Chronicle is reporting Deke will be back next season. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5783908.html By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Mutombo's career on and off the court Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo decided Thursday he would like to keep playing at least one more season with the Rockets. ``I'm going to consider to keep playing basketball. The next part will be to tell my lawyer, David Falk,'' Mutombo said. ``My body and my mind is responding to the thrill of the game. The coaches and the fans and everyone are in there.'' Mutombo, 42, had planned to retire after last season but during the season said he might postpone the decision pending offseason discussions with his family. ``I talked to my wife and kids a lot this week, especially my children. (They) want me to play one more year,'' he said. Rockets general manager Daryl Morey had said he would to have Mutombo back. Mutombo's return would depend upon a contract agreement with the Rockets.
he's like all rocket fans. he sees the potential for a championship IF HEALTHY. and he keeps believing that eventually we'll stay healthy. we all knew deke was going to try for one more year.
So he's returning from the dead once again, elbows a' sharpened, fingers a' waggin', ready to offer his services once again?
Having Mutombo for next year is great, even at 42 he still has what it takes. We need to draft another backup center though, the reality is at some point he is going to retire. What he did this year is amazing, even at his age, but we need to start grooming another backup for the time he finally retires.
Torn, half of me loves Deke coming back, other half wants Morey to move to a younger backup. If I were Morey, I would still hunt for a backup tall C/PF type. Deke coming back prolly puts the hunt on the back burner but Morey needs to scour the draft potentials or free agents, cause Adelman prolly won't play Deke much again. This is a good opportunity for Morey to find a young raw project that the Rockets can develop at Adelman's leisure.
Considering Deke will almost certainly sign for the vet minimum, this is great all the way around. Why does this somehow preclude us from finding a future back-up and developing him? We should be able to do both.
I believe that if Deke signs for the veteran minimum, the rockets get a kickback from the league. We'll have more cash to spend on the c/pf.
http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm Found it! Since Mutombo is a 10+ year vet, we get over a $400k kickback from the league to offset part of his salary.
Vet minimum...not too sure that Deke will settle for that, he felt he got lowballed last year. Great if he does. I thought I said Morey should sign a young backup also even with Deke coming back, I didn't say we should stop or this makes our backup big man search moot.
With Deke back the Rockets might salary dump Hayes and try to groom a rookie backup C. It saves them around $1.5M in salary. I guess we'll know when they draft.
