# Players that have to go.



## sherwin (Mar 21, 2005)

Here are the players I think we have to dump off this season if the Rockets are serious about contending next year. If we show up with the same roster and expect to be great cause of health and T-Mac/Yao then we're wrong... might get playoffs but nowhere deep.

Swift - stop talking about potential. Swift as our 1st or 2nd PF is a joke. He's just fundamentally screwed when it comes to basketball.
Mutombo - too old, not doing anything. 
Lampe - uh...
Frahm - he hasn't done much in the league, pretty much a scrub... I could consider keeping him if he's not a big part of the rotation
Bowen - no explanation needed
Brunson - should be gone anyways
Bogans - not a sharp shooter. shoots at too low of a %, turns it over; sucks in general.
Sura - no way we can rely on him being back, and if he is back, he might not be that good. we just cant bet on it.

Players who could stay but their role should be diminished:
Juwan Howard - no way can we return with old man Juwan as our starting PF. I actually like what he's done, I think he's the most "forgotten" Rocket since he got here. But if we are serious, he can't be our starting 4.
Wesley - I love Wesley and what he's done, but he's older and more prone to injuries next year. We can't rely on him cause he may go down. If he's playing 15mpg a game next year thats fine. 


*Bottom line* - we should not be in rebuilding mode! we are not going to take on young players and bet on their potential to break out in 2 years. *We have a small window* with T-Mac & Yao... T-Mac is 27, I'd say 3 years where he can win us a championship.. but next year is most optimal. Enough with old guys and enough with super-scrubs. 

I don't know how we're going to do anything to this roster though. Who wants our players? One package trade for a good starting SG and a good PF, and sign an MLE free agent (I dont know who's out there). 

I don't know how it's going to get done... no cap room, no tradeable assets.


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## Drewbs (Feb 16, 2004)

Well, you never know how big hte window for winning a championship is. Tmac is only 27, thats still very young, and normally should maintain that high level of play for 5 years or so. But his back issues are scary, and now Yao is getting surgery on his foot and heres to hoping that he doesn't turn into Illgauskas. As for the rest of the team... damn. They're terrible man, but I think you keep Sura. You might not want to bet on him on not being that good when he comes back, but realistically, what are the other options? For the other players... (not trying to be condescending) its hard to trade complete scrubs for something other than more scrubs and a rebuilding effort might not be such a bad idea, its not like this team is going to get any better the way its assmebled now with a bunch of dinosaurs and borderline NBA caliber bench players.


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## Hakeem (Aug 12, 2004)

All those guys listed could be considered worth getting rid of, but it's not going to happen.

Actually, I'd keep Bogans. He'd be OK coming off the bench. Swift has improved slightly and I think he's a good backup. But if he ever becomes a starter, he'll be one of the worst at his position in the league. 

Is Wesley expiring? We may have a shot at getting rid of him. He's done.


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## xray (Feb 21, 2005)

You might consider D.J. Mbenga. 

On second thought, don't.


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## CbobbyB (Feb 16, 2006)

great post....i agree 100%...they have some serious issues on that team that needs to be looked at..especially the scrubs on the bench.


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## jworth (Feb 17, 2006)

It's almost easier to name the guys Houston should keep since they're quite a few less of 'em. Good list, though.


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## bronx43 (Dec 9, 2005)

In my opinion, Wesley and Juwan have to go. It's not that they're bad players per se, but they combine for over $11 million of our salary cap. They're simply not worth that much. With that money, we can sign a solid 2, and 4. Heck, we might even be able to lure Peja away from Indy.


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## JuX (Oct 11, 2005)

Wesley, Bowen, Mutombo. Should I count Frahm? He isn't even on the roster all year long.


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## Mr. Hobbes (Jul 1, 2005)

Everyone except T-Mac, Yao, Head, and Hayes.


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## debarge (Nov 13, 2005)

WTChan said:


> Everyone except T-Mac, Yao, Head, and Hayes.


I agree except for Hayes, don't know about a guy who cannot shoot for sh-t??? Severely undersized for PF, like I said he can't shoot at all? If he comes back hit the damn gym and work on your shot, totally needs to overall his shooting touch/form. Its terrible!

My Keep List:
Tracy Yao Howard(sub) Alston Head Sura(sub if he can play well)
If List:
Swift (if we can't upgrade thru FA/trade/draft) Frahm(invite him to sumLeague, pre-sea, shoots well then sign him)
Acquire List:
2 guard 4 Pforward 2/3 wingman perimeter player (Q Richardson; sign/trade Wesley to NY) Tony Battie for Swift (ORL) you get a starting 4 and backup Center. Look at *Peja and Al Harrington* for Godsake!
Everything else is totally dependent on how we draft this year? Jeez, I'm excited/anxious/worried for the 1st time since we drafted Yao. :biggrin:


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## chn353 (Mar 12, 2006)

... i'd give wesley the biggest boot ever


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## jworth (Feb 17, 2006)

chn353 said:


> ... i'd give wesley the biggest boot ever


Agreed.


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## Demiloy (Nov 4, 2005)

> But if he ever becomes a starter, he'll be one of the worst at his position in the league.


Does it matter? we already have the worst starting anyway.


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## reno2000 (Aug 23, 2005)

chn353 said:


> ... i'd give wesley the biggest boot ever


nice call there...i totally agree.

i dont know if it is bad management or just unlucky...but somehow, the guys in the suits have managed to screw this team pretty bad. Reading through the different threads i have come to realisation that next season is basically gonna be lost to really contend for a championship. I recall all posts ive made about trades etc. and put out this 3yr rebuilding plan:

this year, we dont resign resign wesley or brunson and keep bowen (he has a player option unfortunately) and mutombo to very minimum playing time. if possible we draft a big man though i highly doubt that, otherwise one of the aforementioned roy, gay, carney or brewer. players such as hayes, bogans and frahm we keep. 
we go through this coming season with a starting five looking like: Alston - Roy - Tmac - Juwan - Yao... if we manage to draft a big, then head and wesley can share the 2 spot, while the big learns under juwan for this year.

come the trade deadline, we try to package juwan and sura's expiring contract for a decent wing man, like a mike miller or marquis daniels. maybe adding in this yrs 2nd round draftee to sweeten the deal. come the 2007 offseason, we will have our mid level exception back i believe cause we didnt use it this offseason (u get it back 2yrs after ur last usage i think).
The 07 free agency looks to have some decent players, so we could make a run at a magloire or PJ Brown, maybe drew gooden...and utilising the strong 07 draft we could trade up for good big...or one of the solid PG that should be in that draft class.
Based on this, we will enter the 08 season, with a peaking Yao, and mature and more efficient Mcgrady and some good main pieces:

PG - Alston, Head, Wesley
SG - Mcgrady, Head
SF - Mike Miller, Roy/Gay/Brewer
PF - Gooden, Stromile
C - Yao, 07 Draft pick

That should give us a good run at the championship i think.


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## Mr. Hobbes (Jul 1, 2005)

debarge said:


> I agree except for Hayes, don't know about a guy who cannot shoot for sh-t??? Severely undersized for PF, like I said he can't shoot at all? If he comes back hit the damn gym and work on your shot, totally needs to overall his shooting touch/form. Its terrible!
> 
> My Keep List:
> Tracy Yao Howard(sub) Alston Head Sura(sub if he can play well)
> ...


I haven't seen Hayes that many times, but I've been hearing he's good, so I put him on my list. And besides, the entire team except Head can't shoot for ****.


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

I just see one player being a drain on our salary, and thats Sura. I love what the guy brought to the court, but i have a strong feeling he is going to be the rockets version of grant hill.

Somehow we need this guy off our books, as hes stuck on for 3 more years. I hate to see him go, but at what cost does it begin to outweigh success?


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## Pasha The Great (Apr 9, 2005)

No way in hell are we going into rebuilding mode. All we need to do is take advantage of our high draft pick. Tmac is in his prime, right now is the time for going winning not rebuilding. All we need to do is make a few offseason moves and get a good rookie.


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## chn353 (Mar 12, 2006)

i agree with pasha, we've already built a team capable of championship if no serious injuries happen, what we need is just to offload 3-4 useless people and get a few good players from the draft
starting with brandon roy, a 2nd round PG and we're set


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## Legend-Like (Mar 25, 2006)

Of course we have to get rid of Wesley man, maybe Bogans and for sure Ryan Bowen and possibly Juwan


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## sherwin (Mar 21, 2005)

stop worrying about the draft pick... its really going to do nothing for us next year. this draft is weak and even in strong drafts the 7-10th pick doesnt immediately contribute. 

why are you guys talking about salary of existing players, like sura? who cares? were going to be over the cap no matter what this offseason, which means no free agents anyways. so dont concern yourselves with that, its les alexanders problem. sure it would be nice to dump salary for future years but honestly we should reduce the scope to NEXT YEAR


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## reno2000 (Aug 23, 2005)

this team is no where near capable of contending for a championship, i love the rockets, but i think that is the reality. a championship contender needs to have at least 2 solid all-star type players (check - we have tmac and yao), a group of solid role players in the remaining starting spots( we lack there), a difference maker/spark in the mold of horry or tayshaun prince (we dont have that either)...and finally a good bench, if not deep at least solid in the 6-8 role like detroit from 2yrs back (we lack there as well).

all we got going for us is 2 star players, the rest we have some work to do, and because of our crap situation with cap and tradable assets its gonna take more than 1 offseason to correct this.


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## jdiggidy (Jun 21, 2003)

It is easy for all of us to say who we should get rid of. It is harder to find a team with exception of New York willing to trade for any of our crap.

We've established the fact that Yao and TMac are untouchable however, if we want to dump a contract like JHo's then it may come with a price like Luther.

How many expiring contracts and trade exceptions do we still have?


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

juwons contract isnt that bad really. If anything Stromiles contract is worse. Atlest Juwon can give us a solid 15-20pts a game, with a few rebounds here and there. Stromile is just a bust, and waste of talent...

Id have juwon and his contact over that waste of a swift. Us as houton fans need to just accept this guy is a bust for us and we should have signed Shareef insted...

http://hoopshype.com/salaries/houston.htm

I dont understand why Juwon gets so much hate. Hes old, but still solid. Some of us may forget how important he really was to us. We lost him last year for the post season, and we payed for it. Had he never gotten ill at the end of last season, i bet that dallas series would have been ours...Actually, i know it would have been. Insted we had Bowen gaurding Dirk


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## Hakeem (Aug 12, 2004)

reno2000 said:


> this team is no where near capable of contending for a championship, i love the rockets, but i think that is the reality. a championship contender needs to have at least 2 solid all-star type players (check - we have tmac and yao), a group of solid role players in the remaining starting spots( we lack there), a difference maker/spark in the mold of horry or tayshaun prince (we dont have that either)...and finally a good bench, if not deep at least solid in the 6-8 role like detroit from 2yrs back (we lack there as well).
> 
> all we got going for us is 2 star players, the rest we have some work to do, and because of our crap situation with cap and tradable assets its gonna take more than 1 offseason to correct this.


It's easy to forget that this was a 51-win team a year ago, starting Tyronn Lue and Clarence Weatherspoon for numerous games. Since then Yao has improved significantly to become one of the best players in the league, and we've added a few minor pieces. I'd say a couple of small changes and we're contenders (if healthy).


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## The_Franchise (Mar 30, 2003)

reno2000 said:


> this team is no where near capable of contending for a championship, i love the rockets, but i think that is the reality. a championship contender needs to have at least 2 solid all-star type players (check - we have tmac and yao), a group of solid role players in the remaining starting spots( we lack there), a difference maker/spark in the mold of horry or tayshaun prince (we dont have that either)...and finally a good bench, if not deep at least solid in the 6-8 role like detroit from 2yrs back (we lack there as well).
> 
> all we got going for us is 2 star players, the rest we have some work to do, and because of our crap situation with cap and tradable assets its gonna take more than 1 offseason to correct this.


 Keep in mind Houston had all of these "requirements" last year. 

When you talk about having solid role players, a deep bench, a spark... all these things come out of the woodwork when Tracy and Yao are healthy. Then all of a sudden you'll find Rafer and Head making big plays, Sura providing a spark off the bench and role players stepping up at critical moments (not being asked to do too much).


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## reno2000 (Aug 23, 2005)

jdiggidy said:


> How many expiring contracts and trade exceptions do we still have?


I believe we have used our mid level exception to acquire stromile swift, and the low level to get derek anderson who we ended up losing for nothing. But i think we have a trade exception that we got from one of the deadline deals.

as for expiring contracts, wesley is the only largish expiring contract this year, and then sura and dikembe are expiring next year. Also we got a couple of buyouts that should come of the payroll like weatherspoon and vin baker.

so basically we dont have much there.


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