Chronicle: Olajuwon receives group of suitors from Pacers

Cooperation with the Rockets could allow Olajuwon to receive the largest contract possible, regardless of length, with the Raptors. By using the Raptors' trade exception, acquired in Toronto's trade of Charles Oakley to Chicago, the Raptors could deal draft choices and the exception to pay Olajuwon a salary starting at $5 million a year.

In addition to picking up at least one draft pick and maintaining their cap room to maneuver this summer, the Rockets would then have the valuable trade exception to use in a deal or in a sign-and-trade pursuit of a free agent this year or next.

IMO, the most interesting part of the story. That doesn't sound like speculation from the Chron as much as suggestion the Rockets would strongly consider that option.

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How the hell should I know why God would allow the Holocaust. I don't even know how the electric can opener works. - from Hannah and Her Sisters

 

Sounds reasonable to me.

Thant would give us the exception plus Williams $5 mil next year.

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OH ALL THE IS HOLY, PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME WATCH A PACERS GAME AND ESPECIALLY CHERYL'S BROTHER JUST TO SEE HAKEEM PLAY! PLEASE OH PLEASE!

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In the end there will be no judges...only witnesses to my greatness.

 

The funny thing is that, I'd rather keep Hakeem here, than Shandon, even if it for just one year, yet, the Rockets seem to be disinterested in keeping Hakeem here.

We can b**** all we want about the Dream, but when he's gone and the opposing team starts making layups, we'll know what we missed.

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And Clutch hits the early edition watch.

The trade exception would more likely be converted into cap space, which is more valuable anyhow (doesn't require a trade).

The more suitors that step up, the more we can get in return via sign and trade.

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"I always thought Hakeem was the better offensive player and DRob the better defender." Spurever

Shaq would probably agree.

 

Sounds like the Rockets won't offer anything over $4.1M for 2 yrs. We'd have a better chance of singing him if we offered just a bit more, like $6M for 2 yrs. Right?

So the loyalty thing is a wash - Dream won't accept just a bit less to stay in Houston and the Rockets won't pay just a bit more to keep him.

 

tariq would you rather lose Shandon AND Mo to keep Dream? And the same people who are saying don't b*tch, well if the Rockets do make that offer to Dream don't turn around and whine and cry if the Rockets can't re-sign their own free agents, and can't improve the team because Dream is sucking up cap space.

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"Instruments are like women: After a while, you want to make love to another."

- Nicolas Godin of the musical duo Air

 

I should add that it is obvious the Rockets aren't disinterested in keeping Dream here, they are trying to keep the team intact. If it goes Dream's way, the Rockets would lose Mo and Shandon and possible Moochie just to give him a big payday.

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"Instruments are like women: After a while, you want to make love to another."

- Nicolas Godin of the musical duo Air

 

I think this is a balancing act between loyalty and business.

If the Rockets pay Dream more than they have offered, they could jeopardize a team structure they feel will help them compete over the next 5 or 6 years. It is logical to assume so because they are attempting to keep their nucleus intact and Taylor, Anderson and Norris would likely get multi-year deals.

If Dream accepts less than his market value, it could be a blow to his ego AND to his status with the team. I understand that, with athletes, pay often times equates to how you think your team feels about you and how the team allocates your playing time.

The bottom line is that the Rockets feel they would be jeopardizing their future to offer Hakeem more than the $4.1 million or they would give him whatever he wants. Olajuwon feels that he is worth more and the Rockets are being disloyal by not offering more.

What frustrates me about Olajuwon is the fact that he says the team should stay together but he asks for more money anyway. Either he doesn't care about the team staying together or he doesn't understand the ramifications of his actions. Either way, it makes for an ugly situation.

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How the hell should I know why God would allow the Holocaust. I don't even know how the electric can opener works. - from Hannah and Her Sisters

 

In some ways I can understand where Hakeem is coming from. On the Rockets he would be the starting center, an icon of this city - yet making less money than his under-achieving understudy - Cato. I can see how that would be a shot to his ego, how he would consider that unfair. On the other hand I cant really blame the rockets for not bargaining away their future just to hold onto Hakeem. I think hakeem's gone. There are no winners or losers here. that's just life in the big city. It's that horrible gray area where there are no villians and no heros.

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"Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease." - George W.

 

Is re-signing MoTay and Shan more vital to the teams future success than retaining Dream? Why? What have either of these two done to deserve big money PLUS a long term deal??

Dream is old but he's proven AND still productive. Motay and Shan are still knee deep in the dirty "P" word. Potential.

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"Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true." - Honore de Balzag

 

What the Dream needs to do is just take one for the team (like Barkley eventhough Chuck got paid later).

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It isn't about the money. These guys aren't going to get close to the max, but it IS about players the team feels like it can build around.

Hakeem Olajuwon WAS an all star and WAS one of the greatest players of all time. He is not any longer. To sacrifice the team's chances at success in two, three or five years simply as a "thank you" to Hakeem not only is bad for business, but it is bad for fans.

Let's assume for the moment that Hakeem retired tomorrow. Would it still be the Rockets? Would you still demand excellence from them? In 5 years, if they weren't winning, would you be pissed? Of course, all these are true. Now, assuming Olajuwon doesn't retire (a fairly safe bet ), don't those things still apply whether he is here or not? What if demanding excellence from the team and signing Hakeem can't both be done?

Obviously, the Rockets have to make a judgement call, but they do it every day. With every move they have made and draft pick they have chosen, they've done that. Not all have been great but their track record has been pretty damn flawless.

They are right to stand their ground with Hakeem.

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How the hell should I know why God would allow the Holocaust. I don't even know how the electric can opener works. - from Hannah and Her Sisters

 

If Dream doesn't want to play here for what we can offer him while still enabling us to resign our other free-agents, then the Toronto trade exception and a future first rounder are a pretty good deal IMO! I have every confidence that the Rocket's management will make us a winner one way or another if we remain patient. Rocket's fans are exceedingly fortunate to have rebuilt a solid team nucleus so quickly in large measure because of some pretty savy moves by our front office. It is a tough judgement call that they have to make, and I for one shall trust their judgement come what may.

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[This message has been edited by Swami (edited July 21, 2001).]

 

Uh, Jeff, Hakeem is still one of the greatest players of all time. I think you should re-word your post a bit.

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Protrolls.com!

Keep the ???? alive!

The ZRBucks!

 

Feigen has this part wrong. Unused exceptions count as Team Salary, or they are eliminated to become pure cap space. Since exceptions count as salary until renounced, the Rockets cannot be awarded a trade exception and maintain their cap space to manuever this summer, as reported. They are mutually exclusive.

Currently our exceptions add $7m to our Team Salary calculation (the sum of the $1m exception, the MCE and our Drew trade exception). If we were to get another $5m trade exception (as suggested by the trade) then our salary hit from exceptions would increase to $12m. So, after we trade Dream for a future pick (as Feigen suggests) we must add then $12m in exceptions to the salary cap hit of all our actual player salaries and cap hits attributed to free agents and unsigned draft picks to see if we are now under the cap. If we are not under the cap, we get to use the exceptions. If we ever fall under the cap (as predicted), all the exceptions are eliminated, and we can't use them; but their cap hit immediately goes away too and converts to more cap space equivalent to the sum of their value ($12m in our case).

bottomline: the exceptions described above are not available to teams who are under the cap.

[This message has been edited by crispee (edited July 21, 2001).]

 

Jeff,

Sorry but I don't buy it that signing Dream for 2 more years will be catastrophic for the Rocket's future success. In fact, long term deals for Motay and/or Shan should limit Houston's opportunities in FA moreso (even if they don't sign for the max).

And if success is the barometer, then it should be measured by wins and playoff berths not "potential". W/out "Unbeatable", Houston would be hard pressed to even equal last seasons win totals (And I'm tired of the injured & aged lambast against Hakeem, both Cato and Collier were injured as much, if not more, and were obviously less effective than "Ole Man Olajuwon" last season).

Bottom line, are the Rockets a better team w/Dream or w/out him? I don't know about you but I cringe at the thought of filling the 5 spot with a rotation of Cato/Collier/"fill in the blank FA"/overmatched PF like K9/Motay/EGriff. I am not blindly loyal to Dream, and if we lost Dream to acquire Webber (or some other superstar FA) then I would have lamented his leaving but at least there was something to hold out hope for. Motay and/or Shan do not come close to Dream (even an aging and oft injured Dream). Maybe in the East we'd have a fighting chance but definitely not in the West.

As ZRB states, Dream is STILL a star, meaning he is yet one of the best at his position, Motay and/or Shan certainly are not.

However, if a deal was in place whereby there was some semblence of value (if not outright advantage) in dealing Dream then I'm all for it (e.g. finding some way to acquire Lafrentz and signing Sabonis, maybe even looking to the future and trading a passle of picks for a young star like Diop). But I don't consider Marc Jackson an example of what I'm talking about.

The Rockets are lowballing Dream, this much is obvious since Houston has cap space this season. My question is, if it sin't about the money then "what"?

I want to keep Dream out of more than simple sentimentality, I want to win. Our chances are much better w/him than w/out him.





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"Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true." - Honore de Balzag

 

Nor is Julius Erving, or Magic Johnson, or Larry Bird, and on and on and on.


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