after next year. If he can't stay healthy, will he "help" the team one last time and free up money for the 2010 free agent class. I certainly hope so. 2010 will be our best chance to turn things around quickly if we could land one of the big fish. This is the best thing Yao could do to "help" the team because I doubt he will ever make a whole season again.
If he has an agent worth his salt he won't plus half his money goes to the Commies so I'm sure they'll ask him to take it.
Player Option is just that, a player's option. It's meant to be a cherry on the cake guarantee on the team side but not on the player side for the top players in the NBA. If you can't play, he should still exercise his option, his long term financial security was what was guaranteed when he signed that contract, that guarantee still stands and he should exercise it.
Let's promise him we will offer him the max contract. Have the contract in hand and when he opts out to sign the new deal take away the contract and doublecross him. Then sign bosh and Wade.
Nice plan. Very realistic. As for Bosh and Wade. I see at a slim chance of Bosh coming here unless it is by trade. As for Wade. if he does leave Miami, he'll head back home to Chicago and pair up with Rose. Otherwise I dont see him leaving Miami.
Even if Yao recovered before training camp and played the entire 2009/2010 season injury free, I'm not sure how many general managers will want to risk signing him. If they do, it will be more about Chinese sponsorships than Championships, because the man is brittle, and it's inevitable that he's going to suffer further foot or leg problems.
Lets assume you work as a construction worker. You get hurt on the job and can probably never work again. Do you: a. take the disability benefits that were guarenteed to you in your contract b. walk away with nothing because you care so much about your boss and your company. I thought so. Don't be hypocrites, don't be morons.
I wouldn't expect him to opt out. But the Rockets might be able to save some money if they can convince him to sign an extension at a discounted price. That way, he has the security of having a long term contract even with a career-threatening injury, and the Rockets get to keep Yao and save some cap space for the 2010/11 season.
I thought about it. But it seems not to be Morey's MO given the long term problem on the cap. But if he'll do it, a MLE for 6 years would work. We'd just cut him in a couple of years and still pay him the full amount regardless. IMO it really depends on how next year's FA market shapes up. If the Rockets just end up with scraps, then we might as well keep Yao even as sunk cost.
That doesn't add up. First, a construction worker makes less than 100K a year, second this is not disability we are talking about but the last year of a contract with a player option and the player was signed to play not keep getting injured. If a "construction" company had paid me millions of dollars to do my job and I was unable to fulfill my end of the bargain, then yes I would consider opting out under the right circumstances. If the company had been very good to me and I knew they were only able to pay so much total salary to all their workers, then based on the fact that I had already made millions and millions of dollars I would opt out to to help the company replace me. If the company had treated me bad and lied to me all the time I might want to punish them and make them pay me for work I could not perform. Houston has been very good to Yao, because he is so injury prone the last service he could do to help his team is to opt out of this contract.
... Its the scenario of working not the money, you brought money into this, wtf. Whose talking about how he is treated? You put this scenario way beyond!
Don't know, but as much as I love Yao, he SHOULD NOT be offered a max contract. Wouldn't be prudent. Stress related injuries in your twenties!? They are not going to become less likely with time.
