They were on a "we don't need all that drama, we don't need Melo" chips on their shoulders, but let's not kid ourselves, Nene wasn't taking that team anywhere. C'mon now, Nene freakin' Hilarious.
I would like to say that I will pay $20 to the tip jar if wherever Nene averages 15 ppg 10 rpg 1 bpg and even if he averaged that, I wouldn't give him 15 million since he has been in the league a long time. Who will bet me? Nene will be a bust....
I think Rox will be able to pay more for Marc Gasol then Memphis can match after this trade: Rockets Salary after the Pau Gasol trade: $43,300,735 Memphis Salary: $55,030,476
You ever watch Nene play basketball... at all? He never jacks up shots. He shot 1.7 shots per game outside of 10 feet last year.
Dalembert is a far superior rebounder, shotblocker and overall defensive player to Nene. And he is begging to sign with us for probably way cheaper than $15M/per
And it's not going to happen anyway since Nene is signing with the Nets. This is why I never bought into the idea that getting Gasol automatically meant that Nene was coming here. It was all a big pipedream but on the bright side it got all of the Rocketsheep excited about the NBA season. And that will be a good thing - at least until the actual games start and folks see just how truly dreadful the Rockets are going to look against team with real frontline players. Well if anything this should lay to rest the debate about tanking as this is shaping up to be a lotto team for sure.
Couple of quick points: - LA did not win a title with Gasol playing C. When he was the C in 08 the Celtics pushed him around and they lost. When they won the following 2 seasons one of the differences was Bynum was able to play with his injuries and Gasol was a super-huge PF. When Bynum was hurt to start last season Gasol filled in at C but got wore out. Laker fans hate Gasol at C. - Just because someone else is willing to give Nene max money doesn't mean he is worth it. It just means some GMs are stupid and desperate to burn their cap space on "somebody", and I always thought our GM was smarter than that. Someone was willing go give Rashard Lewis a max deal and Joe Johnson. Neither guy is truly an elite player worth that contract, and neither is Nene. I can see someone defending Morey got giving up the boat for a star player but you can't defend him for giving a non-elite PF max $$.
I know he shoots jumpers when he shouldn't be. But no, I didn't have Nuggets games Tivoed, but I've seen him enough to know he likes to take the outside J from time to time.
Rudy Gay $15mil Zach Randolph $15.2mil Mike Conley $6.6mil Oj Mayo $5.6mil That's $42mil on just 4 players. I wonder if they'd be able or at least willing to match if we offered Marc Gasol say $16mil.
Grizz can match whatever offer he gets....they can go over the salary cap to keep a player if they have his Bird rights. The question becomes...will they match at a high price?
Nene is benefitting so much from a weak FA class its not even funny. $70 mil, wow. He's only 28, but this will be his 10th season. And he does have injury concerns. I wonder if Nene signs with the Nets, how this impacts our trade for Gasol? I truly believe Mchale has a hard on for pairing Nene with Gasol, at whatever cost. I just can't relate to that, we can't put ourselves in a tough spot in the future for a coach who hasn't proven anything in the past. I am completely indifferent about the Gasol trade, because we're trading future salary of Scola and getting a center (as long as Lakers dont get Howard too, if they do, then we just helped facilitate the next dynasty). But Nene's $14+ mil will put us in a bind. I would much rather start Patterson with Gasol, maybe sign Dalembert on the cheap, and target a stud SF or SG next year as we should have plenty of cap.
I don't even bother to look up Nene's stats, that's how little I regard him. So it's a good idea to give a guy 70 mill that averages 8.7 shots? His rebounding/defense/inside presence is that highly regarded? I'd rather have Tyson Chandler and even he's not getting that much. And again, that is worth 70 mill?
