This offseason is early and there has been much trade talk already. Lets just get all the trade talk out there in the open and discuss it freely. But, I think when all comes down to it the best thing we should do is to keep our main core intact, (Francis and Yao) unless we can get a superstar like TMac. Sure its disappointing that we lost our first round playoff series, but we lost to the soon to be crowned world champions. What we need most is a lot of help at power forward. Yao is the future and Steve is one of the best one-on-one players in the NBA. I think this offseason all we need is... 1. Develop our team offensively and defensively 2. Get a power forward 3. Do some other summer dealing (with our Trade exemption)
i agree with both .yao needs help on the boards and on the offensive end someone that will free him up on the inside
Major re-tooling needs to be done. If Francis stays, he can't have 40 minutes at PG. If Francis stays, then Mobley goes. We need athleticism at the F spot, and more safety at the PG spot. Shooting is always a plus. I can live with something like: Yao/Cato Cato/Croshere Bender/JJ/Pike JJ/Francis/Pike Francis/Antonio Daniels Francis needs to be spending more time at SG, we need someone who can handle major PG minutes, more athleticism and size, plus shooting. Can we get MoT/Mobley for Bender/Croshere/2nd rounder, then send that second rounder plus part of our TE to Seattle for Antonio Daniels? That would be excellent. If they keep Barry, they have Murray and Ridnour as well, they won't need Daniels. Indiana free up the logjam at SF, get very deep, on the bench. best bench in the league with MoT/Mobley/Harrington coming off the bench. Foster/Pollard O'Neal/MoT Artest/Harrington Miller/Mobley Tinsley/Brewer Much improved if you ask me.
athleticism at the 3....yeah....but also a guy thats missed more games the last 2 years than hes played. a guy that has yet to score more than 7 ppg or grab more than 3 ppg despite being extremely oversized at the 3 in a size depleted conference.
It's the price of potential. Proven players cost more. The guy's still young, early 20's. He's 7'ft tall. Imagine an athletic 7'ft tall SF in JVG's system? Imagine the length of this frontline Yao Cato Bender That's really special IMO. Given the minutes, he can produce, and JJ is backing him up anyway. If he's being inconsistent, just slide over to this: Yao Cato JJ Francis Daniels It's a very flexible rotation.
Bender is a bum. I know he's still young but he only cares about playing offense, and to be honest he isn't even that good at that either.
Sigh.. Once again, Boki is left out in the cold. Why is it that in all the configurations we get in this forum for our team, when it comes to role players. Boki isn't even mentioned, named?
Because I've been dissapointed by him before. Also because JVG is an offense-hating psychopath, but evermind that.
sane: i feel like your line-up is way too shalow. i like the idea of adding bender and cro, but i think giving up cat in that deal is too much. the pacers were willing to trade cro for mo. bender for cat isnt fair for us, even with the second rounder.
I think that we have totally different weaknesses than most people on this board. I think our weakest positions are at the PG and SF positions. No knock on Steve but I don't think he is cut out for this type of offense and I hate watching him waste his tallent trying to be something he is not. Even if we keep Steve he still needs somebody else in the backcourt that can run the point efficiently without turnovers. The small forward position is our biggest weakness. We don't have one NBA playoff caliber 3 on the roster. Unless Boki turns into Peja over the summer we will be back to JJ who is really a 2 guard playing out of position. In a center dominant offense you have to have one guy on the court who is going to play a two man game with the center, and the SF is the best positon to do this from. Get Yao a guy between 6'7" and 6'10 that can hit the outside shot or drive to the hole, teach them to play together and you will see Yao turn into the player we are all hoping he can be. Cato and MoT can man the PF and backup center positions just fine. Look at the really good post players out there, there aren't many. Shaq, Duncan, Garnet none of these guys has a star across the paint from him. Cato is perfect across from Yao. We might could use a quicker defensive type like Malik in certain matchups but we will get by if Yao steps it up and becomes the Dynasty. The guys out there I like for the SF position, and I have no idea how to get them but these are the guys. TMac Peja Marion Harpring? Kirilenko Odom Kobe Paul Pierce Dirk Dunleavy? Melo Rashard Lewis? Ray Allen would also work from the 2. As far as PG goes I really don't have a good answer there. All of the above guys would leave us without Steve except Dunleavy and Harpring and they would be at the bottom of the list. So we would need a starting PG and they are hard to find. Maybe we could get NVE, Speedy Claxton, Dunleavy and a 1st for Steve. How about Steve, Cat, and MoT for Rashard and Ray Allen. It still seems to me that the best trade for us would be to get TMac and Lue somehow.
I was bored: Houston Trades: Cat/MoT/2nd round pick Houston Recieves: R. Lews/Steve Blake Seattle Trades: Rashard Lewis/Reggie Evans Seattle Recieves: Kwame Brown/Jared Jeffries/Steve Blake Washington Trades: Kwame Brown/Jeffries/Blake Washington Recieves: Cat/MoT/Reggie Evans/2nd round pick. We get an upgrade at SF. JJ was nice, but he was too small and isn't getting younger. Lewis has a lot of range and has good size. Blake is a nice young PG that could come off the bench for SF or whoever our PG is.
I would be estatic if our team looked like this next year. TRADE: Francis, Mobley, Cato for T-Mac, Howard, Lue MLE: Brent Barry Vet Minimum: Charlie Ward We would also still have the 6.9M T.E. that we could use perhaps to use with Juwon Howard for a better backup center or starting PF. PG: Brent Barry, Charlie Ward, Tyronn Lue SG: Tracy McGrady, Pike SF: Jim Jackson, Bostjan Nachbar, Adrian Griffin PF: Mo Taylor, Eddie Griffin, Scott Padgett, Clearance Weatherspoon C: Yao Ming, Juwon Howard
Man that lineup is horrible. Tyronn LUE??? Juwon Howard at center??? That guy is softer than Juwanna man, and you want him to play center in the West? I'd rather have Yao's girlfriend at center.
Did you notice how those players are role players that are counted on to give guys a break, not to carry the team.
Will any one else be as pissed as I will when we let the TE expire. I'm not saying it will happen, it just won't surprise me.
I wouldn't worry about the TE expiring. There is no way we go into next season with the same team as last year - NO WAY! We have 2 major problems that absolutely need to be addressed in some manner. 1. We have the worst starting forward combo in the WC if not the whole NBA. This is not a knock on JJ, but I don't think he would start over any other 3 in the west. While Cato had a nice season, he is truly a backup 5. IMHO, these are the 2 most important positions to address. 2. Our starting PG and SG are too similar. I would like to see us have one that is a slasher and that is a SERIOUS 3 point threat. I want both to be proficient from the outside to create room from Yao underneath, and I want one to be able to create his own shot on nights when Yao is off. Ideally, both would be good at both driving and shooting. The decision making should definitely improved in some way. I think JVG knows that our current lineup is limited, and I know that this guy is all about winning so I expect changes.
The rockets will never get anywhere with Francis and Yao. Francis is not going to relinquish control of the team and it wont get anywhere with him on it. He must go and the team should be rebuilt to fit the desired direction.
