MLE wish list

I heard hill will sign on the cheap with he magic becuase he feels he owes them for all those years of max money and not playing... classy guy.

 

Darko?

 

You know, thats a fascinating choice. he can rebound. play great interior defense and can put the ball in the hoop. but he might be asking for more then the MLE.

 

Grant Hill would be an excellant addition to this team and I have brought up his name a number of times. As a 6th man off the bench he brings a lot of skillsets. He has length, is a good medium range shooter, can play PointForward, can create his own shot and finish at the basket. And he is a good team/chemistry guy. Because Hill would get 6th man minutes I think he could be even more effective in Houston than he was in Orlando where he played starters minutes.

Having a guy like Hill who could relieve Tmac of playmaking duties would be a huge boost to Tmac. It would allow Tmac to score more and be more fresh. Hill can also get up and down the floor on the break.

Don't forget, we have the LLE which is a bit more than the Vet minimum.

I would even go as far as splitting the MLE with Hill and another player.

 

A swingman is low priority with TMac, Shane, and hopefully Novak. All we've got to work with is the MLE and our draft pick, so those should be used to address our two major concerns - PG and PF.

 

Disagree. Adding a Grant Hill to the Tmac+Shane mix would be huge. We need length there. I am not betting on Novak to be ANY kind of answer at the SF spot. I would rather bet on Snyder....which I am not.

I agree that PG is a huge priority. And PF would be nice too. But the key is being able to get value here with that assets available. There just aren't quality PFs growing on trees.

You aren't going to get a good PF with MLE money. What's the better value with MLE, Joe Smith/Mikki Moore/Corliss Williamson/PJ Brown or perhaps a Grant Hill?

However, you CAN get a quality swingman (Hill, Mason, Peterson etc), maybe a PG (Mo Williams) with MLE that can help mask some of the other weaker areas.

 

"Switch every screen"

I thought you knew what a zone defense looks like, having advocated one all season.

It's called a "zone" not "switching." Switching is what they say a man-to-man defense does...as in "switching your man with your teammate." Zone is playing a zone and letting the opp go through...it's not called switching.

lol

 

interesting...jvg should use that "switching" defense

yeah, GS was flawless all year on defense..

 

I don't think there is anyone that the rockets will be able to land that will be worth the MLE or significantly improve the team.

We'd be lucky to split the MLE and end up with a good bench contributor.

Kinda sucks.

Hopefully we can get a good pf in the draft. Shouldn't be too hard to at least take away Juwan's minutes. Next year Juwan's contract becomes desirable for teams wanting to cut cap space, so maybe he can net us something.

We don't have CD anymore so hopefully there will never be a deal like Ameechi again.

 

They play both a zone, and man, and when they play man they switch on the screens.

It is totally different and I know that you know that too.

DD

 

Man, you guys are incredible....it has been working the last 25% of the season and the playoffs, WHEN it was installed.

Take your JVG blinders off, there are other coaches that can get more out of our players......

DD

 

Then why so many folks here are dreaming of Hill joining Rockets next season?

 

I want you guys opinion how would you feel about adding a guy who could bring some grit like Stackhouse and a guy with a trade like MJ, or for the LLE Franchise. Power forward though not very good is not a posistion we have to be great at a guy like Chuckie who can rebound and play D is fine if we could get some more offensive weapons.

 

Grant Hill will be great addition. With his length, T-mac can be moved to be a part time point guard which will sovle the problem of lack of backup point guard. Actually, G.Hill just replaced bonzi.

I think R alston did his best and just need not play that much. If G.H. accept v mini and healthy, he's a big addition to put Rockets over the top. Remember please, He does not only own Magic, but he also own T-MAc something.

 

How about sign Wallace for MLE??? and trade for Lewis and Collison...or O'neal...or Garnett...we don't need tweaks...we need an adrenaline shot in the arm...we really need to go big....like Nuggets trading off their glue guy for an aging star player....package Battier and Head with Howard and Sura's contract plus picks for that kind of player....I like Wallace but he can't shoot three's...which is why I like Lewis...however we can always go for Walton who can shoot three's with the MLE....in this case go for Garnett or O'neal....you guys already saw in the other thread how I proposed this would happen....in short, getting a stacked line up with a few versatile bench players allows us to keep Gundy....he makes bad teams play great defense....but needs an offesively gifted team to compete well offensively...so do we go for
Yao
Garnett or Oneal
Walton
Tmac
Francis/Alston

or

Yao
Collison
Lewis
Tmac
Francis/Alston

Bench equals Hayes, Vspan, Novak, Snyder, Jake

 

grant hill + keith jones (our trainer for n00bs) = match made in heaven.

I'd only take him for the vet min, and heck no to him touching our MLE.

If stevie opts out, I'd take him for the vet min, or split the MLE up to half, thats it!

But yeah, i'd over the full MLE to bibby first though. But highly doubt he'd bite on that.

Hey, this is a wish list thread right?

 

It looks like the Rockets are going to have get lucky with some diamonds in the rough in free agency barring any trades.

Ersan Ilyasova aka the Josh Hartnett look-a-like.
-A good defender has 3P range plays both forward positions. Bucks are high on him and mightn't let him slip away so easily in free agency.

Yaroslav Korolev
-Could be another Diaw or Darko, ie a relevation when given the chance to play. He didn't get an opportunity to play under but that's understandable as the minutes at SF went to Maggette, Ross, and Livingston. Especially with Maggette complaining about playing time as it were. Clippers not picking up the option in his third year.
Interesting write up here. Certainly has the type of skills the Rockets are after
but the question is if those skills are at NBA level. Perhaps worth a gamble for the min.
http://www.draftexpress.com/viewprofile.php?p=256

Ime Udoka
-A late bloomer. Plays defense, scores some points. Will definately be a good backup to have behind Shane Battier. If he can be had for the around the LLE or under he's a must sign. Plays SG & SF.

Melvin Ely
-Inconsistent. Not worth more than what he's currently getting which is around 3M but is probably the surest PF option for the Rockets to sign.

 

even if the Rockets do sign him, that wish might not be too far off with all the injuries he's had.

Staying on topic...a healthy Grant Hill is great, but one can argue the biggest need for the Rockets is a PG that can pass, penetrate, and spot up shoot. The other arguement is a PF who can rebound, intimidate on D, and shoot from midrange. Of course if you sign a healthy Grant Hill, you have now made Battier even more tradeable...but that's a whole new discussion

 

Unrestricted FA

Code:

Player	Team	Type
Michael Olowokandi 	Boston 	        C
Matt Carroll 	      Charlotte 	G
[b]P.J. Brown 	      Chicago 	         F/C[/b]
Scot Pollard 	     Cleveland 	           F/C
Austin Croshere 	Dallas 	         F
Jerry Stackhouse 	Dallas 	       G/F
[b]Steve Blake 	     Denver 	        PG[/b]
Jamal Sampson 	      Denver 	        F/C
Dale Davis 	     Detroit 	            F/C
Chris Webber* 	     Detroit 	          F/C
[b]Matt Barnes 	     Golden State 	G[/b]
[b]Jason Hart 	      L.A. Clippers 	 PG[/b]
Chris Mihm 	      L.A. Lakers 	 C
Smush Parker 	     L.A. Lakers 	PG
Luke Walton* 	      L.A. Lakers 	F
Shammond Williams 	L.A. Lakers 	PG
[b]Chucky Atkins 	      Memphis 	          PG[/b]
Junior Harrington 	Memphis 	PG
Eddie Jones 	        Miami 	         G/F
Jason Kapono 	      Miami 	        F
Gary Payton 	      Miami 	        PG
James Posey 	       Miami 	         F
Ruben Patterson 	Milwaukee 	F
Maurice Williams* 	Milwaukee 	PG
Eddie House 	       New Jersey 	G
Mikki Moore 	       New Jersey 	C
Devin Brown 	      New Orleans 	G
Marc Jackson 	      New Orleans 	C
[b]Desmond Mason* 	    New Orleans 	G/F[/b]
Kelvin Cato 	        New York 	    C
Grant Hill* 	           Orlando 	     F
Joe Smith 	         Philadelphia 	F/C
[b]Jumaine Jones 	        Phoenix 	  G/F[/b]
Jalen Rose 	         Phoenix 	    G/F
Jamaal Magloire 	Portland 	C
[b]Ime Udoka 	       Portland 	   F[/b]
Corliss Williamson 	Sacramento 	F
[b]Melvin Ely 	        San Antonio 	  F/C[/b]
Jacque Vaughn 	    San Antonio 	PG
Danny Fortson 	        Seattle 	F/C
Randy Livingston 	Seattle 	PG
Mike Wilks 	        Seattle 	   PG
[b]Morris Peterson* 	Toronto 	G/F[/b]

Restricted FA

Code:

Player	Team	Type

Andres Nocioni* 	      Chicago 	         F
Aleksandar Pavlovic 	Cleveland 	G
[b]Anderson Varejao* 	Cleveland 	F/C[/b]
Zarko Cabarkapa 	Golden State 	F
[b]Mickael Pietrus 	Golden State 	G[/b]
Josh Powell 	      Golden State 	G
Dahntay Jones 	      Memphis 	         G
Charlie Bell 	          Milwaukee 	      PG
Ersan Ilyasova 	      Milwaukee 	F
Bracey Wright 	      Minnesota 	F
Travis Diener 	        Orlando 	    PG
[b]Darko Milicic 	          Orlando 	     F/C[/b]
Travis Outlaw 	       Portland 	  F
Matt Bonner 	       San Antonio 	F
CJ Miles 	           Utah 	    G
Andray Blatche 	     Washington 	F
[b]Jarvis Hayes 	     Washington 	G/F[/b]

* = chances are almost nonexistent.

Knowing we have only the MLE to work with and the unlikelihood of bringing in a RFA (ex. Nocioni won't be permitted to leave Chicago at the MLE), I've bolded the players I'd personally be most interested in chasing. My guess is that the most likely need we could address in the draft is a scoring swingman with size and athleticism. Getting a forward with size, quickness, an ability to hit jumpers, and good board work will be a tall order at the bottom of the first round.

Melvin Ely is the guy I'd chase the hardest (though there is a real danger of his being Stromile Swift 2), along with Jarvis Hayes (Battier-esque intangibles), Mo Pete, or one of the PGs (Blake may command an unrealistic salary).

Evan

 

Of guys that are available, there are several that I like.

Obviously Billups and Rashard Lewis aren't options because the Rox don't have the money.

I love Gerald Wallace but he's a terrible 3point shooter, will probably ask for too much, and would create a log jam at the swing position with Battier and T-Mac.

Possible fits:
PG's to take time away from Alston: Mike Bibby, Mo Williams, Chucky Atkins
PF that they need: Antonio McDyess, Kurt Thomas
Scorers off the bench: Jerry Stackhouse, Luke Walton

I'd be OK with any of those possible fits. Personally I would go after Mo Williams first. If I couldn't get him, I'd try for Bibby. If Bibby says no, I'd try to get Stackhouse and McDyess/Thomas to split the MLE.

What do you guys think?