Max, Which of the 30 teams in the league do you think should try to compete and which should just get real and "rebuild" already? It seems to me that there really aren't too many squads with realistic hope of winning a title without adding a superstar: Heat, Celtics, Lakers, Magic probably are it. You can throw in the Spurs and Mavs, who have great records so far, if you want. OKC probably won't win this year, but looks like it has a chance to do so with the current core. But everyone else? Should all of them stop competing and just tank for a higher pick?
yes, yes...a thousand times yes!!! they all should!!! :grin: don't mind me...i'm just frustrated...and not remotely satisfied with where we've been for a very long time now.
I disagree. His hope is something another team could have sold to the fanbase, but now, its straight salary dump. Maybe it wouldve been a salary dump then, but the "healthy yao" was going to start the season and maybe hold up.
You are saying we have a pretty good supporting cast and a very good second unit. It was not easy to get where we are now, but that's not the hardest part. We don't have a leading alpha dog. Many don't consider TMac nor Yao as the leading alpha dog, but two of them combined, to me, is a pretty good leading one, basketball-wise. But at their prime, we had guys like Bowen and Bogans starting with them. Our best 3-point shooter was rookie who couldn't do anything else. Now we have very good supporting cast, but we don't have alpha dog, be it a real one or pretending one with huge flows. We need to get that one or two big star to lead the charge. Otherwise, how could we even mention the word "contending"? I think that's far more difficult than getting quality role players and 2nd unit. Besides, even if we make a big splash trade to land a super star, our very good supporting cast will certainly suffer a great deal. As much as some love to fantasize dumping our garbage for others' gold, it doesn't work that way. I still think we were closer to contending in 2005 and 2006. Only if we could get those 2 weak leaders some solid help. Just my 2 cents.
The point is now taking that quantity of talent and turning it into quality. I agree on what we need, but I feel a bit more wouldn't hurt. Or at least the #1 stud & D guy be premiere at those aspects. I don't want to go in our new era with Andre Iguodala as our cornerstone piece. As one? Sure. As the piece? No. If we can pull a #1 man out of this, then by all means do it provided we keep options 2-4 here(scola, martin, and either lowry or brooks).
Did you see anyone buying McGrady's hope at the start of last season when he was reassuring everyone that he was ready (and the Adelman was keeping him down)?
Agreed... I dont think Morey's gonna settle on trading Yao for a 2nd tier player like Iggy.. He's gonna wait to see what's being offered. There's gonna be someone available and Morey's gonna pounce on it. Either way you look, with all of the moves that Morey has made in his time here, not a single move has set this franchise back. Instead, it has actually put us in a GREAT position to make deals with our assets and expiring contracts. We've got almost $34mil coming off the books this year. That's A LOT OF expiring contracts we can use in multiple deals.
I'm all for acquiring a superstar. I'm just saying if we can't get one through trade, then we are still going to be a very tough out. There's no sense in breaking it down and starting over. These role players are only going to get better and increase in value as they come into their third and fourth seasons. We can then continue flipping them for other younger draft picks and players that are on rookie scale contracts but are able to be developed until we come across the next big opportunity to cash in on all our talent. Young talent- you grow it, cultivate it, and then harvest it into a superstar, or you use it to trade for more seedlings and grow an even bigger garden of young talent.
Max, don't get into the reloading argument, it will only make things worse. Reload is what the spurs,celtics,mavericks,and heat did this summer. All those teams had a championship caliber player or players. The rockets don't have those guys and I don' know where they will get thos guys from.
i've always understood reload (as a sports metaphor) to mean, "we just did it, and now we're gonna do it again with some new cast."
They couldve traded mcgrady earlier than what they did and mcgrady was at least coming back in some capacity to play. Yao isn't coming back to play this year at all so it looks like a straight salary dump.
leebigez, not to comment on the substance of your posts, but I am sincerely requesting that you start using multiple paragraphs in your posts, especially the longer ones. While we often disagree, I find your comments interesting. However, when they are all squashed together in one long paragraph, I tend to tune it out and move on. If you could indulge me on this, I'd greatly appreciate it. I enjoy your takes too much to want to gloss over them. Thanks!
In my humble opinion, if the Rockets can get a superstar like Carmelo for Yao's expiring contract make the deal. If they can't get a superstar then just keep Yao's contract. Let it expire after this season and let Yao retired a Houston Rocket. Several large contracts are coming off the books after this season like: Yao, Battier, JJ so the Rockets can be active in the free agent market again. Trading another face of the franchise isn't always a good thing. It leaves a sour taste in the mouth of SOME fans. Again just my humble opinion.
Me too. Re-load was the 97 year with barkley and o a certain degree 95. How do you relaod first round fodder without any great players. The magic can relaod as manytimes as the want because Howard is a great player. In fact, they're kind of going through what we did post ralph with dream. Not saying howard is dream, but there was a shuffling of players until they got it right. The rockets are shuffling avg player for average players.
Ok, I will stop being english lazy,lol. I do alot of this jaw jacking while I'm doing other things like checking fuel prices and paying people, but thats not an excuse. I will try to do better.
Well, the Magic haven't won a championship yet. So, using your own definitions of reload, they can't reload either. The only team that can reload really is the Lakers. Reloading simply means you've got a core piece or two and your are going to build on what is already in place. We've got a core piece or two. Martin is a core piece. There may be one or two other core pieces. Yeah, it's not the greatest core. But it could be a great core with one superstar added to it. Now think about adding two superstars and you have the makings of a repeat champion. We are reloading, retooling, whatever you want to call it. But we are not starting over from scratch.
How about we just "load"? Meaning we try to add talent rather than subtract talent. "Rebuilding" has become an euphemism for a team that just sucks. Typically, "rebuilding" happens when management try to put together a good team but fails. When it turns out management is wrong, the team turns around and tell fans "Oh, we are rebuilding. Excuse the dust but we have bright future!" Often, a "rebuilding" job only begets more rebuilding (For example, the Al Jefferson rebuilding begets the Kevin Love rebuilding). Other times, a rebuilding job ends up giving you a team that peaks at about 45-50 wins. Why rebuild to get 45-50 wins when you are there already unless you are like last year's Bobcats-- old, expensive and have no picks or other potential ways to get talent.
Are you sure? Yao's injury is pretty mild and probably heals on it's own in 6-8 weeks.....which is why he probably does NOT want to do surgery. What if Yao gets traded and then decides to suit up this year? Hmmmm? DD
