According to Jonathan Feigen - Rio Grande Vipers center and Xiane object of basketball desire Greg Smith will be signed by the Rockets today. Feigen cites interest from other teams in the 6'10 260lb center. His raw stats are quite good.

Smith is averaging 16.8 points, 8.3 rebounds 1.3 steals and 1.3 blocks per game in 28 minutes average with a .677 shooting percentage. Projected to 40 minutes stats those numbers would be: 22pts, 11 rbs, 1.7 blocks, 1.7 steals.

He may be raw, but he's a natural center, and for a third, possibly second, center you could do worse. Feigen notes that this signing is not related to Samuel Dalembert and Jordan Hill spending most of the Denver game glued to the bench, but I would say it's not unrelated either.

Smith is a very young player, just turning 21 in January, and it surprised some observers that he wasn't drafted. Here's the Draft Express profile.

The likely casualty here is Jeff Adrien and now I find that a shame, because the Rockets seemed to finally find someone to partly fill the Chuck Hayes role - undersized, overstrong, scrappy and great at rebounding, not a scorer.

I enjoyed seeing a Rocket swing his elbows on a rebound for what seems like the first time this season. I hope that we make a move and send Flynn or Thabeet away for valuable prizes instead.

One last note - Former Rocket Jeremy Lin seems to have found a home in New York with the Knicks. (Because any point guard is better than no point guard perhaps.) Someone projected his stats over 48 minutes and they're better than DWade's (except for the turnovers). I find this hilarious. We may regret keeping Jonny "Aaron Brooks Without The Shooting" Flynn.

Update: Adrien was in fact cut by the team today, per Feigen.

So a few days ago I was thinking, if I could choose any 12 NBA players to fill out a roster for $60 million who would I choose. So I put one together. Now it is your turn. Fill out a 12 man roster with salaries from the 2011/2012 season (that would be salaries from THIS NBA season) without going over the 60 million cap! I completed my roster already and will be in the first post...and hey, I ONLY spent 59 million! And by the way, I guess you don't have to but I did put one Rox player on my team.

If you want to include some comments as to why you chose certain players and not others feel free to do so. I didn't include any comments because I had already wasted about an hour and 15 minutes of my life spending my hard earned money as an NBA owner so I decided against wasting any more time. I actually thought that I might spend about 30 to 45 minutes on this but you won't believe what some of these players make for the work they do, or more importantly, the work they don't do!

I am sure that all sites have the same NBA salaries, but just to be sure that everyone is using the same salaries, use http://hoopshype.com/salaries.htm as the reference. And round to the nearest million (up or down).

Last thing (which I guess will be my comment): I really had a hard time deciding on my SG's as I was really not inclined to spend 42% of my cap space on a man that is scoring 30 pts a game with only one hand! And it is hard to say this, but I also was not inclined to spend my coin on our own dear Kmart even though he is the second leading scorer among SG's.

Hey guys, my favorite team is the Blazers but Ive always loved the Rockets. Our teams have traded players in the past and coaches. Plus the very first playoff game I ever went to was a few years ago when we played yall in the 1st round, what a series, which you guys eventually won vs us.

Anyways, I saw that dirty dirty play by Kevin Love last night and I just wanted to say what a jerk. Kick a man in the face when hes down. Every national analyst that I saw and heard who reviewed the play, all of them said it WAS NOT ACCIDENTAL!!! Love should be suspended IMHO. That was a bunch of bullspit! And then the fact that a foul wasnt even called on the throw down of Scola and then no foul called on the face kicking--WEAK!!! Our NBA league needs to step it up and do something. I hope the Refs get fined as well, they were letting that game get waaaay out of hand. I just wanted to rant about it a little. I feel better now.

Anyways, much respect to the Rockets, you fans and Luis Scola.

Peace Out,

CJB

Karl Malone Sucks

As you can gather from the link, which really has nothing at all to do with the rockets and everything to do with mocking the Jazz and their most renowned player, it's a story about how Karl Malone had to buy a scalped ticket to go to a Jazz game. Hopefully this brought a smile to some of your faces. I know I chuckled a little bit at it when I saw the story.

First, the link (I concede this is speculative, and that's why I didn't title this post in a way that suggested a trade has been floated)

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/5-on-5-120131/nba-dwight-howard-trade-machine-thoughts (go down to the #5 point)

Chicago is clearly in need of outside scoring with Rip's nagging injuries and Deng's inconsistency. Kevin Martin is one of the most consistent outside scorers in the league.

We are in need of a long-term solution at the C position (arguably the hardest position on the court to fill with quality talent). Noah is one of the best centers in the league, aside from Howard, M. Gasol and Bynum. He is good for an efficient double-double, and is an incredible defender who boxes out well, blocks shot and doesn't get bullied on the block.

While I would hate to see Kevin Martin go (I have his jersey, after all), we have a backup with starting experience in Lee (who is also a better defender and someone the team trusted to start, evidenced by the nixed Gasol trade) and shooting guards are a dime a dozen in the league.

Would you guys do that swap? I saw a similar discussion on clutchfans, and not surprisingly, people are balking at the idea.

Side-note: this kind of move would mesh nicely with acquiring Wilson Chandler through FA (smiley-face)

Looks like the good guys are trying to trade for Chris Kaman..

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/sam_amick/02/01/kaman.trade/index.html?sct=hp_t2_a5

what do u guys think? i personally think that another capable C would help us tremendously...we might not have a superstar center but w D Bear and Kaman we would have a pretty solid front court..also looks like we wont be getting rid of any players of consequense...NEED ONE MORE WORD

I been to a lot of games an i watched almost all of dem on tv..... i jus wanna say a couple things......

1. They look tired....we are young an what not but scola looks tired ppat stil aint in full shape and lowry is lookin human cuz dat man dnt got alot of energy.....

2. we cant win eregame ...jus sayin......when we win ppl love tha rockets when we lose we are horrible.....we win some we lose some....jus sayin.....

3. not havin a superstar to carry da team is hurtin us more in dis season i think........we dnt got someone to lean on eregame bro.....wit scola not producin and d bert not a scorer we only got martin.....i dnt think lowry(my fav player) is ever gonna be a scorer.....hes a good tier 2 or 3 star.......martin is a good scorer but not a superstar...... its wat happens i guess.....

4. Lowry- finally letting the lack of gas get to dat man

dragic- playin good but dat man is jus a spark but i like him

martin- playin good at scoring and decent at erething else.....good tier 2 or 3 star

lee- playin pretty good.....not better than martin still in my eyes bros...but i mean if we gotta good post or 3 i woulndt mind startin dis cat.....

parsons- hes cold but he hit a rookie wall i will give dis man some slack....still looks wack

c bud- playin like he wants his startin spot back el oh el.....imo

scola-still da ladies man but hes old....we kno dis........still cold bros still cold

pp - too slow to play da 3 .......gettin better still i like dis man

d bert- playin like a beast i still see dis man as a back up doe.......iuno jus do......

t will- wordappppppppppppppp

jus how i feel bros

[Note by Xiane, 01/30/12 9:56 PM CST ] Frequent contributor to The Dreamshake .Bonzo kindly provided this recap of a game that was far from pleasant for Rockets fans. Show him your love.

This was one of those games where you can tell exactly what happened just by googling the box score. Minnesota came out, one night after losing in Los Angeles to the struggling Lakers, and handed Houston its behind wrapped in 34 points from Michael Beasley.

Beasley got to the rim at will, and nobody from the Rockets had anything to say about it. In addition to going 10-14 from the field, he ended up at the free throw line 12 times, draining all 12 attempts. Something you might not know if you didn't watch the game is that the Rockets actually had the lead at the end of halftime. Surprising, I know.

The first half consisted of a fast pace game in which the Rockets were just plain outscoring the Timberwolves, but the Rockets decided to punish the empty stadium they were playing to by letting the Timberwolves score a franchise high 42(!) points in the third quarter.

To put that in context, the Orlando Magic scored 42 through 3 quarters today (although the Magic's offensive struggles are a completely different topic). Kevin Love, who scored 39 on us last time, had a quiet 29 points and 7 rebounds, mainly due to the fact that every time Beasley touched the ball our deficit would get worse. Kevin Martin, returning from a 2 game injury rest, poured in 29 while somehow missing 4 freethrows.

More random analysis on the game after the jump.

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The Hornets are getting inquires from several teams interested in obtaining center Chris Kaman in a trade, according to league sources. Since General Manager Dell Demps said this past Friday they intend to trade Kaman, at least five teams have inquired, including Southwest Division rivals the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets.

source: http://www.nola.com/hornets/index.ssf/2012/01/new_orleans_hornets_are_gettin.html

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Assuming the Rockets fail to land Pau Gasol or Dwight Howard, and accepting that Kyle Lowry's improvement has made pursuing Deron Williams less of a priority, what free agents will Daryl Morey & co. try to land this summer? It's early, but here are some players to keep an eye on. (Relying on this list.)

Guards

Andre Miller (Unrestricted) Yes, he will be 36 years old, but his game has aged well, he has experience playing in two point guard sets, so he can play alongside Lowry, and he can run the second unit efficiently, providing a steady hand to help the Rockets' young players develop.

Kirk Hinrich (Unrestricted) Remember him? He'll be 32, and is coming off injuries, but he should still be able to shoot the 3, play some defense, and run a second unit. He should also be affordable because of aforesaid injuries, and the number of point guards hitting free agency this summer.

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