Hoop Dreams
Rockets need to forget bland Bosh, ignore impossible LeBron and focus on willingDwyane Wade
- Dwyane Wade needs to become the Rockets' immediate focus.
- Daryl Morey would be outsmarting himself if he latched onto the unremarkableChris Bosh.
All-star free agent forward Chris Bosh is supposedly on the top of the Houston Rockets' offseason wish list and now that people are becoming more and more convinced that LeBron James isn't long for Cleveland, there's plenty of chatter of the "Why Not Houston?" variety.
Bosh is too bland a play though — the type of player who will make the Rockets better sure, but still not close to championship caliber. And LeBron in the Bayou City is still more farfetched than Continental suddenly changing its mind and returning the world headquarters to Houston.
The King seems obsessed with being just another Michael Jordan follower and ending up in Chicago. It doesn't matter how creative Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is or how hard he sells LeBron on the idea that the now-completely-overrated Shane Battier is still underrated, the man who will haunt Cleveland forever is not coming here.
Dwyane Wade — who is only a few steps below LeBron and several leaps above Bosh in terms of game-changing talent — is more than available however. Remember Wade? The guy who's actually shown he can win a championship (unlike LeBron), the man who treats every drive to the basket like it's a chance to turn into a football fullback, the dynamic personality who immediately becomes the voice of whatever locker room he enters.
He's all but begging to move to someplace like Houston.
Wade is sick of Pat Riley's empty promises of improving the Miami Heat, tired of stiffs like Jermaine O'Neal being touted as his help. Riley and the Heat know they're close to losing Wade. The team's become so desperate it started a Web site that basically begs him to stay — you know, the kind of thing usually reserved for fanboy types.
The Rockets should move whatever salary pieces are necessary to secure Wade in this most anticipated free-agent summer class (the Heat would likely be open to a sign and trade if Wade makes it clear he's leaving). If that means saying goodbye to Aaron Brooks, Trevor Ariza and Luis Scola (who's a free agent himself) so be it. Morey would likely love to keep either Brooks or Kevin Martin, but if both of them going produces DWade, you make the move.
NBA titles are most often won with a dominant post player/dominant wing player combination and a pairing of Yao Ming and Wade would give Houston a set that could at least make Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol think.
Finding out where Houston will pick in the draft lottery (which happens tonight) is a minor nugget (and perhaps more ammunition if the pick is surprisingly high) in what should become Morey's full-out Dwyane Wade obsession.