Playing anybody at the point who shoots lower than 30% from the 3 is doing TMac and Yao a disservice. Why sabotage your own offense? Did we mention that he is getting paid $6 million a year? Forget about Snow. The PG is not going to have a huge role in this team. He has to be able to shoot 3s, play defense, and not make stupid turnovers. I like Damon Jones and Rafer Alston as young PGs who could grow with the team and should be relatively cheap. I love BBarry's offense and bball IQ, but is his defense adequate? I suspect DFish has too many miles on him, especially after years of long playoff runs. If we had no other holes and this was a potential championship run, I'd say go for it, but I still think that we are a year or two away. My biggest question is this: Considering that our PG will not play a huge role, should we really be blowing the whole mid-class exeption on one? Perhaps the money would be better spent on a backup 4/5, particularly if we can get a passable PG for relatively little coin.
Yao will be playing 35 minutes a game this year. That means all we need out of a backup center is 12 to 13 minutes. Using the mid level exception for a player who will play so little isn't worth the price. We already have 3 overpriced Power Forwards and we aren't about to sign another one. The rockets biggest need is a PG. We need a guy who can give us 25 to 30 minutes a night. Eric Snow, Derek Fisher and Brent Barry are all perferct for this team. To be honest it doesn't matter which one of those we get, they'll all help our team in their own little ways.
If we get Brent Barry i wont mind that his defensive skills arent up to par, becuase we have a defensive minded coach that will show him theme way. As someone posted above you can add an extra year for Fisher counting all the playoff games hes been in.
he's only 29 years old. Those playoff games haven't taken anything away from the guy. Its hard to take on an Eric Snow contract that expires when he's 36, and to sign Barry until he's 35. At least one upside fisher has when compared to the others is youth.
Booth and Daniels for Howard and the trade exemption is a bad deal for the Rockets. Booth has a horrible contract. Replace Spoon for Howard, or trade Mo for both strait up is a lot more equitable. If Seattle really wants Howard (who has a very reasonablecontract relative to his production), maybe James (not as bad long term contract as Booth's) and Daniels plus a 1st rounder would get it done. I'd like to add A Daniels, but I think there is some misconception about him. There is a reason he has never reached 28 MPG in his 7 league seasons and has played for 4 teams. He is more of a tweener and isn't much of a floor general. He has only broken 4APG twice, and last year he was behind Barry and Ray Allen on Seattle (granted on more minutes). Yes his A/TO was great last year, but just consider the context where he wasn't really running the team. Still like him for the Rockets, but recognize he is more of a back-up for the 1 & 2 than a workhorse PG.
I really want a good shooter back there. So : Barry, or Daniels then Arroyo. I don't think the Rocket's point guard is going to be a traditional set up the pick and roll guy like Stockton or race on the break guy like J.Kidd. He's got to move the ball down the court in a hurry, then dump it to either Tmac or Yao or a designated entry passer (usually the 3). Then he has to spot up, and nail any kick out. That spreads the floor so both guys can operate with maximum efficiency. We can make do with a guy that's not dribble-tastic. He just has to know who the stars are and make simple decisions quickly. If we make a deal with Seattle for Barry or Daniels, we should dump Taylor (or Spoon) for James and Potepenko. Jerome James and Vitaly Potepenko have two years remaining on their deals. Mo and Spoon are cap albatri. (word?) Yao needs that money in two years for his extension - so let's exchange Mo and or Spoon for other bad contracts that expire sooner, and try and fill position of need. Here's the deal : Mo T + Pike + Boki? + AG or Mo T + Spoon for Jerome James and Vitaly Potepenko, other cap fit trash as needed. Straight trade. Seattle gets forward(s), we get backup centers/backup bangers. The sweetener is , seperate transaction : Brent Barry for the TE. Seattle will lose Brent anyway, now they have something to chase other players with. You could do something similar with Antonio, but it's not as sweet for Seattle. Probably have to add another player with him. Anyhoo, you get the structure of it. It helps fill out the roster, and it makes money available for Yao. That's going to be very important.
Beware of Arroyo! He's destined to be the next Shandon Anderson/Bryon Russell/Donyell Marshall/Antoine Carr/Karl Malone. What do all these players have in common? They looked great under Jerry Sloan, and much, much worse not under Jerry Sloan. Coincidence? I think not. DH
For the record, I would probably be happy with Fisher, Snow, Hudson, Barry, or Van Exel. Van Exel's not coming, so he's out. Barry isn't a true point, and has some health questions, but I really, really like him. Fisher is streaky, but has valuable experience and a lot of confidence. Probably not my first choice, though. Hudson is solid, and has plenty of upside, but I'm not sure he's what we're looking for. Snow seems the most likely. He fits Van Gundy's style, and we won't need him to score as much, but we will like the defense. All in all, a good mix to pick from. DH
They other guy you really left out Eisely. I think of it as an Eisley/ Shandn Andersn phenom more than anything. Though honestly Marshall performed about as well in other places than Utah and Carr, Russell and Malone were all old as dirt when they left Utah. Another thing Eisley/ Shandn Andersn had in common even more important than Sloan was that they all were situational subs playing with Stockton and Malone. Arroyo started 71 of 71 games for an overavhieving Jazz team with neither HoFamer. I don't see a flop for Arroyo. He maybe won't be oustanding, but at worst he will be an adequate starter to good back-up.
You guys still want to give way too much to Seattle. Barry is a UFA we can get with our MLE, no reason to let Seattle get our trade exemption for him, why do them a favor? Trading Mot for James and Penko is doing THEM a favor Trading Spoon for Booth is about even. Trading Spoon for James is them doing us a favor. So here are some equitable deals: Spoon for James, then we do them a favor of using our TE for Barry (since they will lose Barry for nada otherwise). Spoon for Booth, TE for AD and we can just sign Barry outright with the MLE. Mo for James and AD and we use the TE for Barry(since they will lose Barry for nada otherwise). Mo for Booth and AD and we just sign Barry outright with the MLE (no TE given up). Howard for James and TE for AD and we just sign Barry outright with the MLE (no TE given up).
I'm going to post this every time I see someone voting for Snow. Just say no to Snow. Snow can't hit a jumper to save his life. But that's not what bothers me. What bothers me is his penchant to choke at the end of games, especially playoff games? I remembered the Boston/Philly series last year, he just made terrible mistakes at the end of every tight game in that series. Loosing his handling while dribbling to the front court. Badly missing open jumpers. The guy is a bad shooter to begin with. But in crunch time, he is even worse. http://www.nba.com/playerfile/eric_snow/index.html?nav=page Look at his career playoff numbers and look at how all of his key statistics go down. There is a reason Philly could never score enough points to win a champhionship. And Snow is a big contributor to that fact. The only thing that made Snow valuable to the Sixers is that they need a big, passing, defensive minded point guard to pair with Iverson. There is not exactly a lot of those around. Iverson at the 2 doesn't work, otherwise. You need to surround Yao and McGrady with good perimeter shooting. Period. Or else, we'll the become the Lakers of the last two years. Kobe and Shaq being suffocated without any consistent perimeter shooting to make people pay for the double teams (outside of Fisher). That's why Kobe couldn't consistently take it to Prince in the Finals. The Pistons took away the lanes by consistently abandoning every Laker outside of Shaq to cut off Kobe's path to the basket. Heck even the Rockets were successful in stifling the Laker offense with that strategy (not including the 2nd half of game 2 and game 5). The Lakers were 3 time world champs when Fisher, Fox, Horry, Rice, and Shaw were nailing the trifectas. If we are going to win with a group of superstars, we need to surround them with outside shooting. That's been the tried an true case with Jordan and Pippen, Drexler and Olajuwon, and Kobe and Shaq. Outside shooting is paramount for Yao and McGrady to reach the full potential on offense. Just say no to Snow. http://www.nba.com/playerfile/eric_snow/index.html?nav=page Look at his career playoff numbers and look at how all of his key statistics go down. Stay away.
Let's be real. The PG's mentioned all have huge holes in their game. We shouldn't give any of those guys more than a 3 year $12 million deal. They are all OLD (except Arroyo). If you sign them to a long-term contract, they'll be cap space fodder in just a few years. This is especially important considering that's just about the time Yao and TMac should peak at around age 26-27. We don't need a $4-5 million cheerleader. Eric Snow and Derek Fisher are the WORST choices. Snow has a terrible contract and Fisher just sucks. Anyone who can't beat out Brian Shaw for a full time starting position should not be our starting PG.
I agree with RIET to a large degree. I don't want any part of a BIG MONEY LONG TERM contract with Fisher. It is just as likely Fish's poor year is the start of a trend of wear and tear catching up to him than it is an abberation do to the arrival of Payton. He still had Shaq , Kobe and Karl Malone to pass him the ball. I do have a cavout however. Snow is OK IF (big if) we dump Spoon in the process. Then we trade bad contract for bad contract, but do get a guy who brings something different to the table rather than the ridiculously obsolete Spoon given Howard and Mot's strengths. So if Phily provides some compensation, yes I consider Snow. Spoon + TE for McKie and Snow is another route if Phily is desperate to drop salary and vets immeditely. Fisher is OK too, but at the right price. 1 year deal at 4 mil, 2 year for 6mil, 3 year for 7mil. He can take it or leave it, there are plenty of options for PGs probably in the 1.7-2.5 mil range for starting salaries. I am also not sure I wouldn't go after Alston (younger and coming off a better season than Fish), and Arroyo (ditto) before Fish. The only way I sign Fisher immedietly is if he would take the 1.7 mil exemption (leaving us our full MLE for other pursuits), again, otherwise explore these other options first..
I agree with DS. If we sign Fisher, then sign him to NO LONGER than a 3 year deal. Tmac is signed for 3 more years as it stands right now. We dont want to sign Fisher for longer than 3 years. We have Tmac and Yao.....we should be able to get decent FAs coming here for slightly below market value and that includes length of contract. This team needs to be flexible with Yao and Tmac as the foundation. We also dont want to make any signings without thinking about the tradability of that contract in the future should we need to move the player.
I really think that the PG we go after and the contract we give him is going to be based all around T-Mac and Yao. They have to make sure they have MAX money available when they are free agents. These are the core players on this team and they want to keep it that way. Everyone we go after is going to have to be willing to work their contract in that way. I know it's pretty obvious what i am stating but there a lot of people that don't see this part of the wheeling and dealing.
