. . . of the euros in the league Who would you think is the best defender? Dirk? T-Parker? Peja? I think maybe Vlade Mutombo is the best NON American I think . . .but Euro is a bit harder to think on Rocket River
DAN GADZURIC I do not think there are alot of good european defensive players. But Gadzuric is a pretty good defensive player, and he is playing great the last couple of weeks. I wish he would just play for the national team, he played about one match so far, it was good to see Elson and Gadzuric next to each other.
damn i forgot about Kirilenko. He is European. Russia is part of Europe. But still i vote for Gadzuric(ok this is a homer vote, Kirilenko is by far the best european defender, he might be the best defensive player or the world)
AK-47 is the best. Mikael Pietrus is probably the best guard. Parker is good too. Marko Jaric is ok. Dirk isn't half as bad as most people say he is. Peja? He sucks. Vlade is probably the smartest, some people may hate floppers I do too, but it gets the job done. Pryzbilla, is he European? I think he is, he's a good rebounder and shot blocker.
Well, Kirilenko is kind of a "no duh" choice. Prior to AK47 I've got to say that Tariq Abdul Wahad (French) was far, far and away the best Euro defender in the league. And honestly, he probably still is. He just hasn't gotten to play lately because he's been injured, plus he's about as pitiful on offense as he is excellent on defense.
AK is top-notch defender, but Pietrus' defensive PER is off the charts, dwarfing just about anyone in the league besides Prince and Artest.
He is Dutch Just like Elson Gadzuric has a yoegaslavian (sp) father, but he was born in The Netherland.
Do I sense some Deutch bias there? 1. Kirilenko 2. Pietrus 3. Shawn Bradley Notable mention: Dirk, Nenad Krstik [sp??], OlowoKandi, Tony Parker.
I thought Bradley was born in St. George, Utah. I know Utah is kinda weird, but it surely isn't part of Europe, right? I know he's a German national now, but no way Bradley counts as a Euro. BTW, just a year ago, Dirk was said to be one of the best non-defending players in the league. How did he become one of the best Euro defender in a single season???
You are right but I count him as Euro now since he now features for the German National team. He thinks he is Euro and that is fine with me
NIKE, I know you are the cap expert here. Can you remind me why we(the Rockets) won't have any major cap space a year from now?
Yao hits the books for all intents and purposes as a max contract even before he signs it (unsigned unrenounced free agents count from 150%-300% of their previous contract under the current CBA, in Yao's situation coming off a rookie scale, 250% of his 5.5 mill up to the max, unlikely to change). Estimates on what the max should range from 10-13 million or so. TMac makes 17 mill. That's roughly 30 mill for those two. Chip in another 13.5 mill or so for Mike James, Bob Sura, and Juwan Howard, and you're already at roughly 43.5 mill. There's no really good way to estimate the cap, but I think 60 mill would probably be a top end estimate. So tops, you have about 16.5 mill to spend in the next two years, and you've got a declining PF, NO shooting guards, and a decent point guard tandem. If you keep around any semblance of a bench, that type of money detoriates really quickly. This would mean we let guys like Wesley walk, sign guys like Jon Barry and Dikembe Mutombo to deals of 1 year and not plan to resign them after that and let them walk, and not use our MLE on a multi year deal. Throw in a couple of first round contracts at a mill or so each, and you can see how quickly the rest of the cap would be eaten away. Here's what I consider a plausible scenario: -We resign Barry and Mutombo to 2 year deals that will pay them around 5-6 mill in year 2 combined. -Use the MLE in full or near to it this year (SAR, Marshall, Antonio Daniels, Swift etc.) take your pick. -Use at least one of the expiring contracts to upgrade talent. Plus, ring in Spanoulis and/or Badiane on 2 year deals, and 2 first round pick contracts I think are basically givens. Even if you do only 2 of those three things, that 16.5 mill gets cut closer to 5 mill, which is basically the MLE anyway.
I see... Thanks alot for your analysis. It helps alot for me to understand all this. I guess it really helps if we can have a superb scouting team like the Spurs do. They got cheap yet great and young talent in Parker/Ginobli/Udric with their late picks. That what we really need. BTW, how in the world did teams like Denver and some other teams get multiple first round picks? We only have one, and if we screw it up, it's over for the year. I remember we traded our expiring contract of Glenn Rice AND a first round pick to Utah for trash. Why in the world did we do that for?
