Trade T-Mac. There is no cure for lacking of passion. Some people might argue that when Yao carries the team alone, the record is not as good as when T-Mac carries the team alone. The underlying reason is: Motombo is a good replacement for Yao defensive wise, so when Yao is not on the court, Rocket only misses Yao's offense. But when T-Mac is not on court, Rockets misses offsense, the only one who can run the offense, plus a long paremeter defender (if T-Mac wants to play D). But with a passionless T-Mac, you can't expect him to carry the team deep. With his salary, we can find either a good star player that can do as much as he does, or two players who combined together, can do as much as or even better than he does. (Well I even think Williams in Jazz is a better fit for Rockets than T-Mac, when you consider everything). You can't rely on T-Mac to take over the game. He still can, but only occassionally, not consistently. Someone at this level doesn't worth his current salary.
shawn marion? rockets get worse and suns get better... dumb idea, even with the first round pick. these threads are dumb, reguardless how hard a good big man is to come by this team couldn't win **** w/o tmac, w/o yao we could still pull some wins off. We need them both... but tmac is more of an important piece.
it's not that we don't want to trade t-mac, it is that we can't get anything in value in return. we are stucked on his fat contract and it is just sad.
There is no way to trade T-Mc or Yao and get equal value in return. Forget that. The poll should have listed Shane Battier as a trade option. He is only other player with a $6M+ contract. If we did a three way with Artest going to Miami, Ricky Davis coming to Houston and Battier to Sacramento, all three teams would benefit. Sacramento probably would deserve a late first-rounder from Miami since they are getting the least effective player and Miami is getting the most effective player. Ricky Davis would fit well into the Adelman system. He has more firepower than Battier and can be as good a defender. This acquisition would give us another big SG/SF and would allow T-Mc to move back to SF where he is most effective. Also, with two big swingmen (using Bonzi in as 6th man), the diminuative stature of Aaron Brooks might not be as much of a defensive liability.
It will be hard to get equal value for either player but you could arguably get more for Yao. Other teams still see him as a player that has yet to peak. Mac is on the down side of his NBA career. What if you could get a young big man like Bynum and maybe a nice complimentary player like Fisher and/or Walton for Yao? The Fakers would likely do a trade like this for Yao but I doubt they'd part with Bynum for Mac. Mac will be almost impossible to move because of his salary and history of being injury prone. We are likely stuck with Mac until his contract runs out and then you are faced with losing him for nothing if you don't look to trade him now. He might get you a solid roll player like Andre Miller and draft picks but I don't see us landing another star like Kobe, Wade, etc...
I'd rather get rid of some of the team's excess, but lack of quality, guards. The Rockets need other playmakers besides TMac who can also make wide-open jumpshots. A Lamar Odom-type player would be nice to have, but the Rockets don't have the assets to trade for that.
Who guard Kobe Bryant now? Battier? He doesn't have near the defensive foot-speed -- that's why we get torched by Kobe and get no points from Battier to offset them. Ricky Davis is quicker and Kobe would be forced to expend energy guarding Davis that he certainly doesn't have to use on Battier.
