Nate Mcmillan brought up Radman's whining as a reason for jumping ship to Portland. That's a big not a JVG type player warning label right there.
GATER, I agree that S&T Mike James to Houston is optimal. I just feel that will be really tough to do. You are right, it probably would take someone like Head for them to be interested in it. I like your idea about John Salmons. Seems like his role on that team is getting less and less. They have Korver, Iggy, Carney etc. Salmons isn't a good shooter, but a good defender and a "point forward" type of player. To me he is a nice addition as a McGrady sidekick on the wing. Basically Salmons brings us some of the things I was hoping to get with Ronnie Brewer, altough I think Brewer is a bit more athletic. If the Rockets could add Murphy, Salmons and Mike James for the price of Juwan Howard,Head and our full MLE, that would be a nice haul. That would give you this lineup PG: James/Alston SG: Salmons/Bogans SF: McGrady/Novak PF: Battier/Murphy/Hayes C: Yao/Deke
MLE for James. I just don't know who could we realistically get for the 4.2 M TE but we need to try and get a decent backup SG with some size.
Will someone, Gator, plz tell me can you use both your te's in a combined package or must they be seperate. If so we could sign mj with the mle and use the te's on drew gooden who will almost certainly be s&t'd that gives us good depth and a heck of a starting lineup!
Opportunity knocks! Troy Murphy is a BYC player. If Warriors are serious about a salary dump Rockets can offer their 4.2 TE. IMO their results don't justify their salary which creeps up even more this season.
Trade exceptions can not be combined with anything. You can not combine trade exceptions with other players or other exceptions.
How is Murphy BYC? He and Battier signed their extensions in the same year and Battier's BYC goes away on July 12th.
Who said that we were 1 player away? Just because we made the Battier trade? How about if the Rockets believe that Battier does more to help the team win than Gay? Thats what moneyball is about. It's about all of the minor stats that contribute to winning instead of the standard stats that most people use.That's a very different thing than simply who's the better player. Skillwise and by pure ability and stats, there's not too many point guards better than Marbury, but there's a whole lot of PGs that contribute more to winning. I think that too many people believe that the way to win is to put together an all star team.
We know that's how Isaiah Thomas thinks. All star team? As for the Rockets, right now putting together a "serviceable NBA starting 5" probably should be their aim.
aelliott - Here's a question back at you. Win what? What does Battier help us win? I'm being serious here. IMHO, Yr 1 the Rockets are a playoff team with Gay/Swift or with Battier. If you disagree...that's a whole different and seperate discussion. If you agree to any reasonable extent, then the logic follows that moneyball would have to have some sort of forward projection that deduces that Battier will always have a higher rating than Gay. If there is no such provision in the math (and I doubt there is since Gay has no NBA stats), then the current state of affairs is as far as we can analyze. And that brings us full circle to what's being discussed here. Whether moneyball is right, correct, accurate, all-knowing or somewhere in-between...at some point you have to ask the question...is Battier's current ceiling insurmountable to Gay or will Gay's m-ball # surpass Battier? Unless or until it can be projected that Battier will always have a higher number, the most logical conclusion is what Deuce has proposed...win-now.
I don't understand how people continue speculating and dreaming. There is no way this team can recover from this blow in the next 4-5 years. Here is my reasoning: No matter how lucky this team gets in free agency, they won't be able to get another player that is above average. That is what we will need to try to compete with the big guns of Dallas, Phoenix, SA, Clippers. Even in the best scenario that we land Mike James and Murphy, do you guys think that team can compete in the West? Rafer TMac Battie Murphy Yao Come on, come to your senses. This team is screw. Fire the whole front office and lets trade our assests and lets start from zero now rather than later.
The most likely scenario: James will be signed for MLE. I don't think Toronto wants anything we have for a sign and trade. Then they'll bring in another big man. If opportunity presents, Head will be traded. Although I don't think Head can land us anything significantly better.
