[Chron] Rashard Lewis wants to retire with Houston

Lewis is overpaid but when you look at how well the Magic are constructed and them reaching the finals it's hard to knock them for that signing.

no other PF has the range Lewis has, and the quickness to drive and guard 3's.

 

both, sounds like his main point was he wanted to live in houston after he retires, but then he threw in that he wouldn't mind playing for houston if the opportunity came up later, aftter his contract.

 

well he's really a SF, so guarding other 3s isn't something out of the ordinary he can do, he's just in the PF spot to cause mismatches and so the team could be beuilt in a specific way around Howard.

 

It's not even that the Magic signed Lewis. It's that they outbid themselves. No other team was willing to pay Lewis more than $10 mil a year, and the Magic came swooping in with a $110+ million/6 year deal. This move will put heavy financial pressures on the team later on when Turkoglu becomes a FA, Howard's salary goes up year by year, and when they need the money to sign FAs to deepen their bench.

 

yeah, it's already causing problems this summer, they may not be able to resign gortat

 

I'd say that Turkoglu plays a more important role than Lewis does on their team with comparable, if not better, stats. I think Turkoglu is slightly underpaid at 6.8mil a year. I'd think he should be paid in the 8-10mil a year range. Lewis is paid 16.4mil this year. I'd take two of Turkoglu than Lewis any day. He's definitely the Allan Houston of the Magic.

 

has anyone suggested going after hedo instead of re-signing ron? Well i guess someone probably has...what's the reaction?

 

I agree. Turkoglu is very obviously the second option on that team, who is used as a first option in crunch time. Lewis lacks the ball handling ability, as well as the decision-making, to be a viable threat when the clocks ticks down.

 

Turkoglu's contract isn't over until 2010. We need to decide on Ron this offseason. If we don't sign Ron, we'll have to play a season without either players.

 

i think this next year is his option though, usually it makes sense not to opt out if youre overpaid or paid just right, but he could probably opt out now and get more for a few more years. It would make a lot of sense right now given how high his stock is and how much the team has accomplished, maybe if they get swept or almost swept he'll consider it.

 

I hope the Magic win a championship this year to justify his salary but by year 4 of his contract they'll be trying to trade him in a salary dump. You can write a script about these big money contracts for guys like Rashard that are not superstars like LBJ, Jordan or Shaq.

 

Yeah, I love that his heart is still in Htown and that he brings up heroes like Robert Horry, but Robert Horry didn't cost us that much $$$.

Clutch, why are news articles rated? This looks bad for the poster even though he's just reporting news from another source.

The thread rating system should always be for original content.

When Yao broke his foot, does that get 1 star cause we didn't like it?

 

Even if they do win, it'll just justify Dwight's dominance and Hedo's next big contract. Rashard is third option at best. (fourth if Nelson was healthy)

 

I can't wait to potentially have Rashard in a Rockets uniform.

 

An interesting thought. Lets assume the Barkley trade hadnt gone down. We would have been faced with signing Horry and Cassell after their rookie deals. Would the contracts they signed next after the trade have been different it had been for the hometown team?

 

Rashard Lewis turns 30 in August, not 29. Not that its a big deal.

 

CD and Rudy's biggest error in drafting IMO.

DD

 

I don't see Rashard at 34 helping any team too much. Him comparing himself to Horry is kinda funny to me. Horry did so many things on the court to help teams win. Rashard Lewis shoots three pointers well and that's about it. At 34, he will be even more one-dimensional and probably not the shooter he is now.

 

battie and artest are way better than him.