With Steve Francis out for the season, was our offseason a failure? The two pieces (SF and Mike James) who were supposed to replace Rafer Alston have not produced. What is Mike James doing to get in the rotation? Why are we paying him 6 million dollars a year to come off the bench for 5 minutes every other game?
Mike James is real trade bait. Cept not sure who would want him after dismal seasons at the T-Wolves and now the Rockets.
LOL Mike James is taking the Rafer Alston method of staying a Rocket. Get a big contract then play like crap and make yourself untradeable.
we drafted landry and brooks and traded for scola. huge success! signing mike james, steve francis, and keeping snyder instead of harris. total failure
When Morey said "low risk high reward" with the Francis signing, he probably wanted to say expect nothing. Snyder over Mike Harris, I wouldnt call that a flop but I'da kept Harris...Mike Harris was way BETTER than Landry in the Summer League and parts of preseason. Look what Landry's doing now..Mike Harris could be doing half of that would be nice. Mike Harris doesnt play 2, though...It'd be one too many guys between Scola, Landry, Hayes, and Harris. If the Rockets kept Juwan Howard, would he be contributing this year? The Mike James acquisition's been a flop still...what happened to him? Luther Head not firing bricks like he did.
I like the possibilities of what Mike James can bring playoff time. I always remind myself of the notorious Dallas series and the damage MJ did off of the bench. If he's not traded before the deadline, I'm going to expect the same. Players get into slumps, especially when they aren't given consistent playing time. MJ will bounce back. We all know he can score...it's just a matter of time and opportunity, but that also goes into coaching decisions.
we had high expectations for mike. i don't think anyone on the team had high expectations for francis. but even if they're failures, it's not that big of a problem. it give more time for brooks to develop and right now developing brooks as we continue to make our push is key. hopefully he'll play a major role in our playoff push and playoffs overall.
This may come as a shock to all you Rafer loving fans out there. The Rockets will not have playoff success if Rafer continues to be the primary PG option on this team. No matter how you spin it, no matter what you say about Rafer being the only PG capable of "getting the Rockets into their offense", combined with his poor defense of opposing PGs, horrible floater layup attempts, horrible outside FG and even FT %s, and bone-headed crunchtime decision-making, the time is now to get rid of him once and for all. Drop this bum, drop Mike James, drop Luther, somehow pick up Sam Cassell and split the PG minutes between him and Aaron Brooks and the Rockets might have a better than fighting chance in the playoffs.
Cassel is 39 years old. Aaron Brooks is 11 years old. Yea, that sounds like a championship recipie. As an aside, the Mike James trade may not be a bust either. If we still had Juwan Howard, no way Landry gets any minutes with Scola and Hayes.
Come playoff time I would rather have a consistent James playing than a rookie Aaron Brooks. So hopefully he gets a shot.
Even with your logic of a 39 y/o Cassell and 11 y/o Brooks is significantly much better suited for a playoff run than a doesn't-matter-how-old Rafer and a washed up, poor attitude, me-first Mike James. Interesting spin on the MJ trade, to attribute Carl Landry's contribution to this trade. I don't think Adelman would have kept JHO whether this trade went down or not. Hell, not having MJ in the first place could have opened the door to AB even sooner than it did. You still don't have anything here to justify the continued retention of Rafer and MJ. Having these 2 bums have never nor will ever equal playoff success. Look around the Western Conference, the teams ahead of the Rox are leaps and bounds better at PG (nash, parker, davis, williams, paul, roy, iverson, fisher, harris, etc). Even some of these team's backup PGs would do better than our current tandem--i.e. barbosa, stoudemire, terry, bobby jackson, blake, jack). If the Rox are limited to the moves that can be made this season and the ever-closing window of opportunity with Yao and TMAC, the PG position is the most logical to demand an upgrade or this team will win just a little over .500 and be on the outside looking in at the playoffs. But if its mediocrity you want, just keep the current roster the way it is and that's what we will continue to get.
Minutes is what Mike James needs. When he got the minutes to start the season, he produced and shot the ball well. He's been a major slump since then, but shooters need the shoot their way out of that slump. Only more minutes will accomplish that. There is no way that Mike James gets traded. Unless a team really really needs a point guard, his contract is too ugly for other teams to take. Also, I've noticed that Aaron Brooks has hit a learning curve, which is typical of rookie point guards when learning the NBA game. Normally, it takes one full season for them to get the right feel of the NBA pace. Maybe, it's a good time to give Mike a look.
Key point to understand from this: landry's game is made so much more easier by yao ming. the fact that landry plays so well lately is because of yao's double team. many times landry's man cheats off on him and give him the space to drive in for a dunk of layup, or left him open for a jumper that he's capable of making.
Go back and re-read my statement. Not saying I'm a huge Rafer fan ...but no way would playing AB significant minutes his rookie season against ...as you say ...Nash, Parker, Davis, etc during the playoffs equal "success". Not saying Rafer is the answer but neither is playing AB 30+ mpg and Cassel 15 mpg (which is all you can expect from him) James is garbage. Forget him. Hate on Rafer all you want. Fine. But Cassel and AB isn't the solution. Bibby and AB? That is a legit move. But you are fooling yourself if you think Cassel will lead us to a championship this or next year.
it is a strange thing. Has his game fallen off that much? or has it just been a rough patch (i.e. 2 years), or what? He shows his offensive skills (minus decision making, ball handling and passing) here in houston and just seemed to be what they needed off the bench. Goes to toronto and has a VERY impressive shooting year. In minny, he does very little. It seemed to be because of the organization decisions so i gave him a pass. Early in the year, he just looked bad. bad shots, decisions, etc. Then the rockets started winning some games without him so he lost his time and hasnt earned many minutes. Is he playing that bad in practice too? I still think he can step up big during the remainder of the season however. But it is strange how much he has disappeared
I was worried that James would have slowed down over the last year but certainly not this much. I still think he has some game left but I'm not sure if he can do much in the playoffs if we make it that far.
