That tends to happen when your 2 best players only start 50 times between them due to injury. They were 18th, 20th, and 19th the last 3 years in salary. The year they were 20th, Francis was hurt a large portion of the year, so that year doesn't count. Being 18th and 19th in salary and only missing the playoffs by 1 game puts the Rockets ahead in your ranking system, since they would have been 17th in the standings.
Semantics. Take two overpaid players like Moochie and Mo Taylor together and you almost have the salary to pay one MAX player like a T-Mac. Would you not rather have that? See my answer above. With the money for two or three role players, you could have pursued a superstar and could have added cheap spare parts around. Chucky Brown, Tierre Brown, Braggs, you name it. I would rather have Dirk Nowitzki or T-Mac and Chucky Brown than Mo Taylor and Kelvin Cato. No, I absolutely don't think that, but the objective should be to be as happy with the roster and the relation of salary/performance of each player on the roster as possible. As fans, we want our team to be successful, and I strongly believe that we could be more successful without overpaying role players. As I tried to illustrate above - you can pay one Dirk Nowitzki with the money we threw at Mo Taylor and Moochie Norris. Now who would you rather have? If we had not committed all that money to Mo Taylor and Moochie Norris, we could have gone after some bigtime free agents. Again - Dirk Nowitzki plus minimum player >>>> Mo Taylor and Moochie Norris - but: same amount of money spent. No, I would rather not have made the wink-wink deal with that role player in the first place, because I basically commit to paying a lot of money even before the player actually really proves himself. And even worse, to honor my promise, I will have to pay the "wink-wink" promised amount EVEN IF that player has already proven to be nothing more than a (bad) role player.
How can they not pursue free agents? There are only a few teams in any given year with cap space. The Rockets are just like all the other teams when it comes to free agency. They can still make trades and they can still sign free agents with exceptions, which is how most teams improve themselves.
What teams in the league have more than two max players on their team? That's what you'd have once Ming signed a new contract. I can think of probably Portland and Dallas. Anyone else? I just don't think that 90 percent of the owners in the NBA are willing to take on 3 high-dollar guys like that. You still have to pay 9 other guys once you do that...having them all make the minimum is just unrealistic. Besides that...what is your plan for even getting a Dirk Nowitzki to begin with? Really the only way to do that is through the draft. Once teams get guys like that, they don't let them go. Max players don't change teams anymore, b/c the current CBA gives them the financial incentive to stay with their team. Even if the Rockets were somehow that far under the cap, Nowitzki would still stay with the Mavs. Well, I think it was worth the gamble at the time, as did most fans I think. Same with the Mo Taylor situation (although there seemed to be more objection with Mo...I don't recall that with Shandon). Good discussion SJC. Love the moniker.
Very valid point. The last max players I can remember from the top of my head that changed teams were T-Mac and Grant Hill. The strategy I am suggesting sure has not paid off for the Magic, but I would say that had a lot to do with getting rid of the wrong role players (Mike Miller, Darrell Armstrong) and with Grant Hill's injury. I think the Magic's original plan was to somehow lure Tim Duncan to their team. If they had managed to pull that off, it would have been worth it for sure. Before that, of course there was Shaq who changed teams for a max contract and that one surely paid off for the Lakers. Anyway, I said it in another thread, I was a little grumpy yesterday, so my tone might not have been right. It is an interesting discussion... I just think that the marginal improvement you get from a Chucky Brown and a Tierre Brown to a Mo Taylor and a Moochie Norris does not outweigh the improvement you get from a Mo Taylor and a Moochie Norris to a T-Mac and a Chucky Brown, and therefore, I would take the gamble and try to go for one big star, instead of giving a lot of money to two or three "good, but not great" players. I can't show cases where they have three max players and where it worked, though. The Lakers have four "max type" players, but were fortunate enough to only pay the max to two of them.
Thanks to Sherock for the history. My take on Rockets moves in general is in the crash thread. Here's what I think point by point, cutting the dreamcasts, could've beens, and rumored moves that didn't happen: 1996-7 - Traded Sam Cassell/Robert Horry/Bryant, Brown for Barkley>>>I never liked this trade. Barkley got us past Seattle but cost us the Jazz series. But it was a gutsy, "big boys" move that nearly worked. - Signed FA Kevin Willis >>>Good move - Signed Matt Bullard>>>Good move - Signed Matt Maloney from CBA>>>Good move at the time, but his game fell apart after year two - Drafted Othella Harrington in second round >>> Good pick - Signed Sedale Threatt >>> Desperation move based on lack of PG thanks to Barkley trade - Signed Eddie Johnson >>> Good move short term 1997-8: - Drafted Roderick Rhodes with 24th pick, Serge Zwikker 30th >>> Desperation move as with Maloney and Threatt - Traded a future 2nd round pick to Vancouver for Sam Mack >>> Good pick 1998-9 - Traded Kevin Willis to Toronto for Roy Rogers and 2 - 1998 first round picks >>> Good trade - Drafted Michael Dickerson (14), Bryce Drew (16), Mirsad Turkcan (18), Cuttino Mobely (41) >>> Terrible draft partly driven by our desperation for a PG. - We told local homegrown talent Rashard Lewis we would draft him with one of our first round picks, but we didn't. He sat in the draft room and cried as he went into the second round. >>> I should've cut this. It's an example of a rumor reported as fact. Rudy said he never promised Lewis anything. I believe that. However, I would have taken Lewis over Turkcan! - Traded Roy Rogers, '99/00 2nd round pick to Chicago for Scottie Pippen. >>> Brilliant move that didn't work out. Remember, this was designed for winning one more championship, like the Barkley trade, and we needed a 2/3 to replace Drexler. Everyone loved this trade, until Pippen proved to be the most overrated player ever to ride the coattails of a great one. - Signed Pig Miller >>> Good move - Traded rights to Turckan to the 76ers for a conditional first round pick (we used it to trade with Atlanta to obtain Terrence Morris) >>> Good move, making the most of someone who never, AFAIK, played in the NBA. - Signed Stanley Roberts >>> Desperation move - Traded Rodrick Rhodes to Vancouver for Sam Mack. >>> Why waive the guy then trade for him? This is just clueless shuffling. 1999-2000 - Drafted Kenny Thomas (22), Tyrone Washington (44), Venson Hamilton (50) >>> Good draft. Remember that all second round picks are dice rolls - Traded Brent Price, Michael Dickerson, Othell Harrington, Antoine Carr and a conditional 1st round pick to Vancouver for Tony Massenburg, Ndiaye, and draft rights to Steve Francis, sent Lee Mayberry, Rhodrick Rhodes and Michael Smith to Orlando Magic, took back Don Maclean. >>> Good trade, though I was sorry to see Rhodes leave again. He had serious potential. - Signed FA Shandon Anderson >>> Good pickup - Traded Scottie Pippen to Portland for Walt Williams, Stacey Augmon, Carlos Rogers, Kelvin Cato, Brian Shaw and Ed Gray. >>> Good trade, considering the circumstances. Thanks to backstabbing, chemistry killing Quitten, we were lucky to get what we got. - Signed Kelvin Cato to a multi-year contract extension. >>> This was done far too early, but they were terrified that their "center of the future" would bolt to another team. This move was not nearly as bad as people here think, but we could probably have made a better deal. - Waived Matt Maloney, Don MacLean, Stacey Augmon, Thomas Hamilton, Brian Shaw, Ed Gray. >>> Whatever. None of these guys were going to play in Houston. - Signed Moochie Norris >>> Good pickup -- had many good games for us. But giving him that fat extension (missed it listed below) was a big mistake. We should've let him walk and kept Tierre, who was just as good and much cheaper. 2000-1 - Drafted Joel Pryzbilla (9), Eduardo Najera (38). >>> Whatever. About as good as we could do in a bad draft. - Traded draft rights to Pryzbilla to Milwaukee for Jason Collier >>> Well worth the risk, as both players were dice rolls. At least we got a pick out of it. Traded Najera and 2nd round draft pick to Dallas... for Dan Langhi. >>> Bad choice -- Najera was a better fit, but Langhi was a Rudy style player. - Signed FA Maurice Taylor >>> Great pickup at the time, as with Shandon. - Traded Bryce Drew to Chicago Bulls for 2 future 2nd round picks (later used in Utah trade with Rice for exception and Amaechi) >>> Making the most of a very bad draft pick... - Signed Sean Colson >>> Dice roll - Signed Cuttino Mobely to cheap contract extension. >>> Outstanding! 2001-2 - Traded 13th, 18th, and 23rd pick to NJ for #7 to take Eddie Griffin, when ... we never actually met with him, or tried him out before we drafted him. >>>This is a could've been, and I liked the pick, but I knew little of Griffin. I'm not paid to--CD and Rudy were. Bad job. - Waived Carlos Rogers >>> Sorry to see him go, but he was unlikely to play any more for us - Traded Olajuwon to Toronto for 2002 1st and 2nd round picks, later used for Boki and Mattox. >>>We had no real choice once Hakeem decided on Toronto - S&T Shandon Anderson to NY for Glen Rice, and Kyle Hill. >>>Bad move, should've let him walk. - Traded Turckan pick to Atlanta for Terrence Morris. >>> Good move, considering our needs at the time. - Signed Oscar Torres >>> Good pickup - Signed Tierre Brown >>> Good pickup - Signed Marc Jackson to qualifying offer, which GS matched. >>> Nice try - Signed FA Damon Jones >>> Good pickup -- that's a plus -- but why waive him a few months later?? That's a minus. - Traded 2nd round pick to Milwaukee for Kevin Willis, which we could have used to draft Carlos Boozer. >>> Another could've been, but also a case where we re-acquired someone we dumped before, usually a bad sign. - Waived Dan Langhi >>> Finally dumped someone who never should've been here. 2002-3 - Drafted Yao Ming with 1st pick in the draft, Boston Nachbar (15), Tito Maddox (38) >>> Yao was a smart and slightly gutsy move. Remember, this was highly controversial at the time. Bostjan Nachbar and Tito Maddox were rolls of the dice, but you missed the move "Cut Brown and kept Maddox on roster," which was mindless since Maddox never had any place in the NBA. At least Brown and Rhodes could play! - Gave Francis Max 6 year contract extension >>> Obvious move. - Traded Kenny Thomas to 76ers, recieved James Posey from Denver. >>> I hated this move, but it filled a need for us. 2003-4 - Pushed Rudy Tomjanovich out as coach >>> I doubt this is true. -[...]signed Van Gundy >>> Too soon to tell - Signed FA Eric Piatkowski, Adrian Griffin, Mike Wilks, Jimmy Jackson >>> All good pickups - Posey signed with Memphis, leaving us nothing for KT. >>> Unfortunate, but better than repeating the Shandon Anderson mistake. - Didn't re-sign Terrence Morris or Jason Collier. >>> I miss Morris, but I'd rather have Piatkowski or Jackson. - Traded Glen Rice, 1st round pick, 2-2nd round picks from Bryce Drew trade with Chicago to Utah, for Amaechi, 2004 2nd round pick, and exception. >>> Too soon to judge. If nothing comes of the trade exception, this trade was foolish. - Signed Scott Padgett, Alton Ford >>> Good pickups - Waived Eddie Griffin, who was immediately picked up by NJ >>> I liked the missing "Did not give EG contract extension" but did not like this one. Even if he didn't deserve it, we should have shown a little more class and stuck by him till the trial. I think this was JVG, though, and not CD. All in all, a decent record marred mainly by the need to fill holes, put butts in the seats, and put a creaking, old team over the top. If we had jusr decided in 1997 that we needed to rebuild, things would have gone much smoother ... but the fans would've revolted. All in all, I give him a C+
