I hate sar doesnt any body remember when he started a fight against kenny thomas when he was a rocket Chris or stro all the way
i too am a big SAR fan. like everyone has mentioned he plays good O and i think jvg can tinker with his D. i hope we can S&T to keep the MLE. but pleeeeeeeeeeeease stay away from darius miles's contract!!!!
There are only a couple of teams who can offer more than an MLE, neither the Nets or us are one of them. Also, the teams under the cap I think will have younger, high upside, players in mind if they decide to use their cap room. Finally, SAR is also unrestricted and can pick and choose--we have a lot more positive short term and long term outlook than the Nets. Portland either facilitatates a S&T and receives something (e.g., Nets for Kmart) or they have nothing to show for SAR. I value JH, and one of the reasons why I think SAR will fit really well. He is a lot like JH, just younger, more athletic and has a little more jumpshot range. I think between SAR and JH we can get the most 48 productive minutes from our 4 spot than we have had since Barkley/Willis. SAR can also supplement his 24 minutes as the starting four with 8-10 minutes as the back-up 3, JH can go all out 24MPG in the back-up 4 spot and fill in at center on rare occasions. Further, we can also survive, or even still excell, if either SAR or JH is out with injury, something we can't do with JH as the only legit PF on the roster. A lot of JH reduction is due to reduced minutes. The fact is the guy is 32, reducing his minutes to 24 where he can come off the bench and go all out might be the best for him. I would expect 15 and 7-8 out of SAR in 32 minutes and higher % (around 50) than JH because he gets to the rim so much quicker..
Not sure about trading and cap rules. Is a SnT for Kwame-Juwan possible (signing Kwame to a short contract)? IF we can get SAR, trading away Juwan gets us out of his contract (which could start to look bad at the back end of it), and get a different (bigger) type of PF to compliment SAR.
What might make SAR more of a possible candidate than Stromile is that Shareef has already been paid a serious NBA contract and could settle for $40 million to play for us. Isn't this an absurd world we live in..lol...settling for $40 million..sigh...
Capologists, Is it even possible for us to do a SAR + Miles for Expiring Contracts, given that we're going to max out Yao soon? others, Miles is hated in Portland. Dumping him would be incentive enough for them to deal SAR in a SnT for expiring contracts. I'm not sure we'd even need to give up a 1st round pick.
Yao's extension should have no impact on such a s&t. Unless, of course, Les Alexander is cheap and don't want to pay for SAR and Miles/Anderson's salaries. Instead prefer that the expiring contracts simply expire.
"no impact" does that mean we're not going to be in luxury tax land or are you saying that Les should be willing to pay luxury tax? by the way, imo, les has been one of the owners in houston.
By my calculations, normalized to 48 minutes: last year he did 17.0 PPG, While in Orlando the yeear before he did 24.0 PPG. So the drop-off in production was not only perceived but also REAL. About 30%. Here we go again.
Although I don't think the Rox will alter the roster to the extent that we want them to, a dream scenario would be to get Shareef, D. Anderson, A. Daniels and maybe a PJ Brown. As many have stated we did have some scoring lapses this past year that ultimately caused our doom. Having a legit low post option if and when Yao moves to the bench would be very nice. Heck, even if Yao is in there, he doesn't rebound anyways, might as well have Shareef crash the boards. Haven't seen Shareef play much, but by his stats and what some have said does have pretty good range from the outside. Dribble penetration by Tmac could result in lane clogging and Shareef being wide open on the wing for a 10-15 footer. I think everyone that is barking about needing a shotblocker is a little misguided. I'm sure Van Gundy would certainly be happy enough if his guys, while on defense, stayed in front of their guys, not allowing penetration and getting a hand up when their guy shoots. I'd rather lead the league in not allowing FG % and be last in blocks than be tops in blocks and middle of the pack in FG%. I think we were top 3 while J. Howard, MoT, and C. Spoon played the minutes there, not exactly 3 of the best defensive PF in the league. So, would Reef, improve our defense there, maybe since he probably has faster feet then those 3 and maybe can jump higher, would Reef hurt our defense; compared to those previously mentioned 3, I seriously doubt it unless he is a matador. D. Anderson, although there are better SG out there, he would still be a nice pickup. One, he would be a throwin guy to get Reef in a sign and trade. Second, he also has been wanting to come to Houston. If I believe correctly, after he left the Clippers, Houston was his primary choice; he also wanted to come to Houston from Portland b/f the trade deadline. Third, he is athletic enough to be a good offensive and defensive threat. Not spectacular in either, but you do have to respect him. He is also about 4 inches taller than David Wesley. Anderson would at least take it into the lane on occasion as opposed to just camping on 3 pt line. Also, for those who aren't fans of his streakyness; Anderson couldn't be any more streaky than who we had at SG this past year in Wesley. Overall, Anderson is probably the best well rounded SG we could get. Any other SG we could get would be too expensive (Allen, Redd), or one dimensional (Pargo, Korver). Antonio Daniels, getting him would likely mean that we would have to sign and trade for him. He will likely opt out of his contract and probably won't settle for our mid level exception. We would need some cooperation from Seattle to make this happen, otherwise, we won't get him. But he would be ideal. Rox have been trying to get him for 2 years now w/ no luck. 3rd time's the charm? Being about 6'4 and fast, athletic, aggressive, and having shown good basketball IQ (high assist/turnover ratio) is very appealing to the Rox. I think Van Gundy likes his ability to play defense and penetrate. The only PG penetrator we have is Mike James and he pounds the ball way too much...sort of Francisesque. James might actually be a guy we have to trade to Seattle to get Daniels. James is currently under contract I think for 2 more years and at fairly cheap rate, so he would be another contract that Seattle wouldn't have to worry about. That would move Sura over to backup PG, which could be a good position for him since he is an energy guy and could change the pace of the game. Lastly would be PJ Brown. Assuming we gave up a combination of Moochie, Baker, Spoon, Wesley, Howard to get Reef and Anderson, we might need a backup PF on the roster. Rox tried to aquire Brown in the Wesley deal and they wanted our 1st round pick. Either he is restricted or unrestricted FA this year who likely would be signed by veterans minimum or portion of mid class exception to play on a winning team. He has a very nice shot out to about 15ft and is long on the inside and will provide some muscle down low. Hell, if the Rox didn't get Reef, Brown probably would replace Howard as the starter. His game would be what the Rox want out of that PF spot. Like I said, doubt the Rox would overhaul so much of their previous roster, but they would get younger, more athletic and would fill their needs for sure for the next season.
Yao coming off the bench? You can't be serious. Unless, of course, you are referring to if and when he gets in foul trouble. That's more like it.
No one knows what the luxury tax is going to be the next few years. But assuming it's not surprisingly low, the Rockets should not be a threat to go past it. We have about $20 mil coming off the books next year in expiring contracts. Of that, only Wesley is a rotation player. Yao's max contract is only going to bite about $5-7 mil into the money we freed up. Miles will be making $7+ mil by then. Anderson will make $9+ mil(last contract year). So it does depend a bit on SAR's salary demands. Yet he should know that he can't make more than MLE unless he'll play for a crappy team. So I strongly doubt it's going to be more than 5 yrs at $5-6 mil per. Which would make the luxury tax situation quite manageable.
Kids do love Darius. Though I agree Darius has had problems, I'm not so sure Van Gundy would never take him. Spreewell had issues and Van Gundy maxed out Spree's potential all the way to the finals.
I guess the way I worded it could be construed that Yao was going to be a backup, but I certainly didn't mean it that way. When Yao goes to the bench either b/c of fatigue or fouls, which has plagued him so far in his career. Hope that helps.
I didn't say it wasn't real. But 50% reduction is less than 30%--thus reduced minutes is a major factor (aka "a lot of") I believe SAR's production would go down, but not as much as JH (get to that later). Somthing like 15 and 8 in 32-34MPG. 15PPG (or at worst 14PPG) still represents a much better 3rd option than we had last year. SAR is much younger and more athletic in getting to the hoop than JH (much more efficient scoring player off non-jumpshots), I think he would make other teams pay a lot more frequently with smaller gaps than JH.
Unless the MLE is substantially reduced it is more than enough for AD. 29 year old combo guards best suited for a 6th man role do not get more than the MLE. Personally, I like AD (if for a reasonable contract) and don't care for DA at all. I would only consider taking on DA if Portland made it sweet to do so. I'd much rather have a Spree or Bell or even Kittles at a fraction of the cost.
I reread this thread and I just don't see why people can't see how valuable he be on this team. It took JH awhile to figure it out, but SAR's just not someone you can leave alone down low or from 18'. He's more athletic than JH and can much more easily get to the rim. I don't think he can beat a team by himself, but the way teams play us it could often seem like it. And I do think the guy has earned the right to become a winner, and I have a gut feeling that money's not his immediate focus now. Deuce's post about getting SAR and dealing JH has merit - we do need a 4 that has 3 pt. range when we have to go small, but I think SAR brings too much to the table to ignore. I get as frustrated as anyone when Yao takes 9 shots in 35 mins., but when that happens we need a a 4 that can go off for 30 and shrug. Even when Bowen's not in the game our 4's get the most open looks. Howard knows it and I hope SAR does too. If he comes here it probably will become a "pay me later" scenario, but I think he's the one guy that can make that scenario work for himself here.
My point is: If you look at JVG's coaching record back all the way to New York, his system (whatever it is) does not foster high scoring PF's. It is not JHo's fault or SAR's fault, IMO it is just a constant. SAR may score a point or two more, but now that JHo has transitioned and found his comfort zone, for the next year or two we will probzably see as good a level of production as that style of player is going to play. IMO, SAR is also that style of player. He just can't be 5-6 Mil better than JHo when we have so many other holes to fill, and if they play together would it not be just like last year when every yelled that MoT and JHo were clones and didn't compliment each other very well?
krocket, we will have to agree to disagree. I agree with you SAR's production would be reduced, but not close to the degree JH's was reduced because he does damage on far more spots on the floor and gets to the hoop so much quicker. Also, SAR > JH > MoT. Thus the combination of SAR with JH backing up is much more formidable than JH with MoT backing up--b/c now you have a better starter AND better back up. Sure, there are some similarities in the game (same with Donyell though SAR has a lot more athleticsm than either DM or JH), but MoT as a player would have really helped us late last year, but given the contract and whatever fall out beteen JVG and him made that not happen. The 1st problem is getting more production out of the 48 minutes at the 4 spot, and SAR has an added bonus of being able to be the back-up 3, versitility as seen with guys like Marion, Josh Howard, Dirk, etc, is a nice thing.
