Oh the irony....

You're going about it all wrong, Clutch. All is well. Order has once again been restored. Why waste a #6 pick on some chump when it does not seem as big of a waste at #12. Let those Astros lose. At least they are used to it.

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rimbaud post-a-thon 2000

[This message has been edited by rimbaud (edited April 11, 2000).]

 

I hope we get lucky and end up with something good. Speaking of the ASSSSSTROS, do they suck in the new ballpark or what?

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President of the Moochie Norris FAN CLUB

 

Clutch,

Don't worry man. This draft sucks, we'll trade the pick and pick up a great free agent, and all will be right again in the Rocket universe.

How can the Astros win? They've got Ken "I can only play 50 games a year" Caminiti. Got rid of Mike Hampton. Got HR happy Lima in Enron "HR happy" field.

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I have a dream.........his name's Hakeem.

 

I warned of eye orbit II coming.

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We would like to get rookie Francis on the break for some easy scoops in the first quarter...

 

I am as happy as a puppy playing in a laundry basket,

1. The players never lost sight of the point of playing in a competitive game. Winning. So, the youngesters Win an important lesson.
2. The management never lost the focus of fan satisfaction. Winning. Deep down, all fans love to Win regardless of the draft implications.
3. The coaches never jumped at the opportunity to yank and tank. Can we say, Rudy and staff Win (maintain?) a lot of self respect.

Ask yourself this: Would you rather be Chicago? Golden State? Let's see what kinda free agents Krause will draw.

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Excellent point.

Though these games are meaningless as far as the playoffs go, I am still very happy to see that our Rocks don't like the taste of losing and have not thrown in the towel.


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Quick question: Does the lottery only concern the first three pix? So if we dont get one of those we end up at 10?

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<font size=+1>The Astro's record is a good thing. . .</font>

<font color="#683D14"><font size=+4>for me to poop on!</font></font>

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The truth is out there.

 

I know I have the minority view here, but I think a few extra wins against the dregs of the league when we were 10 games out of the playoffs with less than 10 to play was a mistake in the long term. I was glad to see us beat the good team who also happen to be our arch enemies--that is good for team character and fan spirit, but beating Denver away from the home fans was a net loss in my book. Going from a 6 pick to a 12 pick isn't worth scraping up a few extra wins when this years' championship is an impossibility anyway.

The whole thing is very ironic. For years when we had great teams we would finish with a wimper (I think in 93 we lost home court to Seattle--which made the difference in the series--because we played around with the Mavs late in the season--who made the current Mavs look like world beaters). Now that it doesn't matter we can't stop ourselves from winning.

My silver lining in this is we are showing the rest of the league--and especially other teams FA--what we already have known, that we have some great young talent who work great with each other. This should help us lock away Mobley and maybe attract a solid low post player this offseason. If those things happen maybe it is worth going from a 6 pick to 12 by endin the season on a roll, especially as the draft is looking weaker and weaker in terms of blue chippers.

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Clutch,

Maybe I can help you feel better. This winning will increase the trade value of all our players. For instance, Walt finishes out his last 18 games at 56% shootin and 20+ scoring, what is he worth versus a month ago.

Sure tanking can work in landing college talent, but winning is always known to work in getting more value in NBA trades.

winning is a good thing. thx popeye.

 

Well HP, your post made me feel better

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Hey Mulder - so you're the other Houstonian watching the Conan O Brien show, eh?

Seriously, though, tanking is pointless in what appears to be the weakest draft in years. Somebody should tell the Hawks to stop tanking - or are they really that bad????

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I agree with HeyPartner and Popeye and other echoing comments about winning being the best thing to do right now.

Three reasons:
(1) We build momentum, chemistry, confidence and team spirit for next year, helping us keep Mobely and the current team together, and start next year off right.
(2) We show that this is a good place for free agents or sign and trades to come to, since we're on the rise, helping us get more in an offseason trade or signing.
(3) This is increasing the team value or trade value of the Wiz. If he is finally hitting his stride, then we should build his confidence back, becasue he's solving one of our missing pieces. If he is being showcased, we will get more for him in trade value than going a few spots higher in the draft.

This draft is weak (in the sense of surefire stars) after the first 5 or 6 picks. And since Swift, Morris and it sounds like Mihm may be deciding not to come out, it could be down to 3 or 4, and Martin's injury could affect him, too. Then you have a dozen or so that are about the same in quality. Outside of a prayer we win the lottery ball, I don't think losing a few spots makes that much of a difference in terms of what we'll get in this year's draft.

We have a fair amount of trade options this summer to pick up a couple people like Olowakandi, MoTaylor, Croshere, Grant, J.Oneal, Fortson, Outlaw, K.Thomas, Camby, Lewis, Rose, J.Smith, Eisley, etc.

Our 4.5 exemption, the Wiz, Drew, TMass, Detroit pick, Miami pick, our pick ... That should enable us to get a couple more building block players at the 4 or 5 who have already developed a year or 2.

That will make us a playoff team, but not championship team. I hope we don't get the Detroit or Orlando pick until next year, when we'll have a chance at Swift or Morris. Then Olojuwan will be gone and we'll have salaries down to get a star free agent, and then put the final pieces in place to run for the championship 2 or 3 years from now and years thereafter.

Rudy may have tried to tank when it looked like we could get Swift, but once he was gone, it didn't make any sense to hurt team morale, so he's let them kick ass. So, Rockets, keep feeding the ball to the Wiz!

[This message has been edited by Sherlock (edited April 12, 2000).]

 

Ya'll have me convinced, I am leaving the Tank-a-thong badwagon . I have to admit a couple of weeks ago the 5th pick looked mighty tempting, but I have come to the reality that the draft just continues to thin out, and I could never advocating tanking in such a successful way as Atlanta was been able to achieve. So let's just go out there and play so that any available post-player worth his salt says "Houston-fory is the place I outta-be. And loads his truck for clutch-city. Young guns, ***** clubs,....."

[This message has been edited by sir scarvajal (edited April 12, 2000).]

 

Tank-a-thong?! hmm... not gonna ask.

We've slowly moved our way down to the lower half of the lottery, so with the "equal-talent" at that pick who cares. Let's win. LOL! (such a defeatist attitude). I was hoping we could somehow get a shot at least #4 or #5, but after that I don't see much in the way of even near-stud players and top-3 lottery probabilities are remote. I kind of hope Rudy takes a shot at Darius Miles if he's around. He seems like the type of kid that Rudy likes; busts his butt all over the court on offense and defense.

We shall see... we may just get one of those top 3 picks if the ball bounces the right way.

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&lt;this space for rent&gt;

 

D0D,

You are beginning to sound like: francis3=Kenyon Martin
D0D=Darius Miles

Even if we did draft him, he is years away from being able to help a team at the NBA level. I would much rather draft a college player, preferably a major college, who is used to banging with BIG boys.

just my opinion

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"The bigger they are, the worse they smell."

 

According to the Complementary Law of Arithmetic, I'm worried about BobFinn*s subliminal messages:

banging with BIG boys +
the bigger they are, the worse they smell =
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banging's worse with smelly boys

Bob,,,you might want to use your asterix more to add clarifying footnotes to your messages.

 

I knew we weren't a lottery team!

As for the 'Stros...if they had some decent pitching we might be able to win a game in the "Convertible".

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The lottery sucks!

 

Bobus Finnikus,

I know. I've been thinking I'm turning into Francis3 lately. As for Miles, I'd rather take a chance on that kid instead of getting a marginal NBA player or bench player with a low-lottery pick. I just loved his game and he seemed like everything I thought Cato would be.... but with offense!



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&lt;this space for rent&gt;