The Rockets roster is shaping up like this... PG-Steve Francis SG-Cuttino Mobley SF-Glen Rice PF-Maurice Taylor C-Yao Ming PG-Moochie Norris SG-Oscar Torres (probably) SF-Bosjan Nachbar PF-Eddie Griffin, Kenny Thomas C-Kelvin Cato SF-Terence Morris My concern is this, in 3 years "The Griff" will be up for a payday. In 4 years Yao will be up for a payday, even though he says he doesn't care about the money, the "Leeches" do, I'm referring to his agent and the Chinese Government. Don't forget if Nachbar is good as advertised, and continues to get better he'll be wanting to be re-upped as well. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, first, Glen "Knee Fried" Rice, then, Kelvin "The Rotten Tomato" Cato , and Cuttino's contracts will be up in consectutive seasons. 9 million comes off the in three years, then 14 million comes off in four. What would you guys do to keep our kids together? I just hope Les breaks the bank like Cuban.
IMO, when Cat's a FA, we should resign him, if we have the money. One reason I don't quite want Reshard is that I'm worried he will take money away from Griff and Yao. We may be able to trade Mo for a big, but short contract, if he does well. This should also free up some money, as well as give Griff some more time. (this would be after this season, at the soonest,imo.) Cato may be able to be a good backup, but we may be able to get a better and cheaper one in one of the upcoming drafts. So he won't be missed. Hopefully, this will free up some space for Ming,Griff, as well as Boki. Who knows? Maybe they will sign cheaper if they know it will help the team... HAHAHAHAHAHA! I crack myself up.
Boki and Nachbar are ONE and the same. lol Anyways, here's what I think: We absolutely NEED Rice. 10M comes off the cap when his contract is up, and let's say 3M is lost due to the copmbination of oeth player's salaries going up, and the salary cap itself going up. So that's 7M that pays for Griffin. We need Cato this year. But if he can do what he did last year, slightly better, and on a winning team, then we can send him somewhere. But that's AFTER this season, when Ming is ready to play big minutes as a starter. At this point we'll ship him off for nothing but 1 or 2 short (2 years at most) contracts. That's for Boki. As for Mobley, make no mistake about it, he'll probably get something like a 3-yr contract and will be OVERPAID. That's compensation for the last contract he signed. Mo Taylor has to go at midseason, and KT has to go anytime from now to midseason. If we trade both, then we need a PF with a short contract in return to backup Griff. That's wher Ming money comes out. The only problem would be if Rashard came here. I'd hate to have to pony up luxury tax dough for Rashard Lewis. All that we really need from this roster in 3 or 4 years is: Ming >> 10M Griffin >> 7.5M Boki >> Will probably make 5M or so Mobley >> 9M Francis >> Max That's a total of around 45M. Considering the cap will be considerably higher than that in 3 or 4 years, that's a pretty damn good cap situation. That extra cap space can go to 3 rookies till then. That still leaves 2 exceptions, the midlevel and the minimum. I think there's also a veteran's minimum, but I'm not sure. So that's 5 or 6 more players. If you throw in a couple of second round picks, that's a whole roster. A very nice one at that.
Sane, I've got great news for ya! I just heard from a reliable inside source that Les would not try to hold you liable for any luxery tax bill that he might recieve in the future from the NBA! Great news huh? Seriously, I don't know why everyone including sports jurnalist like to give the owners an out by saying that they can't afford to keep this team together or that team together because of a luxery tax. The owners of the NBA are not in any kind of financial trouble and none are loosing money. The owners have an obligation to the fans to put the best team possible on the floor...period. All owners are not like Donald Sterling and any that act the way he has acted should be forced out of the league. Personally I will never except pay role as an excuse for Les or any other owner of any other team in any sport breaking up a good team team because it is just too expensive to have that many good players. Besides I'm am not all that convinced that the NBA will ever even see a luxery tax. The owners don't want it and neither do the players. David Stern and the Union have already had discussions around dropping the tax and extending the current labor contract.
The main one I'm worried about resigning is Eddie. Hopefully they can give him the playing time he will probably deserve to keep him happy, but I think it's going to be tough with Maurice Taylor. If they split time, that would only give Eddie 24 minutes a game. Most star power forwards average around 37 minutes a game. I don't think Eddie would be happy playing 24 a game, when he could go to another team and possibly play nearly 40 a game and put up all-star numbers. So, for Eddie to get his 37 or so minutes a game, one of two things will need to happen. Maurice Taylor will need to become a bench player (which I don't think he would take very well, and I have a hard time seeing Rudy willing to do that), or Eddie would have to play small forward, which is a position that will not allow him to fully utilize his skills. I think it's a tough situation.
in three years, it will be apparent who the center pieces are of this team and IMHO, you can only carry 2 centerpieces, maybe three. Francis, Griffin and Ming or Mobes will probably occupy a lot of space and therefore, we will lose someone.....the best position to be in is to have 2 dominant players front and back court preferably and build around them.......I personally think that Mobes could be the odd man out of the circle just to due numbers and centerpiece status. That does not mean that Cat is not worthy, but if Griffin grows and matures, look out...
This topic makes me sad, I hope that Les breaks the bank as well. Even if ticket prices go up. And I will have to scream if I hear any more suggestions about obtaining Shard, I have a feeling that he will not be an impact player albeit a nice. And to compensate him for Seattles mistakes, humph, absurd. Arrgghh, I just heard rashard Lewis again .
U B jumpin de gun on EG. Nice player but not EVEN close to all-star caliber. He's still a bit skinny.
Thank God. Thank you Crash, I lost sleep over my precious money (which is around $1.50 right now, lol). Seriously though, the way to build a franchise is to lock up your ccore. If you have a core of 2 (Shaq Kobe) then you can give them both the MAX. But we have a core of 3. Francis, Griffin and Ming, then throw in Mobes and Boki as the complementary players. Feancis is getting the MAX, so Griffin and Ming will have to settle for less than Max money. Boki will have a decent contract, but I'm sure Mobley expects a pay day. So that may be a problem. It might hurt our bench. Although I agree with crash that owners should pay to keep a good team together, it almost never happens. It's actually unheard of. So far teams have broken the bank for a couple of players that deserve it (Shaq-Kobe, McGrady-Hill), or have had no choice due to stupid decisions (Warriors, Grizzlies). Is Les ready to pony up around 55M in salary? Luxury tax is projected to be somewhere between 51M and 54M.
