Rockets Offseason Wishlist

With the NBA Finals now complete and the hated Lakers reigning as champions (don't worry, I still hate all the Lakers), the NBA has entered into the purgatory known as the Offseason. The Rockets came close to beating the Lakers in Round 2, but we now need to improve the roster so we can make a deeper run in the 2010 post-season. The Rockets are at the salary cap and have almost no flexibility because of T-MAC's gargantuan contract, but we can use several NBA rules to resign our own players and sign free agents.

Here is a quick overview of the Rockets offseason issues. We have four players who will be unrestricted free-agents: Ron Artest, Von Wafer, Dikembe Mutombo, and Brian Cook. We don't have a first or second round draft pick because of the Ron Artest and Steve Francis trades. We have 54.878 million dollars already committed for next year's salaries. While the official NBA salary cap has yet to be announced, it is expected to decrease from this year's cap of 58.68 million to a number closer to 55 million. This would leave the Rockets with a negligible amount of cap space. However, only 5 teams are expected to have cap room to spend: Portland, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Indiana, and Miami, so there shouldn't be much competition in free agency.

With all of this in mind, here is the Rockets Offseason Wishlist:

1.) Resign Ron Artest: Ron-Ron added the toughness we needed to make it out of the first round and his defense was invaluable. Sure, he jacks up a lot of awful shots, but he makes enough to be a good offensive player. Ron Artest's "Bird Rights" (a player who plays for one team for three or more seasons, in this case Sacramento, has Bird Rights and his team can go over the salary cap to resign him) were traded with him, so we can sign him to a deal up to the max and for as long as 6 years. He won't get a contract that long, but we should reward him with 10-12 million a year for 3-4 years. No other NBA team will be willing to make an offer like this, so Ron-Ron should be a Rocket if he stays in America.

2.) Resign Von Wafer: Von was a surprise contributor to the team and showed an amazing ability to score in bunches. Unless you think Brent Barry and James "Flight" White are ready to be our only back up wings, we need to resign Von. He has a great haircut, a sweet shooting stroke, and gives our bench a potent scorer. We can resign him to an approximately 1 million dollar a year deal or use the mid-level exception to sign him for up to 5.59 million. It is more likely that he accepts the later.


Ron and Von developed great chemistry last year and we need them back

3.) Buy a Late First Round Pick or Trade into the Draft: With the economy in the toilet, a lot of teams will probably be willing to sell late first round picks/early second round picks to get a little extra cash. Les Alexander is dedicated to winning, so I predict he will be willing to spend a little money to improve the team. Its always good to add promising young players that can contribute for years to come, so we should try our hardest to get into the draft.

4.) Trade TMAC: You can read the article on possible T-Mac trades here.

5.) Bring Back Novak: We need to rescue Steve from basketball hell and bring him back to Houston where he can contribute. He proved this year that he can be a legitimate NBA rotation member and is vastly superior to "Former Slam Dunk Champion" Brent Barry. I might be a little biased, but I think the Rockets would have won the title if Novak was still on the team. He is a free agent and we should do whatever it takes to get him back to his rightful team.


Sharpshootin' Steve Novak can lead an NBA team to a Championship

If we get these five things done, you can pencil the Rockets in as 2010 NBA Champs.