Lakers @ Houston

[Nconroe]

How about that, we outshot and outrebounded the Lakers last night and won pretty easily in the 4th quarter. The Rockets seem to have a good group of shooters and different guys stepping up each night.

I heard the salary cap is at like 59mil, but you don't pay the 1-1 penalty till you go over 70 mil. I guess that letting Pops go and Dorsey to D league made it close. Plus, doesn't injury insurance pay salaries for McGrady and Yao? that would atleast lessen the sting if they are over the cap. Without Yao and McGrady their salary is like 34mil which is fairly low.

I don't know if they can or want to, but perhaps they could trade McGrady(once know his knee is healthy) for someone else( or a group of players) to try and get a little under the cap , perhaps including a center who could run with this offense.

[Joe Joe]

Originally Posted by Nconroe

I don't know if they can or want to, but perhaps they could trade McGrady(once know his knee is healthy) for someone else( or a group of players) to try and get a little under the cap , perhaps including a center who could run with this offense.

This is my hope. Ariza, Budinger, and Battier are fine at the wings. Brooks and Lowry are fine at the PG. Scola and Landry are fine at PF. Hayes is "okay" at the center, but I worry about him getting overpowered against the bigger frontlines. I say "okay", because the Rockets play better with him on the court. However, I'm unwilling to say that is because he is a stud or that everyone else sucks at center.

I would love to see McGrady + Scola to acquire a stud PF. Not that I see Scola as bad, but he is older than Landry. Budinger 21, Lowry 23, Ariza 24, Brooks 24, Hayes 26, and Landry 26 are 6 players to a solid rotation for a long time. That rotation just needs a couple of stars to carry it. Yao Ming may be one if he can get healthy.

[Nconroe]

I think Scola is our mvp right now, although several really contributing well. I'd kind of hate to trade Scola. We're pretty good and have great chemistry with these guys as is. But a center would help occasionally for sure. See how we do tonight. All depends who you get in return I suppose. I don't know, maybe McGrady could help us close out games as well, such as last night with Phoenix.

[Nconroe]

Continue to surprize me, beating Dallas last night in overtime, even without Landry who got elbowed in teeth early in the game. Hope Landry is back soon.

T Mac making a slow paced comeback, interesting to watch how this develops.