Trade means Morey planning to reshape team in 2010

According to feigen, even Yao was not consulted for this trade. Is this mean Yao is not on our future plan? Maybe we should replace Yao with Bosh in 2010


(Rick was of course on board. Yao was not consulted. Yes, they can make the
playoffs. More is available in today's story and blog entry. -- Jonathan)

 

Cook's got a player option next year which he'll almost certainly pick up. So his contract plus Lowry's is about the same as Rafer's next season. It doesn't seem to impact that at all, and that's what Morey himself said, I believe.

Lowry will be a restrict FA in 2010/2011, so that gives us the inside track in bringing him back if he proves to be a really good player.

 

i don't believe that Yao was not consulted for this trade. yao is the leader of the rox now .if this happened ,i think yao will leave houton in 2010.

 

http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2009/02/skip_to_my_new_rockets_undergo_1.html

This happened according to Jonathan.

 

This is nothing new. EVERY team is this way. If you look carefully year-to-year at the "guaranteed contracts" tied up to teams, you'll see something very similar. Aside from their franchise player(s), like Yao in our case, most teams don't have many long term contracts committing themselves salary cap space significantly. Almost every team will have less than 10 or 20 million committed if you look 3 years or 4 years from now. But that doesn't mean anything since alot happens in 4 years.

 

he did mention going after a top player,
or trying to line up a deal where they could land a top player in the future

 

I think Morey looked at Rafer's expiring contract next season as Rafer's biggest value, but would not have been able to trade him without getting a point guard back in return (or through a different deal).

Having Lowry gives you greater flexibility in other deals -- you can dangle him or Brooks in a bigger deal (though you'd need another point guard), and still maintain Rafer's other value as an expiring contract (though a bit smaller) in Cook.

 

Over half the NBA and NFL lives in Houston or Atlanta. Our low cost of living and taxes make it a great place to be. If Morey can resign Yao and save the cash by letting Tmac (assured of happening), Battier and Artest walk. We have enought money go get something going towards getting serious about competing in the WCF or NBA Finals.

 

we're not winning this year w/o a healthy mcgrady....which means we're not winning next year. might as well develop brooks and lowry and make a title run in 2011.

 

This thread makes me wonder:

Alston and Lowry will both be free agents in the 2010 offseason. Which one will get the bigger contract?

 

This is how it will play out:

Enter summer 2009.

We buy 1st rounders, as teams will be looking to do so, and Morey promised this.

We package players and/or picks with McGrady to get a player or player that will really turn this into Adelman's team.

IF we cannot trade McGrady because he's on the IR or whatever, we look to upgrade by trading the picks and a current player.

If we can't do either of the first two, we use the picks, draft well, play out the year, go after Bosh in 2010.

Personal opinion, we needn't wait until 2010. Yao might not re-sign if he doesn't like the direction we're going. Maybe McGrady's expiring + picks/players for Bosh and Whomever, something along those lines.

Hell with waiting to play the lottery. Make your own luck.

 

Our team will be just one of many with a crapload of cap space in 2010. I think our best course of action would been to use our expirings(ie Tmac) near the trade-deadline on teams desperate enough and walk away with a steal. I think the probability us landing a quality player or two that way is much higher than getting into the 2010 off-season frenzy.

The reality is, especially with McGrady gone, Houston will not strike as a popular free-agent destination any longer. There is no reason to think Lebron, Wade, Bosh, Carmelo, etc will pick Houston out of all the options available. And frankly, better options available. They can go to either championship contenders(which we will not be), or desirable locations such as New York, or LA. We obviously know the JayZ connection with Lebron and his expressed interests of playing at MSG. We also know by 2010, most players would rather play with Dwight over Yao because he is younger, more "dominant", and his future is brighter. Let's not forget the idea of playing with Kobe in LA is an exciting for any player; Lebron, Wade, Carmelo, I could see any of them wanting to join Kobe. Even mid-level stars, we will probably end up over paying because the bidding wars will be crazy, it's all supply and demand.

The Rockets will be on the same level as Atlanta, Phoenix, etc. in terms of desirability on the list of destinations for free agents. Let's hope the Rockets didn't completely flub on this deal to start over and become perennial playoff 8th seed/lottery team for years to come, and Yao doesn't become another KG in Minnesota.

 

Ya, I'm really pleased with how Morey is shaping this team. To rebuild with youth and athleticism while staying competitive in the elite West is really saying a lot. Remember what this team looked like when VG first get a hold of them? We just had a ton of slow past their prime vets around Tmac and Yao. We have managed to stay a legit team since then and have remade ourselves to a much younger look by being smart about both who we target and how we structure their contracts. Look at Rafer - he is 32 and wasn't a particularly good shooting player. That normally spells trouble as players entering their 30s lose their athleticism and often have to rely on their shooting touch more. Morey was smart to recognize that and see that Lowry can do much of what Alston did(leadership aside), but at a much younger age for cheaper and with more growth potential. Now look at us with Brooks, Wafer, Landry, Lowry, and to a lesser extent Scola(who is older but has less miles on his body than the average NBAer because they have shorter seasons internationally). Maybe none are the future faces of the NBA, but I think it's not unreasonable to consider all of them solid young role players signed to reasonable contracts. Look at what New Orleans gave a rol player like Posey this past year...

...and like you touched on - he does a good job of staggering contracts so that we always have the expiring contract flexibility to hopefully trade for some more talent. So far he has been able to make impactful moves with this team every year and although some haven't worked out, he hasn't tied us to those bad moves with long contracts. That means he can really reshape this team very quickly and so far has. Even if we have to go into rebuilding mode soon(if they decide to blow up the Yao lead team), I don't think we will be there for very long with the way Morey has built this team.

So I guess I'm saying I'm a fan of Morey. Smart GM leading a pretty good team...hopefully soon we get just the right mix to bring a trophy back to Houston...lord knows we can't wait for the Astros or Texans to do it.

 

To take that a step further:

Morey mentioned in interviews prior to the deadline that they were looking to make moves that would upgrade the team, or a deal to set them up for a future deal, like the Artest one. I took that to mean the Bobby Jackson trade, as they took him on to use his expiring contract next season. This could be the same sort of setup.

McGrady, Lowry, Cook will all have expiring contracts next season. Everyone is gearing up for the 2010 free agent market, whereas Morey has called it overrated and said he wouldnt hesitate to take advantage of a team's desire to shed salary.

Oferring McGrady's huge expiring, along with a young PG like Lowry could be a pretty significant package. I would imagine the Rockets let Brooks and Lowry compete for the job eventually, and see which one has a higher ceiling of potential. Either way, I could see this move made to help setup a big trade next year.

 

We also know a player will play in Antarctica if you offer enough $. It would be silly to think that Jay-Z would play any role in attracting viable players.

 

This team wasnt going anywhere with Rafer running the point, it was time for a change

 

Sorry but Lebron is not coming here. There's tons of teams who can offer him the max. And they'll have more to offer besides the money for the reasons I stated.

 

How does Rafer's poor shot selection, poor shooting percentage and lack of ability to finish on the dribble penetration make him a "seasoned point guard"?

Those are the attributes of a much less experienced PG that certainly isn't "seasoned" and I think it's extremely presumptuous to assume we can't compete now or that Les is in rebuild mode although I respect your opinion with especially with McGrady possibly being out.

I don't underestimate the resolve and professionalism of this team as it stands right now. This is a very talented Rocket team without McGrady and with Cook's range as a big it just got much better if he gets the minutes