I just took a look at the 09 free agents guards and wings. It is not a pretty site; you can see for yourself here: 09 free agents Looking at unrestricted FA only, the only guys I'd pay more than MLE for are Lamar Odom, Ron Artest, Ben Gordon, and Hedo Turkoglu. I would pay the MLE for Shawn Marion, he's really declined the last 2 years. AI and Kidd are unrestricted free agents and also declining as basketball players, they're looking for big money and we want no part of that. Moving on to the lesser players, i.e. players who I think will end up settling for less than MLE. Mike Bibby is an interesting name, I'd take him if he comes cheap, say around 3 mil. Trevor Ariza is interesting too but the Lakers have the cash and will pay him. Quentin Richardson shoots the 3 well and that's about all he does well. Grant Hill and Finley are either retiring or returning to their old teams. The best up and coming player is our own Von Wafer, I'd give him the same contract that Chuck Hayes got. This is a sad FA class in terms of guards and wings, the most realistic option is just to resign our own guys to reasonable contracts. P.S. One thing to look out for is what happens with Josh Childress, he's listed as restricted and is set to count for like 10 mil on ATL's cap, which might force them to just release his rights. Childress has opt outs every year from his greek contract. Who knows, he might want to come back, that guys is like a younger, more athletic Shane battier, definitely worth the MLE.
Odom - No thanks. I appreciate his versatility and the things he can do on the court, he just doesn't do them often enough. Maybe the Rockets locker room would get his head on straight, but why take the chance. Gordon - I really like his game, but he can be incredibly inconsistent, which I've had enough of...Don't know about the rest of you guys. Turkoglu - Will probably stay in Orlando, but I would consider bringing him here. It seems that he can be a bit inconsistent as well. Artest - Where do I sign? Also inconsistent, but he's been here and really gives this team a personality. No thanks on Marion or AI. I think Kidd can still ball, if he would accept a smaller salary. He might work well in Adelman offense, too. I really like the idea of Bibby. We would obviously have to move one of our other pgs, and both of them have really grown on me.
Shawn Marion is still worth about 5 mil a year for what he does. It will be intresting to see what AI and Kidd pull in the offseason The Lakers have a problem.....their salary for next season will be roughly 74mil and that's without Lamar Odom and Ariza...One has to go Both are worth mid level money for the right team (Odom especially) *you can NOT have bibby for 3 mil a year, he's a 5 maybe 6 million a year guard (IMO 3 year deal) I'd actually prefer Ariza over Wafer. He's a smart defensive guard with great size. Perfect fit for the Rockets
You mean FA's that pretty much know what they are doing? Still dont understand why people would want to take a chance because its still a CHANCE.
lol. inconsistent. It depends on the money you spend on the product. If you spend $1M on Brooks, who cares his inconsistence. if he gives you one good game out of 10 or 4 good games in playoffs, you got a steal.
Bibby is surely worth more than the MLE. A player I keep looking at is Marcin Gortat. A very good option at backup C.
why do we need a sf and guards? Who are we replacing.... maybe berry or white, or unless we gonna lose wafer.
I wonder why there is a preception that we will be a player in the 2010 free agency? We wont have the money.... in 2010 right now we would stand at 28 mil roughly Even when Tmac comes off the books....signing Ron this year alone with what ever midlevel money spent this year will cost us like 14mil. Then we still need to spend money trying to re-signing Scola next year and he's worth 6-7 a year That alone will put us around 49-50million by the summer of 2010 I just don't see it Someone help me if I'm wrong
If Artests goes bi polar and bolts, I'd say Marion is our next best bet...but signing him and Wafer will be difficult if it comes to that. Plus Marion has been injured the last couple of seasons, perfect fit.
Trade the mac... loved him... hated him... kinda indifferent to him overall.. but is he worth hanging on to? Unless he apologized to the Rockets then no.
Bibby is likely. Hopefully. Since he did play under Adelman in his Kings days. Hopefully the two can reunite but I wouldn't mind keeping the Brooks/ Lowry combination going. Those young guys are going to have to learn. Josh Childress?? Josh Childress just signed a huge contract overseas. I'm not sure how he's doing down there but I don't think he is coming back anytime soon. I maybe wrong.
Yeah. You've got to be smoking something if you think a player like that who actually made a little over $15 Million last season is going to take a deal that will pay him as much (or less) than what Rafer Alston is making next season. Maybe, he's not worth $15 Million anymore, but he's not going to take a $10+ million pay cut. There's some serious low balling going on in this thread. No, we won't. We're way over the cap. Letting TMAC's contract expire will only get us a little below the cap. Not enough cap space to sign a marquis guy outright.
Yup, this idea of 2010 cap space has already been debunked in that one monster thread a couple of weeks back. Between resigning Yao, Scola, Artest, and possibly Brooks there will be no money left for outside FAs. Don't expect Houston to be buyers in the FA market. I could see a blockbuster trade go down, as discussed in the "vultures" thread. And if that doesn't happen this summer, it's even more likely at the trade deadline as McGrady and Cook's contracts are coming off the books.
