There are 3 teams that come to mind in order for us to try and find some help on the court, Utah, Memphis and Chicago. All three teams are under performing and all three teams have redundant talent at positions that the Rockets dearly need. Utah has both Gordan Giricek and Matt Harpring. Both players are essentially 3’s and either would be a terrific addition to the Houston offense with their outside shooting. Chicago looks like they are going to try and build around Luol Deng and Andres Nocioni as their forwards. They have had nothing but loosing with Tyson Chandler and have a rocky relationship with him at best. With Chandler in the last season of his contract could the Bulls be persuaded to deal him? Memphis one team that is truly over stocked at the 3 spot plus Stromile Swift is in the last year of his contract. I would be happy with Stromile, Mike Miller or Shane Battier in a Rockets uniform.
If you're reading CD, please get them! Harpring would be really good for us..even Giricek would be. They are both good shooters and they are pretty decent defenders imo..Harpring is strong..I would get them..regardless of age...or maybe not. Stromile would be awesome. Tyson Chandler would be great too. Please get them.
I really like Shane Battier. His numbers are all down this year. It appears that he must be playing more lately... it seems like his minutes were pretty low early in the season, and are increasing lately?.... can anyone confirm this?
memphis is about 15 deep. they don't want a package for one player because then they must cut some of thier own. west is looking to deal a package of his own for a better player....he is also too smart to help a division rival. chandler would be a great pick up, so would harpring who is friends with tmac from orlando.
Swift can't be traded this season. He is a FA this summer, we should definitely pursue. But I'll take anything we can get. If we could get Mike Miller back with TMac, we would be a dangerous team. I just don't see a good package that we could offer teams.
Doctor Robert- I didn't see too big a spike in his minutes. I really like Mike Miller. He's close friends with TMac and would be a great fit on our team- a lights out shooter who can pass and handle the ball. He's shooting over 50% from the field, and a ridiculous 46+% from 3. crash- Deng and Nocioni are both really 3s. Nocioni started early in the year; when Deng moved into the lineup, he replaced him. Harpring has never been a particularly good 3 point shooter in his career. He had one year of 40%+ shooting, but even then the number of attempts was not that great. Players with Bird rights on one year contracts can not be traded. Stromile Swift signed a one year qualifying offer. Stromile Swift can not be traded this year. Period. The end.
Stromile can't be dealt. He's on the one-year tender offer I believe ... an unrestricted free agent this summer. I could see Memphis wanting to unload some 2/3's, but they are looking for a center. Working a deal with Chicago for Chandler would be my dream, but I have to believe we don't have much of a chance. He's 7-feet tall, just turned 22 and is averaging over 11 points and 11.5 boards in 30 minutes a night in the last 10 games. If the Bulls are even willing to listen to the Rockets in a deal for him, CD should be making an all-out sales pitch.
I think all of us feel that pain, but "anything" could be a step backwards. The last thing I want him to do is panic and take some band-aid deal that hurts us long-term. A "cap be damned" move could be costly. CD needs to look at the now and the future. Right now just getting someone to absorb one of our power forwards for nothing but a cap clear would be good, believe it or not (highly unlikely, but still). I doubt he's getting much "helpful" in the way of offers for players not named T-Mac or Yao.
What would be an all out sales pitch in your opinion? I.e. - the most realistic offer that could be somewhat competitive while still not giving up to much. Juwan Howard/Mo Taylor/Tyronne Lue for Antonio Davis/Tyson Chandler That'd be a pipe dream for Houston, I guess, considering Davis is finally on the next-to-last year of his contract, making him somewhat more of a commodity.
Plus, the Rockets have no leverage in trades. No body wants 2 soft PFs, who can't rebound, can't defend, and now, can't score. Their trade value is at an all-time low, and things don't seem to be getting any better. We don't have anything to offer but bad contracts and more bad contracts. Spoon is probably our biggest trade asset, and that is really sad.
Promising not to win again this season and assuring them the draft pick we'd be giving them is not lottery-protected I have to think that package would have Chicago hanging up (and throwing up). Right now Howard and Mo Taylor are simply bad contracts -- I fear the cap (and crap) nightmare that would come back to us in any deal that includes both. Lue comes off the books, but it's irrelevant given they are taking on more long-term deals. Antonio Davis is up before Mo's or Howard's deals end. The only real promising piece we can offer is our first round pick, and possibly Jim Jackson, but to a contending team needing a shooter off the bench.
We need to ASSESS our ASSETS What do we have to offer ANYONE? Who coming off the books at the end of the Year? When the summer starts . . . . what do we have under contract? Rocket River
Our other chip is the trade exception. I feel there's a pretty good chance we'll use it- when we made the trade for Mutombo, we could've done just Pike for Deke or Pike/Griffin, but included Wilks as a sign and trade strictly to hang onto that exception. Quick reminder: It can not be combined with other players in order to obtain a player of salary equal to exception+player. 5.9 mill Weatherspoon plus 5.48 mill TE does not equal 11.38 mill player. Promote my sanity; do not do things like suggest Juwan Howard (5.4 mill) plus exception for PJ Brown (8 mill). To add to the thread topic, a guy I'll throw out there is Kwame Brown. He's going to be a restricted free agent this offseason. The Wizards have already committed longterm to Haywood and Etan Thomas at the 5, and to Jamison at the 4. They also have Jared Jeffries as a 3/4, Jarvis Hayes as a 2/3, and their 2 best players outside Jamison in the backcourt (Arenas, Hughes). Kwame has a 6.2 mill qualifying offer- if the Wizards don't make that, he's an unrestricted free agent. So their dilemma- what do you do with the guy? He's been feuding with the coach, injured, and underproducing. Conveniently enough, his 5.36 mill salary fits perfectly with our trade exception. Which leads to: Do you trade your first round pick, right now probably lotto-bound, to the Wizards for the guy? Basically, it'd be a trial. Then we'd be stuck with the decision of paying even more for our power forwards, though presumably we could move one for an equally over-priced wing. On the plus, landing Bird Rights on Kwame would give us the rest of our assets to upgrade just 2 positions (PG, SF) instead of 3. On the minus side- it increases team salary, and potentially means giving away a good pick for a bust of a player.
Mikki Moore would be nice. Moore is an athletic 7 footer. He shoots and rebounds well. Here are his per48 numbers, http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=575&avg=48 Just had a 18-14 game as the strating center against the Lakers. He is from NBDL, and is on an one-year of 800K contract. The Clippers already have Brand, Wilcox, Kaman, Rebraca and Mamadou N'diaye at 4 or 5.
Getting a young PF like Chandler from the bulls would be great but like most of us will agree on, we dont have much assets to trade away. If the Bulls traded us Chandler for Mo/Howard + 1st round pick i would do that trade in a heartbeat. Getting a young PF that can grow with T-mac and Yao would be perfect. I doubt the Bulls do it though.
