Time to Rebuild!!!

[Vator]

Don't forget that Yao has a player option after this year.

[realfung]

I think so too. Trade away Yao and T-Mac and get tons of talents back.

[smapor]

I think so too. Trade away Yao and T-Mac and get tons of talents back.

Too Late for that.

The best thing we can hope is both comeback healthy and play out the season so they generate enough value for a trade by trade deadline.

In Yao's case, we always knew healthy was an issue, the question is are the Rockets willing to allow him to play 60 games and provide impact during playoffs in other words do the Rockets want to keep an injury prone player and sign him to a big contract for 60 games a season to insure he stays available in the playoffs.

If we let him walk, other teams are going to take that chance, even @ 70-80% Yao is still 2nd best C in the league and allow him to stay fresh till the playoffs.

If the reports are exaggerated, If the Rockets want Yao and Yao wants to stay, he needs to take a smaller contract and play a lesser Role, if not we let him go and wish him luck.

Rebuilding is going to be ugly, even with John Wall, there is no sure thing in this world.

[kam_soluusar]

I am not 100% sure of how insurance on players work, but won't we have to wait a year to be able to write Yao off, (worse case scenario.) which coupled with Tmac's expiring contract, would make heaps of free cap space next year?

Which also brings me to something else I have been thinking about. It seems to me, that major injuries are becoming more prevelant in professional sport. Is there some way, that if teams have a player, that has no shot of playing throughout a full season, that they could sign another player, to contract worth at the most of what the injured player would have received that year. With the provision that it can be a one year deal only and it not mess up the salary cap? Obviously the injured player still gets paid what they are owed for that year, and the new player signed on a one year deal can earn up to or less than what the injured player earns. The injured player is not allowed to play for the entirety of the next season. (EG Yao is out for the year, so we re-sign Ron Ron for another one year deal, (if he accepts) and it just count the same as what Yao's contract would, but Yao is not allowed back until the following year, even if he heals before then) This would have a number of benefits to teams, players alike, and the league in general. Let's face facts, a team that sucks because their star player goes down for the year, (ie Washington losing Arenas) isn't going to be generating much interest to watch. Teams that suck get less national coverage, and lose revenue in a number of other ways off the court as well. So, after the year has passed the star player either comes back, (Arenas) or is written off on Insurance, (Yao worst case) The team get's Yao's Insurance back so effectively, the salary they were paying out to Yao whilst injured, and to Ron Ron on the one year deal to "Play in place of Yao" comes back to the team, and they then have the option of signing Ron Ron to a contract as an Un-Restricted Free Agent, or using the money now freed up, because Yao is no longer on the books, to sign another F/A of the teams choosing.

[wadero]

this is a plot by the Cleveland new owners to get us to give htem Yao!!!!

[rsavaj]

if you guys feel as though you will try to compete next season as opposed to rebuilding, would you guys do a jason richardson for t-mac trade? We don't need him b/c we have Barbosa, but i think you guys could use his scoring and we could use the financial relief. Add Antonio Daniels' expiring from New Orleans to you guys to take some of the bite out of his contract(it's part of a 3 way trade i'm concocting)....would you guys do it?

[MaxRider]

if you guys feel as though you will try to compete next season as opposed to rebuilding, would you guys do a jason richardson for t-mac trade? We don't need him b/c we have Barbosa, but i think you guys could use his scoring and we could use the financial relief. Add Antonio Daniels' expiring from New Orleans to you guys to take some of the bite out of his contract(it's part of a 3 way trade i'm concocting)....would you guys do it?

we don't need to trade if we need financial relief
t-mac's contract is expiring
he's injured
insurance will cover his salary
why bother trading?
btw we did pretty good without t-mac anyway

[rsavaj]

if you need financial relief then i agree, you're all set, but if you're planning on competing w/o yao and mac then would you guys trade for richardson? Doesn't play much defense but can put up 20 a night easy.

[MaxRider]

if you need financial relief then i agree, you're all set, but if you're planning on competing w/o yao and mac then would you guys trade for richardson? Doesn't play much defense but can put up 20 a night easy.

you think you guys can compete without amare and nash?

[rsavaj]

if you need financial relief then i agree, you're all set, but if you're planning on competing w/o yao and mac then would you guys trade for richardson? Doesn't play much defense but can put up 20 a night easy.

you think you guys can compete without amare and nash?

No, that's why we're rebuilding and need salary relief ASAP. That's why we're trying to unload Richardson...

edit:



my bad

[MaxRider]

i don't think we need to rebuild
just need salary cap relief and try to sign one or maybe two of the top free agents in 2010
t-mac contract is expiring
if yao is really going to retired we will have enough cap room to sign two max contracts

[BaYBaller]

Lots of posts on rebuilding so just going to post in this one. Rebuilding this offseason isn't really an option right now. First of all I think our vets/role-players are just good enough to make us a mediocre team in the regular season and not netting a high enough pick for a franchise player, which is pretty much what's needed to rebuild. Rebuilding through the draft takes many years and a lot of luck so you want to avoid it if at all possible.

Secondly our 2 stars are at all-time low value-wise, so trading them now makes little sense as all you'll get back at best is overpaid stars on long contracts, which is what you don't want to do when rebuilding. Right now every team seems to be saying their young talent is untouchable.

On the flipside to all of this I do think the Yao news is a bit overblown, and that we still make the playoffs next season if we resign Artest. And if the ish hits the fan then we can be big players in the 2010 FA market and see what we can do as we'll have a ton of cap room and no real bad contracts.

[Mike12345]

What is this talk about rebuilding??? When your looking to rebuild you trade big contract for young up and coming players. Guys we dont have big contracts to rebuild, Mcgrady comes off the books and Yao expires next year so wheres the rebuilding?

Expiring all stars and looking to sign new all stars isnt rebuilding, this is a blessing in disguise Yao and Mcgrady are to injury prone to carry a team because u just dont know if theyll be around for the playoffs every year

[Alex_De_Large]

We are too good to be a 20-30 wins team, i mean, Scola or Battier are just too good.