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I don't do fantasy sports or trade checker but was wondering if the Rockets could afford to keep Juwan Howard along with the team they have now if they didn't trade for Mike James? At power forward we have Hayes/Scola/Howard. That would have totally balanced the team out since Mike James was never needed since Brooks can play.

we did the trade because we really need a backup pg
(which i don't understand because James is not a pg)
don't know why we did it before the trade if we are going after Brooks

CuttingEdge wrote:I don't do fantasy sports or trade checker but was wondering if the Rockets could afford to keep Juwan Howard along with the team they have now if they didn't trade for Mike James? At power forward we have Hayes/Scola/Howard. That would have totally balanced the team out since Mike James was never needed since Brooks can play.

I still think it was a very good trade for us , it didn't work out but at the time I though it was a good trade.
I would love to have Howard over James now though , he could fit this offense and he is a good guy , he is not some superstar though so I don't think about it at all.

We needed a "reliable" backup for Rafer (a lot of people thought he would take the starter's job), and we didn't know Stevie was going to be available. No one thought Brooks would get more than a few minutes at the end of games this year anyway.

It was a decent trade at that time, we didn't have a backup PG and that was our biggest need, we never expected Brooks to get in the rotation so soon.

TMACFORMVP wrote:It was a decent trade at that time, we didn't have a backup PG and that was our biggest need, we never expected Brooks to get in the rotation so soon.

i thought it was a bad one
we need a backup pg and scorer
but trading Howard for James would put us in a bigger hole in PF than PG

Is Juwan Howards big ass contract from his Wizard's days over? I know Rox could afford to keep Juwan Howard. The thing is James is an explosive player with some bad luck.. If James was still with the Wolves or joined a team like the Hawks he would probably be their star player. I guess it was a hard one but imagine if James refused to come back to Houston based on past experiences. Would the Rockets be better with the addition of Juwan at 4? I think so. If Scola aint hitting his jumpers Howard would.

Juwan would've been nice to have mainly because of his bench cheerleading and locker room chemistry. I'm serious.

Personally think mike james will start playing better by the playoffs(if we make it). he's a bigtime player and when the playoffs come around, he'll get hes act together. also i expect brooks to hit the rookie wall sooner or later. mike james will be a key piece in the playoffs.

T_mac_4eva wrote:Personally think mike james will start playing better by the playoffs(if we make it). he's a bigtime player and when the playoffs come around, he'll get hes act together. also i expect brooks to hit the rookie wall sooner or later. mike james will be a key piece in the playoffs.

Well what ever happened in Boston, which was mostly a good thing, will continue. The Rockets are now firing on several cylinders with Rafer taking charge and command of the flow of the offense and becoming a viscious defender. The Rockets will no doubt make the playoffs with Aaron Brooks also emerging. Two things to worry about is the bad officiating especially against Yao and what will happen when T-Mac comes back?

I wouldnt say were firing on all cylinders. a piss poor new jersey team also beat orlando the game before us in orlando. also the grizz blew it and should have also beaten the celtics. we beat a out of form orlando team and lost to a out of form celtics team in boston.. the warriors game was a true indication that were still nowhere near the elite teams .

Also tracy has never had a problem with sharing the ball, when hes asked to setup the offense hes done it and done it well. when we got a 6-1 start to the season, tracy was moving off the ball and was getting lot of easy shots. then he got injured and he's movement got limited. when he gets healthy again, i expect trascy to get alot of easy buckets off the ball again.

I agree with Tmac, I think Mike James is here to stay. For some reason I think he will start to do what he is supposed to do. Plus he has that nasty trade kicker and a horrible contract that would hurt the Rockets and the reason why certain teams do not want him. But I think he will turn it around and start to help us.

nsballer07 wrote:I agree with Tmac, I think Mike James is here to stay. For some reason I think he will start to do what he is supposed to do. Plus he has that nasty trade kicker and a horrible contract that would hurt the Rockets and the reason why certain teams do not want him. But I think he will turn it around and start to help us.

Of course he will get his act together.. HE HATES not playing, because the ball in not in his hand.. but if Aaron Brooks keeps developing, only with injuries will Mike James Play... and Steve Francis will try and work on his.

I think the good thing is that Mike James has more trade value than Juwan Howard. It's unfortunate that James isn't working out for us, but we could get some quality in return if we dealt him whereas nobody wants an aging Juwan Howard with a bad contract.

Granted that it is easier to say in hindsight that getting rid of Juwan Howard was a bad idea. However, getting rid of Juwan for Mike was a mistake. (Trading Juwan off for a true backup PG would have been okay.) I think the best trade H-town has done in the last few years was the trade of james for Alston. We should look at offloading his contract somewhere his skills could be used, (Miami for example?????) Scola should start in place of Hayes! In saying this, I understand a coaches aprehension at starting a "Rookie" Chuck has a low cost contract, and isn't really tradeable, but makes an adequate backup, or a great PF when a team goes small. Unfortunately we really aren't in any great position to move any players at the moment, at least none that would not significantly alter the team, and chemistry as well. If we were to make a trade, I can only see it happening in a three team deal. And the only player I see as truly expendable is James.

Failing a truly great PF falling in our laps, I can't see Houston doing much to alter it's line-up this year.

Getting rid of Howard wasn't a mistake nor a boon. I've written about that trade at length before. As far as trades go, let's face it, we're in the same boat we've been in since Tracy got here. We don't have much to work a trade with, and we don't have much we could use that we can get for what we do have.