With over 20 million salary invested in PF position, Houston got an old but hardworking Spoon playing at the end of close games. And all three of them signed through at least 2005-2006 season. What a desperate situation! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Player 2003-04 salary Signed through Adrian Griffin $688,000 2004-05 Maurice Taylor $7,800,000 2006-07 Kelvin Cato $7,344,000 2005-06 Cuttino Mobley $5,394,000 2004-05(po) Scott Padgett $688,000 2004-05 Steve Francis $10,067,000 2008-09 Eric Piatkowski $2,458,000 2005-06 Clarence Weatherspoon $5,445,000 2005-06 Yao Ming $4,147,000 2005-06(to) Mike Wilks $563,000 2003-04 Bostjan Nachbar $1,396,000 2005-06(to) Jim Jackson $2,250,000 2005-06
Jackson and Mobley are the definition of steals! We got pretty lucky there. The forwards on the other hand.... lordy. We're gonna have a lot of fun when those contracts run out. And since we didn't pick up Posey, I'm guessing thats what they're planning. Big spending. Hopefully we'll get something good.
The Rockets are in for big changes this offseason, playoffs or not. Hopefully, CD and Les realized that our forwards aren't going to cut it in the west. Would love to see the Rockets spend some dough for a real PF this summer, with the trade excemption, hopefully they can pan out a nice deal. But for now, Go Rockets!!
nba.com has a link stating that dampier may opt out for next season and wants to be on a winning team right now if we can't pull a real star power forward, dampier, swift and chandler are my picks to be brough to houston after the season is over.
i think a lot of that $$ will go to a max contract for yao. but thats a couple of years away. i'd rather talk about this upcomming offseason. -cato is comletely expendible since spoon is playing like he should be starting. -steve is a great talent but jvg won't use him to the best of his abilities. in jeffs system the pg is a role player and steve is being wasted. trading him is whats best for both parties. -we also have a $7M trade exception that will be huge when teams are trying to move under the cap or away from the luxry tax threshold. this offseason we are looking to make a major upgrade in our foward spots. i think we have more than enough to offer to get it done. the trick is finding th right players for the job and being able to get them. what are we looking for in our future 4? somene who has a consistat mid-range jumper, is a good rebounder/defender, and can play some center. possibilities: sheed, ku. thomas, camby, l.wright, medvednko, curry, chandler. (im assuming okur and mcgloir are re-signed) what are we looking for in our future 3? someone who can guard the big 3's of the nba, a good 3pt shooter, and can create his own shot. possibilities: shard, prince, any swingman on the grizz, radmanovic, harpring, turkoglu, s.jackson.
Does anyone know how much and how long Shard signed for. I think the Rockets need to swallow their pride and make a serious bid/run for this guy. He is a big 3 that can shoot the ball and rebound, exactly what this team needs. It will be interesting to see how badly teams will need C's this offseason, I know some teams are pretty desperate.
Let's not get carried away. Spoon is VERY undersized in the West...a generous 6'7" isn't gonna cut it. As far as S'sF, JJ was a great pick up, and is very serviceable... As far as PF's, I'd like to see SAR, Stomile Swift, Carlos Boozer, or Rasheed Wallace, in a rockets uniform next year....
I think SAR and Sheed would be great pfs for out team. Both dont want to be featured players in the offense and would have no problem being a 3rd option. I think we might be able to pry SAR from portland in a trade if we take one of their bad contracts. Maybe we can send steve with the TE to portland in exchange for SAR and damon staudamire. We would probably have to send someelse since both have pretty large contracts. I know staudamire or however u spell it is a tought pill to swallow, but he has a become a decent pg after breaking up with mary jane and i think his rather large contract comes of the books at the end of next season.
