No we don't. He's from Dallas, not Houston. And we don't need a low post scorer. We need a 4 that gets his offense from other places like the offensive glass, and the long jumpers.
I'm not even talking about the whole "Take the local/hometown player" argument, although that line of logic doesn't hurt and will be used with Morrison if Portland gets the #1 overall pick. I'm talking about the gamble you would be taking with passing on arguably the best player in the draft. Aldridge is going to be a great player in the NBA---I have little doubt about this. He's got the size, skills and characteristics of a dominant post player that NBA executives drool over. Easily twice the player Howard and Swift are combined. Sure, your highly unlikely dream proposal makes sense from a depth perspective but you also run the risk of passing on the next Chris Bosh/Jermaine O'Neal type player.
if we get the #1, take the best player available. dont try to 'fill holes' through the draft, dont make the same mistake the texans did, don't make a 'basketball decision' or whatever BS and just use your 'logical decision' AKA common sense.. worst comes to worst we have a great trading asset that can be used later.. go for the highest value, and aldridge looks to be it at this point
We draft the best 2 available. We sign Mike James with the MLE - or Sam Cassell for slightly less if possible. We sign Wesley to Vet Min. We trade Rafer and/or Swift or Howard for a good back-up swingman.
this is what i think we should do: THE DRAFT: in the first round we draft either roy/carney or gay if he is able to get that low, then in the 2nd round we draft gibson or novak. DURING OFFSEASON: i think we should get mike james back, cuz i love that guy, we could trade juwam howard&&ryan bowen and maybe even a future first round pick or our second round pick right now, then sign tim thomas, and if it dosent take our full MLE to sign him then get VSPAN, or we can just wait till next year for VSPAN, and then trade sura and a future pick for maybe travis outlaw from portland, he seems like someone we could develop and be a good back-up. im still a believer in swift. this could be one of our line-ups: PG: alston/james/gibson SG: 1st rd pick/head/bogans SF: t-mac/outlaw PF: thomas/swift/hayes C: yao/deke or PG: alston/james/vspan SG: 1st rd pick/head/bogans SF: t-mac/outlaw/novak PF: thomas/swift/hayes C: yao/deke either way those line-ups both sound dynamic and so quick, we would be so much fun to watch and awesome. sound good guyss?? oh yeah this is the first time i've ever posted.
Dream mode ON Take Roy with the 8th pick. Take Gansey in the 2nd round. Sign and Trade with Toronto. Send the 4.2 Mill TE and some picks for James with a contract starting at 4.2 mill with max % increases for 3 years (3rd year being a player option) He's said he wants to do those type deals. Throw the full MLE at Radmanovic with max increases and 5 or 6 years. Hope he bites on the offer. Resign Bogans at minimum. James/Alston/Head Roy/Gansey/Head McGrady/Bogans/Bowen Radman/Howard/Swift Yao/Deke
Man, this is tough. I don't want to dreamcast too much. But the word "ideal" is in the title. First off, draft Mardy Collins at #8. Not the best shooter in the draft, maybe, but all the draft web sites (hopefully they don't crib off each other) explain the system at Temple limited him somewhat; he's 6'6", can defend, can get to the rim, can play a lot of minutes, can pass the rock (he played point in college). Sign Mike James with the MLE. (Hey, no team with cap space needs him enough to pay him much more than we can; he wants to be here; Toronto could pay him more but the conversion rate and taxes and the cost of living, not to mention maintaining two homes, will eat up the difference anyway). Trade Swift and the #32 to NJ Nets for Padgett and the #23 and #24 picks (I think those numbers are right). NJ's trade exception from the Boki/Marc Jackson trade, plus the over/under 15% rule, should allow this trade. Trade Juwan and the #23 and #24 for Antoine Walker and Michael Doleac (the latter having fallen out of favor in Miami for Zo). One of our trade exceptions can cover the difference here. 2006-07 Rockets: 1. Mike James, Rafer Alston 2. Mardy Collins, Luther Head 3. Tracy McGrady, Keith Bogans, (ugh) Ryan Bowen 4. Antoine Walker, Scott Padgett, Chuck Hayes 5. Yao Ming, Michael Doleac, Dikembe Mutombo You'd have ballhandlers from the PG, SG, SF, and PF spots. You could slide players to other positions. Etc.
I still like the idea of working a 3 way deal with Toronto and Milwaukee sending Milwaukee Stro Howard and a future first rounder in return for Milwaukee sending Magloire to the Raps and the Raps signing MJ and trading him and Mo Pete to us. Milwaukee probably wouldn't want Juwan, so we may have to sign DWes to a 1 year deal and send him up there along with Swift to make the money work along with RyBo or whatever.
I realize that not too many people are taken with Walker, but he does provide passing and outside shooting from the 4 (and we aren't trading Tracy, and Tim Thomas won't sign here, and Keith Van Horn is hurt and has less versatility, etc).
Here's my ideal scenario and I think it might just work with a little luck. I believe the Rockets will get one of the top 3 picks. With that they move down to # 5 and take Carney. They receive the Hawks #33 as compensation and take Gibson. With their own #32 Rockets take Roby. Now for the trade. Move Swift/Head/Sura to New Orleans for Brown/J.R. Smith/#15. Take Brewer at #15. The trade works in RealGm. Free Agency- Full MLE for Radmonvic(sp?) Veteran Min- Tim Thomas Team Outlook: Yao/Brown/Mutombo Rad/Howard/Thomas Tmac/Carney/Thomas J.R Smith/Roby Alston/Brewer/Gibson I know its convoluted, but not out of the realm of possibility. New Orleans will be moving Smith, and Brown is on his way out. They need an athletic 4 and while really irrelevant, Swift is from N.O. Head gives them a young decent backup at 1 or 2. Sura is probably going to retire anyway and his salary is needed to make the deal work. Radmonavic fits perfectly for a 4 that has range. Thomas is 30 and has made his money. I believe he will rather play for a team with 2 legit superstars and a real chance to win which the Rockets will be again soon. The luck part all lies in winning a top 3 pick in the lottery and Brewer still being available at 15. Just imagine a lineup of Yao, Tmac, Carney, Smith, Brewer when you want to go small. How about Yao, Thomas, Rad, Tmac, Carney ( Talk about shooters) Anyway, my 2 cents. Sorry for the lenghthiness(sp)
I would love to have AI. Andre Iguodala that is, haha. An Andre Iguodala type of player on this team would be huge. That is why I am looking so forward to getting a skilled, lengthy, athletic SG/SF to go alongside Tmac, and there are plenty of them to go around in this draft. If a player that we draft or trade for can even resemble him I would be ecstatic. The only problem is that he defers way too much to the other AI that everyone is talking about. He only put up about 8 shots a game last year. I think it was the lowest amount for someone who played that many minutes. Once he becomes more assertive this guy can be similar to Shawn Marion but more graceful. Btw, Marion is a bad ass no matter how ugly he plays. He could give two ****s about how he looks or feels when he plays.
In a perfect world: Land a top 3 pick, and draft Thomas or Aldridge, and the best avaliable swingman with our 2nd rounder (Hassan Adams, Denham Brown, Maurice Ager, Sun Yue etc), or maybe Sene the African that's getting a lot of pub (to backup Yao for hopefully many years). Trade Stro to Nets for Antoine Wright, Padgett, and Zoran P. (works capwise, and we get a 5.4 million TE). Use the TE to sign and trade for Mike James for 3 years 18 million, sending Toronto a future protected first. Use half our MLE to sign a utility swingman like Rasual Butler or Jared Jeffries. Then save the rest of the MLE for an emergency signing. Our roster would be: Rafer James Head Wright Butler/Jeffries 2nd rounder T-mac Thomas/Aldridge Padgett Hayes Howard Yao Deke With these guys on the fence: Sura (maybe bought out) Zoran (might be cut) Bogans (maybe if he shoots 25,000 three pointers this summer) Bowen (I can't believe we gave him a player option Time to cut him loose already) We'd have: 1. Trio of small guards (James, Rafer, and Head) with different skills that we could mix and match. 2. A bunch of swingmen that we can throw out there (Tracy, Wright, Buter/Jeffries, 2nd rounder, maybe Bogans). 3. PFs with specific skills that we can use in different matchups, Padge (Perimeter shooting), Hayes (Rebounding), Juwan (Stealing. I keed. I keed.) 4. A dynamic young big man with explosiveness and fire (thomas), or length and size and skills (Aldridge), 5. And a guy, who in my mind, will undoubtedly be the best big man in the world very shortly. And this isn't even taking into accout the fact that if Tracy is healthy, he's a top 5 player in the league. Granted this scenario hinges on getting a top 3 pick. But even if we don't land a high draft pick, we'd still be able to do a lot of this and improve our team greatly.
