Right now, Mike James' words have about as much value as what comes out of his other hole. This guy has made Rafer look sane with the incredible things he's been saying this year. There's no doubt he's talented and an incredibly hard worker. I'm not going to pass judgement on his locker room manner either, because although we've all heard the rumors about the friction he caused in Houston, he won a ring in Detroit, and Chris Bosh basically begged management to not trade him at the deadline. Signing Mike James is basically taking a page out of Isaiah Thomas's memoir "A Million Little Dollars," in which Thomas fights his addiction to blockbuster moves and giant contracts. It was found that the story was fabricated, because no one would possibly trade two unprotected lottery picks plus two seconds for an underachieving, out of shape center with a bad heart. Nevertheless, the book is still theraputic to those RealGM trade checker addicts, regardless of its factual accuracy. Anyway, in that book, Isaiah demonstrates that his method of developing a team is to constantly increase the talent of the team, regardless of chemistry, money or fit. Signing Mike James would undoubtedly increase the talent level of the Houston Rockets, but at what cost? Will Mike James truly embrace the front office who "stabbed him in the back?" Will he truly accept being the third option, as well as the second option in the clutch, after being 1a. and 1 in the 4th this year? I'm sure that everyone has a list of players that they wouldn't want the Rockets to touch even if all they had to trade was Ryan Bowen and a Power Dancer Calendar. Mine includes Scottie Pippen (always numero uno in my heart), Zach Randolph, Reggie Evans, Stephon Marbury, and Karl Malone, if he ever goes ring whoring in the future. Mike James is close to the list. Really close. But you know what, while I wouldn't like it if the Rockets overpaid him (with a 5 year deal), I'd still cheer for him as long as he shut up and did his job as a scoring point who knew when to defer, and would defend him against fans who called him nothing but an undersized chucker. I suppose Mike James is like the POTUS; I didn't like it when he was elected, but as long as he gets the job done in the Republican core values (homeland safety, energy, taxes), I'll support him, even as he's stomping on civil liberties. It's what he was hired to do, and we shouldn't be upset unless he (Mike or Bush) isn't getting the job done (which he might not and he isn't).
I really think we could turn this into a 3 way deal involving Milwaukee if we played it right. Jamaal Magloire is on an expiring contract. He has said more than once he wants to go to Toronto. The most prominent piece that Toronto is missing is a big center. If Milwaukee doesn't trade Magloire they will lose him at the end of next season. It's a matter of what can they get for him, which isn't much because nobody is going to be willing to give them anything without Magloire committed to signing a deal with the team he is dealt to. On the other hand, Mo Pete is on an expiring deal too. He's probably going to bolt Toronto at the end of next season. And Toronto is staring at his replacement with their lottery pick in the draft. Would it make mroe sense for them to take one of the big men like O'Bryant or Shelden with their lottery pick or would it make sense to take the top rated SG/SF and then trade away Mo Pete and Mike James in a S&T deal for Magloire? Now if MJ is going to bolt for nothing or come up with a S&T deal to Houston, we may be able to pull him and Mo Pete out of Toronto by sending Milwaukee their pick of Swift or Howard plus our second rounder plus Bowen or whatever else we need to send them to get the deal done. If Milwaukee holds out for our #8 pick, then they would have to do the deal with the pick and Howard, sending Magloire to Toronto and TO sending MJ and Mo Pete here. That is if we don't get top 3 in the lottery. That would leave us with our TE, the full MLE, and possibly either our first rounder or our 2nd rounder as bargaining chips for other moves to acquire upgrades at the PF. We could split the MLE between Spanoulis and somebody else. Or we could make a play for Drew Gooden. Or we could approach GS with some sort of package for Murphy or Boston for some sort of package deal for Raef. 1. Would TO part with a lame duck Mo Pete and MJ for a top 10 center? If they had a center, they could possibly acquire Mo Pete's replacement in the draft, or trade down and possibly pick up both a PG and a SG. 2. Would Milwaukee accept either Swift, a second rounder, or a future first, and whatever other salary we would need to send out to get this deal done? That would be the ideal scenario? Could they get better value for Magloire since he is expiring and probably wants to head to Toronto anyways? 3. Would Milwaukee accept Howard and our #8 pick for Magloire? I would bet they would. 4. Should we be interested in acquiring both Mike James and Mo Pete in exchange for either Howard or Swift plus other junk or Howard and our #8 pick? We should. I believe that a deal could be put together here that would benefit all sides.
Looking at these playoff games, to have a chance compete against Dallas, Detroit, and Spurs, Clippers, Suns, we need players like Jame who can hit them big when needed.
There is a better way to look at almost everything. We gave up James for a year, we got Alston, who is pretty serviceable. If James was here, he couldn't save Tmac's back, so Tmac would have gone down anyway. So, James and Yao would make us a boarderline playoff team. Then, we would have got blown out in the first round anyway. Now, we get a pretty good lottery pick. Now, if James is back next year with MLE, and Tmac comes back healthy, and add that lottery pick guy into the mix, we would be ALOT stronger next year. As strong as Dallas/SA? No, but nevertheless a step in the right direction. Alston/Head James/Pick Tmac/Bogans/Bowen Howard/Swift/Hayes Yao/Mutombo This is a pretty good team. Of course, it doesn't matter how we sugarcoat it, the picture is definitely not as rosy as last offseason. We thought we were building a nasty dynasty. Now when we look at the roster of the Spurs, Mavs, Suns and even the Clippers, it's no doubt that the overall talent gap between our team and theirs is gigantic. Their bench is loaded with NBA starters caliber players. Our bench is loaded with NBDL standouts. The only hope we have is to have Yao and Tmac dominate at their positions night in and night out. If we do that, we are fine. However, this is a huge IF, due to Tmac's fragility.
Yeah I like the idea of doing a 3way with milwaukee. mike james to houston and mcgloire to toronto sounds nice... but who would we send to milwaukee? i know they wont take howard's contract.. they would definitely be interested in our #8 but remember mcgloire was a one time all star.. he is still very valuable.. we would need to offer swift AND our #8 or luther and the #8.. still i'm not sure if they would be interested.. at that point already we maybe giving up too much for getting mike james regardless whether or not we can still keep our MLE that way and bring VSpan over etc etc... maybe if toronto throws in their 2nd rounder??? so we get james and two 2ndrounders.. im not sure ps. i was proposing a trade scenario that is realistic enough that the other teams would actually consider it. but with all things considered, in this case i think we get the short end of the stick..
Find a "me first' complaint by a Raptor and not someone on a fan board and I might buy it. He put up number on a bad team but he also was within 1 assist per game from Alston. Let's paraphrase a quote from Carroll Dawson here. "We would have never traded James if Sura hadn't been injured and we needed distibutor PG." So if that spin is true there is no reason to believe they wouldn't bring in James since they still have their distributor. If the statement is a fabrication, it translates "we totally screwed up and we know it". We're talking talant deficit here and IMHO you have to consider James as an upgrade to the team. Thanks for proving my point. We do know what kind of player he is with VG. A BS call favoring Finley from the 2nd round of the playoffs. No intelligent person in here is going to argue the ppg. What we're trying to point out and your ignoring is that we lack a scoring threat and you're not going to get that in abundance from any other available MLE option(s). James is a great at getting his own shot. In case you haven't noticed, Avery Johnson has taken a group of players who can get their own shot and forced them to play defense. And they are killing the Spurs with it. That's a much better path than hoping defensive players who can't get their own shot will learn to hit an open jumper. And this is bad because...? You want me to believe that James off of the bench is worse than Bogans, Bowen, Hayes or some MLE player(s) off of the bench? If you profess to know what VG will do, then you obviously know PT is awarded on merit. wo what VG will do and then you ignore his history of
I agree with you very much here except the talent gap between us and the other playoff teams. I would say the "total strength" added up by our players this season didn't really match our expections. I think you still believe in the talents of our starters as you keep most of them next season. I think the major difference between us and the other teams you mentioned is the "team work". You can see that their teamworks in this playoff series are just excellent, they executed their gameplans so well and that makes them way "stronger" than the other teams. Our players often looked clueless in the court and they could not execute the gameplans at all. I don't know why but perhaps JVG's system is so complicated or we have changed our starting line up so frequent due to the injuries. After watching those teams played in this playoff series, I think the organization should call the players back to training immediately. JVG shouldn't commentate but take as much time as needed to "teach" our players his gameplans. TMac should not just practice at home instead he should work with Shift and Head and help them to develop. Alston and Head should seriously practice shooting while Bogans should work extra hard on his layups. We knew our problems pretty well, we should fix them all in this summer and we should start working now.
The thing is Magloire is an expiring contract who is going to walk on them for nothing at the end of the season. It's not a matter of if they will accept it. It's a matter of if they can get a better deal and if BC wants to bring him to Toronto. If BC likes Magloire and wants him, then Milwaukee will have to get what they can take for him.
I don't think our opinions are that far apart: James will sign for at least a 4-5 year MLE contact. James would not start for the Rockets. (James like other NBA 1s trapped in a 2s body is best suited for a bench scoring threat role.) MLE is not too much for this role, ie James is worthy. James likely numbers as a Rocket are Code: Rox04 Career ppg 12.4 (11.9) apg 2.9 (4.1) mpg 25.6 (27.0) Rox are in desparate need of scoring outside Yao and TMac. Here is where we differ: James last 1-2 years of his contract may be regretted, as his production tails off. The Rox know James yet have already traded him. Let's just toss out all of the public PR comments wrt the trade from both sides. There is a possibility that JVG, TMac, and/or CD had issues with James being a long term member of the Rox. The Rox are desperate for a third and fourth scoring option. The 8th pick should be a scoring threat (1,2 or 3 or some combination thereof). (The 32th pick will likely be a player that they will develop into a rotation player and will not see significant PT next year.) That still leaves the fourth scoring option, which could be James. If the Rox draft a 1 like Randy Foye or Marcus Williams, signing James won't make sense. If the Rox draft a 2 like Brandon Roy, the Rox might want to see Luther Head gets some minutes as a backup 1. The thinking might be that developing Head, a young player who could play along side Yao and TMac and Roy for years to come, is more of a priority than signing a known quantity like James. If the Rox draft a 3 like Rodney Carney or Rudy Gay, TMac moves to the 2 and the above Luther Head argument would apply. Thus, I don't see signing James as a slam dunk.
True. Not sure you saw this prior to your response... http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=112757&page=1&pp=20 FWIW, RealGM ranks Mike James as the #5 overall rated FA of 2006 behind Ben Wallace, Jason Terry, Stojakovic and Al Harrington. Those guys aren't going anywhere IMO. The only other RGM ranked Top 25 realistic possibilities I see are Speedy Claxton @ 13 and Jared Jeffries @ 15 (RFA coming of 2.8 contract...probably worth more than MLE $ to the Wizards but worth a shot). Cassell is ranked 20 but he's way older than James and very unlikekly to jump ship from LA. The 2006 FA list is pretty thin. Another reason I was so pre-Mike.
Homeboy can shoot. I thought all of you posters were saying that we don't have enough shooters? Now a guy who had like the third best 3pt % in the league last year and plays solid defense wants to play for our team, and some of you wouldn't want that? I just don't understand. Sure he's not as tall as we would like. Sure he's really a SG in a PG's body. But you're not going to get a perfect SG for the MLE. You're just not. At this point in his career (and I say this with a heavy heart), he's better than Mobley ... and just look at the deal he signed last offseason. My point is, if we could get James with the MLE, you'd have to be crazy not to pull the trigger. THat's a steal. And you know that you're getting a hard nosed basketball player that isn't going to loaf.
So JVG likes Mike and the #8 pick will not start but may be a rotation player. Hmmmm. Let's just hope that the Rox only give MJ a 4 year contact.
