I think Ryan Hollins would have made a good, young economical back upp for this season if Yao was still around but as a starter, he doesn't bring much of anything to the table. But truthfully, no available center does this offseason besides maybe Gortat.
Yeah, plus Hollins is a restricted free agent. Even with Dampier and Gortat already on the roster, if the Rockets somehow managed to sign Hollins to an offer sheet equal to the league minimum, Dallas would match it in a second. The only way to get Hollins would be to do a S&T with the Mavericks using the Steve Francis ($2.6M) trade exception and a future second round pick. Still, I don't think Cuban would want to help out a division rival.
i gave it the day to think it over and i have to say, this argument didn't quite convert me, but it did move me more towards the middle. making the playoffs would make us that much more attractive to major free agents, but there's no guarantee that anyone signs. if no one does, we have an average pick and will have to wait another year to rebuild. on the other hand, moving shane and scola for endings and picks would help us move to a very high draft pick. the pick is guaranteed, though the quality of the player may not be. and there is still the possibility here of making a major signing along with the pick. neither direction offers any guaranteed results, but i still think that there are a lot more options through moving shane and scola. with a top pick guaranteed, you dont have to use it... look at boston and washington trading that pick for immediate help. that kind of trade might help the rockets sign a max free agent. trade the pick with yao's ending contract and you can get a heck of a return, and still have max cap space. more options, and with the pick guaranteed to us, better odds of adding talent since you never know with free agents. so i guess that's where we agree to disagree. whatever the rockets do (add a few players, or drop a few players) i hope they make sure the only incoming players are young and their contracts don't hurt our 2010 cap space. thus, the point of the thread! lol young players for the minimum
We'll just have to respectfully disagree with one another. I just have a feeling that Les and Morey are still counting on Yao returning in 2010 as a very good (if not All-NBA) center. With that said, I think that the long-term success of the Houston Rockets would benefit from a quality S&T for a guy like Pachulia and Les having to dip into luxury tax territory by a couple of million dollars. Come 2010, the Rockets could find themselves with one of the following lineups: OPTION A: Brooks/Lowry ???/Taylor Ariza/Battier/Budinger Scola/Landry/Hayes Yao/Pachulia Plus a second-tier free agent and the #15 or #16 pick in the 2010 NBA Draft OPTION B: Brooks/??? ???/Taylor Ariza/Battier/Budinger ???/Landry/Hayes Yao/Pachulia Plus a max free agent and the #15 or #16 pick in the 2010 NBA Draft I think either of those rosters is capable of contending for a championship. Yao is the type of player who will be able to pick up right where he left off, since his game is not one that relies on athleticism and speed. The guy is likely opting for surgery to keep him out AN ENTIRE FREAKIN' YEAR just to be able to get past the foot injuries. There is always the option of putting the foot in a walking boot for three months, but there would continue to be the greater risk of yet another foot injury. The surgery is to increase the probability that he won't have another major foot injury. If you were to tell me that the current healthy Rockets squad members would be able to add (1) no worse than the third best center in the NBA (even post-surgery), (2) a mid-first round pick (the highest the Rockets have had since they drafted Yao and Boki - they haven't had a pick higher than #24 since then), and (3) either (A) a second-tier free agent (think someone along the lines of a Carlos Boozer, Rudy Gay, Mehmet Okur, T.J. Ford, Marcus Camby or Al Harrington) or (B) a max salary free agent (think Chris Bosh or Joe Johnson) minus Luis Scola and Kyle Lowry, . . . then I'd say that's a legit title contender. But maybe that's just me.
I'm fine with Robert Swift. Decent rebounder/shot-blocker for the minutes he gets. At least he has an honest chance of developing into something valuable.
Come on, man. I know the Rockets had the #8 pick in the 2006 NBA Draft. But they never SELECTED anyone higher than #24 since 2002. You just wanted yet another excuse to show that picture of Rudy Gay, didn't you?
Major FA priority list: 1) Contract money + contract length 2) Marketing money + marketing clout 3) Comfort level with the situation (many things lumped here: comfort level with the city, closeness of family, per diem on road trips, how the team treats guys, does the team have a player's coach, is the owner cheap, etc.) Winning comes somewhere in 3) to these guys but it's not at the top of the list even in 3). Now if you are talking about old guys who have made plenty of cash, then winning might be 2) or 1) for the very rare guy. We'll observe the case of Grant Hill, will he take the Celtics 1.9 mil or go for a larger offer form NYK. Grant is a very rare guy in that he has made tons of cash and has no ring, he should pick the Celts, but who knows.
i would consider at center pops-bonsu 6-10 240 5ppg, 5 rpg, 13 mpg, (can run the court and rebound) aaron gray 7-0 270 4ppg, 4rpg, 12mpg, (huge body, middle clogger) sene mouhomed 7-0 237 3ppg, 2rpg, 5mpg, (could we get him from OKT?) (D-league stats 10ppg, 10rpg, 4 bpg, 30mpg) i say use a commitee approach until we find a permanent solution...at worst we will have quality back ups from this group if one does not pan out as a starter. More D-League Players Kurt Looby 6-10 230 6ppg, 8rpg, 2.5 bpg, 26mpg (vipers) dwayne jones 6-10 250 17ppg, 13rpg, 36mpg courtney sims 6-11 230 23ppg, 11rpg, 2bpg, 38mpg i also like gerald green (again) and morris almond (shooter) gortant 7-0 250 4ppg, 5rpg, 13mpg, (why would anyone pay 5-6 mil for this guy over any of the other players for min-1 mil?)
Probably already been mentioned but any chance of working out some sort of sign and trade with the hawks for the rights to josh childress and Solomon Jones......assuming they resigned him.........
