keep Scola and break apart everything else.. Though i dont think we have to blow things up.. With out blowing things up we have gotten our hands on some real good prospects thanks to DM.
SI's The Point Forward My point is not to celebrate that we have a good shot at that 8th seed. The Rockets have been struggling, while they straighten things out. They can do better than the 8th seed. We have talented players. DM will bring back something nice by the trade deadline. We have many young players (Hill, Bud, T-Will, PPatt, AB) that are improving. OK, Bud might not improve over the reat of the year. Anyhow, there is no need to panic.
Lakers never tanked to get to where they are now, only garbage organizations tank (and no SA didn't tank, it just looks like they did). No matter what any of you say, we aren't tanking so it sucks to be you
Put me into the 'tanking' category. If I were Morey, I would look to trade Martin & Scola for draft picks or young players with high upside. We don't have to trade either right away -- we could wait until the draft to use one of them packaged with our draft pick to move up. Our foundation for a championship team just isn't good enough right now. First you draft Yao Ming / trade for McGrady, then you fit the role players around them. Right now we have role players and no stars -- it's not going to work. We might make the playoffs this year. Probably will. But so what? We're good enough to be a 6th - 8th seed team that most likely gets trounced in the first round. I'd rather have a higher draft pick and a brighter future than a mediocre present. Bringing up Portland is not a good argument -- injuries can happen to anyone. The guy you drafted could get injured or the guy you traded for to "help" could get injured as well. There's no predicting injuries. And for how "bad" the Thunder are in year four, you won't find one rational fan of the NBA who would take the current Rockets roster over theirs. Yes, they may not be amongst the NBA's elite right now.. but they are a hell of a lot closer than we are. The Lakers cleared cap room to sign Shaq. I'd be on board to start clearing cap room to go after Dwight if you think that's the best course. But saying "the Lakers didn't have to tank to compete!" is another bad argument. You're right, they didn't have to tank.. because they had Shaq. Just by trading him, they got Lamar Odom and Caron Butler (who was later used to acquire Kwame Brown, who was later used to acquire Pau Gasol). We don't have any big trading chips like the Lakers did to where we could take on an influx of talent like that. San Antonio tanked. It worked. Some teams have tanked and it didn't work. It all depends on the upper management.. if you have faith in Morey, you should have faith that he'll be able to land star players from picking so high in the draft.
How about an Operation 2012 strategy? Assemble young, low salaries assets, expiring contracts, and summer 2012 salary cap space to be posed and ready to strike: http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/14461388/blockbuster-deal-a-bigger-deal-for-magics-howard Do the bold moves guarantee anything? Other than the fact that the Magic are trying to keep their star happy and on a championship level, no. There are no guarantees. If the experiment blows up, as the Cleveland concoction of Shaquille O'Neal and Antawn Jamison famously imploded, then Howard simply will be one step closer to being Carmelo Anthony. After the anticipated lockout ends, Howard will be entering the final year of his contract followed by an early-termination option for 2012-13. He would be set to join another epic free-agent class, which also could include Paul, Deron Williams, and Derrick Rose. Depending on what the league's free-agent rules and payroll structure will be, Howard could have substantial leverage to force a trade during the season-and-a-half leading up to the 2012 trade deadline.
Ugh, Your talking like the New York Knicks, who got lucky that Amare wanted to go to NY in last years free agency... The harsh truth is that None of those players are going to want to come here... We have to built through the draft, its that plain and simple. The faster we realize this the better off we are..
Or maybe Heat 2.0. Except only shoot for 2 max players, and have a core of young, talented players on rookie contracts already in place to fill out the rest of the rotation. This strategy would necessarily entail trading Martin and Scola next season for young players and expiring contracts. If the NBA goes to a hard cap with the labor deal, other teams might not be able to outbid us to keep their own superstar free agents, because the Bird exception would be gone.
I'm not saying we should tank or change, but let's think about our 2 titles, how did we get our cornerstone player for those championships? Just sayin.
That's why we don't need to tank this year; next year would be the year to tank. Combine a top pick in the strong 2012 draft, a core of young players on rookie contracts, with cap space for two max players, and you have all the ingredients for a team that is attractive to superstar PGs and a superstar center in the next free agent summer of love, 2012.
We got Sampson and Olajuwon by tanking. San Antonio got Duncan by tanking too. Cleveland got LeBron not so much by tanking but by being a loser.
Even with three stud point guards as potential free agents in 2012, Dwight Howard will be the top pick then. Would be a nice target to continue the Rockets' long tradition of star big men.
I don't know how many times it has to be repeated... THERE ARE NO FRANCHISE PLAYERS coming out in this draft. There is no Paul, no Hakeem, no Jordan, no Durant... so tanking is counter intuitive. All you achieve by tanking is create a losing atmosphere.
Yeah, let's play that game again. No thanks. Either Dwight re-signs or he joins another star. The type of star we'll never have a high enough pick to draft.
It's too early to tell... I say play young guys and showcase for the trade deadline, see what you can get and hope you land some star talent with all these trade pieces, aka mediocre, role player our team has. In affect you tank the season after you acquire the talent... then fill the roster up with free agents... Carl Landry after Scola is traded anyone? Basically, sell'em off this season and bring in talent... then over the summer, sign some more talent... essentially, tanking or not tanking isn't an issue... we don't need a draft pick since we have a crap ton of dead weight competing for playtime.
already talking about tanking after only 27 games...what a bunch of idiots, go be SAC or NJ Fans, they seem to tank enough for everyone here.
No TANK! Tanking is a real option when are out of the playoffs.. last 10 games of the season.. fighting for lottery balls. If you have a chance to make the playoffs and see what the hell happens.. You Take IT!! Martin+Scola = Danny Granger
In the past I would of said tank. But now with a lockout and a weak draft I would let morey do what he does best .make something out of nothing
Way too early to be making claims like this. We won't know for sure until they actually play. A lot of guys we thought would be franchise players didn't turn out to be.. and guys we didn't think would be franchise players turned out to be. I'd also wager that you know very little about the international guys coming out. It's silly to be making conclusions like the one above so early.
