Well now that Mike James is off the list, who is our next top free agent. I hope that he wasn't the only guy on our list. I have been reading about how well John Lucas III has been playing but I don't know if they are looking for someone who has better shooting ability.
III isn't a starter or even a solid rotation guy at this point. He could make his way into the rotation, but he can easily be had. No one is going to offer him a guaranteed contract that he can't refuse. We'll invite him to camp and he'll likely make the team as our 3rd point guard.
Rasaul Butler is out there, we could keep with the team swapping deal w/ the Grizzles and go after Lorenzo Wright. I dunno, like smooth said John Lucas may be worth a look.
I dunno, like smooth said John Lucas may be worth a look.
.....and I said we would give him one. He'll be a reserve for the Houston Rocket next season.
And people shouldn't be getting that excited over summer league performances. You should be judging off of what you saw III do last year as a Rocket. But I guess if you didn't see him play as a Rocket, you can only go on summer league play.
We've got Luther who can play a little point, and if we re-sign Bogans, that gives us a back up 2-guard, he shouldn't take up the whole MLE (and if we have Bird rights, won't take up any), then we can go after a back up big man who can play both spots, take back Kelvin Cato @ a 1 or 2 mil, maybe Reggie Evens for a little more, Ervin Johnson. At lower prices are Vinny Baker, Loren Woods, Alan Henderson, Othella Harrington. Maybe Jake Voskul. Plus, Lonny Baxter is on our summer league, and he played decently last year for us.
I know summer league doesn't indicate how a player will do in the regular season...but what do you guys think of Steve Novak? From what I have been reading he has been "lighting it up" from downtown. This is exactly what we need because we missed so many open 3's that Yao created last year. I wonder if we had good outside shooters, how we would have fared even without T-mac? Anyways I just want to know if anyone has anymore info on Novak.
Chris Wilcox: MLE or S&T for 5 years with max raises with the 4.2mil trade exception. It's rumored that Seattle just wants to clear some cap, so it's a possibility.
Kelvin Cato: vast majority of the MLE or S&T with 4.2mil trade exception.
Vasillis Spanoulis (our Euro prospect): vast majority of the MLE.
Greg Bucker: straight up for the 1.6mil trade exception.
David Wesley: re-sign, either to keep or for S&T purposes.
Richie Frahm: re-sign.
John Lucas III: brought up from summer league for minimum.
If any of those guys have recently agreed to terms with someone, I apologize. I think they're all still available though.
Personally, a realistic scenario at this point that would actually make me feel better about the recent front office blunders would be...
- Chris Wilcox in a S&T for the 4.2 mil trade exception.
- Greg Buckner for the 1.6 mil trade exception.
- Qyntel Woods for partial MLE.
- Jayson Williams for partial MLE.
The line-up would be like so...
Alston / JayWilliams / Head
McGrady / Sura / Buckner
Battier / Woods / Novak / Bowen
Wilcox / Howard / Hayes
Yao / Mutombo / (Wilcox)
If Sura plays, that's a bonus. If he doesn't play, I say we buy out his contract to open up a roster spot to be filled by John Lucas III. Head would then see minutes as a backup SG rather than PG.
The off-season can still be decent, but it would take a lot of smart moves by the front office. In other words, we're fu(ked.
Last edited by ClutchCityReturns : 07-12-2006 at 12:00 AM.
Isn't Wilcox looking for closer to 10m a year rather than 5m? and about 5-6 years I think he's been priced out of the rockets price range
I haven't been keeping up too much with Wilcox's demands lately, but if he's looking for $10 million, he thinks WAY too much of himself. He's athletic, he'll grab some rebounds, and he'll dunk on some alley oops here and there. In other words he's perfect for the Rockets at the MLE or less, but if he thinks he's a game changing PF, he's an ass.
He is making a horrible decision Kevin Garnett will be gone in a year or less and they will get stephen marbery so you will be coming off the bench behind randy foye, so you was betta off coming to the Houston where you were going to be a startin PG for at least 3 years and betta contender for a Chanpion ship
Houston needs badly to get another big guy, yao and howard are the only two productive guys, so maybe a lorenzen wright or a trade for K Martin, Wilcox or J Jeffries would help alot and adding another wing player must be another priority for the Rockets, Tmac and Battier are a good combination but they need depht, someone like Rasual butler or fred jones would be nice coming of the bench.
Now that Mike James is off the list...
