If you believe Ira May- Time for Rockets to deal,ship top pick Published May 26, 2002 You have to go back to 1993 to find the last time a team traded the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. Next year, you'll only have to go back to 2002. There is no way the Houston Rockets should be willing to take this gamble. This is not a case of passing up a Tim Duncan or an Allen Iverson or even an Elton Brand. No No. 1 pick would arrive with more baggage than Yao Ming, not even David Robinson and his uncertain status coming out of the Naval Academy in 1987. Save for a formal workout in front of group of NBA scouts, private workouts for the Knicks and Bulls, and time in the Olympics, Yao remains a great unknown. And enough of those ludicrous statistics from the Chinese Basketball Association. When journeyman NBA forward David Benoit is the second-best player on your championship team, the competition hardly can be all that telling. For Robinson, Duncan or Shaq, you jump through hoops. But for the second coming of Rik Smits? For a team loaded with bad contracts (Glen Rice, Maurice Taylor, Kelvin Cato) and holes (a power forward who rebounds, a center who can walk and chew gum at the same time), this is the Rockets' opportunity to deal with multiple concerns. From a standpoint of need, Yao appears the perfect fit. But this is the most imperfect of situations. According to Li Yao Ming, an assistant to the general manager of Yao's Shanghai Sharks, plenty of strings will come attached. "The negotiations are not easy," Li said. "There must be nine signatures on his NBA contract. The signatures will belong to Yao Ming, his parents, the Shanghai Sharks, his Chinese agent, his NBA agent, the city of Shanghai, the Chinese National General Management, the Chinese Basketball Association, and his NBA team. These are our rules." Of course, a city with a large Chinese population also would help. There also is the request for joint training sessions between the Shanghai Sharks and Yao's NBA team, an exhibition game by Yao's NBA team in China and a reciprocal player agreement between the teams. Further, there is the matter of recalling Yao at any time for duty with the national team. So how exactly was winning the lottery a good thing? The answer is a trade, like the Magic did in 1993 with No. 1 overall pick Chris Webber. Auction off the rights to Yao or Jay Williams. Get a top-10 pick. Get a player. Unload a bad contract (a wide selection is available). Retain your sanity. Already, word is the Rockets' player of choice is UConn small forward Caron Butler. "It's hard to trade it because the unknown value of what you're getting is hard to rate,"Rockets General Manager Carroll Dawson said. In this case, it's easy to trade exactly for that reason because getting Yao is only going to create further headaches for a franchise already dealing with Steve Francis' migraines. "It puts us in a position where we have a lot of options to look at," coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. Fine, use them. By moving from the No. 5 lottery seed to the No. 1 pick, the Rockets got lucky. Now it is up to them to make the most of that good fortune. Ira May thinks we'll move the pick. I wonder where he heard this Caron Butler info?
I think he's a jealous Miami columnist who wants the Heat to get Williams, but would dare not show such easily identifiable bias in his column, or would he? I'll trust all the Houston and Rocket sources thank you very much. The Chronicle writes an article on Ming everyday it seems and Clutch basically confirmed my thought in Doc's thread by saying we are taking him unless we are really overwhelmed via trade.
This guy is right on. The Rockets would be crazy to draft Yao Ming. As if the negotiations won't be a nightmare, Yao will never be that great of a player. The Yao hype is completely out of control.
It's funny because that's not the only curveball being thrown around out there. It's almost like they send the same info to each other for their Sunday notebooks - have you guys noticed that? Anyhow ... Wilcox or Butler, fellas? <B>Milwaukee: <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/sports/buck/may02/46257.asp" target="_blank">Rockets hope to soar with top pick in draft</a></B> <UL><b>Highlights:</b> <I>"So far, everything points to the Rockets drafting Yao, the 7-foot-5 center from China. But, as usual where the draft is concerned, that could turn out to be just be a smoke screen. Especially since <b>the Rockets seem to have a keen interest in Caron Butler</b> of Connecticut, the former Racine Park star who worked out last week in Houston. Butler would probably be available lower in the draft should the Rockets decide they want to deal the No. 1 pick. Dawson, though, claims that the Rockets are not inclined to do so."</I> <i>"Golden State holds the third pick and <b>Warriors officials were said to be scanning the rosters of Houston and Chicago before they even left the lottery last week, trying to conjure up a deal to move them up so they could land Williams</b>. The speculation and rumors are certain to run rampant between now and the June 26 draft. The one thing that is certain at this point is that <b>the Rockets are sitting in the cat-bird's seat. They seem to be enjoying the view.</b>"</i></UL> <B>Florida: <a href="http://www.theledger.com/sports/sports_columnists/26scan.htm" target="_blank">Rockets Can't Take Chance With Top Pick</a></b> <UL><b>Highlights:</b> None.</UL> <B>Phoenix: <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/0526nbainsider.html" target="_blank">Rockets may draft Yao, trade him</a></B> <UL><b>Highlights:</b> <I>"The Rockets, despite two NBA championships in the mid-1990s that are painfully familiar to Suns fans, ranked last in the NBA in attendance last season. And with a new arena on the drawing board, selling tickets may mean more than anything. <b>Yao will sell tickets.</b>" "But there also is a feeling around the league that the Rockets may not want to take that much risk with a No. 1 pick. <b>They love Maryland forward Chris Wilcox</b>, and with guard Steve Francis - a former Maryland star - having a lot of input, there may be pressure from within to take Yao for another team, which would then select Wilcox for the Rockets and then swap. The Rockets don't have a first-round pick in next year's draft, which will likely include LeBron James, the Ohio prep phenom. Don't be surprised if the Rockets trade for a sure thing, landing Yao in, say, the Bay Area, get Wilcox and wind up right in the middle of the James sweepstakes this time next year."</I></UL>
Caron would be the only player other than Ming that I would be happy to see the Rockets get. I would love to see the Rockets somehow get him and Yao. However, I have resigned myself to the fact that if we draft Yao, then we won't be getting Caron....not that is a bad thing. If we do get Caron and pass or trade on Yao, then we better damn get some other players that bring value along with Butler.
You guys will call me crazy, but the one sided Rockets trades on this board get old quick. I'd be in favor of a trade that went something like this: Golden State gets: #1 Houston gets: #3 and Golden State's 2003 first round pick (not lottery protected) Something similar could be done with Memphis or Denver (which, along with Chicago, may be the worst team in the league next year).
Manny i was wishing for the same thing. I wish there was some way the Rockets could parly the 15th pick and someone else to push them into the top 10 and at least have a shot at Butler.
That Phoenix article is hilarious. 1. We're going to trade for Wilcox because Francis went to Maryland, although in a completely different era. 2. We don't have a first-round pick in next year's draft, although that won't be determined until we decide whether to ship a sufficient pick to the Grizzlies this year. 3. Having just nailed the lotto jackpot from the #5 position -- twice -- we're going to trade our #1 pick for the chance to nail the jackpot again next year. Fortunately, this guy's editor cut his line about how fearsome we'd be next year with a front line of Yao, Willis, and Olajuwon.
I agree that might be good, but remember that the Rockets were the worst team in attendance last season and are trying to build up interest going into the 2003-2004 season and the new stadium. That kind of trade will probably not bring a whole lot of buzz this season to Houston. I don't think there's anyway the Rockets would trade for a future first-round pick.
LOL .... hilarious. I like this from the Miami article. <I>David Fredman, the Nuggets' assistant general manager, warns not to overstate the definitive top-two status of Yao and Williams. "It's not like in the past where you have a Tim Duncan, who is a consensus No. 1 pick," Fredman said. "I'm not convinced either one of those guys is the best player in this draft." ...</I> Says the team with the <B>5th pick</B> in the draft.
Already, word is the Rockets' player of choice is UConn small forward Caron Butler Oh please let this be true.
Denver is just mad because they over-tanked. Tskitishvili is just wowing people-did you see the end of the Phoenix article? D'Antonio has been comparing him with Dirk and KG, and now "Pau Gasol with a better outside shot". Tsick. Anyone else find it sad that there are more and better articles about the Rockets in other cities than in the Chronicle?
Another telling thing would be to find out if there are any articles from Chicago talking about us wanting to deal, since they pray we don't. NIKE, I certainly trust anything D'Antonio says, but didn't he say he's a year away before he should go into the draft. Nick the Tsick is probably more of a risk than Pau.
Here's the link to Vecsey's completely different take on the pick: www.nypost.com/sports/43213.htm I hope he's right, for once.
I'm thinking we'll draft and keep Ming. I'm also wondering if Cat and Eddie Griffin might land us something good from the Bulls. The Bulls want experience and they wouldn't mind another big player. Would Cat and Griffin and the Drew obligation get us Jay Williams? And would we keep Jay Williams? Or actually consummate the deal for Lamar Odom and, say, the #8 pick (Caron Butler?)
Roxtxia, Explain your newfound obsession with trading Eddie Griffin, please. He is a 20 yr old with a very bright ceiling, why on earth would we trade him?
I'm not sure if it's worth trading Mobley alone for Jay Williams, much less adding Eddie Griffin and more. That would be one of the more lopsided trades in draft history...
Technically, EG is still 19 until May 30th. Even though he's starting to get up there in years, I think he's still worth keeping. From time to time, posters will provide articles and links for the writings of Ira Windeman. He's probably a real nice guy over there in sunny ol' Florida, but I just haven't seen much of his writing that impresses me.
