Doing the math on Griffin By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle -- With all the headaches Eddie Griffin caused the Rockets last week, the sleepless nights might be just beginning. The Rockets have until the end of the month to extend Griffin's contract to a fourth season. But if they reward Griffin's potential with a fourth season while he's suspended or within days of his return, they are hardly sending a message about professionalism and responsibility. If they don't extend his contract, they forfeit much of Griffin's value on the trade market. So you think you have the simple solution. Grab the checkbook and that $7 million trade exception from the Glen Rice deal and go shopping. Griffin's trade value might have taken a hit, but he is young and talented. Teams with contract mistakes could conceivably see a chance to dump salary on the Rockets and take their turn waiting for Griffin to grow up. It makes sense. But it doesn't work. The trade exception cannot be combined with a player to acquire another player. Griffin will earn $2.3 million this season. That does not, however, mean the Rockets can use the exception for a $9.3 million player. There are deals that seem to combine salary and trade exceptions. A team could conceivably be willing to trade a player with a similar contract for Griffin if the Rockets were willing to take on a $7 million player (give or take $100,000) for a draft pick and the trade exception. But that's where we leave "simple" in the dust. The better bet is that the Rockets will extend the contract to keep Griffin's trade value, then hope last week's incidents become the self-inflicted kick in the pants he needs.
All right...can someone explain this a little more? We can't trade Griffin and Moochie for like Nick Van Exel? How about Moochie for Brent Barry?
Screw "professionalism and responsibility." This is a business, and Griffin is worth more with the extension than without. It will be signed.
i see absolutely zero sense in not extending him. a) he turns it around, you have him signed for a small contract, and he keeps on being a rocket and we're happy b) he doesn't turn it around, he still has some trade value and we're not completely screwed on our original trade for him. you don't sign him and then you could lose a good player or not be able to trade a bad player. makes no sense to not sign him. also, why are we giving a team a draft pick and the exception? didn't we have to give up a draft pick to get it? you dump a bad contract with talent, we use the exception, end of story. no draft picks needed.
I don't see why they can't extend the contract and at the same time NOT reward him for his recent problems. All they have to do is be honest about their intentions, which seems to come naturally for JVG.
The dilemma here is that the minute the Rockets sign that extension, they are rewarding EG's recent behaviour no matter how they try to spin the situation. There is no incentive for EG to put in the commitment toward improvement. He gets paid no matter what. Either way the Rockets will look like fools and they deserve to look like fools in this instance.
Yeah, I would think you resign him... The reason: Even if he does not turn it around for himself there are always teams either this season or next(during his final season) that want to move players, especially in their last year... Enter EG... Hopefully this will all be something we will look back at and say "we were going to let EG go???"... Its up to EG to prove us wrong though...
not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but what if Eggie's disappearance is because the rockets brass told him no extension and he can play for a contract this year????
Can we sign him and still suspend him? so that the incentive is not lost? He has to fight the suspention to get his money.
Either way his actions twords the team that gave up three first rournders for him is unacceptable. Young man cometh!!
Yep. This post sums it up. The Rox can cover their butts either way. EG can do what he likes (good or bad). The Rox will get at least something out of it.
Thats why I put that part in bold because I don't understand it myself. According to the article (Feigen), the trade exception CAN NOT be lumped in with Eggie (im assuming any other player also) to bring in a player that makes significantly more than the player we are aquiring. I guess that means that the trade exception can only be traded by itself?? Maybe GATER or AElliotcan chime in and clarify this.
This is a no-brainer. You extend him, then you bench him for a few games until he busts his ass enough in practice. DNP's always work in these situations.
I don't think DNP's will work in this case. EG's mind isn't on basketball right now. If skipping out on a game and a practice are no biggie to him, then DNPs won't have any affect on him or "light a fire in him".
I thought one of the attractive things about the trade exception was that we could break it up if we wanted or use it all on one player or combine it with another player. According to Feigan, we can do none of that. That sounds like the Rockets would have to send a draft pick for a player that is with in 100,000 dollars of the trade exception. If this is true then we truly got screwed in the Utah trade and have little chance of ever parlaying the trade exception into a 1st rate quality player. Just another reason why I think Les is a cheap bastered! Man I wish Mark Cuban owned the Rockets.
