It's irrelevant how good Kostas is, his contract guarantees he's out the door by next season. Unless he magically starts put up much, much better numbers against much, much tougher competition, he's not sticking around. He's trade fodder, the fact that he plays basketball is incidental. Welcome to Houston, Kostas, I hope you didn't sign a long-term lease.
Kostas Papanikolaou might be trade fodder, or he might become a starter or a long-term rotation player after Morey uses Trevor Ariza, Terrence Jones or Donatas Motiejunas as trade fodder. It all depends on how the season and the trade market shapes up.
Jones, Ariza, and maybe DMo are trade bait. Kostas is the ballast, the non-guaranteed chuck designed to feed the Daryl Morey meat grinder.
if i am way off base then show me stats that prove hes worth the money. and your right, i dont spend my time watching euroleague basketball, thats pretty sad if you do. and i never said i hated dmo, i just pointed out that hes been inconsequential as well. im not forecasting what the guy is going to be either way, just pointing out that i don't like the use of the money, and i don't like how any anti-morey sentiment on CF is met with nothing but criticism. This is just another financially based move to gain leverage in free agency in the future. The big fish strategy is not the way the rockets will win IMO and this summer has been a shining example of why
im not jumping to conclusions. I wasn't referring to those "superstar" signings, but since you brought it up, I don't think Howard and harden are the keys to a title. Harden especially lacks the ability to lead a team, and is not someone that makes players around him better. That is not jumping to a conclusion, that comes after watching the last two seasons, and the playoffs. I'm sad to think that this era of rocket basketball is hinging on the play, and leadership of James harden.
While the contract flexibility is one issue, the Rockets must have some liking for Papanikoloau as a player in order to sign him, as opposed to another player, to this contract. I am sure Charlie Villanueva, Ramon Sessons or Maarty Leunen would have gladly taken $4.8M guaranteed money with a 2nd year team option.
We like him because we already had his draft rights from the T-Rob deal, which makes it possible to trade him faster. Seeing people talk about Kostas's potential is like watching little kids name the chickens before dinner. Just try not to get too attached.
I think what he has over them (as Bima stated) is a draft pick signing. Being able to trade him within 30 days instead of having to wait until December 15th.
The Rockets hold the rights to a number of foreign players, from the recently drafted Alessandro Gentile to 32-year-old Sergei Lischuk. There are also plenty of foreign players whose draft rights are held by other NBA teams that the Rockets could have acquired fairly cheaply in a trade (like how the Rockets acquired Luis Scola and David Andersen's draft rights shortly before signing each of them) if they want to sign somebody who can be traded in 30 days. While I wouldn't guarantee that Kostas will stay in Houston long term, I wouldn't bet on him getting traded before or during the season, either, just because of the contract. Morey is simply leaving the option open in case a trade possibility opens that requires additional salary thrown in. If having someone making $4.8M who can be traded in 30 days was such an important thing to Morey, he would have likely made the $4.8M offer to Kostas way earlier when they were first negotiating instead of making the BAE offer that he rejected. This way, Morey could have started the 30-day clock earlier. Morey would have also not pursued either Marion or Ray Allen with the MLE money.
Eh, the Euroleague's format makes all games consequential, unlike the regular NBA season, the basketball being played is much more tactical and team-oriented, making the games usually more enjoyable than their respective highlight reels (opposite of the NBA) and I'm European, so... it really isn't. And no, I'm not gonna cherry pick stats out of context for someone who has no scope through which to interpret them. You said yourself you have no idea how basketball is played in Europe. I agree with you that this move is mostly logistics, but the guy is worth a shot regardless. A lot of people don't "survive" the transition to the NBA, but he might and the potential is there. I feel this is a combination of the financial options that Bima pointed out, plus Morey not wanting to leave another prospect forever in Europe, like Llull. European teams have started swinging millions and players aren't willing to move across the Atlantic and play limited minutes for paycuts. You have to "overpay" somewhat if you're interested in ever exploring the potential of a Euroleague name.
watching you stroke your ego, because you buy in to morey's asset acquisition theory is worse than naming chickens before dinner (whatever that means) morey to team: ok guys i brought in another "asset" oh i mean player to help you all get out of the first round, but he won't be here by the end of this year, and neither will some of you, but go out and play hard. follow the shining example of a teammate, james harden, and feed of the maturity and professionalism of Dwight Howard who are the two latest fruits of my labor.
Ok, I understand you now. Morey sucks, you hate Dmo, and Howard and Harden aren't the keys to a title. It all sounds like bs to me.
Still moves to be made when all is said and done but predicting roster is always fun: Bledsoe/Beverley Harden/Daniels/Johnson Ariza/Papanikolaou Papanikolaou/Adrien/D-Mo Howard/D-Mo/Dorsey Even if Bledsoe (or Dragic) is not acquired, Beverley as the starter with Nick or Canaan backing him up is not horrible. Rockets still need one true playmaker off the bench IMO, now that they have their Hedo-lite in Papanikolaou. Check off stretch 4 from offseason wish list.
If we get Bledsoe, I predict the Rockets also trade for a PF that they might've hesitated it on before. As getting Bledsoe would tie up the Rockets cap beyond the year of Kevin Durant. I would then predict we trade for a PF. Perhaps someone like Amir Johnson who's getting older and being replaced by PPat in Toronto? I can't imagine the Rockets going into the year with DMo/Adrien as our only PFs.
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Capela can grow into an Amir Johnson like player, share many of the same qualities - size, shot blocking, rebounding, athleticism.
