The problem with the Rockets is that the roster is unbalanced and has been poorly constructed. Morey didn't help himself either when he traded Juwan Howard for point guard Mike James, drafted another point guard, Aaron Brooks, two weeks later, and then signed another point guard, Steve Francis, three weeks after that. He's also shown the Grizzlies enough promise that they felt comfortable trading away Pau Gasol for nothing and making him the new cornerstone of the franchise. Even though Battier is a nice role-player and a "glue guy", Gay would have given the Rockets exactly what they needed, considering McGrady's history of injuries. They're on their third coach in six seasons and have one of the NBA's most injury-prone and overpaid players in Tracy McGrady.The team's previous GM, Carroll Dawson, didn't do current GM Daryl Morey any favors when he traded Rudy Gay to the Grizzlies for Shane Battier. The Rockets haven't been past the first round of the playoffs this century.
Although it wouldn't be wrong to blame current GM, Mark Warkentien and the team's previous GM, Kiki Vandeweighe, for the contracts and trades that have hurt the team's future and made no improvements to the team's present lack of success.The Rockets' situation is as much different from the Nuggets as it is alike. He's committed a lot of money to try to win a championship and he hasn't given up yet. That might be too big a risk defensively and too long to wait if the team expects to re-sign Anthony, when he can opt-out that same summer.You can't fault Nugget's owner Stan Kroenke. The only alternative to continuously adding payroll and hoping that something works is to trade Camby or wait it out until Martin's contract is up in 2011.
The luxury tax concerns would come into play there since the Nuggets would be looking at an additional $15 million per season in luxury tax payments The Nuggets may not have a choice, though. While Artest's behavior will definitely cost him when it comes to the amount of years on his next contract, he will be looking for a contract in the $15 million a year range for three years. But would it be enough to get them past the second round? The other negative about acquiring Artest is that he has the ability to opt-out atseason's end. Although it's hard to argue that a starting lineup of Anthony, Iverson, Artest, Martin and Camby wouldn't be intimidating. Artest is shooting above his career averages in both field-goal and three-point percentage, but he's much better suited for small forward. While Artest would definitely help them defensively, he'd be plugged in at shooting guard and Iverson would move to the point. Artest has also said that he no longer wishes to be traded but the decision isn't really his.