And you've summed up a major flaw in this team's strategy since the Barkley trade. No long term vision.
The difference is SA didn't throw away the season. Let's face it, trading Mobley would take this team back to the 30 win plateau. You don't get "as far as Yao and Steve take us". Losing 20 ppg won't be a good thing....its never a good thing if you get back someone considerably less, just for a CHANCE at getting a good player. Verse--You have no shot at Garnett if you make this trade. None. Kobe Bryant has more dignity than to go to a team with 2 stars already on it. You'd be looking at wasting a season just to get a chance at Odom/Brand....that's just way too risky.
I'm finding people commenting in this thread as basically split which is good. Everyone has their thought on why it would be good or bad for the Rockets. I'm not assuming that Minny would or wouldn't do the trade, I'm just saying it should at least be explored. Lets not get this twisted, this team , right now is only as good as Francis and Ming make it. For all of Taylors talents and Mobleys talents, they are role players. Both have major flaws in their games that will not let them be any better than that. Both players can be hidden by the talents of a Garnett. Taylor with his weak rebounding and Mobley with his poor decision making. Lets get this out, one of the big name free agents that SA doesn't get will be availibe in the offseason. If SA doesn't go after Brand, he will sign 1 yr tender and become a unrestricted fa. The same will be said of Odom. Miller and O'neal will either resign with Indy or one will go to Sa while the other go somewhere else. In the summer of 04 ,Wallace will be free along with maybe Bryant the least likely to opt out. The scenerio and team I'm talking about putting on the floor next season for the Rockets in terms of individual ability may notbe as talented as the one we have now, but could be just as good if not better chemistry wise. A team of Francis,Posey,Morris,Griffin, and Ming would have more chemistry and better defensively than the current one. Coming off the bench with Peeler,Norris,Hawkins,Nachbar,Cato ,the veteran mle signee, and that 26th pick would again give the team good balance. The scoring load carried by Francis and Ming, while the other players feed off them would make this team better and probably still playoff worthy. After the season, you can decide if Eddie Griffin is a legit player and worthy of a extension but still could add a player like Wallace to play small forward. Now you have a very long versitile lineup in Francis,Posey,Wallace,Griffin, and Ming. The point is that you have flexibility to improve the team as see needed. The Bucks gave away Robinson for Kukoc and a pick and actually got better. I guess those same 17ppg game couldn't be filled by 13ppg from Posey and 5 or 6 from Peeler? I really didn't know until now that Cat would be worth 13 wins by himself yet instill we added the almost rookie of the yr, had our other all star play pretty much the whole season and get back another so called productive player and improved 13games.
This last season, the salary cap was 40,271,000 which was more than 2 million dollars LESS THAN the year before. I don't think anyone knows for sure what the defined salary cap will be in the summer of 2004, but here are the Rockets salaries for then: Kelvin Cato--------------------7,992,000 Steve Francis----------------11,326,219 Ming Yao-----------------------4,436,880 Moochie Norris----------------3,600,000 Eddie Griffin-------------------2,937,205 (team option) Bostjan Nachbar-------------1,493,880 James Posey------------------5,000,000 (projected assumption) That's 7 players with a combined salary of $36,786,184 The above is assuming the Rockets don't resign Rice, Collier, T-Mo, Tito Maddox, Hawkins and don't sign any other additional players or picks that apply in the summer of 2004. So if the cap was still 40,271,000 then the Rockets would have in 2004, $ 3,484,816. If the cap was higher or lower, well, y'all do the math. In my opinion, there are way way way way way too many variables to screw the team and make a trade basically giving away Maurice Taylor and Cuttino Mobley for an undetermined amount of cap space. One entire year of Eddie "Afroman" Griffin and "unknown player" maning the 4 spot plus Anthony Peeler (is he still alive?) backing up James "no handles and too slow to guard quick 2's" Posey maning the 2 (Moochie is not a 2 nor a backup 2 nor even a backup backup 2-he is a freakin point guard who is 5'10" with a 3" fro). I'm sorry, but after evaluating it, the trade is freakin stupid. Even if the cap goes up by 4million over the next 2 summers, that means the Rockets will have $7,484,816 and other teams will have more money too. Is that enough to get Kobe, AI, Rasheed, Odom, or Brand? I don't think so. Take the list of the 7 Rockets above, add Mo Taylor, Cat Mobley, a draft pick here, a MCE there and 1 whole NBA season (2003/2004) of playing together under Van Gundy, and I think that's a team that will kick ass in 2004.
Fact of the matter is, we WON'T get Garnett, Kobe, or Iverson, and if we don't get those guys, then this trade sets us back. You say our team is Francis and Yao, and everyone else is complimentary, but Francis and Yao aren't ready to take on that role completely yet. they still need to grow mentally, and in Yao's case, physically. I do not think our team would be better off than if it were standing pat. I think that Mobley and Taylor's value will BOTH go up during the season and after the season, so we should wait to trade them for a better piece. When those guys are FA's, we can offer a nice deal involving Mobley, Taylor, Cato, etc.... I personally just don't see it improving us now, or even in the future.
