Rockets Fans : What do you want Morey to do next?

I think the only thing Morey has to do now is make room for the young guys. We have to get rid of Cook and Barry (easier said than done, though).

THEN RELEASE THE KRAKKEN!

God I hate Brian Cook with passion!

stick with them (but never play Cook), let Wafer go, and then give a roster spot to either Budinger or Taylor. We can wait to trade McGrady until the deadline. We haven’t got many options with free agency, so we need to just stick with what we got.

Take out their ankles. Inactive list.

 it’s probably best to have a list of players that are guaranteed on out roster, then the unsigned rookies as a separate list. That way we know what options we have with the rookies and unsigned guys and then who we could D-league or IL, drop or trade.

We can have a 15 man squad right, with 13 players suiting up and 2 on the I.L and Rick rotation would be 9 deep out of the 13 yeah? (Correct me on any of this if I’m wrong!!!)

Under Contract-
 Trevor Ariza SG-SF
 Brent Barry G
 Shane Battier SF/SG
 Aaron Brooks PG
Brian Cook F
Joey Dorsey F-C
Chuck Hayes F-C
Carl Landry F
Kyle Lowry G
Tracy McGrady G-F
 Luis Scola F-C
Andersen- F-C

UNSIGNED ROOKIE
Jermaine Taylor G
Sergio Llull G (STAYING IN EUROPE)
Chase Budinger F

UNDER CONTRACT
James White G-F

Yao Ming- C (IL)

FREE AGENTS
Von Wafer (FA) SG

So from last season we have 11 players returning with Andersen signing and White making 13 with his rights until we sign the rookies. But that probably will not come till the start of Oct.

Yao is out all season so he’s IL yeah- would Tmac be on there too until he returns then?

So If we can shed Cook that means we can definitely keep dorsey in the rotation right?
And we have no real need for Barry (playing wise) so If we move him we can sign both rookies

Current team
PG- BROOKS/LOWRY
SG-BATTIER /BARRY (TMAC to return)
SF- ARIZA/ (James White- only cause we hold his contract)
PF-SCOLA/LANDY/HAYES
C-ANDERSEN//DORSEY

Start of the season – roster that I would like to see
PG- BROOKS/LOWRY
SG-BATTIER/TAYLOR/ (TMAC to return)
SF- ARIZA/ Budinger
PF-SCOLA/LANDY/HAYES
C-ANDERSEN//DORSEY
12 man squad- if Tmac isn’t looking good to go from the start- we will need to sign Von
if we can. Otherwise we would have to use White…

Look, I don’t want him either, but think about what we would have if he wasn’t here: Rafer Alston. Cook also came with Kyle Lowry. I’ll take Cook’s stupid contract for one more year if it means gaining Lowry and shedding Alston. Plus, can you blame the guy for taking a free $3.5 million deal for one year? There’s nothing better than that this side of Keith Van Horn.

Though I wouldn’t mind if we traded Cook for a draft pick or something. There’s got to be teams looking for expiring contracts for the Summer of LeBron, and he’s a good one. Though, I think the Rockets might hold onto the contract for the same reason. Scola and Lowry become free agents (restricted), so the Rockets may need that money to tie them up, or maybe go after someone else.

Barring the fact that we make a blockbuster trade, this is what I’d do…
Re-sign Wafer….Simply because I’ve not been impressed with White & Taylor in Summer League, as for now Wafer is clearly better than either of them.

PG-Brooks,Lowry
SG-Wafer,Battier,Taylor,McGrady
SF-Ariza,Budinger,Barry
PF-Scola,Landry,Hayes,Cook
C-Andersen,Dorsey

Odd an out would be James White, was orrible during Summer League. I would love to see the Rox get rid of Barry & Cook, but I don’t see them eating those contracts.

And YES, thats Von Wafer in the starting lineup, we need offense and he provides that…With Brooks & Wafer we’d have the fastest backcourt in the leqgue to push the tempo, both can creqte their own shot. Plus having Battier come off the bench makes sense. That mean we’ll always have a fresh defensie stud on the court.

and people on our site dont agree with me on this but dont you agree that brooks, battier, hayes and a first round pick or 2 is a very good offer for our undersized no defense sg monta ellis.
Our team is a terrible defensive team so we add 2 of the best defenders in the entire league. we have no true point so we get your aaron brooks

The Rockets currently have 14 guys signed to guaranteed contracts for next season (that includes Brian Cook, Brent Barry, James White and Joey Dorsey), and the Rockets essentially have guaranteed money in Budinger and Taylor because of the financial investment in purchasing the picks. This makes Morey’s job even more difficult because if he isn’t able to get out from one of the contracts, he’s going to have to go to Les and say we’ve got to eat a couple million dollars somewhere by cutting one of these guys. Morey’s too smart to let that happen, but he’s got to make something happen to get out of that situation without introducing Von to that mix. And unless he’s able to move a couple of the guaranteed contracts, I don’t see him doing anything with Von.

It seems to me that the most likely scenario is that a team with a trade exception brings in a guy who has some value (ala the Suns dumping Kurt Thomas with the Sonics along with a couple of second round picks). I could see a team thinking that Brent Barry could add some value. Same with Chuck Hayes. I don’t know what teams have available trade exceptions, but that’s one way to get out.

The other option is to package contracts, but with TMac, you’d probably have to bring more players back to match salaries. And I’d rather use the wait and see approach. Even if TMac isn’t able to come back before the deadline, there will be teams wanting that expiring contract, and by then, Morey ought to have a better idea of what the Rockets have in Ariza and the rookies and how Brooks and Landry have improved, which should help in fitting a team around those guys.

You could try to pack Battier and some other piece (Barry/Cook) for some player. I can’t imagine the Rockets would get much in such a trade, but if you’re just trying to get within roster limits, maybe you take it.

I guess the last realistic option is you package Hayes, Cook and Barry and just tell another team we’ll take a bad contract for these three expiring deals. The Grizzlies owe Marko Jaric another $15 million over the next two seasons, so you could save the Grizzlies a few million in the 2010-2011 season, and you might even get to catch Adriana Lima somewhere around the Toyota Center sometime. That’s got to be worth something. If you get really desparate, there are a lot of bad multi-year contracts out there that you could probably take on that start in the $6-$10 million range next season. (And on a completely unrelated note, I just spent the last fifteen minutes clicking through HoopsHype and there are some pretty shitty contracts out there, I’m looking at you Sacramento and Golden State).