Next move should be to just sign the rookies to their contracts already. Then we gotta give someone some ridiculous contract to make the minimum team salary.
Next move is still trading for Dwight Howard (unless Morey for some insane reason likes Bynum better).
without a howard trade, our roster looks like this (without accounting for cuts): 1- lin, livingston/machado/douglas/fortson 2- Martin, Lamb, Forbes 3- Parsons, Morris/White 4- Patterson, Jones/Motiejunas/Johnson 5- Asik, Motiejunas/Patterson We have too many players for them all to grow. the growth of some will stunt the growth of others. think of playing time as light, and our current roster as germinating seeds. right now the appeal of our roster is potential. that potential depreciates the longer it remains unrealized. unless we're planning on throwing out three hockey shifts for 15 mpg per at the 3 and 4, we NEED to make at least two moves or lose value. FIRST: if the d12 trade falls through, and we don't think it can be resuscitated, we need to move martin or this roster is stuck in 9-14 seed territory. then later on two to three promising rookies flop for lack of pt, their low-lottery replacements get similarly buried on the bench, and the process repeats ad infinitum. but martin's salary is too large and his value is too low to work for picks and high-value contracts. and a lateral move like gay or iggy would be silly. but what about this? i think if orlando bails on the trade, it's because they think they can resign dwight. all the packages available at the trade deadline (nets, lakers, whatever) are EXACTLY the same as those available now, so why wait otherwise? if that's the case, then guess who would be a good pickup for orlando as a legitimate second scoring option on an expiring contract in the event dwight bails or needs to be traded? KEVIN MARTIN. we absorb hedo's trash contract and a first round pick. After that move, Lin would be our best scoring option by some margin. we'd have a legit chance at a top-7 pick, and a bunch of promising rookies. SECOND: we have to clear at least one of the young guys at the 3/4. i love em, too, but there's not enough pt to go around. It doesn't seem totally unrealistic that motie can play the five eventually, so we hold on to him. morris is very low-value right now, so we might need to give him a chance to develop before deciding on a course of action. that leaves white, patterson, jones, and johnson. obviously, johnson will go, but i don't see that move amounting to much. to me, the best course of action would be to start the season with everyone, in the expectation that patterson will bounce back. play patterson some at the 5 to demonstrate his viability as a backup or even a spot starter at that position (rumor was that portland had some interest in him at the 5). then unload him for an expiring and a future pick. then we'd have picks enough to package for two top guys in 2013 (even if it meant sucking it up and giving up too much for the chance to FINALLY move up to get who we want), we would have at least mitigated our roster glut, and we'd positioned for a drastic one-to-two year tank job. This strategy places a lot of faith in Lin, and there's the risk that teams would key on him hard, force him into bad shots, and that contract will look like total garbage. Overall, I think this tactic is just as risky, if not moreso, than acquiring dwight.
I doubt teams will take a roster of young guys seriously. Do teams key in on the Cavaliers, or the Wizards or the Bobcats? If the team is young and no real threat and not winning, opposing teams won't even give you the time of the day. They will just let you play because they know that you will loose anyway. And I am talking about teams that are significantly better than the Rockets which is the majority of the NBA.
Gather interests for the players we don't necessary need on the team roster right now. PG:Lin, Douglas. ??Fortson?? ??Shaun Livingston?? ??E Moore?? SG:J lamb, K-Martin(I don't mind keeping him till trade deadline for high trade value) SFarsons, Morris, Forbes(I think he is solid swing man, DEADLY SHOOTER WE SHOULD KEEP) PF: Ppat, D-Mo, T-Jones, White, ?Brockman? ?D Simpson? ?Funken Aldemir? ?Dieber? C: Asik, Josh Harrelson, ?Greg Smith? ?Sean Williams? For all the question mark players, we need either trade them in 3 for 1 mode or future 2nd round picks, or just simply buy out the ungarantee contracts. Bynum is a injury prone player, and I am ok for having him with the right price. No to DH12 who selfish and stupid as a pro-basketball player, and may not able to play until christmas.. I think the rockets just need a few minor move to clear up rosters and minimize to 15 and just develop young players for GOD sake.
Please see the interview of J Lin with Les and Morey in his new introduction press conference to the Rockets and also see Morey's interview after draft day in the video links below. Les Alexander is really into running and knowing what is going on in the Rockets front office, (Less is not a dead owner) unlike what some would like to think or post here. The crack he makes about schools is funny and Morey knows how to keep is mouth shut at the right time. Watch the Chron video first then the NBA-Rockets. You will see why. http://www.nba.com/rockets/video/jeremy-lin-press-conference You can see the Chron video view below.. I Like the view and audio because you get to see all three at the same time and read their faces and stuff.. the audio is good too .. it's just that one edit or skip-out part of the video that bugs me!! The NBA video does not skip it. http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...of-jeremy-lins-introductory-press-conference/ Morey hit the nail on the head about the drafted rookies this year before we even saw them play summer league. http://www.nba.com/rockets/video/jeremy-lin-press-conference Could the coaching staff have made all the rookies play the way Morey said they could just to make him look good? Could they really pull that off?? Lets stop the D12 stuff people and look what at what the Rockets are doing and saying. Think of the D12 thing as the best for him and not for us. What gets him the most money and then we all will see the light. In government they talk about costs and budgets in hundreds of millions and billions of dollars .. very soon they will start talking about real money. ^^^ Don't remember who said that first.. I'm trying to paraphrase zzpot
You listed 18 players and missed K mart who is under a large contract... please stop posting... people like you need to just stop!!! zzpot.
Ok My bad I do see Martin in your 18... But still... NBA rules are 15 on the roster at the start of reg play... In reality we have like 21 + players on the books right now.. They are here to play and work out with.
Get Pau Gasol or Josh Smith then maybe Jimmer That would be a decent move. Pau could help Donatas Motiejunas development as Pau being one of the best skilled PF/C of this era. I would prefer the Rockets get a A or B list player since they have to be at 85% of the cap (NBA floor) at the end of the season. So if you trade Martin then you can't just give him away for a pick. So I think we should go after Josh Smith and fillers with Martin, Patterson, and maybe Morris/fillers package. Salaries are about the same and a front court of Asik and Smith would be great defensively. Plus it would give one more reason for Howard to consider the Rockets. I do like the idea of getting Jimmer though. He is so underutilized on the Kings. He could be a fantastic combo guard off the bench like Jason Terry. Pair him up with Shaun Livingston so he doesn't have to worry about PG duties and can guard the PG instead of a bigger SG.
i clearly said I was forecasting the roster without accounting for cuts. I basically listed most everyone with a fighting chance at a spot on the opening day roster, because I don't know who'll come and go on the periphery. but whether fortson or machado or livingston or forbes make the roster doesn't affect anything i said. but i suppose if we want to interpret the thread title literally, our next move after failing to trade for dwight will be to cut some non-guaranteed player. I figured we were talking about what meaningful moves could be made. and that means moving martin and doing something about the forward glut. and if you look at the guys I listed at the 3-5 spots, where i focus the bulk of my attention, every single one of them is guaranteed a spot or at least guaranteed money (johnson).
Well if we can't get Dwight Howard -- the Rockets will get rid of all non-guaranteed contracts to make space for two of these players: Carl Landry, Kenyon Martin, Anthony Tolliver, Ivan Johnson, Craig Smith, Lou Amundson, Ronny Turiaf, Shelden Williams, Troy Murphy, Dominic McGuire, D.J. White, Yi Jianlian, Brian Cardinal, Craig Brackins, Brian Scalabrine, Leon Powe, Juwan Howard, Chris Wright, Malcolm Thomas, Hilton Armstrong, Eduardo Najera, Brian Cook, Chris Johnson, Francisco Elson, Lance Thomas.
at this point, it's basically guaranteed that the bulls won't match asik, so it'll be him assuming no dwight trade.
