DaDakota is available for very cheap, and he is great at waving a towel on the bench and barking at the referees. I say sign him up now for a Max contract. DD
What about going for young unproven talent for the minimum instead of older players with no upside? Has anyone seen Earl Barron play? At 7', 245#, he's got the size to be a legit center and he's young. I hadn't heard of him until reading article about summer league play in Orlando. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2519912 Now that Mourning has resigned, the Heat have Shaq, Mourning and Doleac at the center position. Maybe they will cut Barron and the Rockets could pick him up for the minimum. At the very least he'd be worth 6 fouls and wouldn't be a liability at the free throw line. Could be one of those guys who blossoms once he gets some playing time.
Towel waving. Check Referee baiting. Check Floor time. Uh, oh. Moneyball time. Offer him a minimum contract, a no trade kicker and an injured reserve seat....He's ours.
I'd sign James Thomas, Marcus Fizer and Kelvin Cato and make them fight it out for the roster spot. Fizer and Cato have real potential if they try and James Thomas works his tail off. If the Rockets don't make it clear over what they are looking for, maybe Cato and Fizer won't play lazy b-ball.
Those two players that you highlighted were not helping their squads. Jones shoots 40% from the field and Wright had very little value. He would play even less in the Rockets system. I'll give you this though, if Dikembe couldn't play this year or if his skills have diminished, then Wright would be a good backup. He plays hard and gets rebounds. Dik style! Wright just doesn't help out the 4 at all. We need a 4/5.
I really like your thinking here. Juwan Howard is a safe bet. You know what he's going to give you. We need to take a risk on our PF/C that we sign. Juwan is our hedge bet. Time to make a low-cost, high-reward bet.
<table> <tr><td>Alston <tr><td>Snyder<td>Head<td>Sura <tr><td>McGrady<td>Novak<td>Rybo <tr><td>Battier<td>JHo<td>Hayes <tr><td>Yao<td>Deke </table> Tony Delk for the vet's min. Plays point but can slider over to the two. Knows how to play under a halfcourt offense. Also a Wesley substitute of sorts in that he can hit the three and defends well. That'd leave two roster spots still open and the MLE and 4.2TE intact.
Anthony Carter would be a nice veteran pg addition if Lucas decides to take the Suns offer. May not be that good of a shooter but is a quality third pg that makes good descions and plays defense. A van Gundy type of player.... Alston/v-span(?)/Carter http://www.hoopshype.com/players/anthony_carter.htm http://www.nba.com/playerfile/anthony_carter/?nav=page
If Sura is healthy and back on the team this coming season he WILL be the starting point guard and not the 3rd string 2 guard.
Has anyone seen Matt Haryasz play. He was on the summer league team. He's a 7 footer and he looked like he had some potential. i think he could develope into a decent backup C.
IF and that is one mighty big IF, Sura is healthy, he might not start at PG, but he would play 30mpg. He makes the whole team better... how he does that is difficult to discern, but he does. Well, he did before Yao began to dominate his opponents nightly. He had trouble getting the ball to Yao in the post so he might not be the best option at PG next season.
The INDY PG Troika: Beetlejuice Johnson Sarunas Jasikevicius J. Tinsley can probably each be had for the right price. Johnson is the most steady player and makes the least money. I don't see HOU taking on Tinsley and his injury history. The Q about Jasikevicius is whether his D is at least acceptable to Van Gundy. Orlando's Dooling was talked about in a trade-down scenario, and I'll bet he still is. Travis Diener and the draft rights to Fran Vazquez are out there. Portland's Twin Terps, Dixon and Blake, are available, as is Darius Miles (if Les is up for taking on his contract and shipping Juwan off) Philly has that Shavlik Randolph kid who is very good. Toronto's Jose Manuel Calderon can be on the way out with Roko Ukic, Salmons, and Ford coming in. He's a decent floor general without much shooting ability. SEA has drafted 3 young centers over the last 3 years, are they keeping them all? I like a few of the Clips minimum wage guys: Singleton, N'Dong, and D. Ewing. There is a HUGE list of guys who can probably be moved under the right condition... I'll bet CD and Morey have a few targets lined up, but it seems some of the teams are waiting for the higher price tagged FAs and possible trades to happen first involving the likes of Gooden, Harrington, AI, Maggette, Wilcox, etc, before making the other deals.
Get Cato for V-minimum, he was doing fine before he went to orlando. He could be the backup C and PF.
