What is CD thinking??

I really don't understand the direction Carroll Dawson is trying to put this team in. From the summer, up until now, our roster moves have been dreadful.

1) We trade away two #1 picks and Glen Rice for John Amaechi and a $5 mill trade exception. This trade itself is TERRIBLE. Absolutely terrible. Regardless of the fact that we signed Jim Jackson right after. We could have gotten a lot more for Rice's expiring contract.

2) Eddie Griffin is too talented to give up on. I know the guy is a headcase but eventually he is going to get everything together and come back to being a basketball player. After all we gave up to get him, it seems stupid to give up on him so quickly. Now New Jersey is going to get the player they originally drafted ALONG with the three #1 picks we gave up originally.

3) Trading away our back up PG and reserve center for a 33 year old, overpaid Clarence Weatherspoon. Moochie hasn't played well the past 2 seasons, I won't argue that BUT is it really worth disrupting the chemisty in our backcourt (Francis, Mobley, Moochie being best friends) just to bring in a garbage player like Spoon? Generally, the purpose of making a trade is to upgrade. Spoon is no upgrade over anybody we presently have at both forward positions.

Which brings me to my next point....

4) Cutting Alton Ford. Why? He has played well in the limited time given. So what does CD do? He goes and makes a trade for Weatherspoon so he can now have Ford's minutes. I understand the "point" of cutting Ford was to make room to possibly sign Charlie Ward but I would MUCH rather have a young player with the potential Ford has at least on the roster (IR) than to not have him at all.

(In case you are forgetting. Ford had about as much hype coming out of his "one and done" career at Houston as another "one and done" player we all know pretty well - Eddie Griffin.)

PF is arguably our biggest weakness and here we are cutting two young project players.

5) Dawson has done next to nothing to give this team depth. Thus far, we have been VERY lucky not to have any of our players get injured, but let's be serious...it's going to happen eventually. Which obviously means we have to turn to our bench, the bench I consider among the worst in the NBA.

Let's take a look at our bench:
PG-Mike Wilks - No offense to Wilks but if Francis went down (God forbid), do you REALLY think this guy can fill in his place? Charlie Ward could, so I really hope we can get him to come here. If we get Ward then we are okay at PG.

SG-Eric Piatkowski, Adrian Griffin - Piatkowski has really failed to provide much of an impact off of the bench and in my opinion, doesn't look very comfortable out there with the offense we run. And Adrian Griffin hasn't even played in a game yet. Imagine one of these guys playing Mobley's minutes if he went down.

SF-Bostjan Nachbar, Scott Padgett - To say both of these guys are bad would be puting it nicely. As of now, there isn't much doubt in my mind we got a huge bust in Nachbar. Padgett isn't physical and couldn't defend a mailbox out there. So what does he do when he gets in the game? Shoots the ball and contributes to our dismal team FG%.

PF-Mo Taylor - Thinking of our backup at PF, I can breath easily...for now. With some consistency, Mo probably could become a legit 6th Man of the Year candidate. I don't care if he's overpaid, he can score and in my opinion has improved on his weaknesses - rebounding and defense.

C- On the current roster, we don't even have a backup for Yao. (Aside from flip flopping Cato, obviously)

Solutions?
1) Dawson needs to bring in a PF that can either start right away or share minutes with Taylor. Cato needs to be moved back to backing up Yao and playing SOME minutes at PF. Quite simply, he isn't quick enough to defend other PF's and is much better suited playing his natural position.

2) Get Charlie Ward. Mike Wilks as a backup guard just isn't going to cut it.

3) Maybe make a trade to get us a real SF. Jackson is a good player but would be much better suited playing SG minutes.

4) Sign/acquire frontcourt players so we have a full roster and so we can play the right players at the right positon. As it stands now, we have 12 players on our roster, 11 active.

PG-Francis/Wilks (2)
SG-Mobley/Pike/Griffin (5)
SF-Jackson/Padgett/Nachbar (8)
PF-Cato/Taylor/Weatherspoon (11)
C-Yao (12)

I understand this isn't all on Carroll Dawson's shoulders though. Les Alexander needs to wake up too and realize if he wants to win he can't be cheap. I know the reason we made the Rice deal was to avoid the luxury tax. However, by doing that Les has hamstringed us. This makes bringing in new talent difficult and costly. Just ask Minnesota what it's like to never have a first round pick in the draft.

I really think this team lacks an identity. With an idetity comes an understanding. With an understanding comes confidence. With confidence comes consistency. With consistency comes wins.

 

spoken like a truely ignorant fan.

Ignorant?? How is anything I said ignorant?

 

Sorry to waste your time then Jeff, I'm not on here 24/7 like some of you people. I just got so frustrated after watching the Detroit game I had to vent.

 

I've posted here like 3 times so you're talking to wrong person. If there's one thing i'm NOT, i'm not a hypocrite. I'll give credit where credit is due. I haven't been happy with the job the Rockets front offices have done since we drafted Yao hence the post.