[Feigen] Rockets consider amnestying Scola, as talks with the Magic grow "serious"

Your posts fill me with a sense of hopelessness for the future of this planet.

 

Thanks. Just so you'll know where I'm coming from, the context, if you will, I just got back from the Bob Bullock Award dinner at the Driskill Hotel on 6th in Downtown Austin. Open bar, free food, movers and shakers in state government, and the award winner, State Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, gave a fantastic speech (while I wouldn't vote for him, I admire the man). So I get home and the semi-official mouthpiece and "trial balloon floater" of the franchise is dropping noise that my favorite player on the Rocks might be amnestied, and it isn't because he's a "bad contract," he's not, but it would obviously be done to free up cap room to take on actual bad contracts. So I instantly go from being in a great mood, and hoping I came home to good news, to find out what would be for me terrible news. Not terrible if Scola was dealt for something of value, but that he would be "given away" to another team, with my team paying the remainder of his contract.

Look, I don't mind taking on a certain amount of garbage to get Howard. I don't mind giving up what I consider to be very valuable first and second round picks to get him. I don't mind giving up some of our young talent, although it would damn near kill me to lose a couple of the guys. And I don't mind moving some veteran, quality talent to get him. Starter quality talent. But when someone like Luis Scola is amnestied to do this deal (I still don't think he will be... too stupid), that means we're not taking on a certain amount of garbage, but rather the entire landfill. In my opinion, at some point, you just have to say no. If Orlando really wants to get a great haul, they will deal with us. But if Orlando wants to rape the Rockets, I'm not interested. And all this without Howard signing an extension.

 

Yada Yada Yada..

If Morey had not done a good job of keeping contract costs down for years we would not even be having all these posts about D-*** tonight.

we are in the running to get him maybe.. but look at what it did to all of you... lol

 

Scola is so overrated on this board its freakin ridiculous.

 

nice!

 

Dude, people here are going to whinge even if we get LeBron James, it's just how we roll on CF

 

Rep for this.

You gotta draw the line somewhere.

Howard is great and all, but taking whatever it takes to get any one player is never a good idea IMO. Unless that player is willing to make a commitment to the team and Howard is not, therefore there needs to be a line drawn.

 

No kidding. Some folks have no idea who we have lurking on this board, people who used to post all the time back in the day, but have pretty much stayed on the sidelines for a long time now, for reasons of their own. Hey, there was a Will sighting! Folks are coming out of the woodwork. Long may it last.

 

I'm gonna take a plane and stand outside the Rockets front office, dressed in all black, with a rusty butter knife if we get rid of the only player on the Rockets left that's made of pure grit and heart.

 

I don't understand the handwringing over potentially amnestying Luis Scola if it means finally landing that elusive superstar. Yes, Scola plays hard which endears himself to the fan base. However, he only plays one side of the court, ala Kevin Martin, and he's in his mid 30s.

Furthermore, Howard isn't a rental. The big market teams have no cap space, and he's not walking away from millions to play in Dallas or Atlanta. His talk was very cheap.

 

To clarify for the noobs.....aelliot used to be this board's Bima before Bima was Bima.

 

I figured we'd amnesty Scola so that after the trade, we are one move away (Kevin Martin) from being able to sign a FA before the season starts.

Would you be opposed to that? Since we couldn't take back a landfill and sign a FA even with Scola off the books.

What we really need is a trade exception so further into the season we can go over the cap to bring in a hired gun to compliment the team. Turn Scola into a trade exception and draft pick and I'm cool.

Love ya Luis, but it's been too long since 8
94-96 and I'm looking at the bigger picture. Cap flexibility + young talent + Dwight/Bynum means contender. Scola isn't either 3.

 

And flops and can't play defense or get a rebound when needed?

 

Luis turned 32 two months ago. That is not "mid-30's."

 

plus why would howard say he will sign elsewhere? that weakens his chance of getting traded to the nets and get more other teams interested.

 

Why would anyone want to come when they know Howard is out the door? And with all the contracts, how will we even have room to sign Chris Paul?

I am not against acquiring Howard, but I am not for it at any cost. If you can't build a legit finals team with him before he leaves than don't do the deal. Howard may stick around if he believes the Rockets are serious but not if they don't have cap room. Brooklyn has Joe Johnson now and Deron, plus a great rebounder in Evans. They got a good team. Add howard to that mix and they are competitive against Miami.

We might not even make the playoffs with the team we will field. Doesn't make sense at all. We are making decisions our of desperation.

 

Oh and you're just wrong if you think Scola's not a bad contract.

Making more than $7mil/year guaranteed is bad when you have a ton of talent behind you.... Motie, PPat, Jones, & White make Scola's contract bad. If we had no talent on the bench, his contract would be average.

I kind of look at the $$ Ersan Illyasova just got as a measuring stick. I'd rather spend $$ on a young player improving than 3 more years on a player who after the olympics will be on another declining year.

 

you might want to get caught up with the financial computations in these threads. At this point, Nets would not be able to get him unless it's a trade. They have absolutely zero cap and no expirings to free up space for next year.

 

Deck, I get it. All points valid. I would hate to abandon Scola after he's done nothing but bust his ass and do the franchise proud in everyway. The only thing that makes me somewhat ok with it(if it happens) is Scola would most likely go somewhere that he'd have a great shot at winning a title. You and I both know Scola deserves that.

Guess we shall see. I'm not going to believe it or worry about it until/unless it happens. Who knows, maybe the Rockets wanted this out there to see if they could cook up a deal. Hell, maybe it's all BS.

I'm with you on not wanting to take too much back, regarding bad contracts. Try not to let something that hasn't happened ruin your night.

Guess I should say, I'm for the Howard trade. The Rockets must roll the dice to get back in contention. It's a scary thing if the Rockets give up a ton to get Howard and have little left to in order to rebuild, that said gotta do it.