a cornerstone and from OUR point of view, untradeable. I hope there's no debate there. Remember, we turned down Glen Rice and Eddie Griffin for Shareef AbdurRahim. That's how much we valued him, regardless of what happened after that. Can you really dispute any of these points? On the other hand, if all you guys are saying is "KT is doing great now, I wish CD had made ONE MORE bad judgement and kept him"... Then I pretty much agree with you.
Oh, and as meh put very nicely, KT would have troubel adjusting to Yao. As it is, MoT is our only option to hit the midrange J. Put Kenny Thomas in his position, and teams will collapse on Yao relentlessly.
With all these threads popping up about power forwards and how to fix our problem in the front court, isn't it about time for another "How's Malick Badiane Doing" thread?
If Kenny Thomas was still here he would be overweight and still jacking up horrible shots. It was the shock of getting traded that inspired him to get serious about his game. If we hadn't traded him I doubt he would be playing at this level.
Maybe it was playing on a team where his PT wasn't given to an immature, reckless and undeserving player simply because that guy was a high draft pick. I don't regret the KT trade that much, but losing KT and the player we got for him--who both have proved to be solid NBA players--plus a 2nd rounder, for nothing but padding Les's fat wallet just sucks.
Once almost everyone on here gets their wish and the Rox get rid of Steve, these are the posts that are going to be appearing on a daily basis regarding why did we ever trade one of the top talents in the league.
Either that, or there are going to be daily posts on how great the player we traded Steve for is playing so much better than Stevie. Nothing like comparing letting a player leave and an actual "trade". I don't see anyone complaining about how Moochie's doing, but I have seen many posts complimenting on the play of Weatherspoon.
