his questionable decisions in my opinion extending JVG's contract too early extending Yao's contract too early passing up on free agents who actually wanted to play with us: damon stoud and damon jones getting "cheap" free agents swift and DA - there's a saying you get what you pay for trading mike james even before the season even started - could he have gotten someone better? or could he have done S&T with portland for damon stoud?
It is amazing how quick he has gone for "NBA executive of the year" to "Bum of the month." What a mad business the NBA is!
JVG's extension was up to Les. Also, I think Damon came out and said he wanted to play here after we had signed Stromile.
But wasn't Yao's contract up for extension this year anyway? CD didn't really have a choice (a 'realistic' choice) in that matter anyway ...
Extending the contract of a coach who took us from 6-11 to 51 wins. Extending the contract of a player who's supposed to be our franchise center. Passing up free agents who wanted to play for us that we could NOT afford to pay. Signing Swift, who was entertaining $8 million/season offers from other teams to the MLE b/c he genuinely wanted to play here Signing DA with the LLE, which was all we had to sign ANYONE with. Jones and Stoudamire wanted more money. Since we couldn't get a PG via free agency...we traded a shoot-first point guard who publicly said he would opt out of his contract at the end of the season for someone with more of a playmaker mentality. It's a shame that many of those moves didn't pan out the way we wanted, but they all made perfect sense at the time they were made. Hindsight is 20/20. Should we lament about not drafting Jordan in 1984 next?
he's lead us to the playoffs two years in a row, nearly put us in the second round last year without our starting pf, and he put together a great team on paper during the offseason. when should we have extended it? what?!? how was it too early? the suns extended Amare this summer too. it's a standared procedure, especially when your guy is a starter for the All Star team. Jones is a spot up shooter. He wouldn't be able to create any penetration or beat a defender. He wouldn't be any more help than any of our other players right now. Damno Stoudemire? He's the wrong side of 30 and has been averaging 12.3 ppg. He's gonna make a difference? Sure, he lit us up, but we were giving them shooting drills on Saturday night. Plus, he would have commanded the entire MLE leaving us with NO back up PF. There's also a saying in the NBA, teams over the salary cap can only use an MLE to sign free agents. uh... we were over the cap. we only had the MLE and the LLE. who were we supposed to get with that money? we did everything we could with our restrictions. portland has telfair, they wouldn't want james, and stoudemire wouldn't have wanted to come for the money james was making (less than the MLE). it's stupid to question a trade when the player has been injured, the team's roster has been upset, and it's so early in the season that we don't have a full feel for how the player will play.
Quote: Originally Posted by vlaurelio extending JVG's contract too early "he's lead us to the playoffs two years in a row, nearly put us in the second round last year without our starting pf, and he put together a great team on paper during the offseason. when should we have extended it?" That was then, this is now... Maybe that is what has caused him to be so obstinate in not listening to others and so arrogant about his alleged knowledge of the game. He must think he is untouchable. He has a month to change things around.
howbout waiting a year before it actually expires? is that how gm's should base who get's signed with the max? if you're a starter on an all-star team? is yao on the same level with amare? or has yao at least proven his worth to the rockets like amare proven his to the suns? are you saying rox shooters are not getting any open looks and are not able to shoot the ball and ust have the shot clock expire on them? or are they able to spot up and just not make the shots? don't you think he's making a difference with the grizz right now?
Yes, the guy who was driving a busted ass Civic his first season with the Rockets has let all the money go to his head. What is JVG being arrogant about? He's the most self-deprecating man on the planet. Brian Billick is arrogant, Phil Jackson is arrogant, JVG breaks his ass in the film room everyday. A month to change things around? Or what? All of our players love him, he's a proven winner, and he's having to deal with more challenges than any other coach in the league right now. Who are we going to get that's better?
Yao is a 20/10 guy. Joe Johnson has a max contract, Richard Jefferson has a near max contract. Yao's numbers are nearly identical to Jermaine O'Neal's. There is not a single GM in the league who would say Yao doesn't deserve a max contract. And as for Amare, the Suns are scoring only 2 points less per season without him. Where's your evidence that he deserves the max? You have to be blind to see that Yao isn't a max player in today's NBA. Without TMac at full strength, we have not been getting open looks. I've been at every home game and our perimeter players are having to pass up open shots because defenders are too close to get it off. That's why it's always pump-fake and drive. Because TMac isn't there to draw the defense more. Obviously I don't or I wouldn't have disagreed. He's averaging 12.4 pts and 4.9 apg. Other than a great night shooting open 3s on Saturday, he hasn't been the reason the Grizz have won. A great start by Pau Gasol and improved team defense have been what have the Grizz at 12-5. If you watched the game on Saturday, teh Grizzlies rely on ball movement, Stoudamire could have been one of a million shooters that night. Plus, you've forgotten to account for the fact that trying to bring Stoudamire in would have only left us with Juwan Howard at the 4. Pretty much everyone agreed we needed help at the 4. If we go for Stoudamire, we have nothing to pursue a decent 4.
I love how so many people around here are utterly convinced they'd be better GMs than most of the other GMs in the league right now. We have several new Weisbrods in the making here. The fact that you're complaing about our signing "cheap" free agents shows how much you know. We are over the cap...we don't have a choice. All we're allowed to use are the vet's minimum, the LLE every two years, and the MLE. We tried to sign Stoudamire, but he refused to take the LLE. Say whatever you want about Yao, but there isn't a GM in the league who wouldn't have given him a max contract. Does that mean he deserves it? Probably not, but he would've gotten it anyway...if not from us, then from another team. You need a quality big man to win. In today's league, ALL big men are overpaid. Crappy-ass big men like Adonal Foyle and Erick Dampier are getting over 8 million/year. Players similar to Yao like Pau Gasol, Jermaine O'Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Brad Miller, and Zack Randolph are averaging over 12 million a year. If that's the market value for a Yao-like big man, then we only overpaid him by 3 million per year. You think that "extra" 3 million could've been put to good use elsewhere? Nope...it's not an "extra" 3 million at all. We'd still be over the cap, so we'd still only be able to use the MLE, LLE, and minimum.
okay so would it hurt if we waited before we signed him to an extension? I disagree. Our shooters are having good looks/open shots but are either missing them when they do shoot or decide not too shoot because they don't have confidence on their shot. Do you consider DA or even Wesley as a shooter at the same league with Jones who are just not getting any open looks this season? well an open three doesn't count.. the ball has to actually through the rim.. curious what's Gasol's line on Saturday? I didn't watch the game but I assume good ball movement starts with the point guard really to be a shooter you need to actaully make the shots has Swift with his 5 turnovers last Saturday improved our 4 position? you have to be blind if you don't think our 4 is either the same or worse than last season..
And some Suns fans have started whispering that they are actually a better defensive team with Kurt Thomas in the lineup than Amare.
Actually, yeah it's conceivable that it could hurt to wait. Regardless of when we extended him, it would've been a max extension. If we had waited another year, then he probably would've been signed to a maximum 6-year extension. Since he still has one more year of his rookie contract left, extending him now means only a 5-year extension. If something unforeseeable happens (knocks on wood), he'll be off the books a year earlier. I take it you don't realize that Yao isn't making max money yet. He's still playing out the final year of his rookie contract. He'll begin making max money NEXT year at 12 million dollars with 10.5% increases every year until the 2010-11 season.
Help me there if you can (or other posters). Which NBA franchises currently have two or more max players on the same team?
You cannot hold CD or JVG responsible for Swift's slow acclimation to Houston Per Valaureio: "Swift with his 5 turnovers last Saturday improved our 4 position? you have to be blind if you don't think our 4 is either the same or worse than last season.."
Currently only 5 teams do: Dallas - Nowitzki and Van Horn (Dampier getting close to it) New Jersey - Carter and Kidd New York - Houston, Marbury, and Hardaway Orlando - Francis and Hill Philadelphia - Webber and Iverson These teams will have two or more players getting max contracts in the near future Phoenix - Stoudemire and Marion (plus Nash is getting VERY close to max) Houston - McGrady and Yao Miami - Shaq and Wade A lot of other teams have one max player and at least one near-max contract...or several large contracts Examples: L.A. Lakers - Bryant and Odom Memphis - Gasol and Jones Kings - Bibby, Peja, and Miller all have pretty hefty contracts Nuggets - Martin, Camby, and soon Anthony will have large contracts as well. Cavaliers - LeBron will get the max soon, and Hughes/Ilgauskas are each getting really close to the max. It's actually not that uncommon to have two or three players take up over half the payroll.
