We should not trade for guys that are past their prime. We have several already in our team. We need players that are entering their prime. We need Artest !!!!
If the Rockets want players entering their prime, they need somebody in their mid-20s. Artest will be 30 next year, and is turning 29 in November.
tmac plus yao alone is alreadying scaring ppl last season when the rockets were on the 13 games win streak, plus another all star and a decent pf?
I agree, we need to win now....if you want to rebuild, we might be able to get a guy going into his prime...but no one gonna give those ppl up without us giving them our allstar....Carter or Artest is still someone decent and still in their prime if you didnt watch any Kings games or Nets games....please dont try to judge Carter!
First of all from the Nets point of view: There hasn't been a single article or interview or anything sort of prof that states the nets wants to dump Carter for garbage/expiring contracts. Yes the Nets are trying to make a long shot for Lebron in 2010 but they still have to make a team that makes Lebron thinks that he can win with, and no I don't think JayZ alone will persuade him. If you consider because of the Early Bird Rights the original teams have over players (they can go over the salary cap to resign players) no matter how much cap space the Nets clear up the max contract that the can offer to Lebron will still be at least 10million dollars less then what the Cavs could offer him. While the Nets are in a rebuilding stage, it seems they still want to be marketable/competitive franchise since it is still a long shot of getting Lebron as a free agent. Thus why we haven't heard any on going rumors about them trading Carter. And if they do, why would they only want expiring contracts + low first round picks? When other teams can offer lottery picks, youth, alone with expirings. From the Rockets perspective: Do you really want VC? Forgetting the fact that in the past the guy have had major health concerns, and is known to quit on his team, whose team have yet to achieve anything despite been in the East, and teamed up with a pre-dallas kidd, and a prime Richard Jefferson. You want a guy who is about to turn 32, whose max contract runs for the next 4 years? That is a lot to gamble on for a team whose super stars have had their fare share of problems. Also these are the same people who wants to trade TMAC who wants to get Carter. They all b**** and moan about how TMAC takes too much jump shots and Yao doesn't get enough touches, have you seen VC play recently? Do you really want to trade your future for a guy who is older, a much worse defender, never know to share the ball well. The slam dunk contest winner is long gone, all Carter does now is shoot jumpers. And you want him to paired up with Yao? Do we need a consistent 3rd scorer? Yes absolutely. But VC is not it, and I honestly don't believe that he wants to be just another role player either. This is the team that won 22 games in a role without Yao, a team that despite injury problems have consistently finished 4th or 5th place in the competitive Western conference, do we really need such a huge change? I think a lot of people falls into the context of always wants a major change to the team. Look at what happened to Dallas and Phoenix, unless you can get a player of Paul Gasol's caliber for penuts, its better to make small moves rather then huge ones.
Do I want VC? I wouldn't mind it if he can still play. Can we get VC? He makes 13 million a year and there is no way we can match that unless we include battier and bobby jackson. A bobby jackson + shane Battier + filler package can net us better than a Vince Carter. That can potentially get us Artest, Gilbert arenas, or a Monta Ellis all in S&Ts
Trading for Vince Carter could potentially have a Kidd/Mavs or Shaq/Suns results, ie. we can go backwards, and then be stuck with multi years on a max contract. I just don't see Vince tough enough to help us get into the finals, let alone the 2nd round. I know he has talent, but he doesn't have a killer instinct for someone getting paid like him. It remains to be seen if Yao or Tracy has that killer instinct but adding another max player with the same questions marks thats already set in his ways doesn't exactly scream title contender. I'd rather give the new guys playing minutes and hope for new blood to infuse excitement into the Rockets team instead of adding old max players with toughness issues.
All what you say about Carter is valid,and I honestly don't think he can get us to the NBA Championship,but we are still far away from becoming a elite Western Conference team which is only going to get harder to compete in. We will remain stuck where we are with small changes, a 2nd round team at best even with a healthy Yao and McGrady in my humble opinion. The 76'er's overachieved greatly to win the Eastern Conference with AI but even at that time the disparity between the West and the East was evident. I do agree that we will have to add more defense even if VC comes to Houston to have a better chance since his weaknesses are obvious as well as his strengths.
we all know how tmac can run the offense meaning tmac can play PG, VC at SG, artest at SF, Scola at PF, Yao at C. how deadly would that be, its practically an all star game for the rockets
You should definitely go after Vince - especially if you can get him for Jackson, Hayes, and Battier. The window of opportunity is rapidly closing. I believe VC has a few more good years left. Then you can go after Pietrus to makeup for the the defense of Battier.
u do know that vince has been in the 2nd round before right, something tracy nor yao have not. when you have that much talent together with all 3 guys willing to share the spotlight, esp. guys who rather win right now than fame, will succeed. if we can get vince by keeping tracy and yao, you have to do it. you'd be stupid not to. vince is no jkidd. jkidd doesn't match with the mavs b/c dude can't shoot an open J to save his life.
I don't think we can get Vince for just expiring contracts either. They refused Wally Scerbiak's $13 mil expiring contract, according to the New Jersey Star Ledger. http://www.nj.com/nets/index.ssf/2008/06/giant_steps.html --------------------------------------------------------------------
every team has a few weaknesses. look at the celtics. their lack of scoring and lack of a takeover guy nearly cost them until pierce picks it up for a few games here and there. their lack of a PG and consistent bench scoring also nearly killed them. the lakers are soft like tissue paper eventually killed them. their lack of great individual defense and team defense is a weakness also. our weakness is a lack of a consistent 3rd scorer.
Some of you guys keep whining about a 3rd scorer andyou wont take cater heck ron artest is nothing but a shane battier but better at defense atest is awsome he would be a great fit for us but if we dont get artest who can we trade for as a 3rd scorer
Meh. I think VC is an overpaid overhyped overrated soft injury prone player. I think he's all offense and plays D as an afterthought. I don't think a trio of Yao/Tmac/VC will lead us to a title. Maybe past the 1rst round then an exit, but I wouldn't be too impressed with that especially since they are max paid all-stars, though I can see from some members here they'd be ecstatic with that. Btw, getting past the 1rst round in the Leastern Conference is not something to brag about, let alone to be used make a point in an argument. I say big fricken deal to that major accomplishment. You want to add another injury prone max player to a team that already has 2 injury prone max players, what a great idea.
To all the idiots that think we can have a dallas/phoenix effect you have to know that: Dallas and phoenix were actually the best teams in the west. All they needed were tweaks, not big trades. We haven't even won a playoff series, we can't go backwards that way, we will get better.
well people say tmac is all offense and no defense and guess what, he was our best perimeter defensive player in the playoffs the last 4 years. vince only tries when he wants to. and when he's in a winning situation, i'm sure he'll try. people said that about paul pierce a year ago when he was in dead last with the celtics. guess what? he just won finals MVP. and how do you know they would only get past the first round? that's YOUR opinion. just like how NOBODY predicted the lakers would be this good or how people predicted the bulls would be THAT bad. when you have an opportunity to put together talent, you do it. esp. a guy like vince who gives you size, athleticism, 1-on-1 scoring ability, and that's your 3rd option?
I dont think the Nets will bite any offer from the Cavs if the Nets are looking to pry LBJ away. Why should the Nets make the Cavs a better team for the next 2 seasons?
