Heat is On? Rice,Griffin in trade? Trade Rices contract/Griffin to Miami for Eddie Jones. Start Eddie Jones at Small Forward. Rockets Big Splash! Jones don't have to be a leader and doesn't have to take all the shots anymore, but supply us with the defense and a good swingman we need. This would work for Miami cause they are rebuilding and Jones has maybe 5 years of solid quality playing. They would love to see Griffin mature to a O'neal player in 4-5 years while rebuilding and getting some cap space after Rices contract is gone. Other signings : Split the MCE with Pike/Trent, sign Marc Jackson to the vets. PG Steve Francis/Jackson SG Mobley/Pike SF Eddie Jones/Pike/Nacbar PF Taylor/Gary Trent? C Ming/Cato Would this work? Miami probably wouldnt do this how much value is Eddie Jones for them? Its not like hes an allstar.....
The Rockets won't get better with trades. (unless of course there one of the many Mooch for Garnet trades...) What we need are for Cat, Steve, and Yao to work together as a team. If Cat and Steve learn to share the ball with Yao the way they do with themselves, there should be no reason for the Rockets not to have 3 players next year avg. 18 points or more. With Van Gundy, I hope the Rockets players grow to respect him the way they respect Rudy. I expect Murphy and Rudy will try to persuade the guys into falling into his system. I also don't see how trading Griffin for a smaller foward will be better than playing Griffin and Bokie in the long run. Griffin still has a lot of things going for him. He has nice size and he can shoot the rock. With a new coach w/ new expectations, we could very well see a new Griffin next year. Maybe a Camby type with actual range. And of course there's Bokie. He can handle the ball and he can shoot light out. All he needs is a coach willing to put him in there and throw a few plays his way.
don't you think we may have trouble signing Yao if we have the contracts of Francis, Taylor, Cato, Norris and Jones?
