Posey just won't fit in our system. Our system requires our backcourt and Small Forward to crash the boards.. eliminating a lot of fast break opportunities. He's a good defender, but JJ proved to be pretty good himself. Memphis signed him to a decently high contract and good for them that he worked out. The bottom line is that he won't fit in the rockets system. He is not a spot-up shooter and he can't seem to shoot the ball well without dribbling first. By then, that'll neutralize any pass that we throw at him.
Posey's not good enough to do "endless things" better than anyone...much less a savvy veteran like Jim Jackson. Are you related to JPo or what?
I will go one better, we should never have traded KT for Posey...in the end we got nothing for KT or Posey. DD
I hope you are exaggerating for shock effect with this statement. If you really believe what you say, I don't even know what anyone can say to change your mind.
You have to have blinders on not to realize letting Posey go was a terrible decision basketball wise. Posey's replacements were Pike and A Griffin--they have sure worked out, we should have gone into the season with either Posey and JJ starting at the 3 and the other one gettting 30+MPG backing up both the 2 spot and 3 spot. The bottom line is Les was a cheap ass by not resigning Posey and then using the MLE for players like Jim Jackson--and this has hurt the Rockets franchise. On the positive side it has further padded Les' wallet. I just hope Les makes up for it in the near future, or sells the team if he is unwilling to invest in a title contending team. If he tries to pull this crap again more Rocket fans and media make a bigger stink because we all deserve better. So the Posey issue is dead, but not forgotten. It is a mistake the Rockets, their fans, and Houston media can hopefully learn from so they don't repeat.
DD you sell ourselves short. We also lost a draft pick in the process and two more to cut salary (Rice). So in the end we have debt on top of nothing Now if we use the trade exemption to take on mucho salary to acquire a star we otherwise could not of I could change my view of Rockets brass--but it sure doesn't look good now.
http://www.sportsline.com/nba/story/7219519 Anybody who would have said before this season that the Memphis Grizzlies would be ranked fifth in the SportsLine.com Power Rankings would either have had too many margaritas or been a member of the Grizzlies organization. To be sure, Hubie Brown was my preseason pick for coach of the year and the Grizzlies were the choice as surprise team. But that surprise figured to be 45 wins and a spot in the playoffs. James Posey has been a pleasant surprise on defense while providing the expected offense. (Getty Images) Not 50-plus wins and a shot at gaining home-court advantage in the first round. Anyone who says they predicted that has a nose that grows. It's hard to fathom how they have done it. The organization is promoting the 70-year-old Brown as the "teacher of the year," because of his approach to his young club. Of course, some coaches teach better than others. Now the Grizzlies are working at putting Hubie atop some form of hierarchy, which is fine, but the reality is the best coaches simply are the best teachers. They push, prod, motivate and yes, train in every manner conceivable, and if they're lucky, they have players who fit their style of play. That's why Brown gives so much credit to team president Jerry West. West, trying not to go stir crazy in Memphis after nearly a lifetime in Los Angeles, put his focus on making all the pieces fit. After realizing his mistake of a first draft pick with Drew Gooden, he quickly cut bait and dealt him with Gordan Giricek to Orlando for Mike Miller and Ryan Humphrey. This past offseason he added free-agent forward James Posey, then traded essentially nothing for young 7-footer Jake Tsakalidis and designated defender Bo Outlaw with Phoenix dumping salaries. Still on the prowl, he stole Bonzi Wells from Portland. And since the clock struck midnight for 2003 with a predictable and respectable record of 15-17, the Grizzlies have been a staggering 33-9. It's the best record in the NBA since the first of January and they have actually won more games over the past 42 contests than they ever won during a full 82-game season. It's a testament to the vision and abilities of West and Brown as they have developed Pau Gasol into a borderline All-Star, with Jason Williams maturing into a solid point guard and Posey playing better than anyone thought possible on both ends of the court. They have classy role-player and leader Shane Battier keeping the locker room steady. Now if they can just get Miller and Lorenzen Wright healthy for the playoffs they will be more dangerous than anyone would like to admit. There are so few teams that actually listen to and mirror their coach. The ones that do turn into overachievers while others get caught up in their numbers and contracts. Not in Memphis, where Brown has continued to use his same theory of playing 10 players and sticking with the ones who play best down the stretch of games, regardless of who starts. That's what earning minutes is all about. Call it coaching. Call it teaching. Any way you put it, it spells success in an unlikely manner these days in the NBA, and it's happening in Memphis of all places. The Power Rankings for March 30: POWER RANKINGS Current Team Previous 1 Los Angeles Lakers 4 With an NBA-best 19-4 record since the All-Star break, they have a whole lot of momentum behind Shaq and Kobe. 2 Indiana Pacers 2 Since Jermaine O'Neal's knee was no big deal, they have a great shot at the top seed throughout the playoffs. They'll need it. 3 Detroit Pistons 3 They have been close to playing the best ball of anybody the past month, but Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton have to be consistent. 4 Sacramento Kings 1 With Brad Miller and Vlade Divac licking wounds, Chris Webber's lack of mobility is more obvious. Boy do they need Bobby Jackson back. 5 Memphis Grizzlies 7 They very quietly keep shattering franchise records with a consistent defense and streaky offense that's good enough to win. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves 5 It's hard to tell if they are incapable of regaining momentum, or if Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell are tired. 7 San Antonio Spurs 6 They are hanging in the bushes waiting for everybody to have their streaks and slumps while they stroll into the playoffs. 8 Dallas Mavericks 8 It would be shocking if major excavation with this team weren't done in the offseason. They aren't close to as good as last season. 9 Houston Rockets 9 They are really tough in certain matchups, and really bad in others. They have won three of four and all the wins have come in overtime
We indeed would be alot deeper at the SF, but JJ has done everything we would have asked of him. He's very consistent, shoots well, plays hard defense, and offers some much needed veteran leadership. Signing Posey would have been nice, but came at too high of a price tag. We got value with JJ... I think Posey's big contract will come back to bite Memphis when they go to resign some of their other young talent...
finally the voice of reason.... Posey is INCONSISTENT - he runs off four 25+ point games, then disappears for a week. The roeckets did NOT need to overpay for that (we already have Mo and Cato) besides, JVG wanted spot shooters, not fast break guys for his system, so Posey might not fit and as I pointed out before, Posey is not the best player on the Grizz or even the 2nd or third best - he is just a good player on a good team - not the next Dr. J
Nice Post. I'll take it even a step further. Posey isn't even that great of a defender. He gambles and plays the passing lanes, but he's not that good of a one on one defender. He'll get you a few steals, but he also gets burned alot when he gambles. He doesn't fit into our style. Admittedly, we've still got lots of problems, but Posey doesn't really solve many of them. Given the decision again, I'd still pass on Posey for the money that Memphis gave him. Whether he's worth that to the Grizz is debatable, but his worth to the Rockets is nowhere near what he's being paid.
I surprised at this analysis aelliott. Without question Posey is cheap (4 years/23.7mil) for a servicable starting player who is neither in his rookie contract nor in clearly his last (player who will be mid-30s+). Just look at the other market based contracts for Maggette, Howard, Odom, Lewis, Dre, etc the last couple of years. Further, Posey and MoT's contracts would have been off the books the same year, the likelihood we get significantly under the cap by not signing Posey is very, very slim, and regardless we have our MLE to use. The trade off between Pike/A Griffin and Posey has undoubtably been terrible for the Rockets. But it is done so hopefully we can do something magical with the trade exemption and/or trading Francis to erase many of the long term strategic mistakes the last few years. How about when your players are sought after (Posey/KT) by smart GMs maybe you should think carefully before letting them go. But when you are the only team bidding for your FAs, unless they are the caliber of Cat Mobley or above, you should be cautious about high money long term deals. Truth is by letting solid players like KT and Posey go and giving up losts of mid-level draft picks were are left with higher money gambles for less certain players like what we had to do with MoT and Cato (say if we try to get a player like Swift or E Thomas who MIGHT be a decent future 4).
Howard has ALWAYS been overpaid, Maggette is more than "servicable", and he and Odom are MUCH better than Posey Lewis is a good comparison is level of impact (not type of impact)
Posey is more consistent than any rocket and the rocket team as a whole. The beauty of it is if Posey does not deliver they still win, we cannot say that any of out top 4 players.
I disagree with the notion that he wouldn't fit in to our system. He's a better defender than JJ and Mobley. JVG said JJ is our best perimeter defender, and Posey is easily a better defender (specifically at SF) than JJ. Aside from that, his shooting seems to have improved. His percentages are way up. We all know he brings fastbreak points to a team. We saw it last season when our fastbreak opportunities increased sizeably after Posey's arrival. This team doesn't get many easy points, and those are the points that JJ gets. He would be nice, but I wouldn't be comfortable with him and Mobley. However, a SG/SF combo of Posey and JJ would have been tremendous. Defensively, we'd shoot up, and we'd have much better size as well. Our rebounding would improve, and so would our fastbreak, plus we wouldn't lose much on 3-pt shooting. I wish we had forgotten about Pike, Padgett, and AG and just signed Posey to the deal he wanted. He's worth 5M a year. He's not less valuable than Mobley, and the "underpaid" Mobley makes around 6M. It was a great idea trading KT for Posey, stupid to let Posey walk. This team would have been devastating: Yao/Cato Cato/MoT/Spoon Posey/JJ/Boki JJ/Mobley Francis/Mobley?/M Jackson We would be competing for homecourt with that line-up.
aelliot's point is that Posey might ("debatable") be worth the money for Memphis, but not for us. It is a simple fact that a player's value is different for one team than another, depending on other parts of the team. Anyway you look at it, JJ is clearly a better value (bang for buck) than Posey for us. Even if you believe (which I don't) Posey is better than JJ, he is certainly not 4 times better. And again, while it is true that JJ wasn't Posey's replacement. But it is clear that we wouldn't have signed JJ if we already had Posey.
If watched closely, other than the fact that we have trouble running the fast break, we also do not get the long pass fast breaks because our rebounding is weak without helpers. Our guards and 3 position sits around to get the rebounds just to not give up too many offensive rebounds. After watching tapes of numerous Memphis games, Posey gets a lot of his points taking off after a shot is taken. Posey is also a defender that takes a lot of chances. He goes for the steal a lot, and if he does that for the rockets, Yao will be in foul trouble every single game. Memphis have depth down low like no one else. In our offensive set, jim jackson's job is mainly to get open for a shot. Once in a blue moon, he'll take the ball in to create a shot. Posey feeds off Jason Williams and the steals that Memphis creates. If I remember right they are in the top 5, if not the top team in stealing the ball... hence creating more fast breaks. 25 million for 4 years is not little. NBA team or not that's 6+ over a year.. and in his case... a lot in the final 2 years. Yao is in his third year, meaning salary cap is going to bust wide open if we are to sign him back. finally, Houston's offense is trying to run through Yao, meaning anything more than a cheap jump shooter is a waste or talent. I liked Posey and I like his hustle, but to say that Les alexander should sell the team because he wouldn't pay extra for a few players... that's just under-appreciation for what he's agreed to do. It's still a business, and you can't go out and pay for everything possible. He's made some bad decisions but he's been nothing but willing to give up money for the franchise.
I wasn't mentioning those players to say Posey was equal to them (e.g., Maggette, Odom), but to suggest 23.7 mil for 4 years is pretty low for a starting caliber player in the middle of his NBA career. The way Posey plays a team offense game and team defensive game I fail to see where he would not be close to as effective for us as he is with the Grizz. He showed this the latter half of his time as a Rocket and has continued this with the Grizz. Who is going to be the better value in 3 years, 4 years, 5 years, 6 years? As far as I can tell JJ is only a better value this year and maybe next--very short term thinking. Further, just because JJ is an exceptional short term value does not mean Posey is not a good shorter term value and good-to-exceptional long term value. How is Posey's value compared to Pike and A Griffin, who were signed to replace Posey. Yes we don't know for sure. But I can tell you there would be more minutes available to BOTH Posey and JJ this year with the Rockets (starting 3, sub 2) than Posey gets with the swingman rich Memphis team this year or JJ got with the swingman rich Sac team last year. Whether Cat and JJ would be happier with sub40 minutes is a question I don't know, but w/o question Cat and JJ would be better off with less minutes, and we would be a better team with Posey getting 30 something minutes backing up Cat and JJ, or JJ getting 30 something minutes to backing up Cat and Posey.
But he consistently has made money from the Rockets and has a net worth increased substantially by the Rockets. Further, he got the taxpayers to participate in increasing his personal wealth to boot. You think it is unreasonable for him to put the Rockets potential 1st now that he has a true star to build around? He was just about always making a profit as owner of the Rockets, at this point it seems just like greed to me. Like I said worst case scenario is he sells the team for a great profit and bows out to someone who puts the team before further adding fat on top of a fat profit margin.
