Morey doesn't need to find the next Lebron, he needs to find the next Big Ben/Deke

Hopefully we already have our Deke Jr in Thabeet.

But I agree, with a dominant center this team could do great thangs

 

We need both.

But it's a lot harder finding a true superstar than it is finding a defensive big. We could sign Dalembert this off-season and be just fine at center, defensively. We can't sign anything close to a star in free agency though.

 

The 2/3 position star will have to be acquired via draft or if you get lucky with a trade for a marginal star at this point. The C you can sign potentially.

 

Greg Oden. The draft is a crap shot, you have to overpay in free agency for a good one, I say we take a gamble on this guy and hopes he does a Grant Hill recovery with us.

 

Yes sure lets just get a player like Deke instead of a Lebron James and end up like Portland who drafted Greg Oden instead of Kevin Durant. Why would you want a big defensive big man instead of a Lebron James caliber player?

From what I know, a player of Lebron's caliber is someone who can lead this team and be the franchise player and a player of Deke's caliber is a good supporting player.

I know this team desperately needs a big defensive Center but getting a superstar player is much more important. So getting a star player like James should be the Rockets first priority. It is much easier to trade for a big defensive player than a superstar.

Look at Portland for example. They went for a big defensive player instead of a player that is superstar caliber like James. A player like Deke is very special and is a big piece to a contender but a player the caliber of Lebron James (superstar) is the main piece. If you have a chance to get a superstar SG/SF or a good defensive big man, you go for the better player. Doesn't matter what position you need more, you always have to go for the better player.

 

Morey needs to get off his ass and dig deep to find us some talent.

 

The problem with the Oden comparison is that Oden isn't healthy. If Oden was, NO ONE would be dogging Portland for selecting him.

 

Even if Oden was healthy, I don't think he would still be on the same level as Durant. There's a difference between having a chance to draft a superstar player and a good defensive big man. Having a good defensive big man would be nice but I rather go for a superstar caliber player.

I mean who would you rather have? Lebron James or Dwight Howard? Both players are hard to come by but if I would have a chance to acquire of the two, Ill go with Lebron James simply because a player of his talent gives you more potential to win a championship. But not many players are like Howard. He can defend, rebounds, and score. Dwight Howard is rare. Not many big men can defend like him and play at an superstar level.

I want to compare Howard to Yao. Dwight Howard is a superstar Center and Yao is a all star caliber center. What makes Howard a better player than Yao? He can score almost as well as Yao if not better, he is a much better rebounder, defender and adding his athletcism puts him over the top. Yao has a good shooting touch for his massive size and a very good post game. But his rebounding and defense isn't as good as Howard.

Which is why passing up on a player like Howard is hard. I would only choose Lebron over Dwight because Lebron is just too physically gifted and incredibly talented to pass up. If it was any other player, Ill choose Howard over them.

 

You could say the same about literally 75%+ of the teams in the NBA.

 

And can you people please stop saying "player LIKE LeBron". It's the most asinine statement you could possibly make.

 

also need to find the next Shane Battier

 

The reason they drafted oden instead of duran is because they have a healthy roy, if they know what they know now i know they would have drafted duran. I don't blame them though, Portland is super scary with healthy roy, oden and aldridge playing together

 

Isn't this also the reason why they passed on Jordan (they already had Clyde the glide)?

I find it funny how history repeated itself in the Bowie/Oden scenario. Anyway the point is you draft the guy you think will be the BPA, not who is the better fit for your current team. Reason is injuries/drama always happens, and if it did it would be better to have Durant to fall back on rather than broken down Oden.

 

Any center that isn't the shortest starting center in the league, will do.

 

Good thread, the Rockets right now are incomplete rather than mediocre, as we have gaping holes at the SF and C position.

The greatest need right now is the C position due to C-bud's development, however if I were DM I'd prioritize the SF position first. The reason is the SF position has a bevy of stars that are in flux right now, guys like AI or Granger would be perfect trade targets for a combination of picks, Hill, T-will and C-bud, while promising centers are still the rarest commodity in the league. This inflates the value of centers rather alarmingly, in an ideal scenario no-name like Varejao shouldn't be hard to trade for, however due to the dearth of quality big men who can play center you'd have to pay a king's ransom to pry him from Cleveland's fingers.

So rather than trying to trade for that C and pay a ton for a valued commodity, I think it would be better to snag him off SL, the draft or sign him via free agency. Getting a look at Thabeet is a good step on this direction. Sneding feelers to Nene would probably be another.

 

There are four, count 'em, 4, superstar wings in the NBA. Kobe, Lebron, DWade, and Durant.

None of those 4 guys is or will be available. Everybody else falls below that level and then it becomes a question of do they really upgrade our wing spot enough to warrant the talent we will lose in a trade.

The OP raises a very good point. Our best trade may be to trade some more of Les' money to get Yao back playing 20 mpg. Frankly, I think that if he comes back, he's gonna be a bargain.

The next point I want to make about a big is to really upgrade our team at the big man spot, you've got to get a multi-tool guy, a guy that can defend and board but at the same time he can run the high post offense for Rick. There is no way in Haiti that Dalembert can do that. He's a joke offensively. He's another one-way guy. And he's stupid enough that he would be trying to fire up jumpers and busting out of the offense. I'll take Dally at minimum salary as the backup center off the bench. But not our starting center.

 

No we want LeBron...

Scratch that.. If we can get someone who has the personality of Deke will the skills of LeQuit then we're set... So you're half right...

 

Big Ben has already won two superbowls. Thats more than Lebron could ever dream of.