Dampier is not going to come here no matter how much we offer. He is a legitimate NBA starter, he's not coming here to play 10 minutes per game to back up Yao. J
WTF are you guys talking about? Why do you guys spend time/waste time trying to save Les money? When it was time to pony up for a new crib, did he try to save you money? You guys got lucky with Yao and fell into T Mac, now because your owner is trying to squeeze 2 cents out of every penny, you are not ready to compete. I am sure his frugality will be returned in kind with lower ticket prices and cheaper concessions Yao and T Mac are a rare opportunity. You should be trying to squeeze as many titles as you can out of them, but my guess is the TE will expire and the MLE will not be used and people will be trying to justify waiting to find a bargain. Well you get what you pay for as you guys found out last season.
Interesting comments from a fan whose main team has $10+m more committed than the Rox for 2004-05. And that's not counting Cardinal and Mike Miller which probably raises the payroll difference to $20m. Let's see if you get what you paid for. By the way, tickets in that FedEX place cheaper than the Pyramid?
Quite possibly one of the worst prophetic attempts ever. We paid 50 cents on the dollar for Jim Jackson last season. I hope we can do that again. You just handed a 6 year deal to a guy who has averaged more than 2.5 points a game once, and more than 1.5 rebounds twice. Before this season, he was 3-13 lifetime on threes, and a 35% shooter. Hell, I'm damn optimistic about Reece Gaines now. Cardinal average 9.6 ppg, and 4.2 rpg. Lue averaged 10.5 ppg, and 4.2 apg. In a weird twist, Lue was born the day after Cardinal. Yet to you, Lue is a "scrub PG" (per the West rankings thread) and Cardinal is a solid signing? I know it sucks. The Rockets get Elvin, Moses, Hakeem, and Yao rarely skipping a beat without a dominant center. Then they get Drexler falling into their laps on Valentine's Day, Francis in a draft-day pout, and now TMac. Look at the Kings now- they paid the price for their team, and when it fell short...first went the smaller guys like the Keon Clarks and Jim Jacksons, now comes the Peelers and Vlade Divacs. Pretty soon it'll be Webber/Bibby and rebuilding. See Matt Maloney, Moochie Norris, and guys who albatross for the last few years like Alan Henderson, Chris Crawford (the Hawks a few years ago did the long term strategy with the Henderson, Crawford, Mutumbo, Blaylock, and Steve Smith signings), and throw in Taylor, Cato, Croshere, Pollard, et. al. Big deals for small-time players are a bad idea. Especially with 2 other factors- one year left under this CBA, and 2 years (iirc) with the TV deal. Who knows what the salary cap situation may be, and you may be kicking yourself over paying big now for a guy like Cardinal. What's certain though- there won't be a price we'll be unhappy paying for Yao and TMac for the next decade. Everything else falls in line. We'll be paying the same for TMac as the Knicks will be for Allan Houston. Who's getting their money's worth? PS- How is Michael Dickerson doing again?
.............picking through the trash heap of PG's Hey, here's Travis Best on the long side of 30 .......and there is Jacque Vaughn Is that Kenny Anderson over there? Hey, that must be Brevin Knight. All are unrestricted. Any takers? I need a drink. Where's that brake fluid at?
youre right, if we gave cardinal 6 years and 39 million, that would for sure gaurentee us championships. damn you cheap les. give me my dynasty. give me cardinal.
NIKE, GATER, brilliant posts! Old Man Rock, great FA list! It really does put things into perspective. I have a feeling that a few years from now we will look back at this FA class and wonder WTF GMs were doing. It is like the McIlvaine and Konkac signings all over again, yet for a NUMBER of teams!
I like it when the fellow posters lay the pipes down on foreign fans who like to talk smack. Obviously Jerry West is trying to stockpile talent in exchange for a big time player which is missing from the start of the Grizzlies franchise. However, I think teams will wise up after West's Kobe deal and refrain to give him any big star he wants. In short, West will be doing talent assessment for the other team for free while the gain was reaped by the Lakers and the cost of it paid by the Sizzling Grizzlies. Hmm... I wonder how does a piece of sizzling Grizzly steak taste, maybe on the first game the Rockets vs. the Grizzlies?
I'd be surprised if we signed Charlie Ward in the next few days. CD kept harping about how they were seeking a trade now for a point that would fit our team. I think they are still after Daniels, or maybe even Tinsley. He didn't sound like he was prepared to give up on trades and just sign another Knick castaway. He also confirmed that they felt PG was much more of a priority than big man depth right now.
The difference between Memphis and Houston, is that the Rox actually have a chance to win a championship within the next three years. The reason that Houston fans forgive Les for being a tightwad this offseason, is that we've seen first hand how throwing money at players (brent price, mo taylor, moochie, cato) can really sink a team for years. Look at the Knicks. You would think that every GM in the league would learn from their mistakes.
But the fact is...we don't know if he tested the free agent market. His agent may have made any number of calls with little or no enterest. Maybe we just over value some players and under value others compared to how the NBA scouts and gms value them.
Actually, the ticket prices are the same and the place is damn near sold out with season ticket sales. How is your attendance? See to me it doesn't make a difference whether Brian Cardinal makes $2 million a year or $6million a year, it won't hurt me at all. I have not seen any eveidence that bad contracts are hard to move if you are trying. You can act like you got JJ for 50cents on the dollar and ignore the fact that you were paying that other 50 cents and more for Pike and AG. Hey, maybe it will work out and you guys can go 1 for 3 searching through the bargain bin again.. However, wouldn't it have been easier to have just signed Posey last season? You signed JJ but next season you will be back in the market for a SF and an unwillingness to spend money. Unless you think JJ will still be performing like last season. We will see how each theory works this season: frugality vs. paying for good role players. I mean you guys will be better than us right?
hmm... come playoff time who do i feel more confident with. A Gasol/fill in the blank tandem or Yao/McGrady. Good luck with that
History has not treated EX - Jazz backcourters well. (Hornicek flourished after less stellar stops/maybe he and his game were destined for Jazzville, maturing) maybe The system? playing for Sloan? the rarified air? Whatever. A backcourt ace leaves Utah and becomes -- Shandon Anderson or Howard Eisley. Maybe no one wanted to be the next one to overrate by over paying for Arroyo?
We've tried your theory with Cato, MoT, Moochie and kept missing the playoffs = theory doesn't work. The contracts are harder to get rid of than you think.
I'd make a case, that Brent Barry was one of the steals of free agency. Considering that the guy makes his team a better team in more areas than anyone out there for the price and years.
Agreed. They are hard to get rid of. Cato, MoT, Moochie, and you forgot to mention Rice (Anderson): 3 down, 1 to go. Actually, we didn't get rid of Moochie's contract. It came back in the form of Weatherspoon. But at least we get some productivity back. And we gave up a lot to get rid of Rice. No, bad contracts aren't easy to get rid of. After 3 years, half of the contract mistakes are still on our team. This year's FA signing will leave many GMs very hateable by their fans in the near future. I'm surprised MemphisX is still talking smack when their GM are participating the FA madness.
