<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Perhaps Clutch the Bear should waddle back to the Toyota Center balcony where he waited for the Rockets to finally secure a playoff spot. The Rockets' next milestone moment ? the proposed acquisition of NBA scoring champion Tracy McGrady ? was on hold Tuesday and teetering from at least as perilous a perch while the Orlando Magic simultaneously seemed to be trying to make the deal happen and to secure a better one. There were signs the trade sending Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato to the Magic for McGrady, Juwan Howard, Reece Gaines and Tyronn Lue could get done. With Francis' stated opposition to the move the most obvious roadblock to completing the deal, Magic officials spent much of Tuesday afternoon and evening talking with his representatives, apparently hoping to win Francis' approval or at least indicating they were still interested in acquiring him. But league sources said Magic general manager John Weisbrod was flooded with proposals Tuesday ? with the Suns especially aggressive in improving their offer ? and that Orlando considers the bidding open again. Pacers president Larry Bird said he believed Indiana had offered a better package of players than the Rockets had. League sources said the Pacers offered forwards Ron Artest and Jonathan Bender and guard Fred Jones. </div> Link Don't bet on T-Mac to be here just yet! The way it seems, Francis is fighting for his spot on the Rockets roster. By not agreeing to go just yet, Francis has given Orlando a chance to look at desperate offers from other teams for a last shot at McGrady. If the deal does not go down, we have no one but Francis to thank.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The way it seems, Francis is fighting for his spot on the Rockets roster. By not agreeing to go just yet, Francis has given Orlando a chance to look at desperate offers from other teams for a last shot at McGrady. If the deal does not go down, we have no one but Francis to thank.</div> This deal has to go down, Mobley already said that if it did not, he would not come back and play for Houston.. With Francis already crying about this, do you think he'd come back? Tracy said that he'd opt out next season if he signed with Phoenix, so they would be stupid to sign him.. I didnt want this trade to go down, but if it doesnt, than we wont have a back court or a starting PF/backup C. There arent enuff experienced SGs that the Rockets can sign, I dont see a Kobe Bryant Contract type player coming here for free. The best we can hope for is that Francis changes his mind, or a 3 team deal. If not, our ppg will go down 35 pts, and we'd have to look at Free Agents with unfriendly contracts.
Well ths stalled talks between Houston and Orlando may gain more momentum...supposedly Phoenix had heated up their talks by offering Joe Johnson, their #7 pick and Casey Jacobsen for McGrady...consider that impossible now that Phoenix has just traded their #7 pick...TO CHICAGO... http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2004/co...tory?id=1827142 yeh, TMac will be in Houston...especially after stating that Houston is the only team with which he will sign with long-term ...