Just curious -- did anyone hear Nick Van Exel on 610 this morning? This all came to me second-hand ... I didn't hear the broadcast. But he apparently was put on the spot about if he wanted to play for the Rockets and he laughed that it was taking away his negotiating ability, but that most definitely he wanted to be here. That he understood clearly that no one was going to pay him $12+ million this season and that he would be a free agent. I'll leave the question mark in the title until someone can confirm they heard it.
Huh? Hopefully he is willing to take a huge paycut if he wants to play here. Van Exel and Mobley would be awesome. Has Van Exel played with a big man before?
I am pretty sure he was there Shaq's first year in LA. I remember a three pointer he beat us with and Shaq was on the team.
I heard just a little bit of it, maybe 5 or 10 minutes. Didn't hear him say anything specific about playing for the Rockets, although one of the callers said he'd love to see Nick in a Rockets uniform. Van Exel just gave a little laugh and didn't say anything. He was also asked if he'd rather play with Mcgrady or Kobe at this point, and he said Mcgrady. But to confirm yes he was on 610. I didn't hear all of it though, and didn't hear anything that pointed him to the Rockets.
I caught a lot of the interview on the way to work. I didn't hear when he was put on the spot. But I did hear him say that the one thing he thought the Rockets needed was a playmaker. Now, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but he seemed to be implying himself. He also went on about how he loved Houston. Who knows, maybe when you get to be 30+ you start putting things in perspective. If he'll take the minimum, I want him, but not if he's gonna prevent us from getting a younger guy we can count on for longer and who can give us defensive help on either the perimetor or in the post.
yeah, he played with Shaq for a year... then Shaq had him packing his bags because of his attitude and tendency to launch without consciousness.
I heard a lot of it. He clearly said that he would definitely like to be a rocket. he's going to stop talking about it because that might hurt his chances. He said that in a tongue in cheek way; like he was talking about karma rather than talking about it really hurting his chances. also acknowledged that it would be nice to drive down 59 to go home if he played here. he would rather play with tmac than kobe. he played with kobe when he was young, he wasn't the star he was then. not committal about this issue, i think he said tmac b/c he was on houston radio. but he might really feel that way. he acknowledged that the blazers would not be picking up his 12MM option. they have some good young players. he wants to win now. when the rockets got Yao, he predicted that Yao would win a title by 2010. he thinks the tmac trade was good for everyone. took houston a while to adjust but they are good now. tough to break up a good nucleus (which by inference houston had with steve, cat and yao). but now houston needs to build up the team. that's where he started talking about how the team lacks a playmaker in the half court set. houston only has tmac. james is good open court, barry is "one of the best open court playmakers in the league". But only have tmac in the half court. yao can dominate. they didn't get him the ball enough in Dallas, but they tried. he needs to hold his position better and improve. -------- and then I had to leave the car for work.
