The Rockets Are Optimistic: The Houston Rockets have not sat out the off-season. They were in the mix with Marcin Gortat; they got after Trevor Ariza very quickly when talks with the Lakers soured. They were involved in talks with New Orleans about Tyson Chandler; they opted instead to trade for David Andersen who cost them less in terms of assets.
The draft was very good to them, grabbing NBA-caliber players out of the second round. Summer League provided proof of growth for their squad, but the Rockets are still going to open the season without Yao Ming and the prognosis on Tracy McGrady is positive but until he plays you just don't know.
You'd think the Rockets would be scrambling for a deal, however Rockets' GM Darryl Morey says he's talking to teams every day, but there is no rush to make a bad deal.
"It's more we're in patient mode," Morey said to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. "We're trying to add players through trades primarily who help us win now and in the future. It does put a higher bar on the moves. They are a little more rare. We're not trying to move any contracts. Now that we have a pretty good sense Yao will be back next year, definitely the plan is to put a team around Yao for next year, and be as competitive as we can this year."
"History would say other moves are coming," Morey said. "It is less likely this is (the) roster.
"If we could add an all-star-caliber player, that would be a home run. Teams don't give them away. To outperform expectations, we need one of our players to play at an All-Star level or Mac to come back and play at that level, or a trade."
"You're always trying to do better, but I don't think disappointed would be the word," Morey said of not being able to make a splashy deal yet. "We're continually vigilant to upgrade. We're at a somewhat stable point. We feel like we can be competitive. We're always looking for the next step.
"I think we're going to have a tall task ahead of us to be a playoff team. I think that is the goal for us. The history of teams with no all stars making playoffs is pretty limited."
The biggest trade chips the Rockets have are Shane Battier, which the Rockets are reluctant to part with, and the ending contract of Tracy McGrady.
League sources say interest in McGrady is extremely low - most teams willing to explore him are offering dreadful contracts or no talent. The belief is that Houston is better off seeing if Tracy can indeed play this season as the Rockets are telling people and get him on the floor to raise his value. As it stands today, Tracy is worth more as an ending contract to Houston's salary cap than what he can return in trade.
Battier has value, but the belief is once Houston trades him they will start to fall apart as a team as he is the primary glue guy that has made it all work to this point; his leadership especially with so many young guys is highly valued in Houston. He's not untouchable, but he'd have to return a quality upgrade for Houston to consider it.
The Rockets have interest in deals; it's simply a case of waiting out the market and finding the right upgrades. The Rockets are not delusional that this team as constructed in a power team in the West and they are aggressively looking at ways to change that.
A Couple More Moves: Things are chugging along on the deal front. The Raptors will consummate their trade with Golden State later today, and the Atlanta Hawks will likely announce their deal with Marvin Williams. There is still no word on the Lakers and Lamar Odom, although talks are said to be continuing. The Grizzlies reached terms with Marcus Williams on a one-year deal, so roster spots are starting to disappear. Here are today's notes:
Something For Nothing: The Toronto Raptors have reached a deal sending Devean George, whom they acquired in the Shawn Marion trade with Dallas, and cash considerations to the Golden State Warriors for third-year guard Marco Belinelli. The deal is expected to become official later today.
The move likely signals the end of discussions with Carlos Delfino, who recently told a Spanish language TV station that he was really looking forward to re-joining the Raptors and returning to the NBA, suggesting a deal in Toronto might be close.
This trade does not preclude the Raptors financially from making a deal with Delfino, but with rookie Demar DeRozan and now Belinelli joining a very full Raptors' roster is there a real need for Delfino? That's remains to be seen.
Marvin Gets His Deal: Hawks' sources in Las Vegas for summer league explained two weeks ago that things were progressing with restricted free agent Marvin Williams and yesterday both sides reached an agreement on a five-year deal worth just short of $40 million.
Sources say the gap in talks had been roughly $2.5 million – The Hawks offer was five-years $37.5 million, Marvin's camp wanted $40 million. The compromise appears to be incentives that would push the deal to almost $40 million depending on how far the Hawks go as a team and where his stats and games played numbers end up.
The deal is expected to be announced today.
The Hawks will now focus more attention on signing Joe Smith. Sources close to Smith's camp says Atlanta is where he wants to be; he may ink a two-year deal with the Hawks at some point in the next week.
The Hawks are not expected to retain Ronald "Flip" Murray who is seeking a multi-year deal and may get it with the Philadelphia 76ers.
One More Week For Sessions?: Our good friend Tonny Dee of SNY.tv.and TheKnicksBlog.com is reporting that the Knicks remain interested in Ramon Sessions and would rather retain him than sink more money into restricted free agent Nate Robinson (considered Plan B). The hold up on an offer seems to be the fate of Bucks' guard Bruce Bowen who's contract is not guaranteed until August 1st.
The Bucks are sitting on roughly $68.5 million in salary commitments for the 2009-2010 season with the Luxury Tax threshold set at $69.92 million, leaving them almost no room to match an offer for Ramon, keep Bowen and stay under the tax.
The Bucks have been aggressively shopping Bowen trying to unload his contract before Saturday's deadline to guarantee. The Boston Celtics are rumored to have more than a passing interest in Bowen should he be waived by the Bucks, although sources close to the situation say Bowen might opt to return to San Antonio if he gains his release.
Depending on how the Bucks handle Bowen in the coming days will ultimately determine how teams like the Knicks and Clippers handle Sessions. Luxury Tax is not computed until the end of the season, so the Bucks face no penalty in matching an offer for Sessions now, they would simply have to dump some salary before the NBA trade deadline if they genuinely want to avoid the Luxury Tax.
Holding Firm: The Chicago Bulls said from the opening of free agency that they were not going to be big players this summer. The word was they were more than pleased with the progress made last year that it would be better to hold the line than to do anything silly and Bull's GM Gar Forman says he thinks his team is basically set for training camp.
"We're still in contact with a number of teams," Forman said to Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald. "We're always exploring ways we can get better. At the same time, we like our young core. We like where we're at. We thought the rookies made nice progress in the summer league.
"The majority of our core is back from last season. I think Jannero (Pargo) is going to help. Really, John (Salmons) and Brad (Miller) having been with us and going through a full training camp is going to help us. For the most part, I think we're pretty much done."
The Bulls may sign one more player, restricted free agent Aaron Gray. They spent a considerable amount of time with Aaron in Las Vegas where he is training with Joe Abunassar of Impact Basketball. The Bulls mapped out goals for Aaron and a game plan for him this season, all that remains is to get him signed to a contract.
Ads On Jerseys?: Beginning this season the NBA will let teams sell ads on their practice jerseys, deputy commissioner Adam Silver told A.J. Perez and Michael McCarthy of USA TODAY.
The NFL's Tennessee Titans pocketed $2 million dollars for allowing a local hospital to have a patch on their practice jerseys and the naming rights to their practice facility, so the idea is not a small one.
"We are operating a diverse business all around the world," Silver says of ads on sports jerseys. "It is a well-established practice in other countries. Ultimately, I think our fans will come to accept it."
The NBA is in the process of developing its guidelines for such a program. This year's Summer League featured a small EA Sports patch on the right chest strap of the game jerseys.
Two WNBA teams sold ads on their jersey's this year, the Phoenix Mercury featured LifeLock while the Los Angeles Sparks featured Farmer's Insurance, prominently featured on the front of game jerseys.
At least one NBA owner would like to see ads on game jerseys in his league.
"Times are different," says Joe Maloof of the Sacramento Kings and WNBA's Monarchs. "It's a new economic climate now. Any time you can generate revenue in the right way, you should be able to do it. You have to. If we can find the right partner, why not?"
NBA Commissioner David Stern has been coy and evasive about this topic for several seasons, saying it really depended on the money involved and the manner in which the ads were displayed, so this is not a new topic by any stretch.
"In terms of a business model, we want to make sure that we aren't transferring dollars to the jersey from arena naming rights or other advertising," explained Silver of the NBA's deliberations on the topic. "You have to look at the marketplace to determine if it's incremental money that's not already being spent and we're not just moving money around from one platform to another.
"It's a direction all teams are moving. With the advent to TiVo and the enormous number of channel and website choices, it's become incredibly hard to hold the attention of the viewer during commercial breaks. It's easier in live sports where viewers are more likely to stay with the program than change the channel. We have been in the product placement business from the beginning."
NBA Chats Today: HOOPSWORLD's Joel Brigham will host his weekly NBA chat at 5pm EST today. Joel will answer your NBA questions, and someone please ask him about FireFly. HOOPSWORLD editor Jason Fleming will also hold his weekly NBA Chat later tonight at 8pm EST. Jason will try and answer as many of your questions as possible. These chats do fill up fast, so getting in early always helps the odds your question gets answered.
