GATER/Deckard, it was oeilpere that made that statement. i remember it well. then again, i also remember cat being gone this offseason to pussyland. and i also see that oeilpere hasn't been around since then. i think it's safe to say that he's out of the loop now - be it for medical reasons (he, supposedly, was in the hospital when posting that statement) or for employment reasons (had access under the rudy regime but doesn't under the van gundy regime).
verse, oeilpere knowing the details of Moochie's contract might be on the level. Mooch was signed well before Rudy was "booted" and my impression as well is that popeye's contacts were with the previous regime. Whether he was off or not about Cat is an open question, since anything Rudy and CD might have been working on together could have been back to square one after Rudy left. And, all these possible deals require another willing team that can change it's mind. In short, beats me! edit: thanks for the info, verse. I hope oeilpere is OK.
Deckard, no prob. i really hope that pops was correct about an opt out clause in moochie's contract. dude is horrific. and i could definitely see him being right...after all, contracts aren't "rumors", they are documents. oh, and in response to the question presented, no i would not cut moochie. as horrible as he is, he 1. is being paid by us for the next 4 years; 2. provides a practice dummy for steve/wilks 3. is not a cancer in the locker room of course, if any of those 3 conditions changed for whatever reason, get him up outta this humpty bumpy!!
Wow, can't believe we have this many people who voted yes. Honestly, what is the advantage of cutting mooch? If we cut him, we still pay him the same money, even if we get a different backup pg, we still have to pay mooch the same and it counts against the cap. I seriously don't understand the logic of cutting mooch, there is no benefit except we have a 15th roster spot on the IR.
No way. We are paying too much to have another Maloney situation. It is hard to argue for some of the guys on the bubble (Muenoke, Wilks, Scales, etc.) to stay while cutting Mooch. While I think Wilks would be a good addition, I do not believe that cutting Moochie benefits anyone (except Moochie, who would be paid to sit on his a$$). Just like others, we have a bad contract that we just have to ride out. We might as well have the warm body for practice.
When and if we trade Cato we must make sure that Moochie is packaged along with him. Just cutting him would be flat out stupid.
With players like Moochie and Cato landing fat contracts for just showing flashes of good play, I wonder what the rest of the NBA thinks of the front office. I bet every marginal player with no game wants to play for the Rockets. You get a fat guaranteed contract and then can suck bad for the remainder of the contract. Even though I like the Jimmy Jackson signing, he gets a 3 year deal without even playing a game for the Rockets. At least it wasn't for 22 mill like Moochie. CD needs to start thinking more pessimistic and play hardball with players' contracts. In other words, we need a Jabba the Krause mentality towards the players.
I wouldn't cut Moochie. He had been a good player and I expect he will be again. I would keep Wilks and let him play if he can outperform Moochie. Mooch got off on the wrong foot against the Blazers but looked alright against the Sonics. I think he will contribute again this season.
Keep Moochie until you can dump him and his obscene salary as part of a trade. Sign Wilkes for as little as you can. Don't play Moochie, except for garbage time. Is Moochie the most overpaid Rocket. Worse than Matt Maloney, worse than Cato?
I believe we are talking about two different things. You (and verse) are thinking in terms of training camp. This is different from the involuntary summer long workouts that Moochie and Cato attended. They are mutually exclusive events.
While I voted no, there is a potentially important point re: luxury tax here. I refer you to the Nets waiving Mutumbo. Yes, Moochie's contract will count against the cap as long as he's a Rocket or if he's waived. But, the Nets waived Mutumbo so that his salary figure would only count toward the luxury tax threshold this year and not next year, saving them millions. While we are under the tax now, if the plan is to use the trade exception, there may be a financial reason to waive Mooch.
CB4ever - FYI - Mutombo's $ does hit NJ's cap for the 2004-05 season. Anytime there is a contract buyout, the buyout hits the cap for the remaining length of the original contract. In Mutombo's case, that amount is significant. Instead of ~$19m, Deke's 2004-05 hit will drop to ~$15m since the buyout was for around $30m. If there is an LTax, the buyout saved them about $8m for 04-05. Moochie is very different because he costs so much less. In Moochie's case, you could negate a potential LTax hit simply by not using all of part of the MLE (unless there is a player available you can't do without!).
I think Alex Scales has a better chance of making the team the Mike Wilks does... Alex is cold man.. Wilks was playing kind of sloppy... of course he is pretty young.. but if i had to pick.. i have take Alex Scales in a heart beat.. that way we have 3 Shooting guards and 3 small forwards.. which is not too bad.. and IM 99 perecent sure he already made the team.. Calvin Murphy keep saying.. trust me bill... im sure the rockets will find a spot for the team.. bill said.. i hope he makes it.. calvin repeated.. TRUST ME.. im sure they will find a spot... hahahahhah.. and plus.. he already has a player profile setup on NBA.com.. none of the other 5 pickups do!! hehe.. SIGN ALEX SCALES!!!!
I hope we sign Scales too. We've got the spot on IR. More urgent though is signing Wilks. If Moochie's ever going to improve he has to have that kind of pressure. And if the last couple years have taught us anything, it's that we cannot win games with Moochie as the primary backup. I think we're stuck with him for now and I guess I wouldn't waive him, but I would definitely sign Wilks and make Moochie play his way off the IR.
i have a gut feeling that Moochie will play up to his potential this year. then hopefully everyone will agree that we are better off without him and having a defensive minded, pass oriented backup pt guard. p.s. don't let the door hit you on the way out Moochie.
