I'm looking at our roster trying to figure out what we do with everyone. What do we do for an 8 man rotation. Who do we bring in? Who is expendable? Here are the players under contract for next year first: Tmac - he's a given. He'll be here no question. Probably playing the SG/SF role. Yao- Same deal except he plays center. JHo - He makes 6.8 next year and 7.8 the next. I think he's here through the end of this year. I don't know if he's our starting PF or not but he'll be on the roster. I think you can look for him to be moved as an expiring contract next year when he makes 7.2 mil in the final year of his contract. Shane - Another guy that has to be back. He does it all - and does it all well. I think we bring in a legit pg let Tmac play SG most of the time and he starts at PF. Rafer - I wonder if he's here next year. He makes 4.5 and 4.9 and 5.2 over the next 3 years. Its possible that you package him and Sura somewhere to a team looking to dump salary. If he's here its probably as a backup pg. Sura - Look for him to be moved this year. Its the last year of his deal he's got 3.8m which is a nice bridge between a midlevel guy and a nice contract. Its the last year of his deal which makes him pretty attractive to a team looking to gear up for next years free agent class. Bonzi - He has a player option for 2.2 next year. The belief was that he signed the deal with his option - would come here, behave and opt out. Well he showed up out of shape and hurt. He never played much and basically was a flop. One of two things happens. He realizes he's lucky to have that 2nd year, takes advantage of it and plays his butt off... or he decides he's pissed at the Rockets, opts out and goes on to find even less money somewhere else. Seriously, this was his "prove i can play" contract- and he blew it... what team is going to give him more money when he blew this deal? - I think he's back. He fills the 6th man or sf role when we go small we move Shane to the 4 and he plays the 2 or 3. Vspan - Your guess is as good as mine. No one really knows if he can play other than a few assistant coaches and hopefully Rockets management. My guess is he shows up here, goes through camp and sticks around as part of the 8 or maybe 9 man rotation. Kirk Snyder - Have you noticed we have an over abundance of 2-3-4 type guys? I think one of them has to go. I think that you can take maybe Rafer-Snyder-Sura and move them to get something with more value. I like Snyder, but he and Alston are the most trade able commodities we have in my opinion. He's 24 so he's still young and we may be looking him to develop him. Charlie Ward - just kidding. I'm just celebrating the fact that he's not on our pay role. Luther head - another guy I think could be moved. 3 years on his deal but none over 2 million. I think he's a great backup... the problem is between him, Rafer, Vspan and Lucas I think we have 4 legit backups and no starters. JLIII - He makes less than 1 mil - he's a guy you keep on to run through practice. I don't think he plays a significant role in any team with real playoff aspirations but if you need a warm body to run in practice he's not too bad. Novak - I don't know where he fits in. Can we call him ABII? (Air Bullard the second?) Seriously I only saw a little of him and he doesn't seem to athletic but I remember Dream out to Bull for 3 working pretty well.. I'm sure he'll be around but predicting his role is pretty difficult. Guys not under contract - Tsakalidis - did this guy even play? I don't think he's coming back. Deke - he says he wants to be back. If he's willing to take the Vet min I still like him as Yao's backup. Charlie ward - did I mention we finished paying him? Robo - Uhh better hope that JVG gets a job somewhere else so you still have a job. Chuck Hayes - We better bring him back. Even if he's not our starting PF - which I'm pretty sure under RA he won't be- he's a heck of a player and does all of the things you can't get the "stars" of the league to do these days. I hope I'm not missing anyone. I guess my ideal roster going into next year looks like this- PG - someone we bring in... not sure if you draft one or go get one but he's not on our roster SG - Tmac SF - Shane PF - Not on the roster yet - C - Yao Bench PG/SG2 Luther SG/SF - Snyder - If he's back I like him backing up 2 or 3 positions PF - Hayes when we have Yao in the game PF/C - Deke Others Novak JLIII Moves - I'd like to see Sura/Alston/(either snyder/Jho if needed) moved to fill either the PF or the PG role. I like Jho I just don't know that he's a legit starter and he makes too much to pay a backup. In the off season the priority for me is a PG. We have the shooting PF in Novak, the rebounding pf in hayes and the little of everything in Jho. We don't have a legit PG and we desperately need to bring one in. Once we're done with that we need to get a real PF. If that means trading anyone not named Yao/Tmac/Shane we do it. Ok criticize away.... Mike
If you include this offseason and the next:- Very few of this team will be here for the 08/09 season.
props to the thread starter for putting some work into it...I think they doing this in another thread though, but props anyway.
This is good stuff quote it and put it in the other thread or maybe a mod could merge. Thanks for taking the time to start a thoughtful thread.
I agree. That doesn't mean we won't lose others through free agency, but I don't think a trade is necessary.
