Our chances at signing Stromile Swift might have just vanished.

I seem to recall that Swift went to HS in Mississippi, but I didn't see a hometown listing on the Grizzlies website, but your point is still valid geographically.

 

NO will have lots to spend, but will they be like Atlanta in having difficulty getting 'A Listers' to take it?

NO has PJ and West at the 4, Maggliore at the 5. Without a deal or two their identified needs may be more at the 2 and 3.

 

His favorite team is the Rockets....we can get him.. we will get him...we MUST get him.

 

New Orleans needs a 2 or a 3. They actually are set up front. Also, Speedy's contract ends after next season (I think). They'll probably need a 1 too.

 

Swift is from Shreveport, Louisiana. Fairpark High School.

 

N.O. AND Milwaukee both got significant cap room. I know the Bucks will use a ton of it for Redd but I think they will have a fair amount left over for other moves as well.

N.O. in all honesty IS a potential Swift destination. Their core right now is Dickau(PG), JR Smith (SG) and Maglore(C). Those are the 3 players they will build around. So Swift COULD be in play for them. Especially with those local ties.

I agree, that our chances at getting Swift probably was reduced with the trade deadline deals!

 

Yes, I noticed this same thing yesterday. NO will be way under the cap.

Also the owners want to split the MLE according to Chad Ford - "Currently, the owners are looking to split the mid-level exception in two pieces. Teams could sign two players with the exception: one for 75 percent of the exception, the other for 25 percent. Under current exception figures, teams would have a $3.7 million slot and a $1.2 million slot." If the owners get their way on this point I think it could force more quality players to teams under the cap (they can pay more).

 

So you are telling me Swift would like to come play for the Rockets and miss the opportunity to posterize Yao 4 times a year? Nahh!

I wonder if Yao would like to have Swift taunting him in the locker room about how he dunked over him multiple times. On the other hand, this could fire up Yao before every game and make him drop 40 on opponents

 

I've mentioned this before, but we're potentially prepared to now go after RFAs, using the Chicago-New York model.

New York landed Crawford by dangling cap flexibility at Chicago (expiring contracts for Jerome Williams' ugly one).

Chandler, Curry, Brown, and Dalembert are RFAs. It's a matter of how much their teams want them, how much we want them, and how much we're willing to pay, in both dollars and flexibility.

 

The Rockets were always longshots to get Swift anyway. Bottom line is the guy has to be willing to take less money to come here, and I don't think he passes up the big contract a crappy team is likely to throw at him.

That being said, CD and JVG have been on a roll lately with their personnel moves(Charlie Ward notwithstanding), so don't give up hope.

 

Chandler and Dalembert are interesting.

They are both very talented but for some reason, neither of their coaches really like them.

 

I guess it would depend on how many expiring contracts Memphis has next year. We could always do a sign and trade for parts instead of the TE. Especially since we just broke up the only TE above MLE anyways.

As yesterday proved, expiring contracts are valuable. Especially if the cap penalty goes up next year.

 

Memphis won't do us any favors, but Chicago might ...

 

NIKE, I think the Bulls moved Crawford because he was a "negative" on the team in terms of attitude. So we would have to target a player that wants OUT of the team and if they DONT get out they will cause a problem. Who fits that description?

As for Swift...after thinking about it some more, I want to partially amend what I said above in terms of New Orleans.

Since Shinn is the owner and he in general is a tightwad with money, I can actually see the Hornets NOT using all of their cap space this summer. They might just make a small addition and then keep the room. I mean they dont want to pay a ton of money for a bad team.

 

When I was in Shreveport a few years ago, a friend and I were staying at a hotel that had one of those chauffers for the casinos. The chauffer told me he was tight with Stromile, and they played ball together in HS. Not much else to this story I guess, just thought I'd back up the Shreveport thing.

 

It's gonna come down to money, which is something the Rockets never had much in the 1st place.

Swift is going to get good offers from a lot of teams. I really don't think our chances at signing Swift has changed at all.

 

We need to make sure to sign Boki back this summer so if NO gets Stro we can rob them again and trade Boki for him....

 

How did you formulate this opinion?

 

You're right. If $$$ is the biggest factor, we never had a shot in the first place. NO getting cap room, means nothing.