I’m pleased that the Rockets appear to be making an effort to sign free agent and former Rocket Mike James, contrary to previous reports from other ‘analysts’ who thought they knew what they were talking about. Late Friday night Jeff Van Gundy paid a visit to James’ house a minute after the timeframe opened up for teams to talk to free agents. No doubt, this is a very significant development!

James’ agent is Bill Duffy, who also represents Yao Ming. James has made clear in the past couple of months that he would like to play in Houston again…and badly. But Duffy stated that James is still keeping an open mind to other teams, as anyone would do in his situation. The Rockets cannot pay as much as other teams can afford, so it will be interesting to see what happens, and Duffy said it would ultimately be James’ decision. The earliest that teams can sign free agent contracts is July 12th.

Here’s a Houston Chronicle article that describes the current landscape of free agent shooting guards that are available for signing.

I’ve stated it before that I hope the Rockets can sign James. Losing the chance to sign him will remind me of how another “James,” James Posey, decided to leave the Rockets during free agency a couple of years ago for more money, and we all know how valuable a role player he was to helping the Miami Heat to winning a championship.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 2nd, 2006 at 1:14 am and is filed under Rockets' off-season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.