This is my attempt at breaking the record for longest first post, and longest lurker before first post. I have been a rockets fan since 92 when I was 12 as some background. I think I did a decent job with my proposals, so please don't flame me too badly. First, this is a long explanation of how I would approach the off season if I were GM. My main goal going into the off-season is wanting to get younger and more athletic without rookies that would need to be developed. I am going to make a few assumptions. First, we do not hit top 3 lotto, 2nd I think we have a 3 to 4 year window to win it all, and should act as so, 3rd we are not afraid to take on a 3rd max or near max player. The first move I would do is one of the smallest, but in my opinion, one of the most important moves. I would trade the 32nd second round pick to Portland plus whatever cash considerations for their 30th 1st round pick with an agreement that we would not take the 2 players they wanted to take. Why we would do it. This gives a 1st round pick so we can package our first this year and first next year for an impact young star. Why Portland would do it. This allows them to select the same players without guaranteed contracts. This allows more flexibility with borderline NBA players I would then target single impact players, and see if I can get someone to pull the trigger on a package that was win win for both teams and fills a big void for us. The players I would go after are as follows in this order. KG, Gerald Wallace, Richard Jefferson, Tyson Chandler, Lamar Odom, Samuel Dalembert, Mo Pete, Boozer, and lastly a s and t for Al Harrington. Let me say I would expect everyone to say no to each of my trade offers, but I would still offer because you never know what the other side is thinking. Let me run down these one by one for what I would offer for each of these payers. KG for T-MAC. That is it. We would do it because well T-MAC seems to be getting injured more and more frequently. If I think T-MAC can give me 75 games, I would not do this trade. Why Minesota would do it. They still have a star that can sell tickets. Gerald Wallace. I have to say, this is my preferred option. In fact if we won the lotto, I would offer the pick for GW. I am not sure any picks in this draft will be as good as he is. I would offer a package of Stro, Head, our first and next years first. For GW and their 2nd next year. Why we would do it. We get a guard that can out score, rebound, block, steal, and hustle our power forwards plus he is 23. We could also take a look at shooting 4’s who may be a little weak at rebounding because our other positions rebound so well. Why Charlotte would do it. Well I do not think they would , but 2 starters plus 2 draft picks one mid lotto would be hard for any team to turn down. It also may seem like we are giving up a lot, but I will discuss how we fill out the roster further later. I would offer the same package as above plus some filler to match salaries. I think we are 1 min salary away form matching No explanation necessary as to why we would do it. I think NJ would just laugh at us, but 3 players make 45 mil on their team. This would allow them to have a much better supporting cast, plus I could see stro turning into Kmart with JKidd as point. Tyson Chandler. I would offer this years 1st next years 1st Stro, and head for Chandler and the 16th Why we would do it. Chandler plays like a beast when paired with a scoring big man. Nuff said. The 15th could be used on a solid g/f. We could also eliminate the 1st from Chicago, and ours next year as well. Why they would do it. They are going to have to give up a lot of assets to get KG. This would allow them to package Deng, Duhon, Sweetney, 2 lotto 1sts this year and rockets next for Kg or some other variation and still have more than 1 player left on their roster. I would offer the same deal for Odom and Dalembert minus the pick next year. For Mo Pete, I would offer Head rights to Vspan, and our 2nd or first. {If we swapped with Portland} We know why we would do it, Whey would do it because he will get a big pay day next year, and this allows them to have cheap serviceable players with not much of a drop off. It also gives them a Point if James leaves. For Boozer, I would offer our first, Stro, and Head and filler for Boozer and S n T Harpering 3 years 12 mil. This would give us a solid but overpaid 4 and a quality 2 until we can get a backup groomed. Utah would do it because they get a better value in Stro than Boozer, a young guard in Head, and a pick. I do not think many of the above deals are likely, I could see Chicago and, Utah going for it, but the rest are long shots. You still offer, and make the other team turn them down. Here are some more realistic trades. The Al Harrington trade starts my multi player trades. I would trade Stro, Head or Alston, and the number 8 for Al Harrington S & T 6 years 55 mil and Smith or Childress. Atlanta’s choice. We would get a quality 3 / 4 that might be a little lacking in the rebounds, but you would pick up a 2/3 that excels at it. We do it because we get 2 starters THAT ARE ATHLETIC, and Atlanta does it because they are going to get nada for Al, so In essence they get Stro, Head, and a pick for Childress or Smith. This is my first choice if we can not get a single player above. If this Option does not work, then I would get on the phone to Golden state. I would offer Stro, The first pick, head, and Alston, for Troy Murphy, Pietrus, and Fisher. We would get 3 starters that have chemistry because they have already played together. Murphy’s and fisher’s contract are not the most friendly, but they produce close to contract value. Fisher’s contract will be trouble in 3 years, but by then our window is probably up anyway. GS does it because they get a younger pass happy point that can distribute to the 2 scorers better, a young cheap Pf, and 2 quality players on rookie contracts. They could use the 8 and 9 to move up in the draft. We would have our 5 strong starters, we would just need to make a move for depth. If they wanted a 1st next year, I wouldn’t say no. No matter what happens or does not happen above, the move I would really try to get done is the rights to Vspan, and this years 2nd for JR Smith on draft day. I actually like Vsapn, but if we can trade for a player that is already signed, then we still have the full MLE to play with, and their potential is about equal if you ask me. If NO/OKC wanted something a little different, but reasonable, I would listen. I am sure there are other trades available, but these are the most fair I would come up with that were win win for both teams. Next up is free agency. This all depends on what trades we get done. If we have done one of the last 2 multi player trades, and have JR, I would take a long look at Speedy Claxton for most of the MLE. Also if Sam Cassell shows any interest in playing for the rockets, I immediately offer him 2 years full MLE with a team option for the 3rd year. It sounds like that is a possibility with recent articles I have read about Cassell. I do this no matter how the rest of the off-season goes. I also have Bobby Jax as a back up plan if Sam and Speedy sign elsewhere. Also Sign JL3 as the 3rd PG, Sign Wesley 2 years 3 mil, and Bogans if possible. If however we traded a lot of assets for a single player, I could see going after someone like Bonzi, Gooden, Radmanovic, Harpering, Wilcox, or Evans to fill a need with the full MLE. I am not as familiar with players that would command less than the full MLE if someone can think of 2 players you could split it with. Input would be appreciated. Players I would not trade for, The New York and Portland roster. There I said it. I would also not trade for Rashard Lewis. I went to Hastings when he was at Elsik, and he was a punk and dumb as a door knob. There were rumors that he got 4 or 500 on his SAT, and he offered my friend a few hundred to take it for him. He might have been joking with my friend, but you never know if my friend said yes, I know Lewis would have done it. I also have to question someone got out played by Chris Johnson a 6 ft 4 center in high school and blows 2 of 3 to Hastings. He was soft then, and when I watch him now, he is still soft. You never know I might just be jealous. So to finish up, you would have a lineup of Cassell, Alston JL3 Sura Childress, JR, Sura, Wesley McGrady, Childress, Harrington Harrington, Howard, Hayes Yao, Mutombo Pay roll is 68 mil give or take OR Cassell, Fisher JL3 Sura Pietrus, JR, Sura, Wesley McGrady, Pietrus, JR Murphy, Howard, Hayes Yao, Mutombo Pay roll 62 give or take. Either way about what payroll was this year. I think either of these teams win games in the high 50’s Our D suffers a little, but our O is outstanding
A couple of nice ideas with Gerald Wallace and the Atlanta deal. I think we're giving up a bit much in the Wallace deal though. I'd love to see Al Harrington and Childress and that deal seems realistic. I don't think we have a chance with the Golden State deal. Clippers would be crazy to let Sam go, but stranger things have happened. T-mac for KG is laughable.
Well if we're going to talk about wacky and complicated off-season plans that will never happen, how about this one? Move #1: m_cable's idea of trading the 8th and 32nd picks to New Orleans for J.R. Smith/12th pick. Makes sense for us if all of the big names are already taken and i'm sure New Orleans wouldn't mind moving up. Also, moving J.R. Smith is more a question of "when" than "if", and he was nearly dealt to the Spurs at the trade deadline. Move #2: Draft the best player available, likely Randy Foye. Move #3: Trade Juwan Howard for Etan Thomas/Jarvis Hayes Washington wants to move Thomas and he hardly plays. He has little offensive game but he's built along the lines of what we need at PF. He's 6'10", 260 lbs of pure muscle that plays defense, rebounds and block shots. We would be taking a bit of a gamble since he has four years left on his deal but his deal is very similar to Howard's. Believe it or not. On an individual matchup level: Howard has to have more trade value than Thomas. Howard has proven to still be a decent role player while Thomas hasn't been a good fit in Washington. This is where Jarvis Hayes comes into the picture. He's a very talented scorer and athletic wingman but he's always been hurt so Washington might consider him unreliable. He's also a free agent after next season so they probably don't intend to keep him. He could be very effective playing minutes at SG in addition to giving T-Mac a a quality backup at SF. If he can stay healthy he would be a solid contributor. As for his free agency status, we would have his Bird Rights if he proves to be worth keeping. (Correct me if I am wrong) Move #4: Sign Vladmir Radmanovic for the MLE. Randmanovic would satisfy JVG's request for a PF with a jumpshot and range. His shooting along with his versatility would provide a nice contrast to what Thomas brings. Move #5: Offer Bogans and Hayes minimum salary to come back. Move #6: Cut Bowen, a move that's clearly long overdue. More or less, for roster flexibility. Also, I am unclear as to whether Lampe is still under contract or not. He has no future with this team so if he is, cut him also. Move #7 Find a team like New Jersey or New Orleans who still might have interest in Swift or a team who clearly needs a PF and try dump Swift to them for a future draft pick(s). New Depth Chart: PG Alston/Foye/Sura SG Smith/J. Hayes/Head SF McGrady/Bogans PF Thomas/Radmanovic/C. Hayes C Yao/Swift/Mutombo 6th Man: Jarvis Hayes Three things we certainly aren't used to having: Plenty of youth Plenty of athleticism Plenty of shooters This unlikely set of roster moves would give us plenty of depth and versatility in our lineup in addition to providing some desperately needed shooters. JVG gets his three PG's with Alston, Foye, Sura and even Head capable of being trusted with the ball. He also gets his PF with a jumpshot in Radmanovic in addition to a glass eater/enforcer type in Thomas.
Not a chance. I like this one, although versions of it have been floating around. Very nice and man, do we need to get athletic! It'd be weird having Fish here, but I could groove on Murphy and Pietrus, considering what we have now. I'd take a flyer on Smith. Why not? I'd like to have Sam back, but that really seems unlikely. Speedy would be nice to have, but doesn't have any size, and can't hit a three. I'd much rather have ET, if we could get him, although he's getting up there in age. Would love it if we could grab him. Nice first post. Post some more! (you haven't been drinking any hottoddies, have you?? )
cant say agree with most of the trades but I understand the philosophy here, that is Tmac has 3 good yrs left our window is closing. we need NBA ready players instead of young drafts. It all depends on Tmac's health, if its really true what JVG says about him, I 'd agree giving up this yr and the next yr drafts.
Yaoza!!! What a first post, I had to take advice from a Philadelphia Lawyer, to be sure that I got everything in a logical manner! Firstly I differ with you about our window! I think the Rox will take two seasons to rebuild and establish decent chemistry, so I see that we get to be a serious contender for the first time in the third season [2008-09]. Yao Mings 6th season. Tracy Mc Grady might yet be a serious problem for the Rockets. If I was forced to make a trade with him I wouldn't go for the older Garnett but would try to make a swap for two or three up and coming future stars.[Golden State] [Bobcats] [Atlanta] But I think that the Rockets Management with CD at the helm is going to keep McGrady and take a gamble on him being OK . On the otherhand the new assistant GM might look at the numbers and not want to take a chance. Please be aware of keeping a lot of dead wood out on the court, live bodies might spring a surprise.
Quite a post, brimming with logical and well thought out plans; I'd expect nothing else from someone who's been thinking this carefully about their first post... Anyway, I must admit that you have a much different opinion than I do of how this team should vault itself into contention; I'm a big believer in quality role players surrounding our two big guns; you seem to be of the opinion that a third star is necessary. I believe that we gutted the team to acquire T-Mac, and have been struggling these past two years because of the lack of depth at the other positions. Now I'm certainly not regretting the trade, but I believe that we need to acquire balance to truly contend, rather than trade away our depth for another big impact player. As for your Portland draft swap, I see two problems; firstly, an early second round pick is probably more valuable than a first rounder, especially when drafting a European player, as there is no rookie wage scale for those in the second round. For example, if Spanoulis were the 30th pick in the draft, we wouldn't be able to offer him more than he's currently making in Europe (~1.4 million after adjusting for benefits and taxes, I believe), and he'd likely never come over. Secondly, if you are going to make a handshake agreement with Portland not to draft the players they want, you'd have to pass on this same restriction to the teams to whom you hope to trade the pick. Leaking information about which players a certain team wants can't be good, and obviously, these terms would need to be discussed before the trade could occur. I'm not so sure if Portland wants their entire bottom 30 draft board to become common knowledge to the entire NBA. Trading T-Mac seems like an impossibility to me right now; if our team doctors believe he can play 75 games a season, like you said, we won't trade him. If he is found to be unable to play that many games, which team would trade for him? T-Mac only sells tickets when he's on the floor, and I highly doubt he'd outsell Minnesota's adopted son Kevin Garnett. For Gerald Wallace, you're essentially trading 4 players for one. Note that the LA Lakers own Charlotte's 2007 second rounder. I understand that Wallace's value might be perceived as higher than the four parts put together, but nevertheless, this is a roster that's starved for depth right now, and would be even more susceptible to injury risk, foul trouble and fatigue. As for trading for Chandler, again, I believe that trading away four players for two, with Chandler being an execptional health risk, is detrimental to the team. In addition, I don't believe that Chicago would do the deal either. They're going to have their choice of power-forwards with their New York Pick, taking away the need for Stromile, and if they get Garnett, they still need a bonafide center. Even if they do your proposed deal for Kevin Garnett, their backcourt already consists of 6-3 Kirk Hinrich, 6-3 Ben Gordon and 6-1 Chris Duhon. It would be a great story for Head to head home, but it would be foolish for the Bulls to acquire a worse Ben Gordon, and probably wouldn't be able to swing him to Minnesota, as they're stocked with short guards as well in 6-3 Rashad McCants, 6-2 Marcus Banks, 6-3 Bracey Wright and 6-1 Troy Hudson. Mo Pete; what can I say, I like the deal. Toronto might be inclined to do it, especially if they like Brandon Roy in the upcoming draft. I'm a Head fan, so it stings a little, but the sign of a fair deal is one where you regret what you're giving up. Carlos Boozer; first of all, realize that you can't include draft picks in sign-and trades; the draft will be held June 28th, while the free-agent-signing period doesn't begin until after July 15th or so. I'm not a fan of 1. Utah Players that are made better by the Salt Lake System, and 2. Power Forwards who are overpaid and don't defend. Unless Utah is taking Juwan Howard back, I don't like the deal, and even then, getting Harpring as a shooting guard somehow makes the least athletic team on the perimeter even more slow-footed. Again, we cannot use our draft pick in sign-and-trades, so the basis of the Al Harrington deal is shot. I'd be for a Childress/Swift trade, but I doubt Atlanta would be interested. The Golden State trade; from a talent perspective, one has to think we win on this. Certainly Murphy is a superior statistical player than Swift, while Fisher, for all his warts, is more seasoned and heady than Head. Pietrus for the #8 is probably a wash; though I'd hold onto the pick until draft day, hoping that Roy or Gay slide to us. The salary implications though; we'd be locked into the team for 4 years, no matter what, with no attractive trading assets, no young players, little athleticism; I have to think that this is probably the best deal talent-wise we can get, but I'm wondering that with that nucleus, can we win it all? Troy Murphy just strikes me as a bonafide loser, right up there with Shareef and Juwan... As for accquiring J.R. Smith; I'd just draft Rodney Carney if we want a streaky outside shooter with insane hops and a low basketball I.Q.; at least Carney hasn't quit on an NBA team and proven to be a bust yet. As for Sam; I'd take him for the MLE as well, but if the Clippers let him get away, they're absolute idiots. After being underpaid and underappreciated his entire career, I'd think he'd definitely want to stay with the money, and in a place where he has finally gotten respect. Sorry for such a negative response to your post; you're probably closer to being right than I am, considering the crazy nature of the offseason; I'd never have believed that Stromile would sign for the Mid-Level Exception last year, or Isiah would go crazier than Tom Cruise, stomping on the Knicks future like Cruise did to Oprah's couch. I believe that bringing in three rookies and a solid rotational player for half the Mid-Level Exception along with a clean bill of health will get us to the 6th seed, where we can undoubtedly stomp Denver again, barring a change in the playoff seedings. Still, it's fun to speculate, and I'm glad that we finally have a smart, reasonable and most importantly concise offseason thread. Now watch as it gets buried on page two...
If only most new posters put as much thought into their stuff as you do. Excellent post. Please read this rookies. You get more respect posting one well thought out thread than you do trying to post 20 times a day. The GS proposal I really like, but I loved the V-Span and a 2nd for JR. That is creative. I don't think we'll have much trouble attracting a good player with the MLE.
I am not so optimistic about that. I think it's the opposite, given our record, Tmac's questionalble health and the DA incident.
although all of those are realistic and well thought out (and i would love for that stuff to happen), i think it's a little too much of a dream for all of it to happen.
I can't believe you broke BOTH of my records. You b*stard: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=58524 My first post is longer vertically, but there's much more empty space, so you probably get the nod in that department. And I only waited 6 months or so before my first post instead of practically 4 years like you did.
I think that people in the league know that injuries caused our bad record this season. Also they should know how many wide open shots there are for people willing to take/make them. Playing with a dominant big man is also something I'm sure a majority of players would prefer. Houston geographically and the whole no state income tax thing? Check. The DA incident didn't get any publicity from the media so I doubt it would be a big deal for the players. Guys don't work out for teams all the time every season. Good players too, not just DA's. They might know we dealt him to a contending team in Miami for basically nothing, but that's a plus for us. We could've sent him to a lot worse teams. The only thing I can think of to deter FA's is they know they'll have to work hard to succeed here with a coach like JVG. Do we really want a lazy player on our team? Winners accept the challenge. We're gonna grab some quality help with the MLE. It'll be interesting after the draft seeing what kind of holes we need to fill.
