With the flurry of signings last week, I think it is safe to say that we are all a bit shocked. From Lowry to Scola to Miller, everyone got a bigger contract than what we had projected. It is so unlike Morey the Bargain Hunter. (insert pics here if you want) The general sentiment here is that we like these players, but the prices are a bit too high to our taste. Has Morey lost his mind, overpaying left and right? Well, since Morey is worshiped as more powerful than the great Jedi knights on this board, let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Is he overpaying? I believe that it is not about Morey overpaying, but the whole market overpaying this summer. The summer of 2010 had been on the horizon at least three years. Lots of teams were preparing to SPEND on the most ludicrous FA market in recent history. Since the big fish announced their decisions fairly early after the FA signing period commenced, teams are left with boatloads of budgeted money to shop for lesser talents. Thus jacking up prices above normal market condition. And the looming new CBS negotiation doesn't help. Miller, for example, is probably not worth the money he was signed for. But if Morey didn't really lost his mind, we can assume that the price was the lowest he could get for landing Miller. Same with Lowry and Scola. Now, Morey had two choices. Choice #1: He could follow the frugal path and wait out the market, losing all these players in the process. And we can kiss goodbye to yet another season, unless somehow he could pull off a mega trade before the deadline for a franchise type player. Or Choice #2: Spend the money and compete THIS season. With Yao healthy, this team as is is definitely a playoffs team and may be a dark horse contender. We still have the asset to pull off the mega trade that would make us a true contender. Choice #1 saves Les some bucks and gives Morey a little more flexibility in the future... only a little. With Choice #2, we still have two fairly large expiring contracts in Jeffries and Battier, a boatload of young and cheap talents, and some attractive draft picks. These assets still affords us the ability to reshape the roster quickly. So, Morey is just the "victim" of the current market. Mr. Alexander gave him the green light to spend in order to stay competitive. And he did. He hasn't lost his mind. What do you think?
No, he hasn't lost his mind ... he is thinking three steps further and will blow us away when he makes his next move! :grin:
After watching what happened to Larry Miller, Abe Pollin, and Bill Davidson, Les Alexander decides to open his wallet up and try to compete for a championship before he, too, passes.
Don't you think you're overreacting? The guys are getting paid what they are worth at this point. It's part of life. Be happy for them.
+1. We're the victim of overspending by other teams. Simple as that. We would of lost our key pieces if we didn't match. It's also a chess move by Morey letting every team know that we are not afraid to spend money and serves as a warning not to touch our quality players. We are going all in the next 2 or three years for a title contention. Les is giving the green light... Awesome owner.
It's possible that Morey wants to win just as much as we do, but sometimes things just don't roll out on a silver platter. You're going to be disappointed with any GM if you expect them to beat the market on every signing.
Some of you act like you are the ones paying the salaries. These guys are worth every penny (maybe not Miller, but we needed the insurance). If you're going to open your wallet, it's all or nothing. You don't spend a little and hope for the best. You have to pay what it costs to compete. Stop trying to be cheap with other peoples money, and stop expecting Morey to low ball all of our players.
yea these contracts are a little bigger than what we thought, but they aren't be any stretch of the imagination BAD contracts that will tie the rockets down for years to come.
DM and the Rockets are simply victims of overspending by other teams in the free agency. Lowry and Scola are not overpaid; they are simply getting paid what they are worth and probably a bit under considering what players of comparable value have signed contracts for. All these teams that cleared cap space to sign one of the top FA's are now left with a lot of money and not that many players.
At one point or another, Morey was going to have to start paying out his "cheap" assets. Raise your hand if you really thought Lowry, Scola, and Miller would come at a cheap price. I didn't and knew that in order to keep (or acquire) these players Morey was going to have to pay top dollar. At least these guys have performed throughout their careers and these are not Moochie Norris/Kelvin Cato/Mo Taylor/etc. type signings. Trying to get this message through everyone's head is challenging because most of you all were spoiled with the bargains we had before this season.
