RealGM

Right now the Rockets have 17 players under contract for the 09-10 season.

all other things unchanged (no trades or potential signing) who will end up on the 15-man roster for the Rockets. Which of these two guys will not be here out of those on this list.

David Andersen
Trevor Ariza
Brent Barry
Shane Battier
Aaron Brooks
Chase Budinger
Brian Cook
Joey Dorsey
Chuck Hayes
Carl Landry
Kyle Lowry
Tracy McGrady
Pops Mensu-Bensah
Luis Scola
Jermaine Taylor
James White
Yao Ming

pretty obvious those with longer than one year of guaranteed contract will stay

so you are looking at cook, pops, barry

It's not even clear Pops has a guaranteed contract yet. Unless he knocks Adelman's socks off in training camp I imagine he and White (unguaranteed) are goners.

What Morey/Les do to trim the roster is, I'm betting, going to be more dramatic than we are guessing. Though Les will buy out guys when he has to, no trade (or combination of trades) between now and opening day would surprise me in the least.

Don't even get me started on the TEs.

Sure would like to be a fly on the wall in the Rox front office for the next month. (Or instead of being an insect, I'd settle for unfettered access to 3 well-chosen phone taps.)

barry/white/cook at least 2 of them wont be on the roster. yao will be on the injured list so we'll have an extra spot

As is-and I would be shocked if the team stays as is thru camp- it comes down to two positional duels.

1)Dorsey vs Mensah-Bonsu. M-B is cheaper,knows his role and benefits from Dorsey not having done anything yet for the Rockets and Dorsey having a better trade value,ala Steve Novak. Dorsey knows the system,was drafted by Morey,has the physical skills the Rockets like and has spent the summer working hard at Rockets practice facilities.
Dorsey had a good SL and the Rockets have gone out of their way to make the point he's been working extremely hard w/the staff. In ther words,his trade value has never been higher.
In camp Dorsey has to not just outplay M-B,but substantially outplay him by a wide enough margin to offset Dorsey's higher salary and better trade value.(I know there's probably less than $100,000 dif in salary. But we're talking about the 11nth man here and that savings prob would pay the salasry of one of Morey's younger stat guys.)
Best guess,Dorsey is either included in a trade package or gets salary/roster spot traded like Novak was last yr.

2)Barry vs White. Barry is vet mentor,has a game that fits McGrady's better and is more versatile being able to act as an emergency PG. White is cheaper,more athletic w/a disposable contract and could be sent to D-League. Unless an extra roster spot opens up elsewhere I believe Barry w/either be packaged in a trade or bought out. The reason is future roster flexability. Carrying 15 players during season means there's no room for a trade bringing in an extra player or a replacement for injury. White would give the Rockets a player w/a cheap contract,limited future,at a position where the team is deep and thus easily disposable to make room for another player.

Get rid of Barry and Cook.

Barry came here to retire so they will most likely let him do that... So I'd say Cook and White

I believe we received an Injury Exception for Yao Ming, which means we are allowed to have an extra person on the roster (until he is ready to play obviously), so we would only have to cut 1 person at a minimum. See ya James White.

dream34 wrote:I believe we received an Injury Exception for Yao Ming, which means we are allowed to have an extra person on the roster (until he is ready to play obviously), so we would only have to cut 1 person at a minimum. See ya James White.

We have a discussion on this topic (whether Yao occupied a roster spot) some weeks ago. We ended that discussion with a response from Feigen (from Houston Chronicles) that confirmed Yao would occupy a roster spot.

In that case, Rockets have to trade or cut/waive 2-3 players. Trade seem more likely option.

OK, a few roster moves have been made since I started this thread a while back, so what are the thoughts on the roster going into the season, and what do you think our depth chart will be?


Brooks / Lowry
Ariza / Budinger / Taylor
Battier / Taylor
Scola / Landry / Hayes
Andersen / Pops / Dorsey

With McGrady & Yao on IR.

White was traded to Denver for a Euro a couple of weeks back. Barry is retired or traded and I am willing to bet Landry gets dealt for a 5

Landry? Really?

Who do you think is available that we could get for Landry that would be an upgrade over Andersen? That would really leave us thin at the PF spot.

Barry= Gone one way or another
Cook= Gone one way or another
Beck= Cut
Pops= Cut
Temple=Cut
Landry,Lowry,McGrady for Amare,Barbosa.

Without Yao

Brooks/Barbosa/Conroy
Ariza/Taylor/Barbosa
Battier/Budinger
Scola/Andersen/Hayes
Amare/Hayes/Dorsey
*Yao

With Yao
Brooks/Barbosa/Conroy
Ariza/Barbosa/Taylor
Battier/Budinger/Taylor
Amare/Scola/Andersen
Yao/Scola/Hayes/Dorsey

i kid