Clearing something up: The Rockets didn't choose Lin over Dragic or Lowry

People, the worst part about Dragic's contract is the PLAYER option on the 4th year. Basically, if he plays well, he was getting out of the 4th year to make more money. If he wasn't playing well then you are stuck with a 4th year on a contract that wasn't worth the value. It gives all the control to the player and they are hard to trade.

Morey would probably have given Dragic a 4th year as a team option, just not as a player option. Maybe even a guaranteed 4th year but not as a player option, those player option contracts kinda suck for the organization.

As far as Lowry, he wanted out. He got his wish.

 

hmmmm, $7.5MM is a big risk on dragic with a player option, I have to agree with that. he's worth it now, but i wouldn't have been ready to make that commitment to him.

 

IT DOESN'T MATTER!!! Lin at 8mil/year x 3 is a better signing than Dragic at 8mil/year with 4th year player option.

 

Why? How I see it you get a much better PG in Dragic for 3 years if he outperforms his contract and opts out.

 

Why are people still not getting it? Morey did not let go of Dragic because of Lin. Dragic did not sign because Morey refused to give him the 4th year option. You can hate Morey about that decision. It had nothing to do with Lin. Lin was the fall back. In fact, Morey and most people expected the Knicks to match. It was totally possible that we would be left with Douglas, Machado and Livingston as our PGs if Morey didn't come up with the "poison pill" contract for Lin.

 

I don't think you understand. You don't just say oh we can't do that. You evaluate the player you have, the other players available, and how all of that affects the future. Lin's contract is 3 years $25 million and Dragic's contract is 4 years $34 million. Dragic is flat out a better player than Lin and frankly he's a better fit with Harden because he's a much better shooter and defender than Lin. Giving a 26 year old a 4 year contract isn't some outrageous thing. Will Dragic be a better player in 3 years? Nobody can be 100% certain but it would seem likely to me.

 

WHo played under Steve Nash?

 

The 4th year is an irrelevant point. It's what was necessary to sign the player. You would have either had Dragic 3 years and him being a free agent or for four years. So what? Was Morey genuinely concerned that Dragic would be a bum in that fourth season? I doubt it. Morey favored his flexibility with the cap over committing to a player for a fourth year so now he has an inferior player for 3 years for the same yearly salary. Morey is like the guy who keeps folding his poker hand because he's waiting for the royal flush except in Morey's case he's not interested in getting lucky (tanking for a high pick), he's trying to capitalize on the mistakes of the other players in the game. Except you only need to get lucky once to be a really good team whereas to win on mistakes you need to capitalize several times.

 

Exactly. People talk about the "small sample size" of Lin's success. Dragic had about the same sample size and people cry about us not keeping him based on a break out stretch because of Lowry's sickness. That stretch was in fact very similar to Linsanity. The only reason that wasn't hyped was because Dragic wasn't some undrafted Asian American Harvard grad playing in NYC. Dragic was extremely inconsistent before Lowry went down.

 

I don't know about that, Lins defense hasn't been bad in my opinion and his passing and running the team looks like he has more upside than Dragic.
If he brings his shooting around which I don't think will be that hard, many NBA players have improved their shooting numbers a lot.
I think he has nice touch on his free throws and it may be his conditioning or leg strength from the injury that is affecting his shot so much this year. Anyway if he can get his shooting numbers up to Dragics level I think he has a chance to be the better point guard.

 

Let's hope so. He seems like a great person, I'm rooting for him.

 

If he's good, we lose him. If he sucks or gets injured, we keep him.

Just not a good contract.

We still need to acquire a 2nd superstar. Payroll flexibility is still very important.

Goran is not that. He would not make this team a championship team.

 

This doesn't make sense. The player option doesn't kick in until later. How can he be worth NOW something that hasn't even come into effect. Wait a few years before you decide he is worth it.

Dragic did. What does that have to do with anything?

This pretty much. Don't people remember when Dragic would go in for Lowry & blow leads for the Rockets. Fans have a short memory.

Pretty much. Even with the poison pill Morey still thought the Knicks would match. Everybody did. Morey took a risk on acquiring Lin.

 

The argument that the player option made Dragic untradeable is completely baseless. It took some control over his contract situation out off the Rockets hands and made him a less valuable asset, but still a very good player on a very reasonable contract, that would be gladly excepted as a trade chip by practically every team in the league.

After structuring the deal with Phoenix, he gave Morey the option to match but was refused. The only logical conclusion is that the Rockets really wanted Lin and were of the opinion that they have a high probability of getting him. At least if they wanted to keep the team competitive.

If the bringing Lin in would fail, there was always the option of drafting in a rookie and tanking for 2014 draft. But they said that they never plan on doing such a thing, so they were probably fairly convinced they were getting Lin.

 

Lowry wanted out. He didn't like playing for McHale. Dragic wanted the 4 year deal with the player option. Lin was a third choice.

 

Exactly.

If Goran was the last piece of the championship puzzle, then you give it to him.

But he wasn't.

 

Lowry was unrelated but Dragic was. Honestly, they're paying Lin more than Dragic so they did choose him. They weren't going to give Lin 25 mil to sit on the bench and Dragic would have beaten him out easily.

 

Fact 1 isn't even true. Dragic signed a week before the Lin offer sheet.


http://www.cbssports.com/nba/blog/e...uns-agree-to-sign-goran-dragic-to-4-year-deal

http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/sto...e-year-offer-sheet-jeremy-lin-houston-rockets

A player making 7.5 mil is untradeable? They should have dragic they didn't we just need to hope Lin can become decent or hope someone takes Lin in a trade.

 

My point was that the player option wouldn't affect the flexibility of the Rockets at all. If needed he could have been traded any time during his contract and lots of teams would be glad to take him. So, exactly the opposite of what you're trying to prove.