I think I must have missed this story. I don't know who originally broke it, but if we were working on a deal for Lewis, it was obviously pretty hard to pull off under the cap rules. I don't now anything about trade talk, but one can easily guess how such talk would go down... <ol><li>Lewis and his agent wanted the max<li>Lewis waiting all summer then took a 7yr/$65m contract with Sea<li>That contract calls for $6.75m first year<li>Surely the delay in signing was because Lewis wanted to shoot for more money, probably $8m starting salary (weren't they quoted as saying that?)<li>That Bird Rights contract signed for 20% greater than his previous salary makes Lewis a Base Year Player valued at his previous year's MCE Salary of $4.413m<li>The Rox would have to send $8m of salaries to Seattle, but Seattle could only take $4.4m back, creating a huge salary gap.<li>The salary gap must be filled by a 3rd team with cap room or trade exception, as Sea and Rox had neither<li>The few teams with huge trade exceptions would not want to broker that deal for fear of increasing team salary resulting in Luxury Tax implications<li>Team with cap room wouldn't necessary want to give up their cap room to help us, because the 2003 FA crop is what everyone is waiting for<li>Thus, most likely, neither Lewis nor the Rox could find a third team to broker the deal, so it folded.</ol> Also notice that Doc Rocket said in the summer that the Rockets would not trade Kenny in the summer afterall, but for "<i>reasons the [he] could not say.</i>" imo, it is clear now that the reasons Doc couldn't speak was because the Rockets were keeping Kenny to try to make the Eddie/Lewis trade. <b>Why are people saying the Rox turned down the trade?</b> imo, we should not be saying the Rockets turned down that trade. SnTs involving a major rise in salary are very difficult to pull off under the salary cap rules, even if everyone wants to do it. This is more likely to have been due the inability of CD and Lewis's agent to find a 3rd team to broker the deal.
Bravo, now let's hunt down the people who keep bringing it up like it was a complete failure on our part and stick it to em, or they could just say they were wrong right here (yeah, like that's gonna happen). I would think that somebody who has been using the "CD rejected EG for Lewis" thing to try and prove it, but it's doubtful that will happen.
Pfff, did you hear about CD turning down an offer for a Time Machine that he could use to go back in time and get the Rockets to make one of the trades that could have brought them Jordan?
I'm guessing that people are referring to it because the Tacoma News reported it. Right or wrong, people are referring to that article. <a href="http://www.tribnet.com/sports/basketball/story/1654900p-1771866c.html">Source: Sonics shopping Lewis</a> Meanwhile, the Sonics have made calls around the league looking to do a sign-and-trade deal, but thus far they have been unable to put together a package. According to three league sources, the Sonics talked to the Houston Rockets about acquiring second-year forward Eddie Griffin in exchange for Lewis. Griffin is a 6-10, 220-pound forward from Seton Hall who averaged 8.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.84 blocks in his rookie season. It is believed free agent Walt Williams is the other player that would be involved in such a deal, which would require the Rockets to sign Williams and then trade both he and Griffin to the Sonics. However, sources say the Rockets turned down such a deal because they did not want to part with Griffin.
That would be consistent with them rejecting the trade for Shareef because they wanted to keep Griffin...
Okay I have two questions: 1. Why would Seattle want Griffin in return for 'Shard? 2. Why would Houston not give up Griffin for 'Shard? If this is the truth, unless Griffin plays the way we all expect him to be, then this is the stupidest move in the history of the franchise. Houston would be much more solid at the 3 & 4 than they are now.
Clutch, the question now begs, are they willing to part with Griffin NOW? Before the season there was so much promise for Griffin. After the season, seems like there are a lot of questions. You have to wonder how the Rockets are viewing Griffin after this season and the failure to make the playoffs. I admit, when the trade proposal was floated I wanted to keep Griffin, but now I am thinking that it would have been better to go with the athletic sweet shooting SF and go after a banging PF later on. Rashard's numbers looked pretty darn good this year! Rashard's outside shooting really would have been an asset on this team opening up the floor for Yao!
Yep, I guess all you guys missed that article earlier. The Rocks have turned down numerous deals for EG, I wonder if they regret that now. Rashard for EG would be a no brainer now...not so in the summer, but it sure smells bad now. DD
Contract talk aside, Griffin's stock has fallen quite a bit after this season. My impression was that most people on this board agreed that trading away Griffin for Lewis was not worth it. If you felt it that way, you can't blame Rudy and CD for doing the same. Seattle was desperate for a SnT because Lewis clearly didn't want to sign with them. But they picked the wrong time to propose for that deal because Griffin's value was very high at that time. Now we have the advantage of hindsight after a disappointing season for Griffin.
At the time I endorsed the 'Just Say No' to the deal. If I could be wrong, so, too, could RT/CD. The next question is why the Rox braintrust have always been in a 'Just Say No' to 'shard? Because it does 'smell' like that, to me. Moving EG this summer will smell, too, since I suspect his value is devalued. Do I smell the Knicks in on this one?
Yep, I think there is something about Rashard that the Rockets just don't like, though I'm not sure what it is.
thx, Clutch. I knew I missed some story. But allow me to explain further how that article is indeed wrong when it says we rejected Lewis for Griffin. It had to be Lewis for Griffin and another valued rocket. Note that a Griffin/Walt Williams for Lewis is an illegal trade as described in the article, since only Seattle is involved. It requires a 3rd team. Next, notice how few teams used the MCE last year. The 3rd team would have to have greased the deal at the equivalent increase in team salary that using an MCE would have produced. If few teams used the MCE, why would they grease our deal, even if they did have the requisite trade exception. imo, the only way a trade like that goes down is the 3rd team must have had cap room, and they must have been receiving a $5m player from us <b>that was worth spending money on.</b> No one signed Walt for $5m, so we can forget that ever being a true rumor from that article. imso, a $5m player from the Rox worth spending precious cap room on could only be Mobley. Thus, even if there was a caproom team out there who wanted Mobley, the trade would have been Griffin (plus change) to Seattle, Mobley to Team X, and Lewis to us at $8m.
I think those on the board that did not support a potential Griffin for Lewis trade were those that highly believed that Griffin would have a decent inside presence to his game this year. He would be someone that could spread the floor offensively with his outside shot and at the same time hit the boards and block shots. I am sure that is what the Rockets envisioned as well. I think most believed that Griffin's potential (perhaps Jermain O'neal like?) was too good to pass up for a SF such as Lewis. PLUS many here probably thought that Nachbar would pick up any slack from the SF position! But what we got this year in Eddie was a tentative player that poorly shot the ball from the outside, did not show any signs of a post up game OR a dribble driving game and did not block as many shots nor rebound as much as we would have liked. None of that happened! So the Rockets must have seen something in Eddie or incorrectly saw something in Lewis to not make that trade. As a Rockets FAN, I am not going to say I have the ability to evaluate players as well as an NBA scout, but you want to hope that the Rockets aren't missing the boat in evaluating these players!
That article is incorrect. I've proven that the deal had to involve a 3rd team and a 2nd Rocket player valuable enough for another team to spend $5m in caproom on. That player is not Walt Williams, as the article says. The Rockets rejected the trade because it was more than Eddie Griffin that needed to be involved. Most likely Cuttino Mobley. <b>Anyone else want to take a shot at trying to make that trade work?</b> The trade was very difficult to work under cap rules, and that's why both Rashard and Seattle couldn't make *any*SnTs work. It doesn't look like any 3rd team showed up willing to spend $5m on greasing that trade.
