Looking over the roster in the offseason leaves me with so many unanswered questions and one major unsolved problem in my view. (Forgive me if my information is incorrect on some players contract status). I see the main problem being an unbalanced roster, which has long existed on this team and seems to me to maybe be either an overlooked problem, or just something managment has been unable to address. Let's look at the roster: PG Rafer Aaron Brooks BJax Steve Francis Just an absolute overload at the pg, with 2 of the 4 in my opinion being more of the tweener combo guard in BJax and Franchise. All of them being about the same size. None being exceptional at any one PG quality. None are top notch shooters, distributers etc. Rafer being the best of the bunch at getting his team in the right sets to score. Can we upgrade? Yea, but who and how? Chances are slim unless something falls in Morey's lap. SG Head? TMAC? TMAC basically plays the 2 because we don't have a legit 2 and here in lies the problem. Where is the legit athletic swingman, who can slash alittle, knock down the open 3 and just at least be an athlete on D. Don't get me started on Head, he's another combo guard or tweener who doesn't have a position and plays neither the PG or SG well. Should not be on this roster, adds zero other than space and a warm body. This is clearly to me, the one position we can make a POSITIVE upgrade on to improve this basketball team. SF Battier Donte Green Novak Battier in my opinion, if we had a normal 2 guard like most teams would be the ideal 6th man. Energy, defensive stopper, great leader of the 2nd unit. I'd love to see him finally become a 6th man. Give us a great option off the bench. Rockets will take a long hard look at what they have in Green come Summer league. He looks like a tweener, 3/4. Nice wingspan, jumper, athletic, can shoot from distance. He's a rookie with little experience and it will hard to say oh we can rely on him to back up the 3 with any certainty. Novak is as one dimensional as they get. No D, no rebounding, just a pure spot up shooter. 12th man. PF Scola Landry FA Dorsey Hayes Another absolute roster overload at a position. We don't need 4 of virtually the same player. They all are energy players for the most part, with Landry or Scola being the most talented offensive players clearly. Just don't think you need 4 of them. (I will address Dorsey at C) C Yao Dorsey? Obviously having the best C in the league is nice, and Mutombo was a nice insurance policy. Do we resign Deke? Do we need him? Can Dorsey give you 10 minutes a game at the C position? He might have the body, but people are going to shoot over the top of him all day. Hopefully he can be the Ben Wallace big man. IF he is, then your backup C position is solved, no need for Deke. I count 13 plus Deke and Landry being FA's. (Let me know if I missed anyone) The roster is plain and simple in my view just unbalanced at key positions. They need to turn some of this excess baggage into a balanced roster. Who can they add and subtract? Well that obviously is a question only Morey knows the answer too. For my two cents, would love to see Maggette, Pietrus, Tony Allen someone of that type body and player come in and see heavy minutes at the 2 guard. As for expendable players IMO, if Landry is resigned then Hayes is expendable, as well as, Head, Francis or BJax. Any ways just this man's thoughts on the state of the Rockets roster as it stands.
you can just say we need SG/SF badly and wanted to get a realiable PG instead of two pages of post. I get ur point though
Props I can't really say anything more but wouldn't we be still be carrying Loren Woods and Mike Harris contract?
We have Stevie just for the hell of it, it seems. Even if he was to get back into game shape, same problem as last year. HOW will he fit into this offense? Since when is RA's offense good for a player like Steve? Bibby was a good three pt shooter and distributor. Not sure exactly what Stevie is good at these days but I know its not shooting 3s and distributing. Having Battier as a 6 man sounds interesting. BUT, if we're going to do that, then just trade him for a legit SG. Move Tmac to the SF, and that solidifies our starting lineup. Hmmmmm... the endless possibilities.
Quite frankly if we can land that "3rd scorer" or impact player and was able to keep Battier too that would be sweet. Battier is what you call a defensive 6th man situational player. He can be used to defend the Kobe's and provide more rest for T-Mac to reduce an injury. The thing im concerned with is though, If he isnt in the starting line up guarding the other teams best wing player and slowing them down, then he is useless on the court period. He can spot up shoot nicely, but a team with no wing scorers on the court and having a Battier out there is pretty much useless. This is another reason it's wise to keep Battier only to provide rest for our stars because he can atleast hold the fort down longer to rest T-Mac untill the last 3 minutes of a game. The only way we can land a legit "3rd scorer" is to use Battier in the trade. You could never go wrong with having 3 scoring machines and a Battier on your team, especially if San Antonio has Maggette and Ginobilli. The 3rd scorer needs to be a big 3 or 2, 6'7 or bigger.
The rockets should trade b Jackson and hayes as a package for Mourice Williams.he may be useless in the bucks but will be valuable in houston.
A lot of those players are either not very good or unproven. It's not a question of a balanced or unbalanced roster, but one of talent or lack thereof.
yes ,I can't agree more ,I has long been saying that the rockets need a shooter like b Barry.Now that we havn't got enough space for him,we can resort to deal,Mo is a superstar having lived under the pressure of M Redd.Redd is too expensive to afford but Mo is quite different.Mo can be a super bench-up roster,a super sixther.Although he seems to have no ability of assistance,he is still a great scorer .he can act as the main striker when T mac is on the bench or in the injury list.In addtion ,he is much better than Head,Luher can't make any contribution to our team ,nor can B jakson,Hayes is valuble but he can hardly have too much time on the court,now that we don't intend to give Landry up.So joining another team is good for both Hayes and the rockets,the same to Mo, mo has long been in the transfer list of the bucks,What's more ,he is the best shooter affordable for the rockets.Am i a real fan?
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_yMPYW1cLs0&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_yMPYW1cLs0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> If Tracy could shoot like this again this would solve all our problems.
San Antonio will luck out with Maggette. This is their championship run they been doing it for like the last 11 years every other year. To me it seems as if they want him to provide a punch certainly and above all rest the aging Ginobilli more untill the playoffs. They figured out the Rockets grand scheme of things for instance Ginobilli comes off the bench and we have Battier doing the same to guard him. This is the state of mind the Rockets should be in. Who was the first player we contacted? Brent Barry hmmm. Who was the first player San Antonio contacted? You guessed it. Can you not name other players Rockets should have atleast contacted first? It's as if when the free agency signing rolls around they have 15 guys working the phones and we only have 1. With a Maggette/ Battier/ T-Mac how can this team go wrong with that on the wings? Now we are force to give up assets to make the move to try and match them, hopefully when that times rolls around we still have Battier just for the match up.
I can't disagree more. I guess you didn't pay close attention to Adelman's scheme. On his scheme, position 4 and 5 are interchangeable, 2 and 3 are interchangeable. Given that we have 2 twiners in Franchise and BJax, we have enough backups to cover for each other. Is it ideal? No! But is there a team who has everything ideal? Name one.
Maggette makes more sence then Barry even if that means losing Landry and dont even get me started about the health issue between the 2. Maggette would have more value then Landry. Then we would have Battier still which still makes more sence then Barry thus making the trade dumb for that "3rd scorer". Barry is no more productive then Battier. Morey needs to be aggresive not conservative.
Thanks for making such a detailed list! I think it helps many of us fans visualize what players is needed as the rockets continue to build its roster. With the way you discribe Battier, however, I cannot disagreee more. Last season since scola has started, we basically don't have much liability on the offensive end because hayes and battier are not starting at the same time. I think Battier is the ideal glue to our starting lineup with the way he plays defense, helps on defense, space the floor, hustles, and most importantly, make smart plays. I think Rick Adelman will agree and tell you that he would much rather have battier starting than have corey magette come in to start in place of battier. The truth is we are thin at the wing position, but that doesn't mean we have to panic. Finding a scoring wing as a backup is priority #1, but its not an absolute must before training camp begins. I think Morey is weighing his best options at that position and waiting for a chance to snatch up a player that fits in well, instead of doing the stupid thing of signing a guy with the full MLE and let landry walk. Mike miller, IMO, is the best bet as a backup scoring, shooting wing in our system. He would provide trememdous spacing on the floor and some good penetration skills that Battier does not have. He is good friends with Mcgrady and he won't whine about being a backup or playing less than 30minutes a game. Most importantly, he is obtainable. Minnsota already has rasshard mccants, corey brewer, and randy foye at that SG position. There's a reason they traded Mayo. Morey can easily snatch up miller later in the summer or early in the season or before trading deadline as Mchale finishes shaping his roster and know what he needs.
Maggette for the MLE is a complete steal if you ask me. I would take Maggette's aggresive scoring and getting to the line 22ppg over Landry and on top of that Maggette has more value. I see nothing stupid about it. If i had the option to be able to add a 3rd scorer for the MLE and still keep Battier around who also has value instead of using him in a trade this can be exactly what this team needs to pressure the Kobe's in the league and provide more rest for T-Mac fine im down with that. I would save the LLE for Mutombo and hang on to our assets to add a Barry type player. Sure Landry is nice but not a border line All-Star.
Battier will never make all 1st defensive team do to 1st round exits. A championship will earn him all 1st defensive team honors. If Landry was putting up 22ppg trust me Rockets aint gonna be signing him for the MLE. Maggette on the other hand played 70 games and 75 games last season is worth the MLE. T-Mac/Battier/Maggette can rotate minutes at the 2/3 spot. It simply does not make sence to me why Morey is going to just let him sign with San Antonio our divisional rival without even atleast giving an offer. Playoffs is where it matter and having that trio how could you go wrong? Im not saying Battier is a superstar, but out of all the primere scorers, he held all the wing superstars to below their shooting% this past season. If you need offense fine throw in Maggette, if you need more defense fine throw in Battier. Its the match up that matters from a coaching stand point, not who starts and who dont. Battier can also play the 2 because he plays the 3 just like a 2.
rockets2409, your logic would only work, meaning it is wise to go after magette, only if we have a 100% chance of snatching him up for the MLE. you reasoned that at MLE, Magette is an absolute steal. I would agree that it is a steal, but nothing close to absolute. (We all remember how stromile swift turned out to be. at the time we desperately needed a PF in the worst way, just lik we now need a SG/SF) The thing with corey himself is he is not a great fit to our system. He demands the ball to be effective and is the type who constantly whines if he doesn't get enough minutes or doesn't start. With the Houston Rockets, he is likely getting neither wishes. If you ask me or Morey, he'll tell you that a shooter who can also slash and score like Mike Miller would be preferred. So there's the logic of not getting magette. Second, its not certain that we're definitely getting corey. We know that corey would wait for the free agency money to dry up before he signs with any team for the MLE. That means if we had gone after him in a full effort, it is 99% certain that we will let landry walk while not getting magette, because we have to wait till the 76ers or bobcats to spend their money or officially rejects magette before magette will sign for the MLE. No desrecpect but your analysis and reasoning is flawed.
the financial side of basketball is important and the rules clearly affects the free agency game. thats why morey is already the best GM IMO. Mutombo's salary will not count towards the LLE nor the MLE if he signs for the minnimum(the likely case). Get the rules straight.
Why do you guess morey stoped chasing margette along with spurs.because he feels very regretful to the spurs. He got Luis from sant antonnio last season,while at this yeat's draft he picked batum whom the spurs were looking forward to .Spurs had helped us so much while we had done such harm to them,i think morey should pay spurs some cash for conpensation.As we all know spurs' boss is not quite wealthy,so it is our obligation to help them,don't expect the mavs do so even though cuban is well off.We need a strong instead of weak spur to draw attention from mavs and hornets,otherwise,they i mean the macs and spurs will treat our team as their 1st dangerous rival,then we will meet with troubles.now you got why the spurs made such a dedication for us ,and you may understand why Memphes sent us SB in exchange for Gay and swift.They just intended to make us stronger while gaining potential guys for themselves, they believed they were not at the same level with dallas and sant,so they decided to rebuild their team.
SF can be the PG/SG off the bench that can provide some scoring inside when Yao is resting. kind of like bjax role.
