My Dream Team for the next season is K.Cato/J.Sampson E.Griffin/M.Taylor L.Odom/G.Rice C.Mobley/T.Morris S.Francis/T.Maddox IR J.Collier O.Torres W.Williams
Folks can we stop the crap about KT not being fast enough for SF's and KT cannot be a full time starter. I wonder how many of you see the games! KT is on the verge of being most improved player, and all his opponents, both at SF and PF, respect his game. If KT is your problem, then you do not have a problem. Is it a mental thing with you guys? How much more evident must it be? I am not sold on the Wilcox thing. I would take a chance with Stoudamire. I am thinking that the team will pass on Langhi and would try and keep Williams like a Bullard. Willis would probably move on. Based on that there will be two openings. The first priority should be a big, big man and then a Swingman. Dear Team: Cato/Collier/ New Taylor/Griffin/Morris Thomas/Rice/Williams Francis/Moochie/Brown Mobley/Torres/ New This team is built for success already; as a result, the changes will be subtle as opposed to monumental and disruptive.
DearRock, So, even though we have a decent lotto pick you want to run the exact same team at there next year as this year (with the addition of an aging Rice who hasn't seen production in 3 years and Mo Taylor who's the only injured guy that could make a minute difference at this point)? That soulds like a great plan. Why don't we call up Stern and tell him we don't even want the lotto pick cuz our team is so good we don't need it? There are no reasons not to make moves when your team just lost 50 games (which we will). The fact is that this team has played horribly. They have no concept of functionality, teamwork, or defense. We need either a post presence (doubtful to find in the draft) or a guy that can add flexibility and a more consestent outside shot. This is why I say we need a SF. KT can play SF (albeit not greatly), but he doesn't blend with what our team needs at a SF. We don't need an undersized PF at SF, we need someone that is quick with some handles and an outside shot (which Kenny doesn't even pretend to have anymore thank God). No one wants to trade Kenny because they think he sucks. He is tradeable because we can't trade Mo (fat contract and achilles injuries aren't a good mixture for trade value) and we think Eddie is our future at the 4. Why do we need 3 PF's? Why not trade a PF and try to get a C (we have 1) or a SF (we have about 5 that pretend to be but none actually are in any effective manner for our team)? Its simple why Kenny is the odd man out, Mo can't be traded and EG will be better than KT. Here's to making deals for Woods, Lewis, or Odom that involve KT. I like ya KT, but you got value and we need to get a guy at the 3 that can help us get into run and gun mode.
I don't really have a problem with that lineup, and I don't think anyone is really saying Kenny is a problem. I'm just stating the fact that his quickness will not be as evident when he's going against a small forward as it when he's going against a slower-footed power forward. But anyways, Kenny is not the best small forward in the league. If the Rockets can somehow get someone better than Kenny, which I believe they possibly could, they should at least try. Kenny's lack of a big contract makes him a more ideal candidate for a trade than someone like Maurice Taylor or Kelvin Cato, both of whom I do not like as much as KT. However, if the Rockets decide to keep Kenny, I would not be upset. But I just find it hard to be satisfied with our current roster. I mean the whole point is to try and build a team that can compete forr the championship, and I just do not see a team with our roster doing very much except barely making the playoffs.
Bs, before an aging Rice, EG, Torres, Tmo, Willis and the improved KT, Cato and Mobes, the team won 45 games. The 50 games lost this year are injury related. On the bright side we have brought along some good talent. Yeah, go ahead and make changes but there is no need to make big ones since we are still working on those changes we made last year.
DC, I am saying that you cannot improve the value you now have at SF. Yes you can get a better SF than KT but the value does not increase. Why? Because of what you would have to pay to get that better person. And it is not like you are going to get a Tmac, anyway. The persons like Odom and Lewis are in KT's class anyway. In fact when you look at their overall game I do not see how KT comes up short.
Okay, I'll fess up. The reason I'm so adamant about the Rockets looking to trade Kenny is because I want Rashard Lewis. I think what the Rockets really need is a spot-up shooter from the outside. When Steve and Cuttino penetrate Lewis will give the Rockets somebody who can just stand behind the arc, catch the kick-out, and launch it with no thought of dribbling. Just one player who doesn't need to have an "iso" called for him to score. I bet you anything Lewis would raise Steve's assist average to over 9 assists per game, which would hopefully silence some of the Andre-Miller lovers. And yes, Kenny and Lewis are both good players, but they both have different strengths, and I think Rashard's strengths would help the Rockets more than Kenny's. As for as acquiring Odom, I'm not really that big of a proponent.
Odom and Lewis are in KT's class? Anyone else see someone with their Rocket-colored glasses on? DearRock, I actually agree with you that it may be next to impossible to find the value at SF that we currently have in KT. But, if you want to win a championship, value may not be the most important question. Overall talent or potential may be. Unless you are spending that money elsewhere. Having KT at SF if it was an either or question between Odom or Ming might make sense. I would take KT and Ming as my starters over Odom and Cato. But many times, it is not an either or question. It is a ? of trade KT and get Ming or trade KT and get Odom. And in that case, I deal him. Hope that makes some semblance of sense.
My thoughts exactly. The Rocks need a low post presence. Stoudamire is 18 years old and 6'10" and 240 lbs. Fours years from now, he can easily be caring 260+ lbs and may even grow some. Given the injury situation this year, one would expect a healthy MoTay and Rice (and Francis for that matter) would be the difference maker in enough games to lead the Rocks into the playoffs next year. The Rocks would not need their first round pick to take them to the next level immediately and can afford to wait a few years for Stoudamire to develop. If the Rocks were ever going to draft a HSer, this is the year to do it.
DC, thanks for fessing up. If you are looking for a spot up shooter, I think we would have to just go with what we have in Rice and Williams, initially and hopefully Tmo gets his act together. Why that way? Because you will be paying Rice and hopefully he is going to be able to simply stay out there and shoot. Williams could be available. The beauty of it is that we would not have to give up KT. Why do I want KT around? Because he has not yet peaked and he is a quiet killer. I think he is hungry and has demonstrated a mentality that I have not seen from most of the other alternatives. He is able to play two positions and he brings his game on both sides of the court; two qualities that Lewis cannot bring. Another consideration is that spot up shooting must only be one of a number of things the person does, and not the only thing he does. Finally, to upgrade from our SF position, you really should be talking about Tmac not Eddie Robinson. Tmo will be as good as Robinson and Nailon, next year. Not even Mashburn interests me. Of course if Rice comes back all of this is mute.
Agreed No Worries. We have to remember that we are only in the lottery because of injury. We may not be back here in a long time; hence the need for the extended horizon.
DearRock, You're right, we did when 45 games last year with few injuries, but is winning 45 games a contender? In the West right now that will get you possibly a 6 seed and you also have to consider that to win those 45 games we had to have few to no injuries (Cat, Steve, Mo, and KT were our main cogs and none were out for more than a few games). You say not to make major moves and I agree. As long as we don't trade Cat, Steve, or EG then I wouldn't consider any move we make a trade that messes up the nucleus of this team. Eddie Griffin will start at PF for us in the next year or 2 and Mo could move to play C (albeit not a good one, but who has a good C these days anyways) and share time with Cato who's only good for 20-25 minutes anyways. This means that Kenny would have to play SF if he's going to get any amount of minutes in our future and there are much better options than him at SF. You talk about value at PF, but the fact is that Kenny will be a FA in a year or 2 so we'll wind up having to pay him $5 or $6 million a year then anyways. He has a bang for the buck value for another year and then he's either going to be overpaid or gone. Right now we have a good lotto pick but it probably won't be high enough to a) get draft who we really want (Woods, Ming, Gooden or possibly Dunleavy) or b) be traded straight up for an impact player (Lewis in a sign and or Odom). Our only tradebait that would have interest is KT, so he is the oddman out. I'd love to trade Mo or Cato instead of Kenny, but we'd have to pay someone $10 million just to take those guys off our hands at this point.
I am not saying KT is a "problem", but he isn't exactly a strength either. Which starting forwards in the West is KT better than? Not too many (less than a 3rd) I suspect. I do think KT would be a fine starter in the East, so I kind of hope a mutally benefitial (for us and KT) trade can be worked out that puts him there. EG is one prospect for us to upgrade a forward spot, but we do need to still further upgrade our frontline. Whether it is finding a SF prospect better than KT/Walt/Rice/Morris or a PF player better than KT/Mo/EG or a C prospect or current player better than Cato/Collier--we need all the upgrade on the front line we can handle. It should certainly be much eaiser to upgrade our 3-4-5 spots than our 1-2 spots--so unless their is a stunning 1-2 is there in our draft position we simply can't refuse we should get the best front line player we can get.
dunleavey would be a PERFECT fit at SF but i seriously doubt he will enter the draft. IMO we HAVE to get a SF dunleavy sf (probably wont come out) woods sf (will be picked unless we get a top 3 pick) williams pg (top 3 pick, lots of trade value or we could keep him) butler sf (should be availble when we pick) amare stoundamire pf/c (might take to long to delevope as a good player in the NBA and we need a impact player right away) if rod grizzard or jason gardner are there for our 2nd rd pick witch i doubt either will we gotta get him
Trav, why do you need an impact player right away? Do you mean that we do not have enough impact players on our team at the moment?
If Dunleavy could start for us he would "perfectly" continue our trend of deflating defensive capabilities since the mid 90's. Earlier in this thread I discussed a number of college boys who ate him for lunch on the defensive end. I can't think of any pro guys he could guard other than Bruce Bowen, and I might be able to guard him
