Les has always been committed to winning, well before Morey arrived. He's brought in numerous big-name free agents and signed only proven coaches (until Morey grabbed McHale). Swift, Pippen, Cato, Barkley, Taylor, Posey, D. Anderson, Willis etc... every year the guy was throwing money at someone. Not his fault CD didn't hit pay dirt, but that's not Les' job.
Well, Francisco Garcia ($6.1 million) has the highest player salary this season, although a majority of that was paid by the Kings before the trade deadline. Of players to whom the Rockets actually cut paychecks for the 2012-13 season, the highest paid player was James Harden (at a paltry $5.8 million) followed by LUIS SCOLA ($5.4M portion of his salary not paid by Phoenix). Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik each made $5 million this season.
most casual fans don't value defense. They just saw his sloppy offense (didn't notice those screens either) And reading from draft boards, all they saw was the $15 mil 3rd year salary in the hope that we will have cap space in 2014 to sign free agents :lol:
I've seen people criticize Leslie for awhile, however as a 20+ year Rockets fan I have always appreciated Leslie and think he has been a fantastic owner always willing to improve our team.
What Ziggy said, plus the fact that Les has routinely paid up with his own cash/retained earnings to "buy" picks. Parsons, Landry, and Jermaine Taylor (included for objectivity) costed him over a million dollars each and I have a feeling most owners would laugh in a GM's face if they asked for that much to grab a 2nd rd pick (which rarely become serviceable players). He also spent $2.5 million dollars to sign a 3rd string Point Guard this year (Brooks), and had to pay to get the rights to Beverley. Anyone who doesn't think this guy is committed to winning is a fool. We should be grateful to not have some penny pinching, business-first owner...or hell, even some good owners would have gone against some of the things that Les gambled on. And I'm not even going to respond in-depth anymore to anyone skeptical of Morey. The guy is an elite GM and it's not even close. His only flaw may be recruiting skills, but now we have a star player to help with that.
Lin and Omer are both making $8.3 million this year... I asked Gersson Rosas about this exact thing and he said that we pay them 8.3, they're on the books for 8.3, and, if traded, they're worth 8.3. Think about it... We can't pay them $5 million this year and then trade them next year for the remaining $20 million on their contract when we have them on our books for 8.3 million. HoopsHype doesn't have their contracts correct in their salaries section. In your scenario (paying them $5 million this year), what do you think you'd do if you traded them with their remaining contract? The other team is not beholden to a 5/5/15 structure, nor are we. The only way that was going to happen is if New York/Chicago matched the poison pill contract. They did not, so it reverts to a 8.3/8.3/8.3 structure.
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That could probably be blamed on the situation Houston was in the last few years. I think his only problem is drafting in the first round, and it's not even that bad
Props to Les to taking on the risks no one else would...it's paid off financially and changed the future of Rockets basketball potential.
On Asik- You have to take into account expectations and distinguish between value and production. Asik is a great value because his production far exceeds what one would hope for at his salary. On the other hand, Howard is capable of much better production, but requires a max contract. Although it's not as good of a value, the Rocket have the means to pay Howard, and basketball games are won by total production. Thus, signing Howard to a less valuable (i.e. not as much of a bargain) contract makes sense. In this way, the Asik deal is as close to "perfect" as possible, but Howard speculation is still justified. In terms of constant shuffling of players, this is beating a dead horse, but that needs context. It's not like Morey is constantly shuffling random players and not moving anywhere. He is consistently (albeit slowly) trading up (e.g. in shorthand: Spanoulis->Scola, Alston->Lowry, Brooks->Dragic, Landry->Martin->Harden), getting good contracts (what is the worse contract on our team right now?), or players with potential. Still, agree that there are certain things we still need to see from Morey. Can we get that second superstar? Can Morey's lottery picks ever live up to the brilliance of his second round picks? When one of these rookies does finally pan out, can Morey negotiate a fair second contract? And what happens when his strategies start to pan out and the rest of the league starts imitating him, will he still be a step ahead?
When the Rockets signed Asik for 25 million a few analysts on espn was laughing at them. It was a risk because Asik only played a few minutes a game. No one knew if he could log heavy minutes and if he could stay on the floor without foul trouble and stay healthy. It's a testiment to Asik that he lost weight and got into great shape to be able to stay on the floor in Mchale fast pace offense.
Incorrect. The salaries COUNT AGAINST THE CAP at $8.3 million per season, but the actual payout is $5 million, $5.225 million, ~$14.9 million. Perhaps Gersson misunderstood your question. The ENTIRE PURPOSE of the Gilbert Arenas Rule was to put in place a system whereby (1) teams could re-sign certain young players and (2) those players could not possibly make more sooner by signing with another team. Please feel free to read (or re-read) Larry Coon's FAQs on the subject: http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q44
Oh wow, you're prophetic then, because most sports analysts and almost the whole league thought it was a crazy risk. I also doubt the Bulls would have matched $25M, even if it would not have been a luxury tax issue. $25M for your backup C who sees less than 15min a game? I don't think anyone does that...
Lin and Asik only makes $5 million this year. I'm surprised so many people are confused by this after a year.
Considering the fact that we are paying them only 5 million if their contract is supposed to average at 8.3 million I have a question..... If we were to trade Asik this off season who would be liable for paying him the true amount of his contract total? If we only paid Asik 5 million this year in essence his 2 years is at around 20 million versus 2 years at around 16 million?
Morey was highly regarded in how the C's constructed their 08 championship roster, in regards to their accumulate and acquire style. Les invested in that-- it's nothing out of the oridnary. As for Asik, of the pickups, if you watch basketball like a true junkie you'd be the most comfortable with that pick up. Anyone whose watched the NBA whole-heartedly knew he'd be a dman good defensive C. My number one fear with him was foul trouble, but it ended out being conditioning(dude tires out too quickly). But in regards to defensive ability, rim protecting, rebounding, I knew we got a legit steal. If he was so under the radar, you don't structure the 5/5/15 posion dill. You do that to taunt & secure. If he came at 5mil or below a year, like average fans and some dumb NBA "experts" thought, Chicago would've laughed. Ask Lebron and Dwyane about Asik, real recognize real. He's a big-time impact player on the defensive end. Lin was a giant risk, but had the backing of a marketable avenue. So he's not a "liability" if he bottoms out. James was another surprise. I didn't think he'd be this good, he's a legit top 10 player. I thought he'd be a 3rd tier star, I didn't think he'd be this good, this soon. He still has a lot of work to do, but he's an amazing player.
Ok so at least we agree they count at $8.3 mil against our cap. Here's where it doesn't make sense to me: What if we trade Jeremy for the 3rd year of his contract? Do we pay the difference between $8.3 and $5 mil for the 2 years we had them, and then the other team pays $8.3 for the year and is at $8.3 against the cap? Or do we just have him count at $8.3 mil for the cap and trading purposes, but then make the other team pay $15 million for that year? It doesn't make sense to pay someone a different amount than they count for on your bottom line, and they are on our bottom line for $8.3 mil/yr. Gersson was pretty clear when I was talking to him, so I don't think I misunderstood, but it's always possible.
