Our weakness: PG position, shooting, undersized backcourt, playmaker O.J. Mayo's strength: Scoring point, great shooter, large point, great playmaker, can play the 2 if needed No, I refuse to believe that someone in his position wouldn't see the sense in making that trade. Perhaps, the deal breaker would be the parts included around Battier to make the trade go through. Battier and a few picks? Battier/Head for #4 and a Seattle contract they are trying to get rid of? You do that trade. Do you see the upside to that trade?
Why all of a sudden Aaron Brooks is now trade bait? You guys are saying that Aaron hasn't showed much his rookie year. I really don't see that. Are most of you guys evaluating him solely on the last game he played in the playoffs? It's true that in Game 6 Deron Williams took advantage of Brooks' size. However, I remember in the earlier games Brooks beating Deron off the dribble several times and scoring layups. I really think Aaron is the Rocket's version of Leandro Barbosa after more seasoning. Already, he is one of the quickest players in the whole NBA, has shooting range out to the three-point line, and I love his toughness and confidence. If he just improves his decision-making and ability to run an offense, he can become one of the better backup points in the league. Morey made the right decision by drafting this guy. I dare you to look at the 2007 draft and pick a player that Morey should've picked instead of Brooks.
His point guard instincts didn't look too good to me. He is 23, so the "p" word isn't on his side either.
That's the good thing about being a backup point guard. You don't really need point guard skills at this position. Just look at Bobby Jackson, even in his days in Sacramento he was never a great "point guard". Coming off the bench is perfect for Aaron. I can't think of any backup point guard in this league that can stay with his incredible quickness even now. Using his speed advantage and after more experience, he can make a significant impact on a game with even limited playing time off the bench.
Absolutely 100% from the Rockets point of view. I read your post about Seattle wanting experienced,cheap veteran players and I do feel that they would want that. I also agree that there is a possibility of Seattle wanting to dump a contract too but I feel their asking price is going to be high. Head has limited trade value especially after his terrible playoff performance. The Rockets didn't get enough out of the 8th pick/Battier trade,so why should anyone else want just him and Head? Picks of course would be something they would want, but I feel that they might ask for Luis, the 25th pick plus Battier and even that might not be enough to give up O.J. Mayo IMO, even though it's a reasonable offer. The Battier for the 8th pick was a CD and Morey move,that's why I don't think DM will trade Battier for Mayo.
Nice argument - problem is that you can only make it because Ming was injured. Only 2 wins behind the best team in the West and you think a healthy Ming doesn't make us significantly better? In terms of 'drastic, impactful moves' isn't it pretty clear that those have been put into process already? We have a bunch of expiring contracts and all our significant talent locked up (save Landry). It's really kind of indicative of some drastic sky-is-falling type fan to think that you need to blow up a team of players who almost won a conference despite a significant injury toll. Having said that: if the injury bug bites as hard again next season, then we've got to change up the main peices - you can't go to war with a glass jaw. And to the 'genuis' who thinks Oberto is better than Scola (because the Spurs don't make mistakes)
good post. and who said oberto is better than scola? isn't he the backup of scola on their national team?
438. Aaron Brooks, Houston 161 434. Aaron Brooks, Houston 5'10" Lightest + 2nd Shortest. Deadly combination... Source: http://www.nba.com/news/survey_height_2007.html http://www.nba.com/news/survey_weight_2007.html
So, we basicly agree? Lol You are right, hence, why I said that Battier and a combination of picks/Head may not be enough in terms of talent and the Sonics may began asking for Luis or some other rotation player to complete the trade. If they do began asking for Luis then that is a "deal breaker" like the thread on the first page says. We would then be giving up too much. Now, if Darryl Morey does think as you suggested, then he really shouldn't be in the position of a GM. Not doing a trade that could improve the team to save face from a previously bad trade? Not smart and detrimental to the team. I don't believe he thinks that way though. He wants the team to be as good as possible.
I'm in 100% agreement with what you are saying. I hope DM won't be conservative if it comes to moving Battier for a potential star if the opportunity ever arises.
Agreed. I think we will get someone this offseason though. I believe Morey will make a great trade that surprises us. Hope it's mine.
What I said about the spurs management is I trust them more than ours. They've won 4 titles and been to the wc finals like 7 times. They've never been knocked out the 1st rd and have won 50 games every yr since they got duncan except for the strike yr. They lost a hof and replaced him with another. They've lost a solid pg and a all star caliber wing and replaced both latter in the draft. So I trust their player development people a little more. What I said about scola and morey stealing him is that they probably didn't have a high regard for the guy. If they thought he was good enough to crack their rotation, they would have brought him over sooner, wouldn't have traded for kurt thomas, wouldn't have traded him in division. Now if don't think the spurs knew what they were giving up as a player, don't know what to say. When u have the track record on players they have, they don't get ripped off. Maybe they saw scola like I do. A try hard guy that has maxed out atheletically and will get marginally better. They made that evaluation and decided to draft a guy that has a higher ceiling like tiago. What I'm saying about being contenders is the rox finished 2 games out with Yao missing 27 games, but they won almost half their games in one lump. If being conservitive they go 16-6 in that 22, they win 49 games and maybe miss the playoffs. I'm not apologizing for the streak, but it was historic and its over. We can't just harping on how good the team could have been by going back to thhe streak.
Hold on a sec, you would have drafted Ramon Sessions in the first round last year over Brooks? Really? I saw this guy play for 3 years at Nevada against Hawaii and I never imagined he'd be capable of a 20-20 in the pros. Concerning that 2005 draft, Monta Ellis tested out to be slower, weaker and shorter than Luther Head, and coming out of HS, basically no one thought he could possibly play the point guard. How exactly were the Rockets (or any team) supposed to project that a guy who couldn't bench press 185 even one time would be one of the most dynamic finishers with contact in the league? Jason Maxiell is actually one of the few power forwards in the league who is SHORTER than Chuck (wingspan counts, of course, but he's still way undersized no matter what metric you use). David Lee was viable, but is (was) the same height as Landry, and about 20 pounds lighter. Why does Hayes get such hate around here? Everyone acts as if he was a first rounder for the Rockets; they picked him up for free! That's turning nothing into a 10th man who is always healthy, an elite defender, and can handle going from a DNP-CD to playing 25 minutes the next night, to sitting for 47:30, and being brought in to defend a final key possession the night after that. Chuck is great at what he's brought in to do. As long as Adelman uses him properly, he'll deliver. That's more than I can say for our sparkplug, the Jack Show, who's on maybe 1/3 of the time, or our 3 point shooter who throws up an 0-fer in the playoffs, or even Bonzi, who couldn't efficiently and consistently create offense when he was here. As for the Eddie Griffin deal, if you had the chance this draft to give up Battier, #25, and a future #1 for, let's say, O.J. Mayo, would you say that's a bad deal? He's definitely got some issues, but is undoubtedly talented, perhaps enough to take the risk. In talking about Eddie Griffin, the real mistake the Rockets made was in not trading him with Glen Rice for Rashard Lewis when they had the chance. I suspect this might happen to Memphis with Mike Conley Jr; will they be willing to trade him away if Portland comes in offering, say, Outlaw and the #13? The only thing that separates the Rockets from the very elite is that those teams have been lucky enough to get one extra piece. And really, to call how some of these teams have been constructed anything but luck is to be too generous. Gasol, Garnett, Ginobili/Parker, Billups; I don't care how good a scout you are; Chauncey had an equally good chance of being Marcus Banks, while Tony Parker could have easily been Sebastian Telfair or Vassilis Spanoulis, Ginobili is the definition of catching lightning in a bottle, and Garnett and Gasol need no further explanation. Hell, even McDyess could have easily been Bob Sura for Detroit. I would submit that if you go back and look at the top teams, you'll find a number of gaffes just as bad as the Rockets. The Lakers gifting away Shaq, then Caron, then extending Kwame. Detroit: Darko. Boston, wasting an entire draft on Kedrick Brown, Joe Forte and Joe Johnson, then giving away JJ, trading for Vin Baker, signing Scalabrine. San Antonio: Rasho, Jackie Butler, letting go of Hedo, Scola and Udrih, selling Leandro Barbosa AND passing up Josh Howard in the same draft. Sure the Rockets haven't gotten out of the first round, and sure, if this team can't stay healthy and doesn't improve this year, it probably needs to be blown up. But to say that these last few years have been poor in terms of decision making is letting history blind you. Yes, sometimes the Rockets go off the board for their personnel moves, but in order to be a champion, you need to do so. You can't win a March Madness pool by picking the trendy upsets and choosing chalk all the way (this year notwithstanding). You can't win a fantasy league without at least one sleeper/diamond in the rough/LDT. If Morey has a 50% success rate going forward, we will be extremely happy fans very quickly. Especially if his hits continue to be high impact, while his misses are correctable (James for Jackson). /End Anti-Rant
I really think Rockets really should have drafted Ramon Sessions. I just love this guy man. We bought a second round pick from Orlando, and we basically wasted it on Brad Newley, who will probably never come to the NBA.(Considering we already had like 5 players stacked overseas I don't see why we'd want to stack even more players overseas, its just a waste of a pick). Ramon Sessions was available when we were to pick in the 2nd round. He's got good size for a PG(6-3), and look at what hes done this year. 24 Assists? Game winning 3 pointer? consistent double-figures scoring? I don't care which team you're playing against but its extremely hard to get 24 assists against any team in the NBA. If you argue their oppoents didn't play defense and gave up on the season already then every PG should get 20 assists against rebuilding teams according to your argument. This draft we really should pick someone who we will be trading away in a package.
The Spurs also made an evaluation that neither Josh Howard or Barbosa were worth tying up ~$750,000 in cap room, were ready to "develop" Tony Parker by signing Jason Kidd to play in front of him, and dumped Beno Udrih for Damon Stoudamire. They sure tried hard to retain Hedo Turkoglu, the reigning most improved (I'm sure it was because of all the developing he had from the Spurs, 3 years prior). How about Captain Jack, Stephen Jackson? Clearly the Spurs didn't regard any of these players highly, because they all got replaced, so they're not that great, right? Look, the Spurs are outstanding at player development and scouting. They usually get outstanding talents from all across the world. But they do let talent get away from time to time. It happens. This is not baseball, where you can stash talent forever in the minors. With the luxury tax, you just can't afford to commit big guaranteed money to a potential non-rotation player (I'm looking at you, Mike James). If I had to make a baseball analogy, I'd compare their development and scouting to that of the Florida Marlins, always reloading and building anew, though they'll give away a decent amount of talent in the process when players become too expensive or will fetch a great deal in return. Now the Atlanta Braves, on the other hand, almost never trade away impact players. They truly are masters of the craft. The closest NBA parallel I can see in the nearby future is Portland; it will be interesting to see which of their young players they keep, and whether any of the players they will inevitably have to dump ever come back to haunt them. You have to believe that they definitely have the pieces to make a big move on draft night. So where does that leave the Rockets? Squarely in the shoes of the Philadelphia Phillies, a team that had a magical run to the playoffs before bowing out, sports a few mega-stars (Utley, Rollins, Hamels/Tracy, Yao), a fatally flawed 3rd guy (Howard/Alston), Mr. Dependable (Gordon/Battier), an X-Factor (Burrell/Scola), a 45 year old (Moyer/Mutombo), and a little speedster (Victorino/Brooks). Now if only both could win a championship; I think my head would explode in a flaming ball of awesomeness.
In retrospect, picking up Tiago Splitter in the first, then getting Sessions in the 2nd would have been the best course of action. Or trading up and getting Rudy Fernandez. I think it was clear that the Rockets were going to stash someone from this draft; heck, Les Alexander had to eat the contracts of Butler and Reed just to keep Landry. Having 5 prospects overseas doesn't mean anything if they can't play; the only two that matter right now are Lior Eliyahu and Brad Newley, with apologies to Sergei Lishouk, Zendon Hamilton and Kyle Hill. I do like Sessions as a player, and would be pretty happy to get him now to push AB for the 2.5 PG spot. My comment was concerning the fact that I've seen the kid play before, including once live, and never imagined that he could ever manage the kind of stats he put up, so I didn't really hold it against Rockets management that they didn't draft him. Clearly, there was no way that both Sessions and Brooks could make the team, and even if Sessions was drafted alone, considering it took the Bucks 60+ games to call him up from the D-League, there would have been a 0 to no f'ing way chance of him making the opening day roster.
