Definitly Not! He is the other small size guard. How can he let a player get 82 although MoP and JRose should be mainly charged?
damn, tempting, but he's a bit old and not exactly a Spot up shooter. His game is good, like 6th man, with no superstars on the floor to pass to good. I like gettin the ball to Tracy and Yao a bit more than him firing jumpers. No doubt he's got the tenacity of Mike Tyson in an ear chewing contest, but we need Size and defense on the perimeter. I'd like to parlay our mle into something a bit more worthwhile than a not so traditional 30+ pg. If nothing else is on the board, then i say do it, but lets try to pick up a 6'5-6'8 swingman first, then if all else fails lets pick up MJ.
Aint nobody else out there that got mad game n defense like Mike James...I mean bonzi would be good but I doubt we would get him...so I say we go after him...I mean he freakin declared that he wants to come back to Houston and even tho his shot looks nasty it drops consistently, which is EXACTLY what we need!
I really liked Mike James. He could play solid defense, excellent role player, he actually can shoot the ball, and most importantly he the only other guy on our team who could create his own shot. We have zero penetration other than McGrady. Alston can penetrate but he never seems to be able to finish and thus ends up kicking out to our spot up shooters who actually can't shoot. That being said, if we can't get a legit 2 guard in the draft, I'd rather use the MLE to find a solid shooting guard with some size, assuming we can't trade for one.
Well, of course he will be the 3rd option, but we need to put pressure on defenses and start taking it too them. I could care less that scores first. Look at an Antonio they have Wparker, Duncan, manu...they could care less who scores first
Mike James is soon to be 31. His best years may be behind him, while his highest pay years are ahead of him.
It would be nice to sign him for 2years at the MLE...that way if he is not to productive we wont regret
I would have chose "Only if Sam Cassell isn't interested in ending his career with the Rockets" but that wasn't an option.
I'm not sure if James is a good fit or not with this team. In my opinion, right now this team needs guards that can defend and hit 3s. James fits that profile, but he seems more interested in being a scorer than a role-player. He wants to be known as -the guy- after Yao and Tmac. The inside-out combo can't work if you have a guy that would rather cut right back in than pass to another open man. So, I'm uncertain. If V-Span can become our Tony Parker-lite, I'd rather have him.
Something tells me you would have made the "his best years are behind him" comment before last season. Look what happened. On the other side of him "soon to be 31"... * James is low mileage...no history of injury. * James' game differs drastically from high-flyer guards like Francis. The hits to his body have been minimal. His game is more "earth bound" in the realm of Billups or Cassell or Terry. * Alston is about 11 months younger than James. Alston will make 5.2m in 2010 when he is 33. * A James MLE for 4 years will net him ~6.7m in 2011. $1.5m more than Alston's final year. * James plays multiple positions. He plays PG equal to any PG we have and better than any SG we have. He is comparable to any SG we have and can play PG better than any of them. * James has a Championship ring. Something no other current Rocket has. * While James can be posted up when at SG, that same taller player has to guard James on the perimeter. With few exceptions, he is into the paint quicker than anyone who can post him up. * Taller SG's have to stay with James as he comes off baseline screens set by Yao. * The speed at which James plays transition is a tempo that favors transition productivity from Swift. (I can't count the times Swift sealed off a defender in the paint in transition only to have Alston not pass the ball). * Championship contenders like the Spurs, Mavs and Pistons all bring productive older MLE-signed players off of their bench. Sorry, but if you think the Rockets will get more mileage out of an unproven V-Span and another 2.5m signing, we'll have to agree to disagree.
First of all let's call James' last season for what it was. He put up numbers on a bad team. Some have even suggested he had a "me first" versus "team first" attitude. Second let us come to grips with the fact that JVG traded James away. JVG resigning James as a FA is not that realistic. Third, we absolutely know what kind of player James is in JVG's system. James will not put Toronto numbers under JVG. Fourth, the Rox may very well draft a 2/3 in the next draft who they will likely want to start. This would push a signed James to the bench. more later.
2O points and 6 assists player is more then Worth the MLE. if he accepts it, count you're lucky stars and run to the bank.
What worries me is that so many teams have given long-term full MLE deals to point guards in the past and lived to regret it (Troy Hudson, Derek Fisher, Marko Jaric, Damon Stoudamire, Antonio Daniels, Earl Watson, Rafer Alston, etc.). A lot of those guys were either +30 when they signed their deal or backup point guards for a majority of their careers. Mike James fits into both those categories. It’s not the slam dunk move that everybody thinks it is. I know this team needs talent and Mike James is talented, but I’d rather see the team make a low risk, high reward move such as splitting the MLE to sign V-Span and another young player with potential, than risk ending up with another Juwan Howard or Rafer Alston-like contract paying +5mil to mediocre role players into their mid-30’s. Juwan Howard was the same age as Mike James and put up 18.4ppg and 7.6rpg on an equally bad team (Denver) as James when he signed his current deal.
The interesting thing about this case, is that James is on record for saying that he would actually prefer a short-term deal because he's confident that he's only going to maintain or even increase his value. He's talking about 3 year deals with the last year being a player option. Now he's probably looking a a 3 year deal starting at 8 million, but imagine if the money dried up and Toronto doesn't want him back. We could potentially land him for a 3 year 16 million dollar contract, with the 3rd year being his option. Crazy as it sounds, I could see it happen. If Atlanta makes a run at Terry, and Toronto sticks to their guns, then James on a short term MLE contract could fall right into our laps. We'd be fools to pass that up if it came.
It all depends on who is available. If MJ is willing to sign for the MLE and he is the best FA available for that price, then I'll happily take him back. The FA market is headlined by Bonzi, Cassell, Speedy, Terry, Tim Thomas, and Mike James. Some team is going to overpay most of these players.
We need talent on this team. Mike James is a legitimate starter on this league. I would not mind seeing him 15 min at 1 and 15 min at 2.
