Again, I've never been a 'Trade T-Mac' type and am not sure I am now, but if I can flirt with sacrilege for a moment, I think the two teams you would likely target are New York and Chicago. Both are in the East where a guy like T-Mac could make a team an instant playoff team. Both are huge markets. Both desperately need a splash type player. Both have assets that may (and I stress "may") work for the Rockets. Chicago They wouldn't trade Deng for Kobe so I doubt they would change that, but you have Hinrich, Sefolosha, Gordon (free agent), Tyrus Thomas and their lottery pick (likely to be around #9) to pick at from the buffet table. New York Stephon Marbury and the Knicks lottery pick, assuming it is #3 or #5 (not top 1 or 2, which the Knicks would not deal) for T-Mac would instantly kill any 08-09 chances for the Rockets. What it would give them is cap room in '09, a year early -- they would have about $31.8 million on the books between Yao Ming, Rafer Alston, Luis Scola and Shane Battier (though Landry has to be signed this offseason and Aaron Brooks would have a team option). The salary cap in 07-08 was $55.6 million. No team is likely to give up Beasley or Rose, but at 3 or 5 the Knicks could prefer McGrady. The Rockets consider this deal if they place a high value on Jerryd Bayless or OJ Mayo. Just a gut hunch, but I think Mayo is going to secure himself as the clear third pick of the draft.
They need more basketball players instead of 1 dimensional guys. Yes the jazz always have a high fg% because their offense in centered inside the arc. I've been saying the 3pt arc is a curse to supbpar shooters in this league. Back to the rox need, get Artest via sign and trade or see if they will take Battier plus a contract. I like shane, but he's a bench player and that's where he should be. Sac might be take Jaxson contract, but if they want Battier and say francis contract, do it and sign him to 4yrs 40m. There is ur 3rd scorer. Now that u have Artest,Mcgrady,and Yao and u still have Jackson's contract, call Portland or Orlando and for 6m u can get Arroyo and Evans or Outlaw and Jack. Both pg's are mid range bigger stronger types to either start or back up brooks. The 2 sf are atheletic and bigger. U have a rotation of Tracy/Artest/Evans or Outlaw now u always have size and length at ur 2/3 spot. At pg u have brooks and Arroyo or jack combo. Both bigger more physical types. I like the landry/scola combo, so i'll leave it at that. If landry asks for more than scola money, I let him walk. I trade rafer to any team that wants a pg and all I want is a 2nd. I still have my mle and vets minimum and I need a guy that can play and back up yao. I go get or try to split the mle between elson and mihm. I would try to get both because there will be games that I can play one at the backup 4 because we don't know if landry will ever be injury free. so now let me see what I have. Brooks/ Arroyo or Jack Tracy/Outlaw or Evans Artest/Outlaw or Evans Scola/Landry, novak Yao/Mihm,Elson I have 26min/22min split at pg. I have tracy playing 33 mins and Artest playing 35 with outlaw or evans playing 28 mins. I still have the split at pf. I have yao playing 33mins and the backup playing 15mins. Now the rox always have ballhandlers, finishers and scoring options on the floor. It will always be either It will always be 2 of the 3 on the floor. With jack or Arroyo on the floor, the rox have the bigger mid range type of guard. Evans or outlaw give the rox much needed atheleticism. There will be games when u can play artest,tracy,outlaw together at the same time.
I wanted to post something similar Clutch. Do you think Miami might go for a swap of picks and Marion for TMac? I thought that NY would jump on a Starbury and #1 pick for McGrady, but I was hopeful of the #2-3 pick from them. Chicago seems like the best option if you maximize the draft pick. I don't like trading that much talent unless the player is a cancer and TMac isn't. It is pretty hard to replace what TMac does give the team. I would really have to know the talent in the top 10 players in the draft or make a draft day deal for the one player I wanted.
marion could opt out and id like to see him with the rockets, hes a good 3rd option and he can play pf as well, we could then keep scola as a backup to yao and landry for marion and have rafer, tmac, battier,marion, yao its good cuz it will allow tmac more room to breathe cuz theres marion and he can shoot the 3 and provides good spacing, question is do we have cap room?
I think this team needs to stay the course, and simply find another piece so they can limit Tmac and Yao's minutes during the regular season. I honetsly feel that this team can win. The fact that we're in the playoffs at all shows that we would be contenders with Yao this season. Moreover, after the Olympics, we need to tell China to go screw. Yao should not play for the national team until after he finishes his contract. His body just can't take it.
Marbury!!?? Are you trying to let Isiah get his job back!!?? No matter how you look at it, cap, roster improvement, whatever, that makes the Gasol for Kwame trade look like grand larceny......... on the Grizzlies side. Is this what the franchise has fallen too!? To even jokingly suggest a Marbury deal signals the apocalypse.
I am "This close" (holding finger and thumb a millimeter apart) from being done with Tmac. I want a team that plays hard, and shares the responsibilities......on offense and defense. I want the "TEAM" to impose their will, because Tmac imposing his will means no advancement in the playoffs. DD
before all the tragedy this year, Marbury has put up respectable numbers playing at a respectable level. hes easily a top-10 PG if hes playing under control. and the center of the trade is not even on Marbury, its on the pick and cap space
I believe that all the rockets need to do is stay healthy. I love the nucleus of this ball club. With them finally having a full season under Adelman's system, i expect great things from this team next year...as long as Yao stays healthy. We are gonna have a low 1st round pick, i would trade it away for a future 1st rounder. Stay as is...I believe that we can only get better.
are you people nuts? Marbury is a basket case, a bi-polar lunatic who has been a cancer on every team he has played on.
Clutch, I have to preface this by saying that I certainly enjoy everything you do for this site. But starting a Rockets off-season thread while the playoffs are going on is something that I am displeased with. You couldn't wait a few more games to start this thread?
Clutch, are you saying we keep Marbury or buy him out? Also, I would be interested in Tmac' stats once Yao went down....versus before he was out. Last year he elevated his game.....with lessor players.....this year....it seems that did not happen and he had better players around him. What say you, oh fearless leader? DD
please trade Head (he is useless).....acutally other than Yao, Scola, Landry, everyone else can be shopped in my opinion
I kinda see them keeping most of the current team intact for 08-09. They could add some bodies by using some of their expiring contracts. Losing Yao for the season really exposed the rockets lack of size on the frontline. Scola and Landry aren't centers, but are an excellent 4 tandem. Also Landry should really improve next year as most 2nd year players do, the same goes for Brooks. Adding a Francisco Elson or a Devon Hardin could beef up the frontline for faster lineups and more shotblocking. Some size at the 2 wouldn't hurt either. The draft, MLE and using expiring contracts as trade bait is probably the way the rockets go this offseaon. It's just a difficult call on making extreme moves with Yao and the team not being fully healthy. All I know is the rockets didn't lose a regular season game for 2 months and I would think that Adelman, Morey and Les are going to have a hard time breaking that kind of chemistry up. The hardest thing to develop in the NBA is chemistry. There's no dought in my mind that the rockets would be playing Denver in the 1st round if they would have stayed healthy.
1. Trading Yao is not happening. 2. Trading Tmac will likely not net us enough talent to put us over the top. Remember, we are looking up at LA, NO, SA and look roughly eye to eye with Phoenix for the next couple of years. We need to beat out two of those 4 teams to land a top 4 seed. Otherwise, we run smack into the Utah matchup year after year. 3. Scrapping it all to rebuild is a dangerous proposition. The west is stacked today, will remain strong for the forseeable future, and Portland is on a sharp rise. We may rebuild ourselves into lotto land for a decade. Conclusion -- the time for half measures and adding role players is over. We need to bring in a player that will be our third best player --- without giving up Yao or Tmac. Artest and Maguette are the top two candidates in my opinion. Artest brings everything we need in terms of athleticism, grit, late game toughness, and plays a need position. You roll the dice on his head-- if it fails, you weren't going to get to the top by adding another small piece. We need a move with a big upside. Artest can shoulder the No 1 or No 2 role, and share it with Yao and Tmac. As for Maguette, I think he's a less ideal fit, but at least he is a complete player. --> I'd be willing to trade Landry, Brooks and our first rounder to get Artest. Probably Maguette also. You're going all in, because those are all the chips you have to play, except Scola. But that's were we are. I think both are possible because Sacramento has to realize that they are no where close to contending, even with Ron Ron. Nevermind cracking the current top 8. They still need to figure out how to pass Golden state and Portland. The clippers want to save money, cheap rookies with upside is the ticket. THE TIME FOR HALF MEASURES ARE OVER. We know what we have. We need a significant addition. We need to add our third best player.
