but only if there is a team out there willing to use their cap space on him rather than bosh, dirk, amare, boozer, or lee.
I think our 2nd stop in free agency should have been Scola's house. Get this guy signed before the crazy offers come rolling in. Scola seems like he'll take a hometown discount, but not after he sees what other teams will offer.
I can't see Scola getting more than 9 million a year. He's 30 and he doesn't have enough name recognition to be a splashy, sell tickets, kind of guy. If somebody does offer him a monster deal (11-13 million), I'm afraid we would be better off to let him walk, which would kill me because i love everything about the way he plays.
Scolas market value? thru the mofo roof after all these big time scrub deals (sigh) I know Scola is sittin back rite now lickin his chops lol
he doesnt play like it, hes still improving, more of a late bloomer if u may.. plus big men can play at a high level alot longer than guards, jus ask Allen Iverson and Kareem
As far as I know, the Zombie Sonics are capped out, since they have a cap hold for Cole Aldrich ($~1.77M) and took on Morris Peterson ($6.2M), so you can cross them off your list. As for the Boston Celtics, they're only allowed to exceed the cap if they retain the "cap holds" for Jesus Shuttleworth and the Truth, which are respectively, $19.7M and $20.7M. They could resign them to smaller deals, but I would find it highly unlikely that they could fit all 3 in the space remaining, and I would assume that if they lost either one, the Celtics would have to shop for a wing scorer rather than a 4th bigman. One team you forgot to mention would be the Phoenix Suns; if it is true they had interest in Scola at the deadline, he would be a pretty nice fit for their roster, and until Steve Nash retires, they're not going to blow it up and rebuild. I think that Leandro Barbosa is a prime candidate to be salary dumped to a team with cap space, especially if it gives the Suns an opportunity to go after David Lee or Scola. One other thing about your first postulate; I don't think you can count on the teams with max space to sit out on Scola. Someone's going to be left with lots of money and no one to spend it on, and will need to bring some kind of splashy move back to sell season tickets, and asking NBA GMs to be logical, rational and build for the future is probably expecting way too much.
Scola is the 5th best PF available after Bosh, Stoudemire, Boozer, and Lee. So I dont see how we could upgrade.
My first thought is Scola will be part of the S&T for Bosh so we could give him a contract for 15 mil a year for all I care... Hell, makes it easier to match the contracts anyway.... However, if Morey finds a way to pull off keeping Scola and getting Bosh then: 1. Morey will get him at a price that seems like a lowball but will be actual market value... Scola is a undervalued player, he does things that dont show up on a stat sheet wont get his true worth... He is worth 8 mil (a la Shane) but Morey will get him on a contract for 6 mil 2. Morey has made it know that this is the year Les has opened the Pocketbook to do whatever is needed to be done... Maybe thats just posturing to keep other teams from even trying, right?! Still, I think teams will be scared if they make an offer that the Rockets dont match then they MUST be overpaying the guy.
Just to update since yesterday: It looks like we can take the Celtics, Bucks, and Grizzlies off the list. All 3 teams used (and in the Celtics case, exceeded) the cap space they had to retain their own swingmen. Salmons, Gay, and now Pierce are off the market... and so are their teams. The Market now looks like this: Heat - $43M Knicks - $34M Nets - $33M Bulls - $29M Clippers - $17M Kings - $15M Wolves - $14M (after darko signing) Thunder - $8M Wizards - $7M Again, the ONLY way for Scola to sign for more than the MLE will be to get an offer from one of these teams. I still believe that the Clippers, Kings, Wizards, and Wolves will not be interested in him because they are either set at PF or rebuilding with young talent. Scola is still behind Bosh, Dirk, Amare, Boozer, and Lee in the free agent pecking order. with only 4 teams interested in a PF (Heat, Knicks, Nets, Bulls) and 5 guys ahead of him on the market, the odds are against him to get in with one of those teams. That still leaves the Thunder with $8M and if they are interested in adding a post player they could make an offer to Luis. So I still think that $8M is his MAX offer. If they don't make an offer to him, he will have to settle for MLE. Let's see what today brings...
Excellent analysis, smoothie. Except for the bolded part. Come on, now! You know that the Celtics would have to RENOUNCE their rights to Pierce and Allen in order to create the cap room to sign Scola. They then would not be able to use those guys' Bird rights to re-sign them. So you can definitely cross the Celtics off the list of teams willing to spend beyond the MLE on Scola. Even then, it's not worth the luxury tax hit for them, especially when they still have KG and Big Baby. Still, otherwise dynamite stuff. Neither team has the cap room. Phoenix is using any cap room created by renouncing Amare in order to sign Channing Frye (they had no Bird rights on him) and Hakim Warrick. The Raptors, even if they lost Bosh for nothing, probably wouldn't have enough cap room ($8M or so?) to cause the Rockets not to match. Toronto could be a suitor, though, if Bosh walks outright. DD, do you honestly think a team is going to risk being saddled with a huge contract for Scola if the Rockets don't match? I don't. At some point, the Rockets will simply say, "Good luck with that!" to a team dumb enough to grossly overpay a 30-year-old restricted free agent. It would be tough to part with him, but I think that's what the Rockets would do in that situation. Other teams realize that, too. Which is why none will attempt something like that.
Maybe it's just me, but I think there's a good chance Scola plays for the QA, or resigns at a price Morey dictates(likely 4yrs/$25-30 mil type). The number of teams with more than MLE money is limited, and he's buried behind way too many power forwards. Basically, Scola got unlucky. If he had been a FA last year, the Raptors or the Blazers would give him Millsap money. But well, tough luck for him, good for the Rockets.
i just did a face palm. how could i forget that? thank you for bringing that mistake to my attention, and thanks again for the kind words! scola definitely deserves more, but who's going to pay it?
He'll get an offer in the 8-10 range. Some of these teams are gonna lose out and be forced to overpay someone. Personally I think he's worth the 8 maybe not the 10 though. Nice thing is it aint my money so pay him whatever it takes.
In those ESPN/Tom Penn videos. Scola's ranked behind Lee who comes after Boozer. They estimated Boozer's worth to be around $12M I think?
