Everyone acts as if losing TMo is going to make or break our season. The Rockets are trying to move players so they can bring in BETTER players to replace the bench scrubs. Improving our team is a fun thing....
micah1j: that was me who called a/k/a Cameron on a cell phone. I forgot to mention the other horrible contracts that we signed MoT and Cato to. He really didn't answer my question regarding how high he was willing to go to sign Posey. I like Posey but don't think he was worth more than MLE money. I also don't think we should sign him to a contract for more than 3 years. I am just tired of the wasted cap space and longterm deals we signed with crappy players such as Maloney, Price, Moochie, MoT, Cato, etc. That is my biggest gripe with CD. These longterm, big money deals for marginal players makes it harder for us to make deals or to sign quality FAs. I am glad that he admitted that they were upset with Moochie's play last year. I would love for them to ship his ass out of town to send a message but his ridiculous contract makes it difficult.
I don't think they should go over the luxury tax this year. The chances are we will only have a marginal year. IE make 6-8th playoff spot and get bounced. This will still be a development year, why go out and risk future years buy taking on another crappy contract or trading for one. Posey is not worth more than Modely and he makes 31M over 6. So Posey for 20M for 4 years is ok to me. Even 12M for 2 years is o with me. But the players want 6 years. So 30M at 6 years is the max they should pay for Posey. JMO.
But the deal has to be the right one. Or, for example, "Miami offered Brian Grant for Rice and EG" (I'm making this up, but I think this trade was offered last year) and that deal you have to turn down....not only is EG so much younger than BG, but BG's contract in 4 years is grotesque. Now if we could somehow come up with Jermaine O'Neal (we won't), then the luxury tax is no obstacle. Hopefully this is a simplistic but correct reading of the luxury tax situation?
I can't see us giving James "can't shoot a lick" Posey 6yrs at 30 million. If someone else wants to do it fine let them. Posey isn't that hard to replace, and we have a young guy who is supposed to be the future at the 3 anyway. We shouldn't offer Posey a penny more than 4yrs for 20million. If someone else does let him walk and they can have their mistake.
That was a good question persian. CD was really caught off guard and he didn't really answer your question but he did mention that Moochie had hit about 8 game winning shots two years ago. (I don't remember that many). Houston Native
Did you see any Rox game this year when we acquired Posey. He's not known for shooting, but he improved his shooting touch big time towards the end of the season.
Exactly!! But to be correct they said only if the right player comes along. It sounds like CD and Les think that players like Brand etc. will pick up the phone and say please trade for me! I realy need to play with the Rockets and I wont complain if Francis doesnt pass me the ball !! The Rockets Organisation[Les and CD] seem to be giving mixed messages via the Media. It is very difficult to believe they are intent on building a Championship Team!
The idea situation is to sign Posey for 3 year at say 12-15M. Then after those 3 years we will know who to resign, Posey or Nachbar.
Enough T-Mo talk. Let the guy go somewhere else and get some playing time. Face it...if this team turns out the way we would all like it, the rotation will be 7, maybe 8 deep. Most GOOD teams are that way. I don't care about the bench warmers...they don't deserve significant minutes and shouldn't be in the game unless it's trash time.
Yeah, I heard you on the radio too, and was glad someone called in and got to say that. You were going off pretty good, and I could tell you were implying Cato, Moochie, and other past deals. CD could too, and he gave you a double-speak answer. But, he obviously sees the decline in productivity in Moochie, and hopefully your comments pushed him a little closer to doing what he said...."tweak."
Although I think Cato is overpaid for a backup, he is definitely a step above Moochies worthless a$$.
Thanks for the reports, folks. We out-of-towners REALLY appreciate it. Glad you hammered CD on Mooch, persian hoopa. They both need to wake up and smell the coffee. I'm one of those who wishes we'd kept Morris... hope that doesn't come back to bite us down the road. Good luck, Terence. We could have kept you for what Norris spends at the hairstylist.
I'm with you and Persian. Long term deals are killers! Unlike in the NFL, all these contract we are talking about are guaranteed. In most cases it's very shortsighted to give a player a long term deal. And why are teams, including the Rockets, doomed to make the same mistakes over and over? Take Mo-T as an example. What is he making? 6 years at $8 mil per... If the Rockets were 100% sold on him being their starting PF for the duration of the contract when they gave it to him, they were delusional. KG, Duncan, Dirk, Sheed, Webber were all emerging. In the Western Conference, the opposing team has the advantage at PF over the Rockets on almost every night. Why? Because the Rockets mortgaged themselves at the position with a mediocre player. Any fan can see that he's a solid, but limited talent. Great post moves, good mid-range jumper but no rebounding ability at a position that requires it. Did they think that no one else would come along during that time who could be better? I would have preferred 2 years at $10 million. His contract would be up, and we'd have the option (cap room) of looking for another PF right now instead of making due with what we have for several more years. Same applies with Moochie. We are paying him big time back up PG money for the next few years but he's played like a chump. I like Posey and thought he played well for us last year. Good defender. But the fact is that he's a career 40% shooter and shot 37% the last 2 years before we got him. He's still young... why not let him prove himself before giving him a fat contract? If someone else wants to give him 6 years at $6 million per, the Rockets should exercise some discipline and say "go ahead." Posey could turn out to be a real nice player, but it's possible that he could become another Tariq Abdul-Wahed. The list is long. Ike Austin, Erick Dampier, Matt Maloney et al. The Rockets have been in this practice in the past and need to stop doing it. I love the way the NBA works, and I'm talking about mid level players here, not the stars... they usually deserve the money they get paid - teams give these mid level guys long term contracts and end up morgaging their futures when they flame out. And players expect to command big money based on little substance. I love it when a player signs a long term contract for security, and then attempts to renegociate with the threat of a hold out when the market tells them they are being underpaid. But they signed the damn contract! They should own up to it. Only in professional sports. *sigh*
I disagree on the long term deal thing somewhat. It works out great if after you lock a player away and he keeps on getting better. Many times it works out, look at Mobley for us or say Ben Wallace for Detriot. When MoT's contract was signed he looked like he would get us an efficient 15PPG & 6.5RPG for many years to come, the injury just kind of screwed us. But at the time it was the best option we had, and Mo was young (only 24). Every team has their fair share of good contracts and bad contracts. We have some bad contracts (MoT, Mooch and Cato), sure, but we have no Howard, Grant, Shandon, Croshere style horrible contracts per see. Further Cato has played almost well enough to be a relative trade assett, and I am still hopefull MoT and Mooch will have better years next year--certainly far more hopefull than someone like Shandon Anderson. I think Posey for a 5 year deal for like 27 mil would ge fine. JPo is our 4th best player, by every indication gets along with teammates, plays hard/does little things, and Dawson said he is one of the hardest workers. Further his offense (shooting) started to come along the last 6 weeks or so. Lock him up I say--he has proven he is a durable servicable starter or outstanding 6th man in all of his 4 years in this league. Even if Boki beats him out at some point it would be well worth having JP to give us 24+ quality minutes behind Mobley and Boki.
Posey will probably get 5-7 years in the mid-30 million range. There is no way he is going to stay here for 12 million over three years. Our three "worst" contracts are Norris, Taylor and Cato. At the same time, it is easy to argue that Mobley's deal, given the fact that it is low by league standards, negates one of the larger deals. Arguably, Cato, assuming he continues to be a productive back up center, is worth the money, especially as a back up protection for Yao. We don't know yet if Taylor is or will ever be worth his contract. The last third of last season, he was easily playing up to the level of his deal. This year will determine whether or not he is worth that contract. Norris' deal sucks because of the long-term nature (6 years), but it could be worse. If you look around the league, nearly every team has at least one contract it wishes it could ditch. Many have multiple contracts that they wish they hadn't done. It is just the nature of the business.
Why hasn't anyone mentioned what CD said about the new uniforms? I thought that was the best part of the whole interview. He said the new uni's will go back to the red color of old, and will be alot cleaner and more simple than the past. John McClain then let him know that our current uniforms are garbage
Jeff -- excellent point. we tend to bash our hometown teams because we know their problem contract situations. in baseball we tend to bash the astros for letting players get away who went on to be great elsewhere...the fact is, every team has those stories. Harris -- i did...but i put it in the uniform thread
Coincidentally, Cato's contract will expire at about the same time as Yao's is up. We can use the cap relief to sign Yao to a big contract, while not hurting the overall team payroll too much. And, maybe by that time, Badiane will be ready to come to Houston and contribute as the new backup C.
