This is Cato's and Mo taylor's combined salaries. NO bang for the buck. I am happy that Cato has shown that he is useful and he is favorite of mine. I also am happy with Mo's offensive production and his chemistry with Yao. But one of these guys must be moved this off season for a legitimate NBA Western Conf. starter at the 2, 3, or 4. It ain't about Steve and his up and down season. Steve continues to put major pressure on opponents defenses even with his shooting slump. Cato or Mo + that trade exception should land us a major player in free agency and push us to a 60 win team next year. And I believe this no matter how the team performs in the playoffs. this MUST be done. We are almost there y'all. I BELIEVE!!!
Good thinking. Unfortunately, not many people want to take our problem away from us. You need to entice other teams to take our bad contracts by giving them a good contract (Mobley, Boki?), some of the TE, or by helping them unload one of their problems. Here's an example : Cato and Mobley to Indiana for Harrington and Croshere. We trade bad contracts at different positions of need and exchange good contracts where we have a surplus of talent. That may not happen, but there's how it might work. You could change out Pollard or Tinsley, or look at other teams and players, but the idea is to use deliver to the other teams' need and fill your own holes.
Easier said than done. If you add that trade exception to any of their contracts, we're looking at taking back around 14M in salary. We have to make some assumptions: - Can't trade Cato unless we get a similar rebounder/shotblocker in return. - Is MoT@9M more valuable to any team than their disgruntled All Star? Best bet is to look at the teams who'd be most interested in MoT: Boston Seattle I'm not saying these teams are salivating over him, but out of the 28 other teams in the league, these 2 teams would find him most useful. Celtics The best deal we could do with the Celtics would look like this: MoT for Micheal Stewart and Chris Mihm. Why would we do it? Both those guys are in the final year of their contracts. So we could let them walk after one season and collect our money, or we could use them in another trade.. Big men with one year contracts are valuable as hell. They always play better in their final year. So we could keep them and get some backup 4 and 5 minutes out of them, or we could let them walk after one season, or trade them with our Trade exception to someon who's looking to re-build. Celtics would do it only if Ainge is not still in major rebuilding mode. This would be a strong line-up for them: Lafrentz/Perkins MoT/McCarty Welsch/Pierce Pierce/Ricky Davis Atkins/Banks Sonics The best deals we could do with the Sonics would look like this: - Potapenko and Daniels for MoT. - Ansu Sesay, Jerome James, and Antonio Daniels for MoT. Why would we do it? Because Potapenko and James are in their final year, so again, they're valuable whether we keep them or trade them again. Antonio Daniels would fill our backup PG spot nicely. Ansu Sesay is a throw in, we'd most likely cut him. Would Seattle do this? They'll end up a few wins out of the playoffs. I'm definitely assuming that the following will firmly plant the Sonics in the playoffs: Booth/Potapenko/Their draft pick MoT/Collison/Evans Rashard Lewis/Radomanovic Healthy Ray Allen/Flip Murray Barry/Ridnour That's easily better than last year by 4 or 5 wins, and if their draft pick turns out a better player than both their C's, then they're looking at comepting for 6th seed next year. These moves won't make us any better, but I doubt they'll make us much worse, and we'll have tons of resources to improve in the future. We'll be in pretty damn good shape actually.
I understand that we need to have an enticement for other teams to make this deal. In this salary cap strapped league a $7 milliion dollar trade exception is a major player in off season dealings. Correct if I am wrong isn't our exception worth $7 million. If it is, then we definately have enough to entice a salary cap strapped team to part with talent.
Actually I think Cato is the one expendable in this situation due to a certain fella we drafed last year........Malick Badine...........Remember him? More then likely, Badine will be here playing next year as I believe his contract overseas expires soon. He's talented and could possibly fill Cato's shoes......thus making Cato expendable. Cato's improved play compared to that of a couple of years ago will probably increase his value. His size will also make him enticing to some teams. I dont know who we would trade for but I can see the Rox packaging Cato and Steve.........maybe to Seattle as rumored for Ray Allen, Brent Barry, Jerome James.......... If it works out financially......... I would send, Cato, Francis, and $7 Million TE to Seattle for Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis. Either ways, one thing we are pretty much asured at this time is.......any trade involving Francis, which I suspect will happen in order to get rid of Cato, wont happen until August when his base year status expires. Come August.........expect the unexpected..............
No edit? Anyways, 16.9mpg 53%fg 5rpg 1bpg http://statistik.basketball-bundesliga.de/content/stats/team/index.php?saison=2003&team=426
what is the situation with Shareef Abdul Rahim? He's an okay rebounder, can score but doesn't hog, --obviously he's moving on from Portland. Isn't he on the 2nd last year of his contract next year? Too bad Cato is really valuable and Mo is important off the bench. Who or who else can we unload?
im starting to worry about making the playoffs this season. with the loss to denver, the refs deciding the game against lakers and sacramento coming up on sunday, I really feel the rockets have their hands full and better wake up fast. and speaking of the la game, i didn't get to see it but i can't believe that yao ming didn't take a single FT the entire game. what a bunch of bull. not to mention the rockets took 16 and the lakers took 42. its crap like that that makes me wonder why i even bother watching the nba. but, on a bright side, JVG is the coach who won as a 8 seed against a 1 seed so if the rockets get in as the 8th, who knows?!!?
I'm sure changes will be made in the offseason, though I doubt we'll be lucky enough to see CW, MT, or KC's contracts dumped, unless we're willing to take some bad contracts in return. There really should be a countdown clock to Cato's contract coming off the books. Clutch could put it on the front page Raven
A deal I'd love to make is Mo T to Seattle for Potepenko and Vlad Rad. We'd get a good backup at 3 and 4 in that deal, and short contracts. They'd get - um... a proven scorer. OK, so maybe they need something else . Worth a shot. IF Mo T and Steve are packaged and traded in a 3-way, you probably get more return. Cato + Mobley seems like the package to me. That can go various places for legitimate talent back, preferably netting a starter at 3.
Cato and Mobley would look absolutely super to Indiana IMO. With their lack of production at C and Reggie getting old, those are 2 players that would fit them nicely. Al Harrington + Scot Pollard for Cato + Mobley? Move JJ to the 2, make Pollard the backup 5 and 4. The good thing is, Harrington is a good enough rebounder that I'd be a bit more comfortable with MoT in the game.
We must send Mo. or Cato as well as Cat or SF3. Now there are 5 PFs but no one is a real defender. Cato and Weatherspoon is only near to be. How about Etan Thomas from Wizards or Al Harrington from Pacers??
Why do you guys put Steve's uniform number in with his initials all the time? I never see YM11 or CM5 so why do you do it with Francis?
If you just type "SF" it could be confused with an abbreviation for "small forward". Adding "3" just makes it a little clearer. Apparently, it's caught on. I think Yao typed "SF3" in one of his blogs.
The Rockets lost to LA largely due to our weak forwards. Like Charlie Palillo on 610 said- a 40 year old Karl Malone absolutely manhandled us at the positiion. We really need an effective power forward more than the small forward. Why didn't we just pay Posey and not pick up Pike????? Stephen Jackson?? Even Scot Pollard would help- he is better than any one we have at the 4.....
Keep Steve. He is such a talent scorer that I hope him to be a SG. And I feel Yao and Steve trust each other more and more. I agree to your package Cato+Mobley, which may give us a versatile PF and a true PG.
* Abdur-Rahim makes $1.6m less than Cato + Taylor * Chris Webber makes $794k more than Cato + Taylor * Prior to waiving him, the Celtics were paying Vin Baker $2.2m less than Cato + Taylor. * The Bulls are paying Antonio Davis and Jerome Williams $2.3m more than Cato + Taylor. * Zydrunas Ilgauskas makes $1.7m less than Cato + Taylor. * Keith Van Horn makes $1.6m less than Cato + Taylor. * Wally Szczerbiak and Olowakandi make $2.2m less than Cato + Taylor for less stats. * Penny Hardaway makes $1.6m less than Cato + Taylor. * Before waiving Mutombo, the Nets were paying him $2.2m less than Cato + Taylor. * Grant Hill makes $1.9m less than Cato + Taylor. * Glenn Robinson and Todd MacCulloch (still on the payroll) make ~$700k more than Cato + Taylor. * Damon Stoudamire makes ~$800k less than Cato + Taylor. * Jalen Rose makes $1.9m less than Cato + Taylor. * Francis is not a SG. * Clutch needs a yawn icon.
