Say what ya'll want but we needed out from under that contract thanks utah and can nevere really have enough big men in the West. But the best thing is the 7 million exception we now have. If we trade one of those other contracts we need to get rid of we can do it for anybody at their value + 7 mil more, that's anybody in the leauge.
I didnt check the web for 2 days. Wow a lot has happened. I am half-way through the trade threads right now, the past two days gor more beef than the entire summer. I am in the "This is a smart trade camp". JVG and CD are doing the math and unload the past mistakes, smart moves. Shelock and others have said pretty much all. I just want to point out a couple of things. 1) There is price for everything we did. We've been stuck with the "nowhere" roster for the past several years. It's time to move some major pieces around. 2) We dont need future first round draft pick as much as we need some quality vet players right now. Jim Jackson is a good fit for this team, and he's better that posey in my opionion. 3) I think we are a better team than last year, and we still have 6.5 mil to play with, good job by JVG. What a smat MTFing MTF. Let's go Rocket now.
The JJ signing is connected to the trade, imo, not because of the money but because of the position. It makes sense to get a swingman in place of the SF you get rid of. If we didn't move Rice, then getting Jackson would make a logjam at the 2/3 positions.
I think this was a good trade, not great, but good. Still there is one thing alot of you are failing to recognize. Rice's contract was set to expire after this season, making him a very tradable commodity, so we did not need to get out from under his contract. Then there is the exeption, which sounds good, however from a business standpoint if we use it, we take a nice luxury tax hit that we avoided by trading Rice, so the exeption can also be a bad thing. If we use it properly to fill, not plug, a hole in the lineup or package it with a true bad contract(ie. Moochie), it will turn into a good thing.
I'd refer you to the excellent Chron article: The Rox were looking to stay under $55 million in case the luxury tax kicks in. So, yes, the Rice trade was necessary for the Jim Jackson signing. In fact, I'd go a step further and say that the Rockets would have done the trade even if Jim Jackson or any other replacement was not available. Crash, to address your sentiment expressed pages and pages ago, I would answer like this. Yes, it'd be nice to have a deep-pocketed owner. But, you have to accept axiomatically before you even look at a trade that the Rockets will not pay the luxury tax. If you can see the luxury tax threshold as an insurpassable ceiling you can see we essentially had no choice in this trade. From a talent perspective, we got hosed pretty bad. The trade exception possibilities have about the same chance of coming to fruition as a Rice for SAR trade (slim). We had no choice on this: Rice had to be shipped. Personally, I see it as an exchange of Posey, Rice, our 1st rounder, and Chicago 2 2nd rounders for Jackson, Adrian Griffin and Pike. That's a pretty rough exchange but is the price we paid for gambling on Rice in the first place. I think MacBeth is right in the end; the Rice trade was a mistake in those terms.
JV - What I should have added is that I don't see that it was required. Les just didn't want to spend the any more LT money than he was already paying.
Forgive me if this has been brought up all ready, but a friend of mine in Utah says the local media in Utah is reporting that the 1st round pick the Rockets are sending the Jazz is only top 9-protected, not lottery protected. If that's the case, the Rockets lose this pick unless they're like the 4th or 5th best team to miss the playoffs barring the ping pong balls bouncing our way. And I don't see this team finishing as the 4th or 5th best team record wise to miss the playoffs. At least if it was lottery protected that gave the team some insurance in case the Yao-Francis experiment does not live up to the hype this season.
I am cool with the deal. I am not estatic about it nor am I down on it. I am excited about the possibilities this expception creates. This deal looks like a pragmatic exchange in which the Rockets cut salary (dumping Rice and the draft picks), hitched their wagon to Francis and Yao, and created extreme flexibility in trades for one year. The only difference between still having Rice's contract and now is: 1) the lotto-protected first round draft pick, which will likely amount to nothing more than another gauranteed contract; 2) the second round picks from Chicago, who would likely not make this already young squad anyway; 3) $2.5 million less salary coming off the books if the Rockets simply let this thing expire as opposed to letting Rice's contract expire. 4) complete avoidance of the luxury tax threshold this year (most owners aren't Paul Allen and Mark Cuban or huge corporations) 5) approimatley $7 million in trade flexibility. This deal may not be that "Big Splash" we've all been waiting for, but this deal makes that "Big Splash" logistically much more likely to occur. 6)The exception also allows the Rockets to act as a third party broker in trade deals hampered by salary cap restrictions. Given the complexities of the CBA, one cannot understate the flexibility this exception creates as far as trades go.
Easy, I somewhat disagree. I think there is no doubt that JVG felt that Rice is not his type of player or that he felt that Rice is no longer productive period and that we should find someone to replace him. However, when CD was interviewed, he specifically mentioned that the deal was made to get us away from LT territory and further insinuated that JJ's signing was contingent upon that. If it was more about position, in the JVG didn't want Rice playing major minutes, they could have just signed JJ regardless, used Rice as a 12th man, or an IR warmer and waited for another deal to come along. In the end, its probably because of money AND position. (more to do with money though )
That makes sense if you are from Utah. I get that they wanted to dump Rice and his contract. If Utah was desperate then we could have gotten a better player Amaechi or future 1st rd draft pick(s) (conditional of course). So the Rockets basically gave them a1st rd draft pick to be nice? Not our problem nobody wants to play in Utah.
I heard now we are talking with the Rockets about Greg Ostertag for Yao Ming plus a first round pick. Stay tune.
Plus the trade exception would come in handy if we wanted to trade, or trade for, a base year compensation player.
I would be happy if Rocket send Boki instead of first round pick to Utah. Apparently, Boki does not deserve such a high draft. If the last year draft was repeated again, he will not even in the first round.
Juan, buddy give a break will ya, I fix airplanes for a living I'm not a freekin english teacher. What the hell does axiomatic mean? Seriously though, I agree with some of what you say disagree with some other views. I hope in the end that Les is just not trying to put more money in his pocket and he will package Cato or Cat or someone along with the trade exception for a stud player like Jermain O'Neil or Rasheed Wallace. I am just very pessimistic about his motives since I very clearly think this move move was all about money in his pocket and not about wins.
In addition to financial reasons, getting rid of rice was required to sign jackson because one of the main reasons he signed with us is probably that he wanted more playing time.
Also Les Alexander has been a good owner and has always made moves to win...drexler,barkley, pippen, etc.
I apologize in advance for not reading all 10 pages of replies... I confess I have a life outside of the Rockets and my son is screaming even as i write this. So if I make a comment or 50 that have already been made go ahead and crusify me. But I saw both positive feedback and negative. More negative than positive. That said here's my 2 cent's worth. When I saw this trade at first I was like Woah, can i at least get a reach-around. (I won't explain) But then I started thinking. While the rockets have made some boneheaded moves (glen rice, Cato and Taylor to name a few) this may have been the best thing this team has done since getting Ming. 1. WE JUST LANDED OURSELVES A 2.5 PT NO REBOUNDING PLAYER!!!!!!: Hopefully Ming is going to spend alot more time on the court than he did last season. If he does that means that we are overpaying Kelvin Cato anyways. We just landed ourselves a huge trade exception which may allow us to move Cato and get ourselves a good 3, something we despratley lack. To me that is a plus in this situation. 2. WE GOT RID OF RICE HE WAS A GOOD PLAYER AND GOOD IN THE LOCKER ROOM!!!!: Well for 9 mil a season we could bring in alot of vetrans who have great locker room presence, and who can stay on the floor. Rice stays injured and harldley earns Mobley's salary, much less his own. That trade exception opens us up to a sign and trade with most teams in the league which is a plus in next off season. 3. WE GAVE UP A 1ST ROUND PICK!!!!: 2 quick points. I'm not positive, but surely the pick is protected in one way or another to begin with so we're not losing a lottery pick and 2nd I'm not really interested in adding a rookie in the bottom half of the draft next year. Hopefully in the next off season we're worried about attracting a vetran to the club. Sure we're a young team, but our starting five with the exception of Ming will have 3 or more years in the league at least (most likely 5 or 6). By next year I hope our goal isn't only to make the playoffs, but to go deep into them, and if that's the case, what we are REQUIRED to pay a 1st rounder could go to offering a vetran more money. This is assuming that CD and LES are serious about adding talent to the roster in the next off season. Hope i didn't bore you and maybe i'm an idiot, but was rice really going to play that much anyways?? He might pull a hammy in trainging camp and miss the first 50 games. Mike
