Voice: Totally mistaken on your recall. Miami GOT the disabled player exception for Mourning, but it didn't exclude his contract from the team salary. It allowed the Heat to offer another player a contract even though they were over the cap- think of it as an additional midlevel exception. The Nets were denied an exception for Kittles, and he also counted against their team salary. Mo's contract is going to count against the Rocket team salary next season, whether they apply for the DPE or not.
You could have fooled me with this thread. I'm sorry but Rocks makes perfect sense. Being a fan of another team that is cursed by injuries (as well as many other things) like the Boston Red Sox makes you realize that injuries are a part of the game. Do you think some Timberwolve fan posted in a Timberwolve BBS the same type of thread after Malik Sealy died? Mo didn't set out to get himself intentionally hurt just like Sealy didn't set out to get himself killed. It was a freak thing and the Rockets are going to have deal with it the best that they can. For the record, I don't mean to be insensitive about mentioning Malik Sealy, but to get upset about a guy getting hurt in a freak way after signing a big contract is akin, IMO, of getting upset over someone who died that had just signed a big contract.
I would agree with you if Steve was out for the season but not with Taylor out. Sure he means alot to the team but I think we can still win 50games without him. KT and Eddie will step right in to replace Mo's 12 and 5. Hell Eddie might can average more than that himself.
No disrespect to Malik Sealy, God rest his soul, but there is a difference between the T-Wolves losing Malik and the Rockets losing Mo as far as on-the-court production and role on the team. Mo is NBA ready and I'm pretty sure his numbers would have gone up, they were down last year. Eddie Griffin IS NOT NBA ready physically and will take awhile to adjust. He isn't just going to come in and make an impact like Mo would have.
Right now Eddie Griffin isnt ready to come in and become the starting forward and produce. Maybe by the end of the year he will get use to it. But it will be hard for him at first to adjust to the nba. If you could say one positive thing about Mos injury it is that Griffin will learn alot faster than what he was going to. I think Griffin is one hell of a player, and in my mind will be the best player on the team in a couple years. But not now.
Maybe I'm being too patient with the Rockets rebuilding process. While I would like to see them make the playoffs, I don't mind if we miss out because of Mo's injury. This is based on the assumption that... 1)Griffin can play beyond his years, like he did at SH. 2)Francis and Mobley improve upon their man-to-man defense, assuming man-to-man will still be used much. 3)Cato proves SOMETHING to us. 4)We beat the Jazz in all 3 or 4 games (however many we play against them) If 2 of those things happen, I am happy. We must realize that rebuilding isn't an overnight thing. We're only 2 years removed from our last playoff appearance. We could be in the Bulls situation very easily.
Rocks: you're right in your assessment; however, Sealy meant a lot to the Wolves. I don't keep up with them but it seems like that I had heard maybe from TV or somewhere else that he was an emotional leader. Frankly, I was surprised that the Wolves still made the playoffs. Yes, Mo is a different player than what Sealy was, but you still can't deny the fact that Sealy's loss was tremendous to the Wolves because of his leadership skills.
