Ok, say McGrady continues to have these back problems, say he misses 40 games this season, and we miss the playoffs, what do we do? I think most fans would agree that the T-Mac-Yao experiment has failed, and it's time to move on. We can't trade him, I doubt we would get adequate compensation for him, no team would want damaged goods, and his large contract makes him even more difficult to move. The Rockets are too far over the salary cap in order to make some moves in Free Agency, not to mention we have a very old roster. What are you guys advocating? Should we trade T-Mac for whatever other teams will give us? Expiring contracts? And start molding this team around Yao and not Yao and T-Mac? Which would take at least 2 years? Or should we stay our course and just pray on McGrady's health, and live and die by his back.
worst case, tmac cannot play more than 35 games a season and the rockets are not able to get any other big time players b/c of their cap situation and little tradable assets. Yao will continue to be a dominant force and get his, but it will still not be good enough for the rockets to do anything other than lose in the first round to a # 1 seed. By the time tmacs contract is done the rockets make a serious push for a big time player, but by the time things start to come together yao will be on the downward spiral simply b/c of his size. dam, thats depressing. i bummed myself out
Not a bad a plan. I really like the Adelman idea. JVG just isnt right for this team, he was right for the Francis Mobely team not the Yao McGrady team.
it's a sad thought but tmac aint getting any better. sooner or later we will be faced with this exact "worse case senario". i say, for the next 3 seasons we need to try to bring as much fire power to this team as possible. we need shooters and scorers. why? because when tmac is out, we have to be able to win without him. then in the playoffs, we roll a dice and hope that in one of the next 3 seasons, he's healthy all through the playoffs so we can win it all. if that fails, then we trade him in his last year (he will have a HUGE ending contract). the trouble is, the rockets would be best suited to NOT give out any contracts that are longer than tmac's. that way when it's up we will have a lot of cap space.
On draft day this last draft, you will see we gave away a huge chance for a T-mac replacment in the future with Gay. Why doesnt JVG see that? I know Gay is young and raw, but he could have logged minutes during the injury times for T-mac. I cant believe leadership being paid the amount of money they are didnt do their homework. We on this board saw the injury for T-mac coming back, why didnt the so-called "professionals"?
If nobody want TMac, Yao need to ask for a move. I don't care rockets that much. I am not a fan of any players in rocket except Yao.
I say if T-Mac can't be counted on to last the season the Rockets should look to trade T-Mac. Take whatever you can and go from there. I am sure a team will take T-Mac even with his back problems. A team that needs a Star to sell tickets for the franchise is one(Bobcats,Memphis,Seattle).
I think the original assesment is fair. Tmac's not coming back the way we would like and will probably continually miss major portions of the season due to his back. It is our job to position (our meaning Rockets) a team around what we have and not what we could have. To me, this means moving Battier. Yes I know, that would be an admission of error of the draft day trade, but Battier only fits this team if you have the superstars around him. I would offer Seattle Battier, Sura's expiring contract and a protected first rounder for Rashard Lewis. Rashard has wholes in his game, but can fill up the hoop and spread the floor. Hopefully, Van Gundy can teach him how to play defense.
Worst case scenario, Tmac turns out to be a Grant Hill, Rockets are not able to move him anywhere with his big salary till 2010. As I proposed in another thread, we need to replace JVG with a better coach, one who can develop teenwolfs and bring the most out of his players. I am not sure former coach of the Kings is the right answer, but when things are not going well, you need a change, since we can not touch Tmac and Yao, can not bring more talents due to the salary cap, only thing we can do is change the coach. Otherwise, Rockets aren't going anywhere.
Why not trade Yao to the Lakers? Get Andrew Bynum or Luke Walton or any other young players and some first round picks in 2007 draft. With T-Mac plays like that and Yao's out, Rockets will get a good lottery pick for the next year. This trade will get Yao a Championship in 2~3 years. Come on, he deserves that! And Rockets will win a Championship in 5 years. It's a win-win situation, isn't it?
Easy to fix. Fire JVG, hire one of the incompetent assistant coach, tank the whole season, grab the top 3 picks, if lucky, get Oden, keep him or trade him for whoever you want, instant championship contender for next year. But I guess Rox won't do it because we are satisfied to be mediocre.
I would remind everyone reading this posting that I delt with this senario in the last offseason. The Rockets decided to be sentimental about it, now they have the problem which was easily predicted, so they will now have to live with it, or go down by removing Mc Grady from the roster by whatever means which is most expedient.One way or the other,unfortunately the Management made a bad mistake in trading for Mc Grady, who was damaged goods even in Orlando. They took the risk in full knowledge of the potential of this senario. Now it's all thrown in their lap. I just hope that the new General Manager can make a few bold moves next offseason.The problem about getting Gay is that we have JVG as the Coach of the Rockets and he is not a good coach for developing athletes. In this case I think that the Battier trade was another big blunder by the Management who were obsessed with the removal of Swift at any cost.Battier at present does many intangibles but his offensive performance does not warrent him in the starting lineup.
You are gonna get killed Yes, Yao deserves a ring but this is after all a Rockets forum. By the way, Yao is a money cow, Les is not letting him go. And, trading Yao to anywhere but Lakers, You will be labled as a YOF and flamed.
