LeBron only makes that much because the CBA would not allow anything more than that. If there was no salary cap/lux tax, for example like European football, teams left and right would come up with 25, or dare I say it, 50 million per year for LeBron. NBA superstars, as mentioned before by Morey, are along with players on rookie-scale contracts are the two most underpaid types of players in the NBA. Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, and LeBron James have produced way more on-court than what they are actually being paid when it comes to stats vs. salary. In this market where DeAndre Jordan are being offered 10 million per year and Chandler being paid 15 million per year, Nene at that price is really a bargain. A serious bargain. Chandler vs LeBron? I don't see a comparison there. See my point? And, without a single ounce of hatred or insult to Yao, he was being paid max salary playing 5 games for 2 years. I think we should be DELIGHTED that we can actually land a big name free-agent for once.
Maybe $Ball in basketball takes a ton of other things into account other than just straight up $/production. For example, Dallas paid 10M for Haywood, and another 10M for Chandler, both of whom were considered to be not worth that amount at the time. In the same way, DM wouldn't pay 5M for both Hayes and that dude in PHX, but then he'll go ahead and try to trade for Melo or Bosh, both of whom aren't worth the max. Perhaps he's thinking that while Nene has averaged paltry numbers so far, he has been playing with Melo, AI and Billups on a slow-paced Nuggs for most of his career. On an offensive team with great setup men like Gasol and Lowry, maybe DM is projecting he'll be worth 15M a year.
Houston's a small market? LOL. I get your point but Houston is far from a small market. Its just not a glamour market, thats all.
When was the last time we landed a big-name free agent on a bigger magnitude than Nene? I CANNOT ACTUALLY RECALL ANY NAMES.
You are almost acting like one of those 14 year old kids who have cluttered the last 30 or 40 pages of this thread. At this point, we don't know what will happen. I suspect we will know in a few hours. Until then, there is no point in panicking. You can continue to bash Morey when the dust has settled.
KMart would be a really good complementary piece to a Pau/Nene frontcourt. His defensive shortcomings would be somewhat negated by their presence at the rim. On offense, Martin spreads the floor for the inside game. Keeping Martin does hurt flexibility going forward though. We would have 53 mill tied up in 4 players going into the 2012 offseason.
Max, you are officially old and no fun. You don't want your sports teams run like your 401K. Sports are where you exercise you dreams and passion without so much regard for the risks.
Don't follow Mannix, but Woj has been pretty solid over the years. Time to buckle in and see where this rides takes us.
And that's your opinion. Morey has a different opinion. He may be wrong, but that's his opinion. And he's had a hell of a lot better player evaluation record than any of us here. LOL! Signed, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and every other superstar since Yao's departure You don't have to agree. I don't care what you think of Morey. I know what you think of him. I just disagreed with your premise that since Lebron makes $16 mil, therefore Nene's not worth $12 mil. This has nothing to do with Rockets management.
ohhhhh....it's moneyball....why didn't you say so? well, i'm not worried then. we've been awesome with moneyball and the A's are always winners, so we're set!!!! yes, i'm being sarcastic and it's not meant to be directed to you specifically. bottom line is, i had hoped the #asset strategy would net something better than Pau Gasol. the dirty secret of the NBA is that, to be a true contender, you have to have an MVP type player on your team. Pau isn't that. I feel like all of this is reshuffling the deck furniture on the Titantic. Only our ship never sinks; it just turns in big circles, never moving anywhere. I buy in to exactly what Clutch wrote in his blog...this team needs to find it's face...it's MVP type player. And if that can't happen through free agency, it needs to happen through the draft...if that means we have a subpar year in a 66 game season, so be it. And yeah, I know Les isn't about that. The problem is, Morey's pretty clear that he knows that's exactly what the Rox need. At some point that's going to end up costing him his job.
. Exactly especially when NJ is basically saying screw all of yall we got him. We need him more/deserve him more. I think 15mil a year for Nene is a good deal. I have always loved Nene's game
Damn. Well then I'll have to see where this takes us. I'm not sold on getting rid of KMart at all. Keeping flexibility doesn't really matter when you're getting rid of really good players, and KM was elite offensively last season. I'd love to see whet he can do in this system with big men negating his defensive shortcomings.
We were (are) stuck in perpetual mediocrity and here is a play totally change the equation. We go from a team without any front line of note or stars, to a team built around the front line, with two proven stars. And remember our coach is power foward who would prefer to play an inside out game, with lots of drop step lay ups.
