Then when T-Mac goes to LA, he has a solid 2nd option in odom and he will have a good chance to the second round.
if he had that 2nd option like odom, he would have IN THE EAST the west, he needs an all-star and that's yao
how would u know that really? when kobe was w/ shaq, and i have posted the INSANE statistics of shaq, shaq had to put up those #s for them to advance even out of the first round. yao is not going to put up those #s. nowhere close. hes not gonna be shaq. w/ the west top tier teams so competitive w/ the depth, scoring, versatility, its going to be tough, esp. if yao has performed in the playoffs the way he has.
kobe said it was his team too i'm not complaining yao is not playing like shaq b/c he's not shaq. i'm just saying kobe had it easy having a shaq playing like shaq. it's much easier playing w/ a guy putting up 30+, 15+, 2.5+ shooting 58%. u really think tmac wouldn't win those rings if he had a guy putting up those #s drawing all those double teams? cmon let's be real.
I don't know whether Kobe said it was his team or not. Shaq clearly said it was his team and asked Kobe to opt out his contract that year. Kobe is better than he was. If he comes to Rox, he will be the first option and Yao the second. When he played with Shaq, Shaq was the first he was the second. The fighting between Kobe and Shaq was that Kobe wanted to be the first as I understood. In Phil Jaction's diary, he said Kobe wanted to be Playoff MVP. I think Kobe should have learned a lesson during the last three years. The very player he needed was someone like Shaq who will make hime better and the team better.
If Van Gundy had taken Yao out of the game in the final minute against Utah this year then Tmac would be in the second round. Yao was too tired, slow, and timid to grab a rebound that Mutumbo would have gotten without question.
I know Kobe's a great and amazing player but we're already stacked without him. I just wouldn't understand shipping TMac or Yao away when we already have pretty good team chemistry.
Agree. And it's not eben the chemistry. Man, T-Mac knows Yao, Yao knows tmac. They have played for several years and they're doin' pretty well. Now we only have a better help from our bench. It killed us last year, I mean no bench. LOL. That's funny thinkin'. T-Mac odom > TMac Yao
i know this suggestion will lead to incessant flaming, but i don't care. it's been accurately pointed out time and again what pros/cons each player rumored-to-be-traded brings to the table. that being said: 1) basketball is a business 2) you don't get something for nothing i like what Morey's done with the team over the summer, but one must always be looking to improve the team through whatever means necessary. i love tracy as much as the next guy, but tracy has a ceiling, a ceiling which was all-too-apparent during the playoffs, even though he was 'healthy.' given what other teams are pitching for Kobe, it's clear that LA wants: 1) star power, to keep people in their seats 2) to get rid of their garbage player(s)/contract(s) (Like Kwame) 3) youth 4) veteran stability to fill in the hole(s) Kobe will create by leaving 5) security (specifically, they don't want their new players to bolt) other deals on the table include one straight-up with Chicago, one three-way with Chicago and Phx, and one three-way with Chicago and Sacto. let's just look at the Chicago deal. 1) Ben Gordon - contract has not been extended, may bolt; NOT a superstar 2) Tyrus Thomas - def. valuable, but still raw and very young 3) Joakim Noah - too early to tell, still very raw 4) Ben Wallace - huge contract 5) Kirk Hinrich - likely won't be included 6) Luol Deng - will NOT be included LA won't do the trade unless Luol is included; Kobe and Chicago won't approve the trade unless Luol is NOT included. if the trade gets done somehow, the supporting cast will include: Thabo, Nocioni, Duhon, Joe Smith, and Hinrich. in other words, nothing great. on the other hand, let's say Houston were to get involved. 1) TMac - yes, he's an injury concern, but has been fine since seeing Dr. Patterson in Waco. has a superstar draw even though he doesn't necessarily play like one anymore. is great for the Rockets system/atmosphere, but will not take us to the championship b/c of his lack of a killer instinct. still has 3 years, so will not be able to bolt if he gets traded. 2) Mike James - can play 1/2, has veteran presence, decent defense and good offense. can take Kobe's spot in the Laker's line-up, with TMac filling in at the 3. the Rockets will miss his spark off the bench and at the 1/2, but hopefully Bonzi and Kobe will be able to fill those needs. 3) Luther Head - good, young shooter. is locked up for 2 years. bottom line is that he's young and still improving. one of the best 3pt shooters in the L (average-wise). 4) Carl Landry - raw, undersized PF. obviously has a way(s) to go, but down-the-line could definitely be a contributor. in this scenario, he'd basically be the token PF in the trade (to take Kwame's spot). for 1) Kobe, and 2) Kwame - unmotivated crash-and-burn project. LA would love to dump him, and would likely groom Landry to be everything Kwame wasn't. again, the NBA is a business. there are plenty people in Houston that respect Kobe as a basketball superstar but despise him as a person. there are more people that fear how he'd co-exist with others, including a star like Yao. we've seen Kobe in the All-Star games and in the Olympics. he plays within the system, and plays on BOTH ends of the court. he's had to take all the shots in LA b/c of his supporting cast (which is kinda his fault to begin with). you don't get something for nothing, and you have to give up something good to get something good in return. in this case, it's a matter of giving our best talent, a veteran, and some of our youth for the Best player in the NBA and a burn-out/garbage player. if we did this trade, here's how the teams would pan out: LA 1) Fisher/Farmar/Mike James/Head/Crittenton 2) Mike James/Head/TMac/Vujacic/Coby Karl 3) TMac/Walton/Mo Evans/Radmanovic 4) Odom/Turiaf/Cook/Landry 5) Bynum/Mihm Houston 1) Rafer/Kobe/SF3/ABrooks 2) Kobe/Bonzi/SF3/Kirk 3) Battier/Bonzi/Kirk/Novak 4) Hayes/Scola/Kwame 5) Yao/Dikembe/Kwame just b/c of the sheer number of players, i think it keeps LA pretty competitive, and at the same time, i think it helps us get that much closer to being a championship team. with Yao, Battier, Hayes, and Scola, i think we have enough of a core to go deep during the playoffs. it wasn't easy trading away SF3, Cat, and Cato for Tracy, Juwan, and change, but Tracy alone made the deal worth it. this will end up the same way.
This is probably the most well-reasoned argument I've ever heard from an aggie. Nicely done! -Anti Dentite
As much as I've questioned Tracy's heart and as we saw on Tuesday, Kobe can single handedly keep a team in the game and has more Heart than anyone I've seen since Jordan. I don't believe Kobe is a good fit with the Rockets. At this point we have a stacked team and there probably not enough ball to go around to keep this team together for the long term. Will Kobe ever be happy? Can he share a basketball or team? Will Yao be happy? Thats a big question. If there is a team that can put this deal together it's the Rockets. But do we want to? Now if Kobe does get moved, you know he is going to put his best foot forward and show the NBA he is the King and that L.A. F#*@ed up. If Tracy goes to L.A., I have a filling that they would be throwing rocks at him by the all-star break. As soon as they figure out that Tracy cannot close a game or put his will on the game as Kobe can. My opinion is "NO". But this is a question only Les, Morey and Rick can answer. Is this really what the Rockets want? Only time will tell.
First of all, gig 'em. Second, I thought this was a dead issue. As much of a business as it is, and the ceiling on a Kobe led team is higher, the risk of shaking up a roster and putting players in different roles is wayy too high right now. This team was crafted around Yao and Mac. Also Kobe is a FA in 2009. I am going to lose Mac for two years with Kobe. We have a four or five year window left with Mac to contribute. We should stop living in fantasy land.
Yes, that is a pretty good scenario. But, I have a lot of hope that T-Mac and Yao win a championship together. Let's not forget that sending T-Mac to L.A. is like throwing him under a bus. I just don't know what loyalty would be worth. T-Mac instigated the trade to Houston. He wanted to be here. He talked to Shaq, and per Shaq was told that Yao was a good teamate to have. After all the play trash talking Shaq had against Yao, remember "wang kung pang" or something like that, Yao took it in good stride. Yao had a great amount of respect for Shaq. And Shaq equally had a great amount of respect for Hakeem. T-Mac hasn't gotten the Rockets past the 1st round, but he got us dreaming about Championships and rings. T-Mac is an ideal team player, a system guy. He can go up an beyond his call of duty at any time, but he isn't greater than the team. He is the guy most players in the league would love to have as a teammate; that is per a survey I saw this past summer. In retrospect, T-Mac could have gone to Phoenix, or wherever he wanted. But, he had veto power over any trade. He told Orlando, "I want to be traded to Houston". All and all, Francis, Mobley, and Cato was our core of the teams back then. But that was a fiesty team, a team that would need to overachieve under the best of circumstances to pull out victories. And in today's world, if Houston sends T-Mac to a horrible system like they have in L.A., you'd have to think where is justice. And let's not forget about Murphy's Law's. So, Rockets and Rockets Management, Think about what is right. And the NBA is a business. The Rockets have an awsome team right now. It hasn't proven it's a juggernaut, but we'll never know until it's given it's time. Fight temptation to be the NBA darling. Because we all know the Man love for Kobe. Keep T-MAC and Yao tandem together!!!
Speaking of Stephen A Smith, he went on for like 10 minutes about the Denver Nuggets winning the West on NBA Pre-game show , yet no one (haters) are posting this as disrespecting the Rockets? Do the haters watch Stephen A?
What is your deal? Completely off topic. The topic is "Kobe to Houston? Mentioned by Steven A. Smith", not "Everything Steven A Smith Mentions." We all know you are constantly humping the leg of every Rocket that has ever played except the current team. We've accepted it. Please go away and post your anti-"hater" crap in your own threads, so we know how to avoid it.
i'm never going away. There's Stephen A Smith in this topic, else I wouldn't mention his name. I actually support the Rockets every year, don't even test my Rockets fandom. ROOOKIE
