Ladies and Gentlemen. After a valiant fight, Lowry turning into Chris Paul in the eyes of internet posters all over the world, Kevin Martin being the most offensively efficient human being an excel spreadsheet could show, the Rockets came up short. Not of making the finals. Not short of the 2nd round. Short, of making the playoffs. They will however have another 13-14 lottery pick. You have fighters like Luis Scola who would be better served on a top team willing to take on their contracts. You have Patrick Patterson who is ready to take on a role as a starter and win the MIP award. You have a team at the crossroads. A decision needs to be made. Should they keep tinkering with the roster and bringing in one Courtney Lee after the next and sleeping with statistics to create the most efficient mediocre team the NBA will ever see? Or should they worry about winning a Championship trophy, and making the necessary moves to get there. I wanted to create a poll to see where everybody stands.
Despite your innuendos suggesting otherwise, the plan has always been to flip the good assets we have for a star or two, especially once we're off the hook for Yao's massive contract. /thread
That worked well to net us Deron and Carmelo. False hope is how the communists stayed in power for so long. It's why the Nazi's persecuted thousands of Jews. Let's stay grounded in reality.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SzMC-rlQpFY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> I took my love to a Rockets game. So I could see my dream sky so high. Well Well Well, Oh Well I took my love to another game, It was not quite the same high Well Well Well, Oh Well
You worry about Scola, but Yao Ming is the biggest chokehold on the franchise. If he gets resigned, it doesn't matter what we do with Scola or Martin.
Although I voted to keep the team the same, there is no option for virtually the same. We clearly need to strengthen the center and SF positions or upgrade the backup PG position if that there are no good choices at C and SF. A Yao Ming comeback would be sweet, but we can't count on that. Hasheem Thabeet, with Carroll Dawson's instruction and the Dream's mentoring, is still a year or two away. Remember, he is a project ... a worthwhile project ... but a project nonetheless. Brad Miller can give us 10 or 15 minutes, but that leaves Jordan Hill. We are more than adequate at PG (Lowry and Dragic); SG (Martin and Lee); SF (only a steadily improving Bud); PF (Scola, Patterson and Hill); and C (Ming, Miller and Thabeet). Hayes deserves a raise (not an overboard raise, however), but he is a 6-6 stopgap PF/C at best. Terrence Hill is trade bait -- maybe the piece we need to move up several spots in the draft.
So if it didn't work one time it won't work ever again? FYI Melo and Deron got traded for assets. With this year in the books, most of the assets in the team got upgraded: KM Played like an allstar, Scola proved his breakout last year wasn't a fluke, Lowry outplayed CP3, PP looked like a top 5 talent etc. Not only that, we'll have a shiny new 14-ish pick to add to the asset base. If the goal was to package several players for a superstar then we'll go into next year with a better packaged than the year before. BTW, trading for Melo really worked out well for the Knicks.
Everyone keeps saying "once we get Yao off the books", but mark my words, barring doctors orders, Yao will be a Rocket again. And I can guarantee you Morey and Les are thinking we are closer than ever to being a championship team. We are missing two ingredients a star and a big. Yao gives us both of those. I understand why everyone is sick of Yao letting this team down with injury but show me one move that would be better for this team and cost less assets than signing Yao. We have no cap space to sign a star free agent. This trade deadline showed no one was interested in our role players for a star and no one is going to give us high enough pick for Martin Scola to get us a star or a top 5 pick and better player in the draft. Also you underestimate the value of Martin. He is a great player to have on a good team but he should not be your go to guy. Nor should Scola, nor should the much improved Lowry. We are solid and need Yao to jump to that next level. We closed the season out playing as good as the top teams not name L.A.. We had the worst schedule last year. Next year all of our young players will have experience. Hopefully we pick up some shotblocking help, (man I wish Sanders waited one year). I don't think Morey will do major overhaul on players this year. That has hurt us starting the season every year. If you think about we are set at several positions. Lowry is our starter and Dragic is a good backup. Martin is our starter and Lee is a great Backup Yao will be our starter and Hayes is a great backup. Scola is our Starter and PPat and Hill are both solid Backups. We need an upgrade on Bud who should be a back up and we need a shotblocker. IMO we don't need a bunch of draft picks. Give me 2 or even 3 for 1 to get in the top eight or better give me Iguodala for either Scola Hill or Bud and both of our 1st's. That will balance our team and make us solid at the 3. Iguodala is the perfect compliment at the 3 for Martin. I would like to move scola because I love the potential of Hill and Patterson. But it is not essential if we can get a more defensive minded 3 and Yao comes back. Oh and all this talk of trading Martin, PLEASE STOP IT! Unless the Rockets are starting from scratch Martin is the kind of guy you need on a team to win a championship. IMO he is better than Hamilton or Ray Allen in their championship years and that's the kind of players you compare him to. He plays better defense than most of the posters on here think and he is efficient and mostly take smart shots on offense. Okay he is not the Kobe or Lebron or Wade type wing player but when you consider how efficiently he scores he is in that next group of Eric gordon, Gay, and Pierce.
Scola is getting rather old, so possibly he can be traded. I expect Yao Ming to be back. I expect a couple of trades from who ever is the Team manager next season.
imo trade LOWRY. His stock is high, and if he doesn't dramatically drop off too much, Lowry + Scola + fillers should be able to get a star
Lowry/Martin backcourt stays. Our 3-4-5 frontline is Daryl's to play with... 3. Insert Player/Chase Budinger 4. Luis Scola/Patrick Patterson 5. Insert Player/Chuck Hayes
Dude on the left side of the very last pic posted. Hehe. Anyways, I'm torn between B and D. My option doesn't exist - you have to ADD something, but that something is a center, not a superstar.
Well, well, well, would you carry a razor In case, just in case of depression Sit on your hands on a bus of survivors Blushing at all the Afro-Sheeners?
This season and last we lost elite superstars - it takes time to replace max players -- you've of course left this out the equation.
