Odom's Contract

Juan Valdez,

Interesting point system, but totally inaccurate. Disregarding the fact that you are arbitrarily weighting specific categories more than others, you only assign points to one of the two in each category. That tends to skew the numbers to the person that wins the most categories, even though the other player could be just fractions behind in that category. Yao is light years ahead of Odom in maturity,drugs and cost. Most of the categories that you have Odom winning are arguable. If you assigned points to each player in each category, then Yao wins easily.

I'd have to disagree about the talent assessment. Even on the downside, Ming is a top 5 center. No way is Odom a top 5 small forward. If you assess only on who has more pure bball skills, then Odom is also better than Shaq.

You're also primarily looking at it from an offensive point of view. Even as a rookie, Yao should be a good defensive player. Odom is not a good defender. Also, from a Rockets needs point of view, Ming fills many more than of our holes than Odom.

Also, you have Odom winning in the "Flight Risk" category. That's only true if you give Odom a big extension right now. That's not a given (and I would argue crazy). If we were to choose not to give Odom an extention, then he's a huge flight risk.

Anyway, interesting grading system, but it's hardly objective.

If we trade the 1st pick, we are trading away our right to draft Yao. That isn't effected by who the Clips would choose.

One of the benefits of Ming is that he can contribute greatly to the Rockets without having to have the ball much. If you're serious about wondering if Francis and Mobley would pass the ball to Yao, then we need to be doing deals for a PG and SG, not trading away a potential franchise center.