I don't usually star a thread in GARM unless it's something important in my view. Signing Lowry to 4 year $24 million deal is a bad move by the Rockets in my opinion. Before I get slammed with a bunch angry posts, hear me out first. Look the Rockets clearly lost this summer with the pursuit of Bosh and that has dampened our spirits but we need to stay focused here. Handing out large contracts to 2nd tier bench players in not going to bring us any closer to contention. Lowry is good fit for the Rockets around $4 million but at $6 million he is venturing into Shane Battier kind of money. The problem with Lowry setting the market value: 1) Scola is going to look for at least 8-10 million 2) Brooks will demand an offer around 10-12 million The issues become apparent when you look at the Rockets roster salary beyond 2011. 2011 salaries Kevin Martin: $12 million Trevor Ariza: $6.7 million Kyle Lowry: $6 million Jordan Hill: $2.8 million (team option) David Anderson: $2.7 million Jermaine Taylor: 800k Chase Budinger: 800k *(yet to sign) Patrick Patterson 1.5 million (est.) *(yet to sign) Luis Scola: $9 million (est.) Total: $42 million 2011 Free Agents: Yao Ming: $18 million (est.) Aaron Brooks: 10 million (est.) Total 2011 estimated salary: 70 million Now this estimate excludes Battier who I think will be either traded and sign with a contender next summer. Just looking at the numbers $70 million in salary for one superstar and a bunch of role player is hard sell for any GM let alone a smart money manager such as Morey. Personally I don't like the way the Rockets are setting themselves up for the next 3 to 5 years. Yao and a good bench will not get us in contention with the Lakers or Heat. In addition, Moreyball was suppose to find cheap replacement at all levels and positions. I see Morey making the same mistakes Dawson made with Moochie Norris, Mo Taylor, Kelvin Cato. Handing out huge "reward" contracts afraid to lose a good role-player. Call me "naive" now but I have seen the Rockets continue to make the mistakes for over two decades.
Informative post. One primpary difference between Daryl Morey and random fans is the ability to tell the difference between Kyle Lowry and Moochie Norris.
luckily lowry is not a 2nd tier bench player, he comes off the bench for aaron when ever bigger guards bully him around, and he usually plays over 10 minutes with aaron in the second half. Essentially he is our only back up guard, our 6th man.
Its time to cash in some of our assets. We have way to many redundant players on this team. Its just like how the Lakers have 5 strong starting players and their bench sucks, we need a strong starting 5 that can come in and dominate and we don't have that. We need to do some maneuvering and get one or two dominate guys for some of our scraps. We have some damn good assets to play around with.
Yao Ming is not going to get $18 million in the open market next season and Morey will just let Scola walk if he demands more than $7-8 million. We have tons of young and cheap PFs waiting in the wings (Hill, Patterson, even Andersen) who can compliment Yao Ming as well as Scola can.
I was thinking about this too. I don't necessarily agree that the re-signing is a bad move, because I think that a healthy Rockets team this year would have a chance to go to the Western Conference finals and maybe beyond there. Just a run deep in the playoffs would be enough to call this a satisfying season for me since it's been so long since we've have one. I think that it is necessary to go into the season with last years team, unless the Rockets have a big opportunity to improve the team through a trade. If all of our players continue to improve, then you are right that we are due for some trades to get value from our players. If we have to make trades, then so be it. With all the assets that we have, we could easily get a lot in a sign and trade for Brooks if we had to.
Not to mention he comes in with Aaron a lot as the sixth man as well, though that may not be as necessary this season with Kevin Martin here from the start of the year.
Lowry is good enough to be a starter on other teams - hence why Cleveland jumped at him. And you said it - he's a good fit for the Rockets. So good, we started losing alot of games without him in the lineup. Isn't that reason enough to bring him back? Les Alexander is more than willing to spend the extra cash to get us that much closer to the coveted trophy. "Yao and a good bench"? Why have you suddenly disregarded MIP Aaron Brooks and borderline All-Star Kevin Martin?
no way yao would get 18m. maybe 14m max and even that is too much for a guy that plays half a season.
I don't care if they have to overpay by us fans standards, just put players on the floor that can win. DD
your joking right... Hill and Patterson have been struggling to say the least, now maybe they play better with better players, that also means that cant play good against scrubs which summer league teams are usually composed of. we would not have traded landry if we intended to let scola walk because he got a 9 million dollar contract offer. but I have a feeling we will be keeping Scola for than your 7-8mil. only way i see us letting him walk is if he gets offered 11.5 to 12 mil that range.
Once we get another star player, this team will look good and contending. A contending team has no time to look at its payroll.
Yao is no longer a max contract player until he proves he can be again. Also we have several guys coming off the books like Jeffries and Battier. If nobody wants expiring contracts for next year? Then thats their problem they wont trade for those guys from us to hamper and cripple their teams. its better doing a deal with the Rockets than just throwing away your future. So I think we do have a deal done by the deadline. I almost 90% sure we get some type of deal done by then. The other teams cant afford not to do business with a team that has expiring contracts, Veteran good players, Young players, Good Role players, almost star players, and some draft picks to deal. If they dont? We still have all of that and they are screwed. So lets let it all play out. I am sure it wont happen until maybe the middle of the season. If nothing? Then we still have all of that stuff. The other teams wont. Then go into next year and still resign Yao for less and reup Brooks. Then still have those assets for another possiblt sign and trade or move up in the draft. Or we just use our knocks picks and ours.
ghetto cheeze eh? Lowry is far better then Mooch. Scola... Is a Effin BEAST! How dare you even compare him to Cato... Smh
The rockets arent one superstar and a bunch of role players. Sure we dont have multiple superstars, hell yao may not even be a superstar himself anymore, but it's ridiculous to assume the likes of Martin, Brooks, and scola are on the same level as true role players like battier, ariza, budinger, hill, etc. And many of our current role guys like bud, hill and soon PP havent even completely developed yet, so they may not stay at role player level. Technically, very few teams have more than 1 superstars on the team. Even the lakers only have one. Are you implying morey lost his focus? You may have meant fans need to focus, but you're criticizing the contracts, which are matched by the team. I think it's safe to assume they've crunched a lot more numbers than you have and for more than ONE season. Morey's always thinking ahead, years ahead and he probably uses exact numbers. It looks like you rounded the salaries up, one by as much as one million. Yao ming is not going to get that much money at his age and after only being on the court less than year. After this year i'd be surprised if he's even averaging over 20 ppg. Our depth will drive his value down, as well as his age and injury history. The whole league is full of bargains mixed in with overpaying. Ultimately, it's about balancing them out and what you do with the talent, not to mention you need some luck on your side (players willing to take less, cheap players overachieving)
2nd tier bench player? Nice exaggeration to make your point. You don't have to lie to kick it. Anyway, maybe you should have said "potential salary issues ahead". Lowry isn't Moochie Norris. Scola's about to get his money at 8-10 mil..w/e...and who's to say we don't make a deal here and there to get some flexibility? Sounds like you might be jumping the gun right now. It's not like Lowry had 1 good season and cashed in. He's been a key cog on this team since his arrival. This is not a case of one good pre-season game and lets spend money. These are MAJOR pieces to a team that wants to WIN.
I think many of you are missing my point. I never said Lowry is not worth 6 million but that giving 6 million here, 8 million there isn't going to make us a contender. The problem with giving Lowry $6 million: 1) Scola will demand more money now that market has been set. 2) Brooks will demanded a higher raise next summer. 3) Battier is going to want pay raise too. Do you see the snowball effect? $6 million to one guy turns into having to spend $25-30 million on the rest of your key role players. I don't see the Rockets competing for a title if we have to spend 40 million on just role-players and our bench. I rather spend a good 15 mil on another superstar and then divide the rest among lesser role-players.
Scola was going to demand more money regardless. (See Gooden, Drew, etc) What you want a 20 PPG point guard to do? Ask for less than his worth? Battier won't be here. Missing the snowball effect.
