First off I agree with your statements. During the of season, it is way to easy to "pencil in" rookies and injury prone players. Rookie wall, bad match ups, over expectations, bad luck, foul proneness, and other problems are bound to pop up. However, I feel pretty good about our sf options. I figure it is a position by committee till somebody steps up. Rice and Boki get first shot. But I like TMo (especially as a sub - well at this point only as a sub) for some minutes. I think he will improve. Griffin could easily get minutes there, especialy with our PF log jam. KT does not belong but in a pinch can be thrown in for a moment or two. Three guard offense eliminates the three (Yea I hope to get away from that too, but again in a pinch it is an option) so I feel we have plenty of options. All that being said, if Nachbar dosen't grow up to take that position, we have a real hole that needs addressing. But for one year, yea I',m "willing to go into the season with a player that..."
First, props fellows for a quite reasonable trade discussion from both teams perspective. The salaries don't work, but very tempting. It would have to be something like LM, Coles and Mihm for Cato, KT and one of Brown/Tmo/Tito. Who is a better defender of typical SFs, KT or LM? That would probably make my decision from the Rockets perspective. I think Cleveland would jump on this trade if it basically came down to KT/LM (difficult unless they have a trade exception I am not aware of). KT would be by far their most effective PF they would have and would do better in the East than his very respectable year he had for us last year. They would then be in a position to offer him just a touch more than the MCE and KT would probably stay there, or they can clear out salary space and let him walk. That would be a good position for them to be in.
We need to lose a power forward and gain another quality SF. I would take KT straight up, or toss in TMo too and wave whatever filler they send back.
eventually kt will be a sf with boki. thats rudy's plan. right now we would have to trade rice in a 3-way deal to get murray.
That Kt, Collier idea would work great for both teams. Cav's have a good young nucleus with Miles and Wagner, and will, barring a miracle, be at the top of the lottery. They dump salary with Murray and lose Collier's useless butt after the season. Gives them cap flexibility for the impending 2003 free agent bonanza. Sounds good to me, tell Francis to play Lucas a game of horse for it.
That's it exactly. If Rice can play 82 games, then he is perfect. Rice would contribute heavily while mentoring Boki. By the time Boki is ready to start, Rice comes off the books. Its ideal. Assuming Rice is healthy, I wouldn't touch this trade. But only Rudy knows Rice's situation so you gotta trust him. Also, taking this trade is worse, not better, for our cap situation since Rice's comes off the books earlier.
I agree as well, Rice being healthy is what I think is going on here. With Ming kickin it out (Rice and Ming will be huge in our half court) and Steve, Cat and even MT running, Rice won't have to be in top game shape before camp, just in shape. As far as not seeing him in pick up games, they are probably being cautious and still doing rehab type stuff so he won't reinjure himself.
We can't afford to give up a PF.Griffin needs minutes but he still needs to develop his low post game and get stronger physically.Mo-T is coming off a major injury and lacks the condtioning needed for the season even though he has lost weight. He doesn't rebound well and got into early foul trouble after getting off to a quick start. We need to keep KT. Lamond Murray is a good scorer but he isn't a very good defender.I would like to have him instead of Rice but I'm reluctant to keep him because of his 3 year contract. Rice,Murray and Nachbar would all need minutes at the SF spot.
