The Rockets’ top offseason priority: Find Yao’s backup
Yao Ming
There are two realities the Houston Rockets need to accept and address this summer: First, as much as it pains me to say it, Tracy McGrady will never be “T-Mac” again, the dude consistently dropping 30 points a night against any defense in the League and sitting right up there with Kobe and D-Wade in the two-guard hierarchy. And second, Yao Ming is not a reliable superstar and needs to have his minutes monitored closer than a baseball team monitors an ace pitcher’s pitch count.
So far this offseason, it looks like the Rockets aren’t ignoring the T-Mac issue. McGrady’s name has already popped up in multiple trade rumors (New York, Memphis, Phoenix) and sources close to the team say Houston is almost desperate to unload his $23 million contract. Whether they get something done or not, they are trying, and they at least came away from the NBA Draft with some guards (Jermaine Taylor, Chase Budinger) who could help replace some of McGrady’s offensive explosiveness and scoring punch. And re-signing Von Wafer would help, so long as he doesn’t cost too much.
Now it’s onto Yao. Getting a center to back him up and who’s good enough to start the next time Yao gets hurt should be top priority. (And if there’s any truth to this report, it could be much, much more of an emergency.) Houston had a great chance to knock off the Lakers in the conference semis even after Yao got hurt, but their lack of size hurt them. And even if Yao’s feet weren’t being held together with Elmer’s Glue and popsicle sticks, Dikembe Mutombo‘s retirement leaves Houston with no backup. And I’m talking about a real center, not a converted power forward like Chuck Hayes or Joey Dorsey.
The Rockets missed their opportunity in the Draft, so now they need to make something happen in free agency or via trade. Who’s out there? The best free agents are Mehmet Okur, Rasheed Wallace and Zydrunas Ilgauskas (if he opts out), but they’ll cost too much if Houston still has McGrady’s contract, plus don’t forget they need to re-sign Ron Artest. A level down, you’ve got guys like Zaza Pachulia, Birdman Andersen and Marcin Gortat, but they still might command too much.
There are two guys out there, though, who would definitely come cheap and, in their own way, fit what Rick Adelman is looking for in a center.
Channing Frye fell off the map after his standout rookie year with the Knicks — I still get crap for the feature I wrote in Frye in Dime #28 headlined “The Untouchable” — but he’s got legit center size (6-11, 250), some quickness, and the mid-range jumper and basketball IQ/passing ability that Adelman likes (Yao, Vlade Divac). Then there’s Ryan Hollins, an energetic 7-foot, 230-pounder who can keep up with Houston’s smaller quicker lineup and is a great athlete for the position who can block shots.
Both restricted free agents, Frye (26) and Hollins (24) could learn just by watching Yao — Frye more so because he’s a similar player to Yao — and the Rockets can employ Hakeem Olajuwon, who still lives in Houston and is loosely associated with the organization, to put whoever they get into a big-man’s boot camp and mold them into a solid contributor.
Bringing Artest back is crucial, doing something to address McGrady’s drop-off is important, but if the Rockets can’t get Yao to finish a postseason without wearing a walking boot, they’ll never get where they want to go.
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June 29th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Maynard says:
It might be even worse than that — according to a report on Yahoo, they’re afraid Yao might miss the season and they’d have to find a STARTING center. They even say his career might be in jeopardy. I guess years of year-round ball were just too costly. It’s tough for any pair of feet to support 7 feet and 6 inches without periods of rest. I mean, the guy is listed at 310 pounds.
June 29th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
BNZA says:
I doubt we will see Yao again on the court. It was nice to meet you.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Dennis Castro says:
What if he tried dropping like 30 lbs to lessen the impact on his feet? I know it would be hard for him, but at this point if I were him I’d try anything.
What if some Dr Scholl’s inserts were the solution to Yao’s problems. That’d be some crazy ish.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
rangerjohn says:
terrible news for the rockets, they now cant aford to let tracy go for some crappy contracts like larry hughes! i mean damn whith no yao, no tracy, does that mean artest is the 1st option (provided they get him resigned?) or shane? who is optiong #1 regardless of who is #2 or #3?
houstons trainers/med staff obviously SUCK! they are always having hurt guys and cant keep them healthy, hell even shane mr “iron man” that he is made out to be missed time last season.
only good thing about the suns is their med staff, maybe houston can get some pointers.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
SparkyJ23 says:
Marcin Gortat really impressed me during the playoffs – i think with minutes he could put up some real numbers. He reminds me of ‘Zo offensively
June 29th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Prof. TX says:
Those contracts will look pretty good when the trade deadline gets here. Teams looking to shop next summer will find those McGrady/Yao dollars pretty attractive and might part with some starter-level talent for that kind of spending power.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Chaos says:
i kinda like that Channing frye and ryan hollins deal…why did channing frye fall off the map…oh yea he player for the knicks
June 29th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Hugo says:
Stop it … Don’t talk about Hollins, we in Dallas are trying to keep him low profile so he won’t cost a lot …
June 29th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
JoeGym says:
Damn! damn! damn!
June 29th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
rangerjohn says:
@#6
i dont see anyone offering and decent players to the rockets unless they have a bad or long contract involved. i have been saying for a year now that tracy will finish his contract in houston because nobody is going to offer a package worth taking for the rockets. remember houston REALLY wants money for the off season next year. the only teams offering anything for tracy’s expiring contract or yaos busted legs are teams that would want to dump salary. morey isnt dumb enough to take those bad contracts. i just dont see it happening.
June 29th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Showydisplay says:
Yao is out for the season!
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-yaorockets062909&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
They should have already addressed the front court situation by now, and NOW look at the quandary.
I think Morey will try his best to rectify but Houston has a REAL PROBLEM NOW!
June 29th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Prof. TX says:
The Rockets can still find good replacements by looking for teams that are rebuilding and moving their unhappy star (Amare Stoudemire) or teams that are cutting costs and don’t want to pay some of their players’ asking price (Ben Gordon). With alot of teams getting cheap, there might be some bargains out there when you can offer as much cap space as these big Houston contract provide.
June 29th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Amar says:
finding Yao’s backup? more like finding the guy Yao will back up.
June 29th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
sh!tfaced says:
wow. yao should say no to his china for once and give his nba career a break (no pun intended), if he really wants a chance for a ring. it’ll be the world basketball championships again next year.
June 29th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
dk says:
lmfao Is he even ever gonna play pro ball again? What moron puts the frnchise on the back of an 8′ china man? I guess the same person that wuld let a poss molester watch their kids. its not natural.
June 29th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
SWAT says:
welcome to heartbreak…nuff said
June 29th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Hugo says:
Things are getting worse to the Rockets … In the last few years, Yao and T-Mac broke down at the middle of the season, now nobody wants T-Mac and Yao is already out for the season / carrer.
June 29th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
karizmatic says:
Maybe Houston could possibly engineer a trade for Biedrins.
June 29th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Kobeef says:
where’s gee?
I want to hear his take on this
June 29th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
haslem says:
Frye is the way to go
June 29th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
POPPI GEE says:
Kobeef what up!! Man on the real I been preachin this before it got preached. I just typed something similar on the Yao out for the season deal.
Bottom line is you can’t even feel sorry for Houston being in this situation cause they certainly put themselves in it.
Tracy should have taught Houston that when you see a trend in injury you act then. Yao always been frail and he in two playoffs he let the world know even more about his durability or lack there of if you will.
In that regard I just knew Houston was going to use the draft to (mind you they purchased 3 picks) get at least 1 center. Common sense. What did they do get some smallies.
I been saying trade Yao, even when dude was healthy. Houston has created this mess themselves and now it’s just going to be interesting to see how they get out of it. Perhaps they will pull of something major but they have had time and it seems as if time is going to pass them by if they don’t act.
This “Let’s wait and see” stuff basically still has Houston and their fans waiting and wanting.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
BiG ShoT BoB says:
I think the best deal would be with the Clippers or the Griz. Those two teams have a glut of bigs they don’t need. they could get Hadadi or whatever his name is. They could have gotten Milicic on the cheap. They can get Camby or Chirs Kaman which I think is the best option available. They could also get Zack Randolph who fits with Adelman because he can step out and shoot the jumper. Heck they could have even drafted BJ Mullins who is a project but at least he’s healthy.