I wanted to get the board's opinion on how you feel about the way Morey goes about re-signing our own restricted free-agents. I think it should be fairly obvious by now that the Rockets prefer to let the market dictate their own FA prices rather than setting them. When Carl Landry hit the market, the Rockets were initially low-balling him with an offer. When his agent lashed back, Morey said he would be willing to go higher if Landry agreed to an exploratory surgery on his knee to make sure everything was healed. At the time, and even now, I felt like that was just a hard-line negotiating stance the Rockets took to drive down his perceived value across the league. Smart move for the Rockets.. but does that style of negotiating burn bridges? Step outside the Rockets box and think of it from the players view.. Morey probably cost Landry money by his negotiating ploys. Fast forward to this summer, as we have both Kyle Lowry and Luis Scola as our RFAs. I have heard very little about either one -- is Morey waiting for the market to dictate their value again? I would have to assume so. There was an article in the Chronicle a few weeks back that had quotes from Lowry's agent about his reaction to the newspaper ad the Rockets took out on their behalf. Basically, the agent said Lowry was appreciative of the Rockets effort.. but if they REALLY wanted Lowry back, why haven't they made an offer yet? Morey has not wavered in his stance that the Rockets WILL match any offers Lowry or Scola receive. However, it's starting to become apparent that Morey prefers that they sign offer sheets for him to match instead of Morey making the first move and signing them directly. Simple question: Is this the right move? Could it come back to haunt us? With the plethora of cap space we saw this summer, some team (Nets?) could very well throw a lot of money at Scola.. would it have been cheaper for the Rockets to have been active and try to sign Scola prior to the Big 3's decision?
I think most teams want to wait and see what the market says their RFA should be paid, just look at Reddick and Morrow last night. On his tactics, I would say they are tough but again negotiations aren't easy and often uncomfortable still business is business.
I suspect that the moment you make a decent offer, their agents will take it to every team with cap space and ask them to beat it, and if they do, and you match, you'll effectively be bidding against yourself. W/O knowledge of your initial offer, the other team might have offered less.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Aaron Brooks becomes one next year. I think letting Scola do it, might cost them more $$$$..... The only flaw in this way of doing things is if a player takes the one year tender offer and then is an unrestricted Free agent the next year, if Kyle or Luis does that, it could force a change of direction in his philosophy. So far it has worked out..........but, don't you find it funny that Landry was traded BEFORE he became unrestricted? DD
GMs usually wait for an offer before matching. That's why other teams usually do a front-loaded offer(20% bonus 1st year) to discourage matching. Morey isn't doing anything new. It's an old tactic that has been used before Morey ever had a job in the NBA.
I'd pay (overpay most of the time) the player who is loyal and good rather than letting this player put his effort on trying to leave this team. It is bad when a player see himself as a person rather than a commodity.
I didn't mean to suggest this was some new tactic.. just simply, is this the best tactic? I would have to imagine it would rub some players the wrong way.. any team they would talk to would be afraid of making an offer knowing the Rockets will match. With the Rockets not putting forth an offer, these guys are forced to wait and wait until the FAs dry up and some team who missed out on all the others tries to lure them away. And besides that, it could end up forcing us to overpay Scola. This is a good point. Perhaps this is one of the reasons Morey was initially low-balling Landry, so that the offer the Bobcats would beat would still be reasonable? So was McGrady. Though I suspect for different reasons. RE: Aaron Brooks, I'd prefer they lock him into an extension rather than hitting the open market.
That's the point. GMs has employed this tactic for several years. If players were rubbed the wrong way, they will have to avoid every NBA team for employing this tactic before Morey did. They might as well go to Europe like Josh Childress then.
The Rockets are hurting themselves if they get into a bidding war with other teams. Let's say they offer Scola a deal -- 7 million/year. Then, the agent might relay this to NJ, and they'll say 7.5. Then there's the risk of it going back and forth and the price soaring out of acceptible range. You may have to do such a thing when chasing UFAs. But Lowry and Scola are RFA's. That gives the Rockets an advantage, because they can just wait and see what other teams offer while warning that they'll match anything. In the end, that's a smart strategy. You don't give any indications on how high you'd really be willing to go, and other teams would be weary of overspending just to prevent the Rockets from matching. Edit: saitou said the same thing above, but more succinctly.
Yeah, the only time you're going to get a "discount" from agents is when you offer an extension before they become FA/RFA, they'd be more willing to accept less for security. If they're already FA/RFA, it doesn't make sense to offer a contract first, they'll just use the offer to drive up the price from others.
I think it depends on the rockets' future plan. If the rockets want to land a big free agent player next summer, they can give big and long offers to Scola and Lowry, especially for Scola. I guess the most Morey wants is that Scola takes the one year qualified offer this summer.
But with regard to Scola.. no one in their right mind would have offered Scola that kind of money when free agency opened. Everyone was waiting on the decisions of the Big Three.. if the Rockets were aggressive (very well could have been, I don't know.. but I feel like we'd at least hear SOMETHING if they made an offer) they potentially could have re-signed Scola at a potentially lower price (if the Nets get involved). By waiting for him to get an offer sheet, they have opened themselves up to having the teams who were left with cap space throwing big money at the rest of the available FAs -- with Scola perhaps being the best of the rest. I agree, but I think this off-season was a unique situation. No team with major cap space was willing to commit any of it to one player until the Big Three decided -- we may have missed the boat on re-signing Scola to a cheaper contract if NJ steps up. If they don't, moot point.
You're assuming Scola's agent would have taken your offer immediately. Very possible in your scenario that Scola's agent waits for the big 3 to be signed.
I think it's fair. He gives the player a chance to get as much money as he can. Once he finds that, Morey gets to decide if the value is correct
