The article written by the Warriors guy sums up Thabeet perfectly: "Thabeet, a former No. 2 overall pick, is widely regarded as someone who simply not good enough to play in the NBA and probably won’t be." I'm not sure the Biendrens trade is a good idea (by the way, Hill and Thabeet don't add up to 9 mill (Biendrens contract), I think Twill would have to be included. It would be cool to 1) make some room on the roster 2) get rid of terrible players like T will, Thabeet and Hill 3) And get a legit center Problem is, I'm not sure how much Biendrens can bring to the table. At one time he could rebound pretty well, which was Houston's absolute biggest weakest last season -- but his contract is pretty terrible... God, that's a tough decision. I would hope Houston could make a better trade than that though.
Well it looks like he is a very good rebounder: http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/biedran01.html If all it takes is Hill and Thabeet I would be down for it, as long as it doesn't kill our cap (that's a Bima question). Quality big men aren't cheap.
If we could trade expiring contracts and possibly a 2012 2nd rd pick for him, then I don't see why not. He may be able to turn it around playing for another team like Tyson Chandler did. If we were so high and Jonas Valunciunas, then why not Biedrins? They're style of play are very similar. And I don't think people realize Biedrins just turned 25 in april. He can still turn it around.
It does. EDIT: Let me clarify. Biedrins's contract would severely hamper the Rockets' cap situation if (a) they held onto Martin and Scola (they might not), (b) the cap rules remain relatively the same (they probably won't), (c) existing salaries don't get rolled back (they could be), and (d) existing contracts remain fully guaranteed (they probably will, but it's not certain). If any of those things change, the answer could be affected. Still, that's NOT a good contract. And the Rockets don't really have any truly "bad" contracts of not-so-useful players to swap for another one attached to a useful player like Biedrins. (I really do like Biedrins as a "fifth starter" who can rebound and block shots. Salary aside, he'd be a great fit on this Rockets team. Unfortunately, the salary issue is a big one.)
To be fair, if Biedrins magically turns it around and returns to his old self of three or four years ago, he's absolutely worth his contract. That's quite a big IF though. I'm hoping we're missing something that got left out in the report (e.g. 2012 1st from GS).
Utah already owns that pick (top-8 protection that burns off over a few years). A 2014 pick is about as good as you can hope to get from them. And the Warriors will possibly be a good team by then.
If Biedrins were at $5 million , and we didn't desperately need center help, I'd think of it as even. At $9 million, if we didn't desperately need center help, I'd rather have Hill and Thabeet. I think Thabeet has zero value. He's overpaid, but we can cancel his contract with just under a year's notice. On the positive side, he still might work out. Probably not; I think the odds are 20-25% that he'll ever become a rotation player for any team. Hill is already a reasonable rotation player, though not on a team with so many PFs. He could be the 9th or 10th man on most teams. And, he still has potential, and a reasonable contract. Biedrins, OTOH, has negative value, except that he is a center. The Warriors wanted to dump him. They still do, but they know the Rockets want a center, and have assets to spend. Most of the teams below the Rockets in the NBA can be satisfied with a Metro-center (a non-tradional one), but a team that thinks they can compete should really have a regular center.
I agree. Scola, Lowry, Brooks, Landry, Kevin Martin, Artest, Lee, Ariza, etc. are all a bunch of garbage any GM could get from thin air just by rolling off the side of the bed. You're not a real GM until you can build a championship team with 2 injured stars. Petrie could build a 50-win team with Durant and Westbrook done for career. Riley doesn't need Lebron or Wade to build a championship team. The Lakers would still win 55 games without Kobe or Gasol. The fact that Morey can't build a contender with no capspace, no stars, no high picks, and very few decent role players shows that he's all talk.
I haven't been this happy about the state of our franchise in so long. Carl Herrera's thread about our cap space makes me happy. Here's to not taking on any stupid salaries
Really? Of that list, I'll give you Ariza and Artest. The rest (Scola, Lowry, Brooks, Landry, Kevin Martin, Lee) were exceptional moves.
Almost. We cannot make his contract ends this season, as I understand it. We can make his contract expire next season. I'm not looking it up, but I think this is correct.
Unless the Rockets pick up their team option on Thabeet before the start of the 2011-12 season (they likely won't), he will become an unrestricted free agent in 2012, meaning that he will be an expiring contract during this upcoming season.
We have to pick up his 2012-2013 option before the 2011-2012 season? Why didn't we have to pick up Dragic's 4th year option (2011-2012) before last season started?
Good question. Simple answer. Teams only need to pick up team options a year early on first round rookie scale contracts. Goran Dragic was a second round pick. Phoenix used a portion of their MLE to sign Dragic to a four-year deal (sort of like what Houston did with Budinger, although the Suns actually spent more money on Goran to keep him from staying in Europe). Therefore, the team option on his contract--like all other NBA contracts with team options that are NOT first round rookie scale contracts--could be exercised immediately before the option year. Hope that helps.
