The season is inching closer and closer to the half way point and the horrific record of the Rockets has me looking to next season. I just thought I would share my wishes for next year. 1st. Trade a bunch or our expiring contracts plus Luther Head and a lottery protected 1st round pick for Ron Artest. Artest arrives and plays the 2 guard spot with a vengence. He is hell bent on proving the media and rest of the NBA wrong about him being a nut case and he becomes a model citizen. 2nd. Sign V-Span in the off-Season and he becomes everything we hoped he would. A tall, athletic point guard that plays terrific defense and shoots lights out from downtown while really knowing how to run the offense. 3rd. Draft LaMarcus Aldridge. He comes in and does everything we hoped Stromile would but didn't. He starts out as a consistant rebounder and shot blocker and plays well next to Yao Ming while providing a very nice 4th or 5th option on offense. 4th. T-Mac's back becomes healthy and he comes back for 06-07 season with a vengence. No back problems all year and leads the league in scoring and wins the MVP. 5th. A healthy Yao Ming with no toe problems and no serious foul problems. Yao plays all year and delivers with his first double / double average for a year averaging 20pts, 10rebs and 2 blocks a game while shooting almost 60% from the floor. 6th. Refer Alston, Stromile Swift and Derrick Anderson all stay healthy and do well in their roles off of the bench, giving the Rockets a deep and talented team. 7th. Ryan Bowen is resigned as a spark plug and jolt of energy when the team needs it but is pushed to last man off of the bench due to the teams new found pool of talent. Rotation: V-Span Artest T-Mac Aldridge Yao Ming I can dream can't I?
Yeah, you can dream, but how are we supposed to draft Lamarcus Aldridge if we package our draft pick for Artest? And what about our MLE? You don't have any ideas on how it should be spent?
We would need some luck. We would need luck to probably get the top pick in the draft which is where I see Aldridge going (with Morrison and Gay in the mix). Right now the Rockets have the 3rd worst record, but I expect us to win more games and get better as our talent returns. So the pingpong balls will have to be kind. With regards to our MLE, if we want to bring V-Span over then we will have to use some of that MLE money to sign him. So that would have to be taken into consideration. I would make the Artest trade you metion but I doubt the Pacers would.
Well as long as we're dreaming, here's my scenario. 1. Move Wes + Moochie + Lottery Protected 1st for Darius Miles. He was playing great this year before he got sidelined, but I think it's safe to say that with his past troubles with management, the Blazers might be open to moving him for a draft pick and expiring contracts. For us, if we make the playoffs, then great. I'd give up our pick then. Otherwise we can still tank this year and possibly get a decent player in the draft, and along with an MLE signing, and constant "knocking on wood" that pick shouldn't be worth much next year. 2. Win the draft lottery. Like I said, as long as we're dreaming. 3. Trade down with the Hornets. Our #1 and a second rounder (either ours or NY's, both of which could be high) for their first round pick (approx 8-13) and JR Smith. And we draft Shelden Williams with our mid-lottery pick. I'd rather go this route and pick up overall depth than to go for Aldridge. Shelden Williams could be a very good fit for this team, and Smith gives us exactly what we need. He's got athleticism and he can shoot the 3-ball. And he's a regular sized SG instead of all the shorter combo-guards that we've been trotting out there. I think the Hornets would bite on a deal like this. It's not like they couldn't use a talented young big on their roster. 4. If JJ Reddick is available at our other 2nd rounder spot, then draft him. He might be available at the top of the 2nd round. If he is, then it's a no-brainer. Trajan Langdon, Steve Kerr or mini-Michael Redd, he's well worth a 2nd round pick to see what he can do in the league. 5. Sign V-Span with part of our MLE. The guy is lighting it up in Europe. If we don't bring him over soon, we might never be able to do it. He could very easily get priced out of our range if he keeps it up. I'd toss a few mill his way and see if he can hack it. And as this year has shown us, it's not bad to have a little extra depth. With the rest of our MLE, I'd save it in case someone else intriguing became available, or in case of emergency during the season. So in my dream scenario, we start opening day next year with the following roster: Rafer / V-Span JR Smith / Head / Anderson? / (Reddick) T-mac / Miles / Bowen Howard / Williams / Swift Yao / Deke Now that is a team that can start bringing home titles. We go from one of the oldest and least athletic teams in the league, and become MUCH younger and athletic. And there's really no limit to the different lineups and matchups we could present. I suspect that JR Smith would start but Miles would end games due to his defense. And Howard would start at the beginning of the season, with Williams taking over eventually. And I still have given up hope on Stro. He was starting to play very well next to Yao and T-mac right before Yao went down. I could see Stro being highly effective in certain lineups. Also, Miles would be a nice backup for when T-mac misses a few games here and there. He doesn't have Tracy's scoring ability, but he does have some decent scoring ability, and he can do a lot of the intangibles that Tracy can, like handle the ball, and defend, and finish.
Basically I think it is next to impossible for this team to make the play-offs so I am looking to next year.
could you imagine the length/arm span of yao, swift, darius miles, tmac and alston together?? ; reminds of you the pistons with ben, rasheed and tayshaun prince... just like you said m_cable, if we can get length, a defensive stopper on the perimeter and a legit spot up shooter, things will look really good next year.
well he did say it was "a lottery protected 1st round pick." that wouldn't happen anyway because the only way the pacers would value our pick enough to trade artest for it (and the players) would be if it was a potential lottery pick.
call me crazy but i believe we could beat anyone with our current roster. we just need to be healthy. as for next year, since i believe we are alreay a good team and need not blow up the roster, here is my realistic but whishful offseason: we would start with a roster of: yao-deke jho-stro tmac-DA-bowen head-wesley rafer as you can see i think that deke will stick around for the last year of his deal, bowen will use his option since he is lucky to be in the nba, and DA will also use his option after being injured for most of this season. JVg would want to re-sign wesley so i think he'l be back too. going into the draft, JVG will want the most nba ready player available. i think shelden williams would be a great pick for us, especially since deke is on his way out anf jho doesn't have too many years left himself. with an early second round pick i think we go with a guard who can shoot and play D, so i'd pick dee brown. reunite him with luther and hope they bring thier winning ways here. going into free agency we have to look to fill holes in the roster. the most glaring being the PG spot. I would target cassell and claxton with the MLE. hpoefully one of them will accept our offer. both are championship PG's who can help us in the playoffs. i think claxton is more likely to look for a new team so i'll add him to my roster. we will go into the trading period with this roster: yao-deke jho-stro-williams tmac-DA-bowen head-wesley claxton-rafer-brown believe it or not, we could win 55 games with that roster.
Heck, why stop there. Try a lineup of T-mac (playing point-forward), with JR Smith, Miles, Swift and Yao. On defense you could just switch any pick and roll not involving Yao. That would be nasty.
