It's not often that you get this excited about your team handing over millions of guaranteed dollars to a guy averaging 9 points and 5 boards for his career, but the signing of Stromile Swift could very well be a huge win for the Rockets.
No matter what knock you can come up with on Stro's game -- and believe me, there are many -- you simply can not tear down this move at this price. A deal at the mid-level exception is a notch on GM Carroll Dawson's belt... low risk, potentially high reward.
Keep in mind that last season "full MLE" money went to Brian Cardinal, Adonal Foyle got over $8 million a season and Mehmet Okur nearly $9 million. This is a flat steal.
Credit Stromile. While he certainly took his time to see if a quality team could present a higher dollar option, he took the best chance to win once New Jersey's more lucrative possiblity disappeared when the Nets came to an agreement with the Blazers for Shareef Abdur-Rahim. His choice might have just made the Rockets a much more formidable team.
The Rockets wanted to add younger legs and athletes around Yao Ming, and they're doing just that here.
At 25, Stromile gives the Rockets a key piece of the rotation who can grow with the stars of the team. Outside of the dynamic duo of Tracy McGrady and Yao, the Rockets are simply an old squad, but they may now have their starting frontcourt for the next 5-6 years.
While not a brilliant rebounder by any stretch, Stro has terrific athleticism and leaping ability and is a thunderous dunker. His addition should provide some monstrous highlights in the Toyota Center running alongside T-Mac. More importantly however, that style is a wonderful contrast to what the Rockets already have in the position in Juwan Howard.
Howard is smart and very skilled. He sets good picks, has good range on his shot and crashes the boards fairly well.
He's also not a threat to "teabag" Steven Hunter, and that's where Stromile comes in.
It remains to be seen what kind of player Stromile can become, and there are different opinions all around, but some suggest he could be a 15 point-9 board-2+ blocks a night guy in the right situation with a healthy dose of playing time.
Those types of numbers got Kenyon Martin 90 million clams.
Right off the bat the Rockets get weakside shotblocking help. Swift is a great shotblocker, averaging 1.53 blocks a night last season despite playing just over 21 minutes per.
A shutdown defender in the paint? Well, that's not Stro.
But like McGrady, who also had a reputation as a lackluster defender before coming to Houston, Stromile has the physical tools and athleticism to succeed in one-on-one defensive situations. The hope is that Jeff Van Gundy will work his defensive magic and help Swift turn his focus and commitment there.
The added bonus in the move comes from the fact that division rival Memphis, who won 45 games last season, got absolutely nothing in return for Stromile. While they were going to let the former #2 overall draft pick go anyhow, they were counting on a sign-and-trade deal to improve their situation.
Payback? Possibly. Memphis signed away James Posey from the Rockets in 2003.
There were several talented players the Rockets could go after this offseason, but in the quest for athletes, there was no better choice than Swift. McGrady wanted him, Rocket brass wanted him, the fans wanted him.
They got him.
Is it possible that his jaw-dropping slams has him overhyped? That he simply isn't good enough to be a starter playing 30-35 minutes a night or grab 8-10 boards a game? Certainly. But at this age and at this price, this is likely to never be an unmoveable contract. An absolute big win for Houston here.
And if nothing else, this cuts down the number of times Yao gets dunked on each season by about half.
