Getting Deke is a good move. He will definetly be a good backup C for 10min. He will make an impact with his rebounding and shot blocking. And that is what we need. And you can't say that Deke is much worse offensively than Cato is, and the bottom line is that he doesn't need to do anything offensively. We have enough scorers.
ESPN is saying that the Bulls have agreed to the deal, now it's just about the league approving it. I'm pumped for the basketball season!
offensively: Pike made .377% of his shot to average 4.1pt, 0.5asi, 0 offensive rebound per game. Deke made .478% of his shot to average 5.6pt, 0.4asi, 2.2 offensive rebound per game. Mike+Griffin produced almost NOTHING for this team last year. this year, with the addition of T-Mac, Lue, Gaines, Sura, Ward, and developement of Boki, you can expect even less from those two. defensively: Pike: a liability on the court Deke: gives you 12~18 vauleable minutes on the court. and might give Yao some advise off court. imagining if Yao out for 10 games late in March, you'd rather have Mutombo or Pike+Wilk+Griffin?
Aelliott and Nike, thanks for clarfiying about the new TE. That is good news. Quite honestly I don't think I want the Rockets to use the TE this offseason now. For now I kinda like how the line up looks--I think we have depth and versatility in all positions around 2 superstars. For now I'd like to see how Lue, Howard, Ward, Sura, Mutumbo and Boki do next year (or at least a few months into the real season) in their expected roles then reevaluate needs. As I said before I had been somewhat disappointed b/c I thought we didn't use the Utah TE nor planned to, but on the other hand I sew no obvious and important players to spend a TE above what we have in their spots on at this moment. I am all for seeing what we have got now and sitting tight with the new TE (which quite conveintly could be used to take on a full MLE player from another team), no other moves need to be made unless it is a nobrainer presented to us.
New article from the Chicago Sun-Times http://www.suntimes.com/output/bulls/cst-spt-bull041.html Mutombo, Piatkowski focus of expected Bulls-Rockets trade September 4, 2004 Dikembe Mutombo will get his wish of playing for the Houston Rockets next season, and the Bulls will get their wish of a tall shooting guard when an anticipated trade between the teams becomes official early next week, according to league sources. The Bulls will receive 6-6 Eric Piatkowski, who has shot 40 percent from three-point range throughout his 10-year career, as well as defense-minded swingman Adrian Griffin and guard Mike Wilks. Wilks is a free agent who first has to sign with the Rockets. That couldn't be made official Friday because league offices closed early for the holiday weekend. Bulls operations chief John Paxson was unavailable for comment. The Bulls will look to Piatkowski, 33, to fill some of the scoring void created by the trade of Jamal Crawford. He played his first nine seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers and was lost in the shuffle in Houston after missing time with a sprained left ankle to start the season. He played in just 49 games and averaged 4.1 points. His three-point percentage ranks 22nd in NBA history. Mutombo was acquired from the New York Knicks in the Crawford deal, but he didn't want to play for the Bulls, preferring to become Yao Ming's backup on a playoff-ready team.
THIS IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN..... "Mutombo injured for the season". sorry people but Mutombo WILL get injured like every year and then we will need another backup Center.. this trade makes no sense ... it is a waste of everyones time... should have traded for a backup like Mihm instead... cheap but effective enough to play 10 - 15... pike WOULD HAVE FIT IN with McGrady ... Because Francis and Cat are gone who like to shoot from the outside... more space for PIKE to shoot exactly like a Bullard ...remember him?
Paying Adrian's entire salary along with trading him to a team that will inevitably waive doe not make much sense. Please those who understand this please shed some light for me. Is it a cap issue? Or is it Adrian has to be included for this deal to work financially according to NBA rules? Methinks the later is the case. If not, I would just rather do the Adrian waving myself (i.e. Rox) or find a team that could use him for a second rounder in a future draft.
Great job CD! In a couple of years Yao should be playing 40 min. a night.Until then,I look forward to seeing Deke bring it defensively and on the glass for 10 -15 min./game.I agree that we gave up basically nothing to fill a giant hole.In addition we add a degree of flexibilty. On Mihm,I look for him to actually be a solid NBA starter for most of his career. I'm really surprised at the number of fans against this.
And you can see the future and see Mutombo out for the year? And what do you call what happened to Pike last year? How do you know Pike would have fit in with McGrady!? You would think that Pike was a superstar or something. How is trading for a legit back-up center a waste of time? And Mihm isn't a back-up, he's starting for the Lakers. The Mutombo deal was a great deal.
Mutombo has missed more than 11 games in a season twice in a 13 year career. Next time you make a fact-based statement, please make sure there are some facts to base it upon.
I believe if Griffin is cut, his salary this year is counted against the Bulls' cap. I think that is why they initially balked at the idea of him included and why the agreed when the Rox decided to pay them the amount of his salary. That way, in essence, Griffin's contract counts against the Rox's cap and not the Bulls.
well when Hakeem was traded to the Raptors .... it was astonishing to see how bad he played... the guy was sooo old and you could tell.... i'm just sayin there is going to be the year when Mutumbo will be finished(not saying its the same situation exactly, but similar)....as you get older the more likely you will get injured to.... Mutumbo is over the hill.... and will bring nothing to the table.... Pike was an asset, i think in the right situation he will do well.....you don't do well nearly all your career and then become inconsistant like many of you say... we have a different team right now and having shooter is an asset since Yao and McGrady will need someone to hit the three... Who do we have now who can hit the open 3 pt shot?? Pike is one of the best in the league at doing that....career stats don't lie....ward is inconsistant and so is Sura and their career stats will tell you that.... we are loading this team up with trash (J.Howard-Mutumbo-Ward-Sura)...don't need superstars but players who can play roles on the team well....and i don't see what any of these players we got bring to the table as the required ingrediants.
I feel bad for Pike. He finally escapes Clipperland, but gets hurt and is unable to contribute in the Rockets winning season. Now he is exiled to Chicago. His whole career has been with loosing teams except maybe 2 with the Clippers and on with the Rockets.
This is the stupidest post I have ever seen on this ****ing board. Let me ask you a question.... during the all-star game when the entire roster averages around 20 points a game, do we se a score of 240 to 240..... no dumbass. Because there are a hell of alot of other factors that go into scoring average. Deke is a defensive player..... period. Pike is an offensive player... period. The team that wins the title at the end of the year isn't the team with the players whose scoring averages add up to the biggest number. There are two sides to baskteball. We have plenty of scorers, defense would be nice. Besides it would be really nice to have one more seven footer to keep the opposing team out of the lane. With Deke we would be very solid in the lane at all minutes of the game, something we haven't had since the Dream owned our ****ing paint. Controlling the paint is like controlling the game.
You know nothing about basketball. Or... everything you ever learned about basketball you learned from listening to Cynthia Cooper during halftime of ROX games.
This is a great trade for the Rockets. I am tired of the negative posts over this trade. I can remember a Charles Jones helping out the Rockets back in 95. Mutombo has more game at this time in his career then Jones did back then.
Dude, that was cold....accurate, but cold. Whoever owns the paint owns the game. With Yao and Deke on the floor for 48 miutes a game, we will own the paint. No brainer. The Lakers owned the paint with Shaq, Kareem, and Wilt. The Celtics owned the paint with Russell, McHale, and Parrish. The Bulls owned the paint with Rodman. The Rox owned the paint with Dream. The paint IS the game.
dude - who did you want the rockets to sign ?>!>! oh let me guess.. you are in the "we should have traded Mo T for Hinrich" camp or maybe you are in the "we should have traded for Antonio Daniels" group or maybe you wanted the Rockets to "try to trade for Kidd" ...nevermind that there are 31 other teams out there looking for talent. ...nevermind that the Rockets made the 2nd biggest trade of the off-season ...nevermind that NBA players are humans with FREE WILL - and just because you WANT someone to play here doesn't mean they are interested in playing here no, YOU don't like Howard's 17 and 8 career stats YOU don't like Sura's defense YOU don't like Ward's knowledge of JVG's system so the Rockets are stockpiling "garbage" dude... go back to the PS2 where you can force the computer to make all the trades that will let you live out your dreams of the Rockets getting Shaq, Kidd, and T-mac (while keeping Francis) and after you go to "player edit" you can make Boki and all-star too !! ALL OF YOU PEOPLE WHO THINK THE ROCKETS MADE A BAD DEAL... TELL THE REST OF US WHY - they NEEDED a backup Center... Pike player 5 mins every 5th game (and Boki needs PT) how is this a bad short term solution....(this team is on a multi-year plan people)
