At the end of the off season I don't want to find that our trade exception expired and we picked up a couple players in the mold of Bowen and Bogans. That would not be about winning now and would fly in the face of managements statement that trading Gay for Battier was for winning now. I want a real hard core commitment from the team to win now. Trade some future picks if need be, take on some bad contracts if thats what it takes, don't be afraid to go over the threshold, use the trade exceptions (both) and the MLE. I don't want to see any trades like the one that sent Glen Rice and a draft pick to Utah for basically nothing just to get rid of an already expiring contract.
The Chronicle article today suggested using the Rockets 4.2M Trade Exception to acquire Mike James. We could do this. Just tell Toronto Mike will sign here, but if you accommodate us with the S&T we will throw you a 2nd round pick. Plus it adds good will to James agent, next time he deals with the Raptors. It doesnt hurt the Raptors a bit here at all. Berman reported the Rockets were interested in the Pacers Fred Jones. Jones is a 6'4" SG that has a lot of athleticism. Pacers are on record as saying that even though they lost Peja, they want to resign Jones but wont break the bank to do it. If the Rockets use the TE for James, they can use the FULL MLE on Jones That can deliver you a James/Jones backcourt. MUCH more athletic than last years. Defense, speed, quickness. Jones can create his own shot if need be and is unselfish. Mike James, Fred Jones, Tmac, Battier, Yao. Nice lineup. The Battier trade made us slower. But adding James/Jones helps offset that a bit with quickness in the backcourt to match up with the quicker guards in the NBA today. And then if you could add Troy Murphy by trading Warriors Howard/Head and a future #1, then you add in another piece.
Juwan, Luther, 2007 1st Rounder, Rights to 2006 2nd round for maggette woo! or take out luther and make it for jamal crawford.
Personally, i believe even with gay being young and all, we still could have had a very successfull season with him. gay in 2 years or maybe next season, will surpass anything battier will ever produce.Gay= would have netted us at the very least richard jefferson if we had a sane GM.
My problem with this whole reasoning is this: The probability of winning it all this year seems remote. To assemble a team for a run given all of the missing pieces we have seems like a desperate move, maybe based on management's fear that Tracy's back will last one season at best. I can buy into the logic that Battier can contribute more this year han Gay, but NEXT year, when our chances would seem better, might Gay's abilities surpass Battier's?
Management is looking at what Miami did. They had their two stars and then assembled a bunch of role players and won. Clearly the Rockets are trying the same strategy. The key though, is that they have to be BOLD and get those role players. "Stay the course." Don't hold back now. Follow through with it.
It's all well and good to try to win now, but at what cost?.. we had a freaking fire-sale. we gave away a future allstar and a player with some trade value for a role player who int gonna be the ice breaker to put this team over the top. if you really wanna win now, get the maximum value out of a golden asset like gay. not give him away for nothing. no offense to battier.
Fred Jones is only 6'2 according to ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3612 Even though he's smallish at 6'2 he's got a nice SG frame at 220 lbs so he won't get pushed around like Head would.
Why do you guys think this is a new concept? It has been CD's MO ever since he got here. Bring in Barkley, bring in OT, bring in Drexler. The day we got Tmac we went right back into "Win now" mode, in fact, the only time the Rockets were not in Win now mode was when we tanked to get Ralph and Hakeem. Even when we got Francis it was to put with Hakeem & Charles for one last run at it. Think about it.....David Wesley, Jon Barry, etc..etc...etc.....all were for WIN NOW. This is not a new concept, we just haven't gotten it right yet. And, in this strategy you can NOT have injuries to your big 2 or it all falls apart. DD
I think TMurph could be had if you took on Fisher's contract. I am not a huge DFish fan BUT he is a carrer 40% 3pt shooter, and has big game experience. Adding TMurph and DFish would go along way towards improving our shooting. Would probably have to give next year's first though. I also wonder if you could get JR Smith for Head and a future first. He is also a pretty good shooter with more size than Luther. Yao/Mutumbo/Cato Murph/Battier/Cato - vet min Battier/Tmac/Bogans TMac/Smith/Bogans Alston/Fisher This would a very flexible team with much better shooting. You could still add MJames with a 4.2 TE SnT as appearently they are discussing and you still have the MLE. Chicago is another team to look at as they have a ton of young guys that they will not be able to pay when the time comes for extentions.
You can win with Young players too?.. Rudy is not you're normal rookie. in my opinion he was more advanced then you're normal rookie. he would have contributed straight away. lets hope this is not the barkley for cassell and horry nightmare again.
I don't know any more than anyone else as to what the Rockets are thinking. If it is Morey and a moneyball strategy,then you are probably going to see more trades that are similar to what you described. The whole idea of moneyball is to identify the stats that lead to winning. These are not your standard stats that fans appreciate. If you have the right formula to value players contributions then it's very effective. Thats how Billy Beane was able to lose Jason Giambi,Johnny Damon and three other starters to free agency and still go from a 92 win team to a 102 win team the next year. The moves individually are often look crazy, but if the system is good the end results will be good.
yea we have been better at it that NY but If we keep this trend up . . we could be futureless like them Rocket River
^^^ This is the second best line-up posted (too slow-footed). The best line-up* is actually: PG: James/Alston SG: Salmons/Bogans SF: McGrady/Novak PF: Battier/Murphy/Hayes C: Yao/Deke *could be better if we added Josh Childress (most likely) or KG (not likely).
Normally I enjoy your posts whether I agree with them or not, but you've gotta get your head outta the toilet guy, this was not that bad of a trade. Gay has done NOTHING yet, either in college or the pro's. Portland used 2 picks, Charlotte needing a wing player and Minnesota who needs everything all passed on this guy and Boston took Sebastian Telfair instead of taking this futuristic ALL STAR If the Rox pull off a couple of decent free agent pickups with their trade exception and the MLE and or trade, this team is ready to fly if the big guys stay healthy. Battier is a better Rick Fox who was a very underated team player on the Lakers during the Shaq/Kobe years. We don't need stars on this team especially fake ones like Gay. We need guys who can knock down shots, play team defense (unlike Gay who got lit up by a slow, weak white boy by the name of Novak for 41 and 16) and stay out of the way of Yao and TMac when they get hot. Battier can spread the floor when he plays the 4 spot, as for the pipe dream of getting Jefferson (someone mentioned) by trading the pick to NJ instead, what are you going to do with him. The only spot he can play is the 3, he's not a 3 point player so he can't spread the floor and what you going to do sit TMac to play him. Gimme a break. This is now Yao's team, you have to build a team around him even more than you do TMac. Phoenix is about to go in salary hell in the next couple of years so they'll be shipping guys out and the bipolar Cuban will split that team up soon enough on his own. Stay the course and build around the big 2, its a no brainer as soon as you take a deep breath and realize GAY is not the answer to your dreams anymore than Griffin or Tito Maddux or Nachbar was.
