Its pretty safe to assume that the Rockets probably will not make many changes to the current team until after the All Star break. When looking who's availible, i try to look at teams that have player overcrowding at positions. Similar to the Rockets, who might need to clear a player out or 2, there are other teams who might be willing to do the same. I would like to throw out a couple of names. Desmond Mason or Micheal Redd. Both are young sg's and with Tim Thomas and Kukoc playing the 3, will it be enough time to satisfy both? Stromile Swift- Gasol is the better product and he's not good enough to play the 3 and not strong enough to play the 5. All this can change if somehow Gasol moves either to the 3 or the 5, but he's probably looking to go somewhere so he can play and get a good contract. Al Harrignton,J.Bender and Croshere- Harrington has shown he can play both 3 and the 4 spots. The problem is O'Neal the all star plays 4 and unless Artest moves to sg he still has a very good player in front of him. Bender still has that "p" word attached to him and some think he will have a bust out yr, but when. Croshere was the apple of Rudy's eye for a minute, but can't even play enough to up his trade value in Indy. His salary and lack of time is kiling his trade value. R.Davis,D.Wagner,D.Miles,C.Mihm,D.Diop- Davis, despite being a very good offensive player and a worthy passer, seems to be a head case. His young age,23 and low contract makes him attractive. Wagner is another young player, but questions about his position in the nba will continue to haunt him. Miles was probably the last person who wanted the Cavs to win the lotto. He was deemed to have a breakout yr ,but really sucked. As long as you have that "p" word attached, someone wants you. Mihm and Diop have been put on the back burner by the healthy season put in by Big Z. One or the other will be traded and both are still young also. I'm not going to go through all the teams and some of you are welcome to add your 2cents. I'm not actually discussin whether or not they're trade possibilities for the Rox, just on how some teams have stacked alike players on top of each other.
wagner and i have a mutual aquaintance. his off the court problems will hurt his career. trust me when i say we dont want him.
I think Wagner has the opportunity to be a great player. Lebron James gives Wagner the opportunity to play the PG position, while not having to handle PG duties. There was and is talk of Lebron James playing PG, and I think a James/Wagner backcourt would be absolutely killer. I think Rasheed Wallace would be a good option. Zach Randolph finally showed what he can do, and if he continues to dramatically improve his fitness and get into better shape, next year the starting spot is his to take. Making Rasheed available. However, I don't know what we'd give them. Maybe just Glen Rice and a pick? I'm sure they'd love that since they said they're trying to cut salary and get younger. I think a deal would have to be worked 3-way, but I'd also love to get Jeff McInnis in this deal as a throw in.
I know Portland drafted Woods, but I think they're going to finally do what i think they should have done last yr and move rasheed to the 3. I think Wallace gives the Blazers a bigger mismatch playing the 3. His game is more finesse than power, but he's one of the few players who have the quickness to play the 3 despite being 6'10 and 230lbs. Zach gives them the inside foul drawer that Wallace won't. Next yr, I'm sure, especially since they saw the way Wallace played Dirk and Randolph played inside that the forward combination of those two works best. Remember ,I'm not suggesting the Rockets trade for the players in these overcrowded situations, I'm just seeing and compiling who might be availible. Perosnally, I think the Cavs would be better off keeping Davis to play with James than Miles/wagner.
Well..I know the Blazers have too many players at all positions! And I know that I don't want Ricky Davis on the Houston Rockets! The Denver Nuggets kinda...Juwan Howard who is leaving anyways, Nikoloz Tskitasidhisvili, Vincent Yarbrough, Nene Hilario, Marcus Camby, Ryan Bowen, some other white guy who was pretty good....forgot his name...just hilarious though..against the Rockets...last game...he blocked steve francis and was so happy and yelling and taunting...then francis got the ball back and went right at him and made a layup AND ONE hahahaha so humiliating..and now the Nuggets are getting Carmelo Anthony. A lot of big men....all pretty young...besides Juwan who is leaving anyways. If the Raptors draft TJ Ford...then Alvin Williams will have to sit out longer. Indiana definitely. I'd like one of their guys. Toronto lol. They have like 10 crappy centers. Same with Seattle. but we don't need them.
"Stromile Swift- Gasol is the better product and he's not good enough to play the 3 and not strong enough to play the 5. All this can change if somehow Gasol moves either to the 3 or the 5, but he's probably looking to go somewhere so he can play and get a good contract." Bingo, Swift would make the perfet PF for the Rockets. I wonder if the Grizz would trade him for Griffin, Taylor, or even Cato? Swift is as good as K-Mart, but he doesn't get enough playing time in Memphis. Whoops I forgot to quote that.
Stromile Swift would be great for the Rockets. His reputation is that he's an incredible physical specimen with a low basketball IQ. But I bet Hubie Brown really helped him a lot last year. And all I know is he dominated at times when he started last year... double double machine. And I saw him block a couple of KG's shots... incredible. He's a great weakside help shot blocker and a dunking machine. Stevie would have a lot of fun throwing alley-oops to him. The Grizz played him out of position at the 5 last year with Gasol at the 4, but I think Jerry West is too smart to trade him for anyone we have. I think out of Griffin, Cato, and Taylor, they'd only be interested in Cato, but I'd rather have Swift starting as an undersized 5 over Cato. We'd have to throw in a draft pick or 2.
Actually....I watched Swift against the Rockets and he missed at least 3 dunks that game!!! Well he still is pretty athletic...does everything near the basket. He can't shoot that well. But he would be nice for the Rockets.
He can rebound, he's athletic, he's aggressive, he's a competitor, he's everything you need in a PF. The Rockets don't need him to score 20ppg. We just need a though PF, and Swift could give you 12ppg, 10rpg, and atleast 2 blocks. That sounds good right?
What part of Wagner do you like, is it his great size for playing shooting guard (5'11") or is it the high fg% (39%) or the injuries?
Well..I really want the NBA to expand their minor league NBDL system...and maybe in the future..there can be a farm system or whatever the heck they call it in baseball...
As another said, I don't see JW giving up Swift unless he get's something good in return and I don't think MoT or Grif are it.
