Orlando Sentinel: Magic want Francis, Mobley and Cato

Yes because the MLE always garners top flight talent.

I want McGrady as much as you or anyone on this board but we better get MORE than just McGrady for our THREE starters.

And it's not that i'm afraid we can't land McGrady, i'm afraid our front office can't build around TMac and Yao. You and many people say that role players are easy to find...they're a dime a dozen and that's true. But you also have to find role players that fits into the system and work with the franchise player(s). It's easy to point and say "yea TMac's a top 5 talent. He's an all-star player." and know what to expect out of him. It's harder to point at a role player and say "yea he's a role player and he avgs. these stats for this team so that should also translate over to our team. and he'll fit in with our franchise players".

 

Huh? JJ played 39+ MPG for 80 games this past season...

 

Would you do

Francis/Cat/Cato

for

Artest/Harrington/Bender/Tinsley???

I think I would...

 

I doubt we could copy detroit in their model of team play. Even though they have no superstars they have just about 4 all stars or near all stars and Prince is a very good role player and could become an all star. Even if we did accumulate enough talent like the Pistons, would we ever be able to play the "right" way?

 

So basically you're saying it's harder to find good role players than great superstars? And you're scared to do this deal because of the fear that our front office couldn't build around TMac and Yao? Wouldn't giving them a chance to try and find out exponentially increase your odds at a future championship? Isn't this the time to find out?

 

steddinotayto is really CD

 

people forget cato is suppose to come off the bench. He doesent need to start at PF again. So its really 2 starters and an overpaid center for mcgrady. I would also hate to lose cat but sacrficies must be made.

 

geez ...

WHATEVER IT TAKES ...

You just do whatever it takes, guys. This will be the steal of the decade. If we don't pull this off, we'll be doing "whata, coulda, shoulda" on this board for the next 10 years.

There are times in negotiations, where you work your best deal. I know that CD is a good horse trader. But, sometimes, he overvalues what he has, and doesn't do what it takes to get the deal done. This already happened with McGrady years ago. I hope history doesn't repeat itself. When you know you've got a deal, then you work to pull off your best deal. But, there are times, that the best deal, is getting the deal. That's what we've got here. We have to give them whatever they want, short of Ming. Whoever wins the McGrady sweepstakes this summer, will have come out with the steal of the summer.

McGrady needs to see that we'll do anything for this team, to get him. Then, if he decides that the Rockets are the only team he wants to go to, and he doesn't want Cat to leave, then he can create leverage that we can't. But, right now, if they want JJ, we give him, they want draft choices, cool. Whatever it takes. Once we have two future superstars on the same team, there are lots of people who will come here to join us so they can be on a championship team. We may pay more now, but, we'll pay less later.

5 or 10 years from now, you'll be laughing that some of you were unsure of doing this deal, because Mobely or Cato or draft picks or Hill might be in the deal. Just DO it, and do whatever it takes.

 

Assuming most of them are signed for a few more years, yes in a flash.

 

hahahahahahha

like i said before, i'm all for getting TMac. It's just I hope Rockets front office has some plans when they finally get him...like..who to persue (sp?) on the FA market. Yea i'm pretty sure anyone would want to play with a Tmac/Yao combo but wanting is one thing and actually signing with us is another (*coughwebber*)

and i really don't know what i find weirder...me wanting more for Francis/Cat/Cato trio or being call CD hahahah

 

Gooden can be a Syud if he were given the chance to prove himself!!. and we know T-MAC is allready a mega Stud!

 

Dude, I'm with you, I hope our management can pull it off!

 

Wasn't our management responsible for getting Francis, Mobley, Cato, and JJ to begin with? Please have some faith people.

 

i would hate to see cat and franchise leave but if you want to get something good, you gotta lose something good in return. plus, it would give steve and cat to shine coz they can have their iso offense to that team and make the magic's offense run through them like the past 4 years with them here. plus, with tmac and yao on the team, we shouldnt have much trouble lookin for good role players. let's face it guys, who wouldnt want to be in a team with yao and tmac on it?! kobe, shaq, and the rest of the ego-centered-mega-superstars might say no coz they want their own team but if you have two stars like tmac and yao on the team, role players will be attracted to houston. we can have a 1-2 punch the lakers had with shaq and kobe. inside-outside game in a consistent basis. tmac will definitely ask the ball, but he DO put it in the hole almost everytime compared to francis that we still have to cross our fingers just to help the ball go in the hole. i would love to see francis start and end his career in a rockets jersey, but if this is what it takes to bring the larry o'brien trophy back to the rockets, then, im all up on it.

 

It's a lot to give up but i think it's entirely short sighted to say that we shouldn't do it because it will create major holes in our depth this season. We'll have plenty of oppurtunities to sign roleplayers than can fill the holes. Landing a star of McGrady's calibre is just not an oppurtunity that comes often.

Also, I think those people who think Phoenix and Indiana are offering better deals are selling our under-valuing what we have to offer. Marion may be more desirable than Francis, but Francis is a bigger name that will put more asses in seats. Joe Johnson is definitely not better than Mobley and Voskuhl isn't fit to carry Cato's jock strap and that's saying something. Cato's value in the East is a lot higher than it is here. When people like Jamal Magloire make the all-star team over there I see no reason why Cato couldn't next season were he in the East. Especially considering the Hornets will be moved to the western conference. As to what the Pacers are offering, Artest is good but again, he doesn't have the popularity of Francis. Harrington is solid but plays the same position as Artest, Bender is a decent back up and Tinsley is an average point guard at best. Basically, with the Phoenix offer they get two players that can start, with the Indiana offer they get maybe two players that can start in Artest and possibly Tinsley(if Tinsley can beat out Lue and I really think Lue stands at least a small chance of beating Tinsley out to keep his starting job there). But with our offer? There is no doubt in my mind they'd have 3 new starters. I'd expect Okafor to move to power forward next to Cato and Howard to come off the bench.

 

Thank you. Best post in the thread.
Did anyone watch any Magic games last year? Yeah, they were HORRIBLE, but if McGrady hadn't been on that team, they might not have won a single game (and that's only a slight exaggeration). This guy and Yao Ming is enough to make us a top-level team, needing only to add a few pieces to make us a title team.
I don't know what those pieces are yet...let's remember that the Lakers won titles with Shaq & Kobe, complemented in the starting lineup by Rick Fox, Horace Grant, and Ron Harper. We'd only need guys who could play well WITH Yao and TMac, because it would be THEIR team.
Plus, TMac kinda likes Yao, which puts us ahead of the Lakers.
I'd love to keep Mobley--I think he's very underrated and important to this team--but I'm not so caught up in my love for Mobes or Steve or Cato or almost anyone on this team to not risk trading them away for what could possibly be one of the greatest players to ever put on a Houston jersey.
Make the deal.

 

Why does everyone make it sound as if we would be trading three guys just for T-Mac. Just for cap purposes alone, the Magic will have to add some players to match up salaries with Steve/Cat/Cato. And if they're going to be drafting Okafur then that would make Howard or Gooden expendable. So most likely we would get back Howard since Gooden is still young and cheap.

And I wouldn't discount Howard being a productive player for us. He rebounds better than Mo and is leagues better on offense than Cato. Also we could get the Magic to throw in Declerq or Lue just to help out our bench. They're nothing spectacular but they're cheap and can be decent role players. We'd still need a starting pg, but there are a couple avaliable in free agency.

This is a good deal, and it actually makes sense for both teams. In fact, this would make the Magic into a poor man's Pistons and the Rox into a poor man's Lakers:

Orlando / Detroit

Steve / Billups
Mobes / Hamilton
Garrity / Prince
Okafur / Rasheed
Cato / Big Ben


Rockets / Lakers

Fisher? / Payton
T-Mac / Bryant
Jackson / Fox
Howard / Malone
Yao / Shaq

Spooky, ain't it.

 

Man, T-Mac would be nice in Houston but that Pacer deal is too good to pass up if they agree to Orlando's proposal IMO.

 

Just get it done! No brainer!

 

Honestly this trade sounds something like Mark Cuban is behind. There is no freaking way that we can trade 3 starters for McGrady and pull a LA to attract FA. I disagree with this trade all the way.