I would love to get a defensive specialist like artest on our team. He may cost alot but I think he would be worth every penny. I would also hope we could find a smart pf with some young legs and intensity. We need a floor leader/enforcer on our team though and that is probably the most important thing. I want someone with some tough tough balls to get everyone to want to play harder.
Seems like the expiring contracts was not enough of a draw for other teams to deal with us, I'm getting the feeling no team has any use for most of our role players (and I would not blame them if they felt that way). If that's the case then we have no choice but through the draft or free agency to build our team. Make no mistake, the talent on this team, even when fully healthy, even if Sura comes back, is not going to challenge for any title anytime soon. If we play to our maximum ability this is a 50 win ball club and early playoff exit at best. The Derek Anderson/Stromile Swift experiment was a bust, even if Stro stays around and not dealt in the offseason like the rumors are saying, he will still be the enigmatic athletic moron that he has been. CD, Dennis, and JVG need to go back to the drawing board as far as building a team around TMac and Yao.
You are absolutely correct. I was not even thinking of Marquee players- first I am of the belief that Les Will not go over the luxury tax. Trust me if they did call about David Wesley and we thought he was too precious to lose him then there is something wrong. Why send Moochie to NOK-- when the expectation all along was that he was trade fodder? We are NOT signing a significant player- by which I mean the 8-10 million dollar type who will be healthy and can bring the game each and every night. You may want to watch Linton Johnson ,Butler, Jumain Jones again. Compared to what we can sign them for- they would be a serious upgrade to whatever our Shooting contingent is these days! I even question the logic of bringing Dwes back on a vet minimum- if we can get players like the one's I mentioned. Dont get me wrong- I think D Wes is a great guy, great competitor- but he is not consistent. Personally I would like to have Rashard- but then that is a pipe dream.
But the Rocks ARE over the Salary cap and ARE paying luxury tax. Even if Les did want to sign a "8-10 million dollar type" player he couldn't as the team is restricted to the MLE because its over the salary cap. Rockets could trade for such a player especially with their great depth of players but Weisbrod no longer works in the NBA. In the off-season Bobby Simmons seemed like the player CD was most interested in. If the Rocks were able to offer more than MLE I'm sure he would've been a Rocket instead of Swift.
Rockets are not paying luxury tax. THat kicks in after 69 Million. We are not talking of signing a player for 8-10 million. Obviously such a trade could have been done some time before the deadline. We may have had to take back some undesirable contracts- but there was interest in David Wesley for sure- you could easily have packaged David Wes and Swift and for that matter Luther. It is is a myth that teams over Salary cap are restrictedin making moves- It is a great public stunt that Les will sign- but if you followed the recent moves, Bogans, DA trade and Moochie- it clearly shows that they are not going to add talent that is going to be "costly"- while it is customary to talk about overpaid players- the fact is it is a lot better to have overpaid talent which is tradeable than have washed out role players. Otherwise we will be in Status Quo mode for years- we wont have the talent to make the trades- so we wont make trades.
Then how would you explain our serious interest in listening to offers for Francis and Artest? I'm sure the goal is to stay out of luxury tax land if possible, but the reality of the situation is unless we discover a gold mine in the draft, our chances of seriously upgrading this team are not very good. I am not impressed by the FA market at all, which almost means a trade will be necessary. Plenty of teams have to deal with the luxury tax. It's not something you aim to accomplish but if the reward for doing so outweighs the cost, then you have to consider it---I think Les is at that point with the Artest/Francis talk, for example. ......and I wouldn't even consider Johnson, Butler, Jones or Rush an upgrade over Bogans. Decent bench players but little to no chance of ever being quality starters.
Dude can flat out fill it up, but he has insulin-dependant diabetes. I love his college ball, but he just can't play in the pros for long. A frickin' bruise can turn to gangrene when you have diabetes like that... Too bad. Love his heart and incredible skill.
well, as cliche as it sounds, we are missing the "heart of a champion." We have insane talent in TMac and Yao, and great talent in Swift and Alston, but none of these guys have "heart." Last year, we had a healthy Sura, Barry and James, and their heart made a big difference. I just think we need a couple Mario-type leaders. We've got all sheep on this team.
My apologies if someone has already pointed this out, but I'd love Jason Terry. He can shoot lights out. WE know this very well. I doubt it will happen. Cuban will give him his money. But that would be great for us. And he displayed heart against us. So that "emotion-factor" would be helped. I like him. And we only dislike him because he plays for the mavs.
The Rockets have only two legitimate starters: Ming and TMac. Therefore, and I am serious, they need a starting caliber PG, SG, and a PF. In your heart you know I am right.
