<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><span style="font-style: italic">Sep 6</span> - Unless the Rockets can make a roster-trimming deal, which is increasingly unlikely as we get to the Oct. 1 start of camps, they will have to be paying players that are not on their team. Justin Reed had a better chance to fit in when he was acquired. Since then, Bonzi Wells decided to come back and Steve Francis was traded to and bought out by the Trail Blazers. For that matter, it was before the draft when the Rockets bought an early second-round pick (Carl Landry). Wednesday's news did not help his cause, but he was a long shot before that. </p> The more difficult questions surround Rafer Alston. His two arrests make him more difficult to move, even if the allegations in the second incident seem dubious. With the Rockets' acquisitions of James, Francis and Aaron Brooks, Alston knew someone would be "the odd man out," and seemed to believe it was him.</p> </div></p> http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2007/09/another...evelopment.html</p>
