Sounds to me like CD is hyping up his man Griffin for a trade. oops. I meant for this reply to be for the 'CD on Griffin' thread.
I wasn't bashing Posey, all I said was he wasn't worth the kind of money that was mentioned. Listen if we are going to be contenders Posey will not be our starting 3 then. Lionheart hit it on the head, if you are going to run an offense your forwards (especially the 3) are going to have to have a consistant jumper. And no Posey can't shoot. He is under 40% for his career. I like Posey as our 6th man and want him back, but I don't want to invest that kind of money and cap space on someone who can be replaced by someone who gives you the same thing at a cheaper price. Ala Bruce Bowen, same type of player and the Spurs got him for cheap.
For a young unproven player, I'd rather pay him a bit more in the short term to keep him and then pay him what he is worth after the contract is up if he gets better. I have no problem with paying a guy what he is worth instead of this "our investment really paid off" mentality. If I was CD, I'd tear up the Cat's contract and pay him more money without him asking. With the salary cap, bad long term contracts can really hamper a team in making moves to get better. Compare the Rockets and Spurs. Ideally, there would be some kind of "good faith" between the players and owners. You produce, you get paid. Security and the dollar amount of the contract should balance each other out. If a young, unproven player like Posey is looking for a long term deal and the Rockets like him a lot, give him a 5-6 contract at a lower rate with the understanding that if he produces more, or if the team plays better with him, that there will be an opportunity to renegotiate. Or he can take a short term deal and take on some of the risk himself to get better. Good faith. It will never happen, so call it a pipe dream. I remember Sam Cassell had a long contract a few years back a when he realized he was being underpaid, I think he held out until he got a new deal. If he was so sure that he was going to get better and deserve more money, why didn't he sign a shorter deal so he could get paid earlier rather than not own up to the terms of the contract he signed and hold his team hostage? Thing is, he got away with it... got a new deal... NBA players if they want to, can have their cake and eat it too. Tough being an owner/GM.
wolfhound - wrong assumption. If you start the thread "Should the Rockets try for Allen Iverson?" I'll be happy to respond. I don't think anyone here is "tearing down" Posey. We should just be realistic about this. The reality is: 1. several teams are interested in Posey and there will be pressure on the Rockets to offer him the money that the other teams will be offering. 2. the rockets are already close to the salary cap threshold. 3. the kind of money we would be forced to offer posey is the same as what some *quality* (Peja) starting SFs in the league make. 4. as I said, I like posey... he is actually a pretty good passer. he steals the ball a lot, rebounds really well, good in the open court, doesn't turn the ball over... but he can't consistently hit from outside. his overall percentage was actually decent with the rockets, but his 3 pt. percentage was not good. 5. the rockets offense will run through Yao. as okierock stated, any offense that runs through the post needs guys on the outside who will consistently hit the outside shot when the defense collapses. this is the absolute truth! Yao is a great passer... the rockets really need to be able to take advantage of his passing ability and punish opposing teams for sagging on him. that said... 6. the rockets lack outside shooting. Rice will be gone soon. Francis and Mobley are more deadly scorers than Ray Allen type shooters. Yao may be a better 3 pt shooter than Mo-T and Eddie Griffin... in other words, they are not to be mistaken for Dirk Nowitzki. Barring some miraculous trade at PF, every position except for SF is pretty much set. Posey does some nice things, but are those things worth that kind of money on *this* ballclub? Has he shown that he deserves it yet? We all agree that he is a nice player, but will our team fall apart if we don't sign him? Exercising some discipline now could help the Rockets down the line. Throwing the unproven argument aside, I don't think (and I hope that the Rockets don't think) that Posey is the long term answer at the 3. If Cat is entrenched at the 2, then we need a shooter at the 3. Nachbar could be that guy. But we know nothing him yet... we have seen nothing from him. he could make it, but he could very well be a bust. the track record for mid-1st rounders is iffy. he could go the way of Turscan and disappear from the earth. That said, why offer Posey starter's money when he may not even be the long term solution at his position for us? Do we want to pay $6 mil for a guy coming off the bench, let alone a guy who hasn't shown that he can hit from the outside? Why not save some money to position ourselves for a run at an impact player later on... I keep thinking that we'd at least have a shot at Brand if we didn't overpay some of our players.
