Aaron Brooks- supreme speed and quickness in getting to the hole and breaking the ankles of defenders. Accurate 3 point shot, decent passer. Can go off on a scoring streak at any time. Carl Landry- Athleticism around the basket, excellent jumping ability, good jumper from the outside, knack for getting a rebound surrounded by defenders. Kyle Lowry- Momentum changer when the odds are down. Comes in and completely changes the face of the game in the rockets favor, excellent passer(the best on this team) and great driving to the basket to draw fouls. Knack for getting the offensive rebound or making a steal. Causes the team to buckle down and run. Chase Budinger- Best player on the team at moving without the ball, excellent decision maker and very good passer. Excellent athleticism or "mega-hops" as Clyde puts it. Natural at hitting the 3, can hit the midrange jumper with a catch and shoot with confidence. very good defender with huge potential to improve. Enormous upside for a rookie. Chuck Hayes- Best post defender on the team. Crucial for doing that one little thing like taking a charge or stripping a ball from an opponent. A leader of our defensive identity. Vastly improved lay-up making this year. Shane Battier- Our Leader. Capable of making consecutive 3's on a catch and shoot. A defensive genius on the level of Hayes, often making the opponent taking shots where they don't want to.
Everyone on the team is tradeable except for Budinger. And that only because we know hes worth more than what other teams think hes worth, so we wont get good value by trading him, therefore hes probably the only rocket not on the market.
I'll have to strongly disagree with that. If the right deal comes along in Morey's eyes, anybody on this roster is tradeable, except for Yao I guess (assuming he's even eligible to be traded while he's injured).
The players I listed have shown the willingness to hustle, play together as a team, contribute something unique to the team, and go along with Adelman's game plan. These 3 things alone make them extremely valuable to keep, despite the perhaps superior talent out there that may or may not be hard head-cases.
Morey isn't going to screw it the nucleus of our team unless its for a proven(or potential) all-star who is relatively young floating around in the market out there.
only ones i see us definitely keeping are carl landry and chuck hayes. landry is helping us win games, plus i love the guy. hayes has the most value to the rockets. everyone else, i wouldn't mind trading if we could get some upgrade in talent. ariza is probably a keeper too since he's young, we just signed him, and has a lot potential if played next to an all star caliber player (like kobe). (and yao of course cause he's are only franchise player left if we can't get anyone else)
A great All-star for sure, but at the expense of gutting a team that's a proven winner and competitor? No thank you. I'd rather win games than have an All-Star score 44 points but still lose the game.
Nobody on this team is untradeable except for Yao. I can't see management sending him elsewhere even if Morey's stats say it's the right move. However, I really don't want to see Lowry, Landry, Scola, Hayes, or Budinger go. I'd hate to see Brooks or Battier go, but I could live with it. Those first 4 just epitomize Clutch City, and I really like Budinger's potential.
Can't get to the playoffs if we have an All-star leading a gutted phantom team, much less make any noise in the playoffs if by some miracle we were to make it.
Only reason Yao is untradeable is because the guy is damaged goods. Besides him, I say everybody on this roster is tradeable, although I would hate to lose Landry.
The only ones who I would consider untradable are TMac and Brian Cook. Who would be willing to take these off our hands and provide us something even slightly better in return? Those I would want to build the future of the rockets around are Battier (if cheap), Landry, Lowry, and Brooks. All except Battier are young with tremendous upside potentiality and Battier is so smart he can turn a selfish, stupid, uncoordinated team into one that gels - or so I believe.
