Don't get too comfortable Jonny. Then again, maybe he'll be here after all. Dragic will be a FA I believe.
I think he has talent, but he obviously needs a lot of work. I think Dragic will be included in a trade before long, and Flynn will step in as the backup...
You really can't hate the guy's personality. Say what you want bout his game but homie gots a good head on his shoulders. Really hope for the best for him.
This. Glad to see those quotes from McHale. My fear with any (seemingly inevitable) trade of Dragic had been that Flynn would be too large a drop-off as the backup PG. I'm going to give McHale the benefit of the doubt and say this isn't a total PR spin job (cue leebigez and DD in 3, 2, 1 . . .). I actually think McHale has always liked Flynn. Much like how Charlie Casserly compiled and ranked the prospects leading into the Mario Williams draft (without ultimately being responsible for the selections), my sense is that the Kevin McHale front office ranked Flynn very high on its draft board before David Kahn (who was hired a mere two weeks before the draft) made the eventual selection of Flynn. I hope the Rockets are able to get value for either Dragic and Flynn in trade this season. Good to know that the organization (seemingly) has confidence in Flynn to be the number two PG if necessary.
I agree that he needs to just play. Vipers sounds good. Having a supportive and unselfish bench is part of having a successful team.
Because he's going to get paid to be some other team's starter next season most likely, and the Rockets will loose him for nothing. So trade him at the deadline to a team that has interest in offering him a deal for ... whatever. Better than letting him walk for nothing.
From a salary cap management standpoint, it just makes the most sense. The Rockets are looking to maximize their cap room. Dragic will count over $4.2M against the cap until re-signed, and he'll probably get (over)paid by some team with less prudent cap management than the Rockets. With Courtney Lee a higher priority in free agency, and given Lowry's emergence as a PG worthy of playing 38 mpg, it's just not going to be worth it for the Rockets to bring Dragic back at his likely price tag. Just like with Aaron Brooks last season, but to a lesser extent. Meanwhile, the Rockets have a talented third stringer in Flynn who, while currently overpaid, is more likely to be re-signed for the league minimum salary (or close to it). Unfortunately, the new CBA rule allowing third-year players to be sent down to the D-League does not take effect until next season. The prior CBA only allowed first- and second-year players to be sent down. Flynn (a third-year player) cannot be sent down; and by the time the new rule kicks in, he'll be a fourth-year player and ineligible to be sent down. And to follow up on the "Morey talks about '2009 lotto scrubs'" thread: Morey never said anything negative about Flynn or the level of his play. He only said that Dragic beat him out for the backup PG minutes. McHale's comments seem to be consistent with Morey's and give more context for Flynn's situation.
Because we had Lin at the time and we would have opened up an extra roster spot from the trade and kept Lin and he would have been the backup point.