or better yet, let's go after Wade AND LBJ. also Bosh and Amare and Joe Johnson while we are at it. Then even God can't stop us from winning the championship…

How do we go after them? Well, that's a small detail that we armchair GMs don't need to worry about…

Morey, Get'er done!

So if a European FA wants a little more leverage in negotiating his next deal the Rockets make a credible threat. Over the past few yrs the Rockets have been linked to assorted PG,SG and bigs,all of whom have signed new deals in Europe. In the past San Antonio was “reported” to have been interested in players,now it's the Rockets.

I believe that the Rocket presence in Europe will pay off in drafting and eventually actually signing a Euro FA. However,my default setting on any report of the Rockets negotiating w/a Euro FA is Scepticism,Level Max.

Here's a qoute on Pekovic,courtesy of a HoopsHype link from yesterday…
“Nikola Pekovic has to decide his future this summer. The 24-year-old Montenegrin center, who has played for Panathinaikos during the last two season, could stay on the Greek team or leave to the NBA and play for the Minnesota Timberwolves. But, according to the Serbian media, Real Madrid is also interested in landing the former player of Partizan, and has already make an offer to sign Pekovic for the next season.”
Sound like a player panting to get into the NBA,or one trying to get the best deal he can? Esp since his Greek team just hired a new coach. BTW,Real Madrid is supposedly interested in signing half the basketball players in the world. Having Real Madrid and the Rockets “interested” screams an “I'm really good,so pony up!” negotiating tactic.

As to the Pekovic rumor,don't hold your breath.
Let's ignore the little matter that negotiating w/another team's player/draft pick is tampering-something the NBA has shown this season they are really serious about.
It appears to be originating from a poster who uses multiple aliases and is a known Spanoulis fanboy.
The trade itself makes no sense as Minn could use a center and here they are trading a prospect away to get the #14 when they have the #16.
No way in h*** Morey would offer the full MLE. Beyond the Lux Tax doubling,look at Morey's history. Scola and Andersen got less than HALF the MLE,he refused to give it to Landry and last summer knowing Yao was out and he had Zero centers on the roster,Morey only offered Gortat $3mil.

Offensively he was as expected, showcasing his excellent touch around the basket and fairly diverse game to score at will. It's hard to judge completely by just 4 or 5 games, but if Morey watched the five games I did, I can see why he's impressed.

part of the problem was that he was so bad defensively that you could not justify playing him.

Yes, DA started losing his minutes towards the end of the season, partly due to various minor injuries and partly due to the acquisition of Jordan Hill. But when he did receive playing time, I thought he was reasonably efficient on the court? — take a look at DA's per-36 post all-star:

47% FG, 62% 3pter, 16 pts and 10 rebound and 2+ blk/stls

Granted, he only played 13 games with 14 mpg so it was a small sample size, but I personally thought that's slightly better than I had expected efficiency wise.

Also here is his per-36 since new year, so the sample size is a bit larger:

30 games played, 13.5 mpg, with per-36 of
15 pts, 9.3 rbs, 1.4 Blk/Stl, 44% FG, 40% 3pter

Again, as a situational player, I thought that's a reasonable production? What am I missing from the David-Andersen-is-horrible camp?

jordan – my understanding is that, rather than strictly numbers, the rockets use an approach combining numbers with the old-school methods.

I'd much rather Houston dedicated themselves to the draft and acquire Daniel Orton.

If this isn't a smoke screen, then I don't know if the same staticians who were responsible for submitting Andersen's name last year are responsible for missing the mark again with the mention of Nikola. Somebody better put the number crunchers in check, because if they applied whatever voodoo methodology to measuring the productivity of our players last year we'd be canning Ariza, Battier, and Andersen — to which I'm sure we'd see some resistance because it isn't all about the freakin' numbers. Watch how they play, what's their real potential. Will they be able to develop chemistry between the other guys?
It seems to me that the old school gut check measurement of picking up a player has gone out the window in favor of data analysis and it's resulted already in a big mis-step with Andersen, and likely again with this guy — who again, I believe is really just a smoke screen anyways. Has to be.