I keep hearing this rumor on hoopswold, fanhome, and the rocketguy's site that the Rockets are obsessed with Wilcox and are talking to Clevland about drafting him with the 6th pick. Now, I know that those sites have sketchy credibility at best, but the Rockets did just have him in for workouts last week. Oh, by the way, all these sites say the Yao deal is ruined. Like I said, I don't know what to make of all this.
split the baby, rudy. split the baby. if the rox could find a way to get ahold of wilcox w/o giving up the #1 pick, our petulant, immature "leader" would be happy and we could still have ming. everyone's happy. that said, i still say we trade his punk ass to cleveland for andre miller - a TRUE POINT GUARD. hey, maybe we're trading steve for dre and the #6 pick?! WHOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!
If the Rockets could move up to number 6 without giving up the number one, why would the pick Wilcox over Caron Butler? Butler would fill our need at SF, while Wilcox would only make our best postion better with four good PFs in Mo, KT, Griff and Wilcox, where does all the playing time go?
Man I could live with and love this team: C: Ming PF: Wilcox SF: Griffin SG: Mobeley PG: Miller Wilcox probably wouldn't start but he could be the eventual starter. Ball-handling would be a problem, but isn't the rock safe with Andre Miller? Bring MoT, Nachbar, Mooch off the bench for instant offense and TMo, Oscar or Cato for defense.
If Cleveland doesn't want to pay Miller the max, why would they want to pay Steve? You can't trade them straight up since Francis makes more money. This is getting ridiculous, Francis hasn't done anything and people are still demanding that he be traded. Fairweather fans suck. Damn, it would be nice to find more people with common sense in here.
I'm a Rocket fan first-- regardless of who wears the uniform. Fair to assume that were Steve traded to Cleveland, you would become a Cavalier fan?
oh no. i've been calling for steve's head for quite some time, namely because he's not a true point guard. he's a shooting guard that doesn't push the ball, doesn't dictate the tempo of the game, and doesn't make his teammates better (save for cato, but damn who can't drive and throw an alleyoop?). in addition, he doesn't play defense on 1s and can't play defense on 2s either. this is no "new rant", Oski. i've been saying this longer than you've been on this board, trust me. want some more? well, he doesn't understand when to take a game over, is more concerned with his personal "glory" than team glory, and never has buckled down and committed himself (long term) to any team in his entire life. bonus play, time, Oski: how are you a "team leader" and yet refuse to go to the damn Mayo Clinic to take care of a problem that kept you out of 30+ games in the regular season? how are you a "team leader" and make negative comments about a potential future teammate? how are you a "team leader" and have ex-players say that you "don't listen" or "need to mature"? you can't. he's not. and i want his punk ass outta here on the first train to cleveland. give me dre.
Sure, why not? But it's a moot point since there's no chance in hell that Steve is traded to Cleveland or anyother team. There's only 2 possible outcomes of this draft. The first is that we draft Ming, Francis is upset but does what Rudy tells him (remember what a big deal it was when Francis waived off Rudy and called his own play?), and eventually will respect him and things will work out. The other is that things don't work out with China the Rockets are forced to implement plan B, whatever that is. All Francis has said is that he doesn't know about Ming. The whole evil Francis that people continue to rag on was created in here. If Francis was threatening to do anything close to the speculation that Francis haters have posted about, wouldn't at least one respectable journalist have mentioned something. There's not even a little snippet about there being any problems with Francis. If it were even remotely true, how can it not be getting some attention. The star of the team that is drafting Ming doesn't want him and is gonna rock the boat to get his way. That is a huge story. I've said it before and I'll keep on saying it, people who keep complaining about Francis and demanding that he be traded are the one's that created the Steve that you are angry with.
what a load, Oski. Steve has been treated like royalty in this town since the day he got here. By fans, by writers, by the organization, everyone.
Everyone except many writers like Fran Blinebury, who has made a living lately lambasting him for his immaturity, and a great number of "fans" on this board who seem to really have it out for our best player based on rumors and innuendo. Steve is treated as he should be by a loyal and well-respected organization that is known for treating its players well. Would you prefer the Rockets treated our only all-star and best player like Donald Sterling Jerry Krause do to their respective players? Steve Francis is what he is: An immensely talented player who is still developing, lest you forget the year he had before his health setbacks this last year. Steve was a scorer first because he had to be. Mobley, KT, our other two main scorers last year, scored at their respective peaks for this stage of their careers, and we still had trouble scoring. Steve had to have a score first mentality. I am under no illusion that Steve's defense was outstanding, but as I said he is a developing player, and his postitives far outweigh his negatives. Just compare our win-loss records with him in and out of the lineup for crissakes. I see no indisputable reason to believe Andre Miller would automatically make this a better team. Good player? Yes. Head and shoulders above Steve, not by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe Steve slept with some of your sisters or something, I don't know. But I really think you Steve haters should chill just a bit. It seems like you are just waiting for any tiny little hint of an issue to jump all over his case as if he's the antichrist. Steve Francis is (A)a rare talent, (B)our best player, (C)publicly loyal to our team. So maybe, just maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt.
Wilcox makes no sense. Maybe he is a great player. But, he's a power forward. The Rockets strike me as the type to work with what they've got, not move mountains to get the team to fit some archtype. Wilcox is fine, but Griffin already has his spot. If they trade Griffin and then take Wilcox, fine. But, it makes no sense to have both, with Mo T and Kenny to boot. So, I'd put no stock in those websites -- none of which I've ever trusted anyway.
Whatever happened to that drunk driving charge against Steve...did he get off? Didn't Pippen get a DWI here in Houston too? Throwing gasoline into the fire : ) I love Steve but explore all possibilities on making this team better. I wouldn't be suprised if we traded Griffin for Wilcox just to make Steve happy so he will re-sign if we draft Ming. milo _____________________________________
why would trading griffin for wilcox make steve happy? for all we know steve is 20 thousand times tighter with eddie then wilcox. this maryland conspiracy thing is getting ridiclous, they didn't even play together. let's see an unproven rookie for someone who steve has been quoted as saying he believes will make more all-star games than him. where's my rolleyes? stick a healthy francis on miller's exact same cavs team and they'd be in the east playoffs. believe it.
Which brings up the question would they trade two of their PF's for a chance at Wilcox and something else, like an Odom. Cleveland gets the great value KT and, say, Mcinnis. Houston gets #6 (Wilcox) and Odom. Clippers get Eddie Griffin, #15 and throwin as necessary. Rockets end up this offseason with Ming, Wilcox, Odom. Everybody is very very happy. I know a lot of Rox fans would think this too much too give up, but I'd probably make a move like that, especially considering Francis and Mobley would be ecstatic (both Wilcox and Odom) and so would the front office. Of course, I rarely make up trades off the top of my head so this is all very unlikely, but its fun to guess sometimes. EDIT: Response to BigM. I don't necessarily beleive the Francis-Maryland thing either, at least not to the extent of some of the other posters here. But it is apparantly known that Francis was not all that excited abotu the pickup of Griffin last year (is this true?), Francis goes and plays and has a camp in Maryland in the offseason, and was probably instrumental in bringing Terrance Morris to town. I have also seen unsubstantiated reports that he likes Wilcox's game (mainly from others on this board, so take that with a grain of salt).
i wouldn't do that trade but i think cleveland get's too much of a raw end anyways. i'm not big on wilcox and i love odom but i think eddie has so much promise, particularly a griffin/ming frontline. i'm willing to just throw that out there with our backcourt and whoever at the 3. edit to jayz from what i read steve was pissed about trading the picks for griffin but that was in the past. his more recent comments and getting the time to play with him makes me believe that steve has confidence in him. didn't him and mobley kind of take him under their wing? especially with the drafting of ming i doubt steve wants another question mark. though in your trade odom would offset that.
