My .02 (long)

There is no impact 4 in the league that can be got for 1st rd pick + sura.

 

It appears you haven't done much of anything to the team at all, much less to improve it, other than counting on V-Span to grow into a backup point and finding a serviceable backup PF....

If you think this team is close, I guess this approach makes sense. I don't see how you can come to that conclusion, though...they haven't made it out of the first round of the playoffs?

 

Pretty much my thoughts...

Especially with the more time for Span comment (bringing some more hustle and penetration) and the athletic 4 = see my response in the "would you trade Yao" thread.

I too have no problem with rafer with less minutes. I just hope he doesnt shoot quite as much when his shot is not falling...

Another thing people forget is that Span has a few things he can bring to the table offensively like everyone hopes but he's a damn good defender too. Especially on opposing PGs cause he's quick and decent-sized at 6'4

"I thought Billy wasn't good...he was outstanding. I thought he was really good. In fact, if you watched him move his feet against some very hard guys to guard, he was able to stay in front of the ball and that's one thing that we've struggled with all year. I couldn't have been happier with how he played.. " JVG earlier this season

 

I know what you're saying....potentially we're not that far away. But we just played the Jazz, we lost...it doesn't make any sense to say if we just played better we woudl have won...that's obvious, but it didn't happen.

I doubt the Jazz will win it all this year. They will also try to improve in the offseason. And, they already have a young, stud PG who is going to only get better.

Point is, even with a decent backup PG and PF, if we played the Jazz again in the 1st round next year, it woudl once again be a tight, hard-fought series coming down to the wire...anyone can win.

I'm not advocating trading one of the big two, but maybe you explore that option. Or explore trading one of your other 2 assets (Battier, Head).

A lot of people like to point to new styles in the NBA being successful...run and gun teams like the Suns or Raptors. In the end, it's really about quality depth. When the Pistons won it wasn't a fast paced game, it was a team with, essentially, 5 all-star caliber starters, a a solid bench. Same with the Spurs, same with the Heat last year.

Anyway, my point is the Rockets aren't a few slight improvements away from winning it all. We lost in the first round. We'd still have had to beat the Warriors, either the Spurs/Suns and either the Pistons/Cavs. It is not a stretch to say that the Spurs, Suns and Pistons are all better than the Jazz team we just faced.

The Rockets need considerable improvement at the PG and PF positions. Getting there is the difficult part.

Option A: Trade one of the big 2 for a return packacge that includes more than one all-star or near all-star level package. This is unlikely for a number of reasons - Rockets won't do it, hard pressed to find a suitable return package, etc.

Option B: Get what you can for our other 2 assets. There is already the trade Battier thread. Trade him or Head, or both, maybe with a pick or two, and get 2+ (or 3+ if Head is included) quality players in return (1 or 2 starters, a bench player).

Option C: Trust in Morey. Last year we waster our time with the MLE (V-Span, Bonzi). The year before we wasted our time with the MLE (Swift). Granted, at that price level, players are hit and miss. But you HAVE to be able to find a free agent at that price level you can sign who will be an integral part of your rotation into the future. Here is the list of 2007 fre agents.. Here are some notable players from that list, some of whom you couldn't afford, some of whom are restricted anyway, some of whom might fit perfectly in the full MLE, and some of whome you'd only want to spend part of the MLE on.

Gerald Wallace, Nocioni, Stackhouse, McDyess, Webber, Matt Barnes, Smush Parker, Luke Walton, Chucky Atkins, James Posey, Mo Williams, Desmond Mason, Grant Hill, Jamaal Magloire, Bibby, Finley, MoPete.

Gerald Wallace is the dream, but maybe Matt Barnes is Wallace-light. Smush and Luke aren't that great, but if you could get both players for the MLE and have them come off the bench, I think you at least have 2 legit rotation players there. Nocioni - Chicago would probably match. Stack wants to stay in Dallas. McDyess woudl be nice, and let you trade Juwan if you could find a suitor for him (which you might, he has what, 2 years left on his contract now?). Desmond Mason could add some athelticism. Mo Williams had a great season and likely played his way out of the MLE price-range, but then people may be afraid of the Mike James effect. The positive on Mo, though, is that there is an obvious trend to his improved play...every year he has gotten better whereas MJames all of a sudden got great on a bad team in his contract year.

Anyways, just some thoughts. Obviously, if V-Span improves or we could trade a late first round pick and Bob Sura for an impact 4 that woudl be helpful, too.

 

Gerald Wallace only wishes he had Matt Barnes' shooting ability.

 

I think Denver offered Klinza for JL3 and Rockets refused fearing to disrupt the team chemistry. And I am still hating it.

 

Good thoughts there too. However I believe that the Rockets are close to being a team that can win it all. It might not seem like it because it was a 1st round exit but i think that's partly to it being one of our worst match-ups even if they aren't the stronger team in the league.

It's the same with the Mavs. Sure, we all love to hate them, sure we all laugh at Dirk for "choking" but you can't say they are a long way from being contenders just because of their 1st round exit.. GS is a bad match-up for them just like the jazz was to us.

 

Yeah, but until this year, the Mavs had been past the 1st round for a bunch of years in a row making it to the Finals last year. And, even with all that, would anyone be surprised to see Cuban make some relatively drastic changes? I wouldn't.

The thing about the NBA playoffs is that it exposes your team's weaknesses. Bad matchups happen, of course, but 4 rounds of best of 7 action. The cream rises to the top in the NBA. You can't just sit back and hope matchups fall your way.

 

True true, but a bad matchup is a bad matchup. There have been finals upon finals where the semifinals have been more hard-fought and intense. Not many teams have been able tosay that they could beat easily every single other team.

And I'm sure Cuban will make drastic changes. As I just posted in NBA Dish, the Mavs have expressed an interest in signing Theo Papaloukas which would be a HUGE upgrade at PG for them.

Sure it's a best 4 out of 7 but then you need a really good coach to wiggle your way out of the bad match-up cause you'll have to adjust and change your game heavily in order to take advantages of your strengths...

 

I agree. JVG's inability to adapt...EVER, hurt us bad this series. I don't think Sloan changed all that much either, to be fair, but his team won, so he doesn't get the blame.

 

Well, Sloan didnt make drastic changes. He probably wasn't expecting to win the games in TC. He saw the team getting better and made slight adjustments. Then they got the 2 wins at Utah and he could see that his players gave a harder time to Houston in TC than the rockets did to them in Utah. So he didn't have as many adjustments to make. I think most people could see that it wasn't going as well as we'd hoped for the rockets from games 3 and 4. And still, at the end it was a rebound and a say a Head or Rafer 3 from being us preparing for the GS series now.

 

The '92-93 Rockets where not close to Championship contenders either right? They were coming off 4 first round exits, not making the playoffs, and then getting beat in the 2nd round by the Sonics. They made the drastic changes of drafting a 17 mpg backup point guard and signing an undrafted FA.

 

Funny how actually PLAYING a backup PG can give the team an all new look.......

JVG - well, he is bald.

DD

 

True, and if you look at the Rockets team in '93, what changes did they make going into their first championship season? They drafted a backup point guard with their low first rounder(Sam Cassell) and traded a 2nd rounder for a swingman(Mario Elie).

But keep in mind that was a much weaker league they were playing in back then. And also, those Rockets didn't have as many pressing needs as this team does. They were set at the 4 spot with OT and Carl Herrera. They had a quality starter at the point in Kenny Smith and a decent backup already in Scott Brooks.

They also were coming off a Game 7 loss in OT in Seattle in the 2nd round. And it was a series where the home team won every game and in which the Rockets should've had home court had they shown up against the 11-71 Mavs late in the season and/or not been screwed by a ref against the Spurs.

So that team could point to home court and a few key additions to the roster being the difference between being 2nd round fodder and going all the way. And you know what? That was the difference. With Seattle being knocked out by the Nuggets the following year, Houston had home court the entire way and it paid off against the Suns and Knicks in the end.

This team on the other hand had home court in Game 7 and blew it. They were outmatched against Utah at the 1 and 4 spot and the bench. They never played well offensively for even one entire game in this series. At least in '93, the Rockets blew out the Sonics in every home game and gave them all they could handle in Game 7.

I agree they're not as far from being a contender as it might seem. But they need more than a couple tweaks to the roster to make that leap.

 

Anyone who argues that we are close to being a contender isn't in touch with reality and probably never will be. IMO we probably won't ever taste a championship with this current group unless we add a quality starting PG,PF, and a 3d scorer. We probably need a deeper bench too. I doubt this will happen due to our salary cap/trading chips.

 

I lost interest after these remarks; the starting five is NOT fine. Hayes and Alston would not, will not, start on any other team in the NBA, and Battier doesn't start on any of the elite teams in the West. Unless Yao and TMac get major help, expect history to repeat itself. If Rafer is the starting PG for the Rockets next year, the management team is not just slow, they are r****ded.