This reminds me of the Aaron Brooks at $8 mil/yr vs Chris Paul at max salary debate a few years ago. We can use all the stats in the world to argue that our role players are comparable with the league's top stars, that doesn't mean it's true.
Howard alone takes pressure off Harden on offense. Teams adjust their defense towards Howard. It would be nice to throw the ball down low and play inside out for a change. Makes our offense more dynamic than just threes, fast breaks and dunks/lay ups.
I agree 100%!!! http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/los-angeles-lakers/players/dwight-howard/comparison/13/13/199/148
Asik offseason practice routine: 1. Get in great cardio shape P90X or Insanity 2. Have someone throw softballs, tennis balls, or baseballs at your head from 5 feet away. 3. Practice catching and dunking alleyoop passes, teams have caught on that you only catch bounce passes. You would have averaged 10 points more if you could catch and alleyoop.
It's not the same issue at all, Harden is not nearly as adverse to passing the ball as Kobe is. And with McHale being a "front court" player himself, I'm quite sure he will see the importance of playing through the Center alot more than we do now. Spoiler
How are you going to convince Howard to give up $30 mil extra 5th year when a lockout awaits during his next FA period and it will probably be more stringent spending by the owners. He will also be 33 at that time
Player option after the third year to resign a max contract which actually works out better for him. Lakers contract would get him an extra year past the expiration of the cba. A new contract after 3 years would get him 3+ years past the new cba.
Has any Max player done that recently? Also hes been dealing with FA drama each of the last 2 years would he really want to deal with it again 2 yrs into his new contract? And we all know if FA is pending hes gonna be asked about it a full year ahead of time
This isn't going to be his last FA contract, and one thing the NBA always does is compensate its stars well. He will obviously qualify for the max offer again before the termination of this next deal, and I'm sure he'll negotiate a player option after the third or 4th year (a la LeBron and CP3). I'm not saying he's going to go for it, but there are ways to persuade him. The Lakers have a LONG way to go before getting to the Rockets level in terms of how much potential the future holds. It's just a matter of whether or not he's willing to leave California as a player.
True but now you're arguing two different points: 1) Your original point was why would he sign a 4 year contract instead of a 5 year with LA if a 4 year expires the same time as the CBA does. The answer to that is the player option which I can't see how any player would see an "option" for them as a negative. It gives him the option to stick with his 4 year deal or sign for another 3 years or more after three years is up. 2) Your point in this post is that he would rather have a long term 5 year deal than have a 4 year deal with an opt out in the third year. You're assuming he'd value being locked up for 5 years with out drama of his being a FA for one more year than he would the ability to go into a better winning situation with the Rockets + having the ability to sign another deal after 3 years granting him more flexibility to sign one more max contract under this CBA. Also to argue if any max player has done anything recently is pointless since no other player recently has been dealing in this new CBA. Change the CBA and you effectively change the behavior of the market.
I just don't see either Howard or Paul leaving LA independently. Both would be passing on big money and the bright lights of Hollywood, as well big sponsorships. The only chance we have is selling them on building the next big 3. They have to clearly see that the probabilty of winning a championship would be higher here than in LA, and that the big sponsorship opportunities would still be available to them. The one thing that has stuck with me through watching free agency is that no max-level free agent has EVER left money on the table, or at least not significant money. They may act like there are other factors, but ultimately money drives these decisions. That doesn't make them greedy. If I were in their shoes, I'd probably do the same thing. The only things that may cause me to take less would be a) loyalty (and how can I have loyalty to an organization I've never been a part of - ie Houston) or b) to win a championship (which I can still do later in my career - ala Ray Allen/Battier).
Yeah I'm inclined to agree with the rationale of human behavior here in this post. But on this last point, would you rather win championships and the possibility of winning multiple or wait until your a vet min player with some other young stud doing the heavy lifting?
Can you convince all this to a dimwit like him who doesn't see beyond the short term? This is the same guy that opted in when he was in Orlando when he could've been traded to the Nets & paired with another young superstar. Went against his agent's wishes (who has financial interest with the Barclays center BTW so theres some conflict of interest/collusion involved there). And how can one say Rockets future is better when they've been out of 1st round like once in the last 15 yrs while the Lakers worst season was finishing ahead of the Rockets. LA has track record of winning chips with HOF bigs they acquired such as Wilt, Kareem, Shaq, Gasol recently. What do the Rockets have tangibly to sell Dwight off Im trying to play devil's advocate to see all the reasons why Dwight would rather pick LA than here
I don't think you could argue that D12 would be both wise enough to be looking at the CBA expiration and his long term contract implications and then dimwitted enough to look at only the light of LA and $$ signs in front of his next contract. Of course much of this has to do with how his agent informs him on his options. I think it's fairly obvious that teams go through good seasons and bad. LA leveraged their future in order to squeeze out a few more years of championship contention. I think you'd be hard pressed to find any NBA analyst that doesn't think the Rockets future is without question more bright than LA's. I think you might be hard pressed to find Lakers fans who think their future is more bright than the Rockets.
Rockets had superstars in Yao and T-Mac. If Dwight asks the question were you good stewards of those two when they were in Houston. What kind of response would Rox say when the track record shows they didnt make it past the 1st round
4. Take a thousand catch and shoot 3-balls from each corner every day. 5. Practice the up fake and dribble drive to the rim from the corner. ; )
Really? I get you're playing devil's advocate but man you're reaching here. I don't think any player who knew the Rox situation would mistake the injury issues that plagued the rockets during the Yao/Tmac era with a mismanagement by the Rockets organization. Plus, DM wasn't there for the building stages of that ear either.
