Patient Mode

[40Cal]

Well I just decided to bring this up.

"We're trying to add players through trades primarily who help us win now and in the future. It does put a higher bar on the moves. They are a little more rare. We're not trying to move any contracts. Now that we have a pretty good sense Yao will be back next year, definitely the plan is to put a team around Yao for next year, and be as competitive as we can this year." - Morey

Putting a team around Yao. so most likely bye-bye McGrady??

[Moreyball]

I thought it was more than obvious that TMAC is an afterthought beyond this season.

Rockets are doing the right thing stockpiling quality to above average role players (ariza, taylor, andersen, budinger)..should be very lucrative for one of the max contract free agents next season (lebron, dwade, joe johnson) to know he can come to the rockets and compete for a championship.

and perhaps a lotto pick!

[BaYBaller]

Honestly I don't think many people are even expecting T-Mac to be on the roster at the end of THIS season, much less past 2010.

[Moreyball]

i think his contract will expire as a rocket and it could be for the best. the only value the rockets would get in return would be a bad contract or contracts that would probably extend beyond this season. so that's a no.

and let's say he does return and plays well and for some reason the rockets miss out on dwade, johnson, etc.

tmac could be resigned for significantly SIGNIFICANtly SIGNIFICANTLY less money to come off the bench as a super sub or something. like under 3mil per type money

[Mr. E]

Patient Mode suits me just fine. It seems that since it was announced that Yao would likely be out for the season 97% of NBA fans (not from Houston) figured that meant that in addition to getting hurt, the Rockets got really, really dumb as well. People act as if Daryl Morey of all people would be willing to take back overpaid, long-term trash like Eddy Curry for the ability to move McGrady's deal.

This isn't a team that is desperate or panicking. Offering a longer deal to Ariza instead of Artest (pretty big fan favorite) will likely prove to be a smarter decision in the long run. Trading for and signing a well-regarded International prospect in David Andersen to a very friendly contract could well turn out to be a smarter decision than to overpay for Gortat. I'm not saying that these deals are going to mitigate the loss of Yao or even guarantee us a playoff spot, but so many people quickly forgot that this scrappy bunch of no-namers has proven repeatedly to be competitive in the face of adversity.

We didn't overpay for risky free agents; we didn't trade youth or picks for long-term contracts. Around the fandom of the League it would appear that they feel that the Rockets have nothing to feel good about, but they'd be saying the same thing even if we did resign Artest & break out the bank for Gortat.

This will be a more competitive bunch than most will realize. They may not walk into the playoffs, but they will fight their way for the right to be there with their heads held high and their hearts on their sleeves (well - if NBA uniforms had sleeves, but lets not be nitpicky here).

[Mike12345]

As much as i love every move that has been made basically by Morey and his approach with Ariza and Anderson etc.

I really do not like that statement. We know Yao will be back for 2010 so were building around him???
We dont know anything about Yao or his health and building around an injury prone center is rolling the dice. Im from Toronto and this is a similiar situation to Vince Carter, the ownership holds onto something because it puts people in the seats. By the time the raptors decided to build around someone else they got nothing for Vince.

I personally dont believe we can ever be contenders with Yao because at any point he can wake up and have a broken foot. We could be in game 7 of the finals and yao could still wake up with a broken foot.

Im not saying keep tmac either, im just saying why are we building around a player whos shown he cannot be relied on, and plays a position where his presence cannot be replaced

[moofs]

It's been explained before. Yao isn't leaving. See all the 1098579823457923845629389238475 posts on why Yao makes this franchise money. Even if we're losing, we win. From that, it follows naturally that we have to build around him since he's our highest paid player (the illusion of TMac aside). Health is not considered unless it makes him unmarketable or forces retirement.

As an unrelated aside, for all that's complained about "they're killing Yao's career" and "he should be allowed to have a healthy life" and whatnot, check into the health history of NFL players and see if you think repeating that again still makes sense.