Yet somehow we profited over $21 mm last season and the franchise is in the top 5 in the NBA in terms of value (released LAST WEEK) Les is being cheap and Morey is being stupid If Yao goes down, Chuck Freaking Hayes (6'6) is our starting center. Good luck against Tyson Chandler/Tim Duncan/Gasol & Bynum with that frontcourt
Thats it. Then I predict another season of failure. You can't compete against Pau-Bynum-Odom with Scola-Landry-Hayes.
I still believe Deke will be back. If not, I see us going for a big body. Just like the late night commercials say, size does matter. We won't stand pat with our smaller guys going alone. We need someone in the very unfortunate event that Yao goes out for a stretch. More importantly, we need someone to rest him during games to prevent that. Deke gives us the best option.
Even JVG said we need more height to be able to content in the playoffs. hope we get a 7'0+ center soon.
The Rockets MUST get bigger before the playoffs; otherwise, fool's gold. Bynum against Hayes would be comical.
It was fools gold last yr when morey chose to have 2 rookies maning the 4. Its not about les, its about the gm not considering size and atheleticism when filling a roster. Elson, ratliff, mihm, mbenga, anderson were all there and all pretty cheap, yet he drafted dorsey, signed barry, and keep hayes and head on the roster.
Last year the starting power forwards were chuck and scola. Scola although technically a rookie is 27 and has played for olympic and international teams for years already. Carl only started to get backup minutes later in the year. Elson, rafliff, mhim, mbenga, all suck and dont get minutes now on their respective teams which Morey said he wouldnt get a guy who is 7 foot and sucks. Morey didn't draft dorsey either we drafted Batum in which Morey traded him away for Dorsey and Donte Greene. This allowed us to trade Greene away for Ron Artest. Barry is an easy upgrade over Luther Head and we could sign him to a cheap short contract. All these moves were genious!!!!
With all due respect: if Yao is out at playoff time (again) then we're in trouble no matter which cheap backup C we bring in... Take Duncan away from the Spurs and how do they go? You CAN compete against Pau-Bynum-Odom with Ming-Scola-Landry.
Howcome you list all of Lakers bigs and leave out Yao? Yao on Bynum. Landry/Scola/Hayes on Gasol. Artest on Odom. If there's any advantage for the Lakers in those matchups it's going to be Gasol beating us. We can live with that. The true test will come to see if YAO steps up and dominates like the superstar he's supposedly made out to be. This can be a defining moment where he rises to the occasion ala Hakeem in 94' 95' and proves that he's the best center in the league or he can fold and get used and abused like he did against the Jazz 2 years ago. With the supporting cast we have that prevents double teams and help defenders coming over from the weekside. I truly believe Yao can and should punish Bynum. If anything we really need to ditch Head for Sean Williams though just as an insurance policy.
What about James Mays or Courtney Sims from the DLeague? Mays is 6'9 with a 7'2 wingspan, can step outside and hit the 3pointer(at 40%), and is a strong rebounder and can block shots. Probably more of a PF though. Sims is 6'11 (230) and is leading the DLeague in scoring, rebounding and shot-blocking. (24-12.8-4.6). He had 3 games for the Hornets last season, and finished with 10 minutes altogether - but his DLeague campaign last season was nothing like this year - he was 15-6 in 20 minutes last season. I can't see either guy costing more than the minimum. Why not bring in Sims to see what he's got for 10 days? What could the harm possibly be? They say big men tend to develop later - I know the DLeague isn't flash, but he's only 25, and clearly in form and confident in his abilities - certainly worth a shot imo.
I didn't see it in our last game against them. In fact, I saw the opposite. Scola-Pau / Landry-Pau is an insult of matchup. Remember, Pau have a 7-6 wingspan... I know very well Pau, he can be stopped or semi-stopped with a strong, tough and tall player, he's very gifted and talented but not the most tough player in the world. [Thats why I would prefer a 4-5 better than a pure center, by the way.] But if you put on him Scola-Landry, this matchup for itself decants an equalized game. Is a luxury that you cannot afford. And, what's up if Yao makes 2 fouls early... We play against Bynum-Pau-Odom with Hayes and Scola? An advantage unrecoverable against an already very good team. Further, the residual effects of playing with this roster against a very physical team with SFs of 6-9, 6-10 height (Ariza or Radmanovic) who go hard for the rebounds, or make traps to the low post (even they could defend our PFs). We need another 7-0 by active or passive.
If they decide to do this then we fail. Everyone knows that you can not play small ball and win it all. Not with the likes of the Spurs and Lakers. Small ball will kill a team in the playoffs. Just ask the Suns. We need some height.
How dare stupid Morey not gone after Kevin Garnett! Oh wait, so we are not talking about Kevin Garnett taking Scola and Landry's minutes...all of these guys are, of course, helping their championship caliber teams tremendously. Such a horrible thing that Barry, Hayes, Head and Dorsey are taking roster spots of All Stars Elson, Ratliff, Mihm, Mbenga, and Anderson.
I think the team would bring somebody in for a 10-day if they see one available and has some potential to help-- they did with Loren Woods last year, and gave a look to El Gigantor Daniel Santiago in the summer. It seems like the team has somethine else up their sleeve... we'll see. My guess is they are pretty confident they'll get Dikembe eventually. They probably don't want to make everything too public, or sound too desperate, because that might lead to (1) Dikembe's agent (David Falk) jacking up the price, and (2) other NBA teams driving a harder bargain when the Rockets try to dump some salary to get under the tax threshold. Mutombo is probably as good a fit as there is right now. He doesn't cost much, is available as a FA (no need to trade talent or contract for him), still plays better D in the paint than 75-80% (or more) of the centers (at least he did last year), and doesn't gripe much about playing time. The only drawback to him is that unlike, say, a Jeff Foster, he can't play the PF next to Yao to form a "Twin Tower" type front line. But, again, you can't have everything.
If Les won't even pony up the bit-above-min money Deke is asking, then pretty much most options are pointless. Unless of course, we dump Francis and/or Head's contract in the process. IIRC Les lost a lot of money recently. I'm sure he wants to milk his Rockets cash cow for all its worth. Luxury tax cost A LOT OF money, even beyond just doubling player's salary.
I don't remember if it was JVG or Adelman who played both Mutombo and Yao at the same time in a game... it sure was AWESOME to watch!
