The FA power fowards this offseason are pretty lame. Rasheed Wallace clearly is the best available one out there that is unrestricted. I would love to add him to the team. I agree with Clutch that the draft lottery might give us an indication of possible player movement since Okafor and Howard are the top 2 guys on the board.
New Jack you just described Kenny Thomas, versatile athletic and quick. Also tough as nails and a great defender. Kenny would have been huge for the rockets against Malone and the Lakers.
I say get Camby in the offseason. He should be more than attainable. He's a JVG boy, blocks shots, and can actually the midrange jumper along with some athleticism to boot.
A lot of what Indy does will be predicated on how they progress through the play-offs. I have long believed a Cat - Hrrington deal was workable. However, I believe Harrington is a JVG 3.
PF that Rockets needs: Instant Championship Caliber (Huge Difference Maker) Sheed (perfect) Camby(Perfect) K-mart (out of Price range) Dice (when healthy) Eric Dampier (when motivated, could out of price range) C-web (questionable character, not enough mental toughness and huge contract, if he doesn't work out, we may be doomed) Not quite there yet : E Brand (no offense to undersized PF, but size is vital in Western Conference) SAR (bad on ball defender, would not mind try him since he will be in last year of his contract though) Carlos Boozer (will not happen) Okur (could be final peice of puzzle but not quite there yet, may need 1-2 more years, intriguing size) T-Murphy (See Okur) Kurt Thomas (good but not enough to push us to the top, pretty big contract) Brian Grant (Huge Contrat, injure prone) Cliff Robinson (very good on ball defender with range, but very weak on rebound) M. Blount (potential sleeper) Joe Smith Juwan Howard
During the broadcast the other day, they said Camby has the option to opt out this summer and he will test the market after the season ends. But I don't think we can offer more than Denver will give him, they just have too much cap space and we only have MLE. Beside, this year is Camby's career year, no coincidence it is his contract year also. I won't be surprised he get another fat contract and fade and "hurt" for another 2-3 years. Just like he did in New York.
In game 3, we shot 50%+ from 3s. In the other 3 games, we were less that 25% from 3s. If only we had made one more 3 in game 1 and 3, we would have been 3-1. Or if Cat had not missed that layup from the pass by Yao, we would have been 2-2. The main reason that we are down in the series so far is our inability to knock down open 3s.
Our dream scenario??? Okafor pulls a Kobe and says he won't play for any other team but the Rockets. I know him, and he's a good kid, so he'll never do that... but we can all dream, can't we? Other than that, we're not going to get an all-star PF (without giving up steve), nor do we really need to. Any of the following would suffice: PJ Brown Stromile Swift Brian Grant Antonio McDyess (ONLY if he checks out on physical from 8 different doctors) Vitaly Potapenko Malik Rose Kurt Thomas All of the above players can provide defense, rebounding, and can hit a wide open jumpshot. Basically Cato+Mo-T skills combined....
Good post. SF-Yao-JJ-Cato (unless a nice deal comes along) should all be back next season. A bruising, scoring PF is definitely the Rox #1 priority this offseason. And the Rox should make a serious run at Barry too, the guy can shoot, defend, and he is a smart player. Some PFs that could do the job: 1. Rasheed Wallace- Detroit is willing to offer the big $$ however. 2. Carlos Boozer- Lebron wants him to stay, so he'll stay. 3. Marcus Camby- Flourished under JVG, could see him want to play with him again. 4. SAR- good scorer, good rebounder, might need more of a bruiser though. 5. Swift- incredible athletic ability, would rather have MoT. 6. Brand/Webber- injury prone, max $$, but would be perfect.
The best power forward we can get is Troy Murphy, he's young, he have size and most of all he can score and rebound. It hink he's unrestricted free agent after this year, we can get him, another pf is dice.
I think I remember recalling that the Rockets can offer Rasheed Wallace the most amount of money than any team due to the TE, and Detroit not owning his Bird Rights. So is it feasible to offer the mid-level+TE for Rasheed? I'm not clear on basketball economics, but if we were to make a run at Rasheed is this what we would be offering him? Imagine if we also trade for T-Mac this summer too. McGrady, Rasheed, and Yao would get us on prime-time every game =p
I wouldn't get my hopes up on Rasheed. Detroit will run at him hard, and I don't see him turning them down considering they can likely offer him the most money and are a legit championship contender (at least in the East) You can't use the MLE in a sign+trade as you suggest. The Rockets don't really have that much of an advantage even with the TE unless Rasheed decides he wants to play for Houston. xiki, why do you feel Al Harrington would be a JVG 3? Van Gundy seems to like the same type of player at the wings, i.e. - Spreewell, Jimmy Jackson. I don't think we do much about the 3-spot this offseason except maybe try to sign Eric Williams.
Because: he's long, can D up, doesn't demand the ball. I see JJ playing more of a swing role next year with his primary minutes being at the 2.
I agree with going after Barry. Both, but particularly Brent. I disagree, however, on the 4. The guy needs to be able to seriously D up, board BUT he has to be able to take his man 15 - 18 feet from the hole and make him pay if he doubles down on Yao.
Agreed. Detroit has expressed that they want to keep Sheed and are willing to offer the big$$ to keep him. Al Harrington would be a nice upgrade at the 3. JJ can hold down the SG and would be huge coming off the bench. Pending playoff outcomes, a Mobley-Harrington swap would work for both team. Pacers are looking for a SG that can shoot to replace Reggie and we could use a bigger player at the 3.
I think Al is primarily a 4. I think he can and would play minutes at the 3, but I think in the end he's more of a PF than a SF. For one thing, he's not a good 3-point shooter, and I think he has trouble guarding quick 3s. I'd rather take my chances with him defending the post. He also seems to me to be more effective on offense facing up with the ball in his hands a la Mo Taylor. I don't know if he'd be content playing primarily a defensive, off-the-ball role. But I haven't seen him play too much, so I'll defer to the judgment of others.
Al Harrington is the best shot the Rockets have at getting a legit PF. Harrington has said that he expects to start next year, so if he isn't happy coming off the bench he could be dealt. I really hate to give up Cato though...we have seen how tired Yao gets, so we need someone who can block shots and get rebounds when he's out. Mo and Boki would be ideal, but I'm not too sure the Pacers would take that.
Carlos Boozer- Lebron wants him to stay, so he'll stay. The main reason that Boozer will stay in Cleveland is that the Cavs have a team option on him, so he won't be a free agent.
I agree that the Rockets probably should look at Eric Williams this offseason. You could probably get him for half the MLE and he would be a nice veteran defensive small forward off the bench to add depth to the team.
