I dont know why posters think we cant have 3 Max players on our payroll. Lots of teams have it and we could make the cap space if we really needed. I think Les would make the deal if it would almost guarantee a playoff spot. With the limit on max salaries in the new CBA I dont see why we would'nt be able to afford 3 max players as plenty of teams do. As long as we dont hitch our wagon to the wrong cart I dont see money being an issue to Les in terms of winning a championship. NJ Nets - JKidd / VCarter / RJefferson Heat - MCamby / KMart / AMiller (pretty close) Suns - SNash / SMarion / Amare (soon) NY Knicks - nuff said Spurs - Duncan / TParker / Manu Dallas - Dirk / Van Horn / Dampier / Stackhouse / JTerry Sixers - AI / CWebb (supermax) / Dalembert / Mashburn (still on books) Just to name a few..
I would also love to have JTerry on our team too bad I hate his guts! hey drox whats up with the shirts? hehe J
Jefferson is not a max player. You mean Denver? Denver does not have a single MAX player. KMart and Camby have big contracts but they arn't max. Nash isn't a max player. Amare isn't either...as you said. We'll see what happens to their team when Amare signs his contract. Exactly. nuff said. Parker and Manu are not Max players...not even close actually. Only Dirk and Van Horn are max players. Van Horn is on "old" contract so it is relatively low compared to recent max players, IIRC. Only AI and CWebb. Just to name a few..[/QUOTE]
All of those other situations are different in their own way, and it's hard to compare one team's finances to another. As far as Les goes, from what I understand, he would be willing to pay a little luxury tax if his basketball people assured him that the player added would make the Rockets serious championship contenders. I think that's the most you can ask of an owner. When you think about it, he's never let a star player leave over money. He may not want to win at any cost, but he always wants to give the fans a good product. He's very similar to Uncle Drayton in that respect. The difference is, Drayton has much, much more money to spend than Les, and no real salary cap to worry about, so Drayton comes off as a little cheap.
[/QUOTE] I dont get your response? RJefferson is very close to a max contract as close as Nash and Damp. J
Sorry, I accidentally hit submit before I finished typing. Please see my post with my complete comments.
http://www.realgm.com/src_maxplayers.php thats all u need, the only one your right about NY, Dallas, NJ, and Philly
If Terry was on our team, all would be forgiven. This "Can't have 3 max players" notion is bogus. Of course you can have 3 max players. I all comes down to whether your team can make money or not, despite having a huge payroll. If we added a third guy that helped us to the NBA Finals for the next few years, then there's no doubt that it would be worth it. Les could renegotiate their cable deal with FSN, sell boatloads of merchandise and make millions on all the home playoff games. An 80-90 million dollar payroll with 20 million in luxury taxes wouldn't matter if the team was bringing in 120 million a year. So instead of this knee-jerk reaction about not being able to afford 3 max contracts, people need to figure out whether the addition will make the team good enough, to make enough money to cover the added cost.
Most of the players you listed don't make the max. In general, a max contract averages out to around $14-15 a year for the length of the contract. These guys are close: Kenyon Martin ($13 million) Richard Jefferson ($12.6 million) Steve Nash ($11 million) Tony Parker ($11 million) Erick Dampier ($10.5 million) These guys have pretty hefty contracts, but really aren't anywhere close to the max Samuel Dalembert ($9.67 million) Marcus Camby ($9.5 million) Stackhouse ($9 million and only a 2 year contract) Mashburn ($8.9 million) Ginobili ($8.5 million) Andre Miller ($8.5 million) Jason Terry ($7.5 million and only a 3 year contract) There's no rule against having more than 2 max contracts, but typically that means you're going into luxury tax territory.
There's something wrong with that list, because I know for a fact that Zach Randolph, Pau Gasol, and AK-47 are all on max contracts.
The only way the Rockets can get a 3rd max player is if it was via a trade and those players are usually seen as damaged goods (outside of vince who literally disregarded his legacy and tried to sabotage a team) or a sign and trade -- outside of mac and yao we don't have anyone that teams would be interested in. do you really see dallas doing a sign a trade with terry for any combination of players that are on our roster?
I think Terry would look good as our point guard. And I'm beginning to wonder if we can get him for the MLE if we shouldn't do it. It would make one of our greatest conference rivals weaker and us stronger. Then we could package Rafer with Swift, Head, whatever to get a major upgrade at either the 2 spot or the 4 spot. Then use the $4.2 trade exception to pick up one another guy. It's going to be interesting to see what kind of offers Terry gets. I would almost bet Cuban trumps the MLE with some sort of $25-$30 mill 4 year deal. If Mike James thinks he can get a deal starting at $6 mil per, I'd think Terry could do the same.
hmmm... im glad we cleared this up I keep hearing people talk about not being able to have 3 max contracts and I wanted to clear this up. We could afford three max players but we probably could not sign them outright we would need a S&T the way Dallas / NY gets around being over the cap. Too bad we couldn't parlay our expiring contracts into a nice player that was alot of money. J
Head + + No.1 pick + Filler for Mickael Pietrus Rocks don't need another max player just another player who plays big to make it a big three. "Pietrus revealed the depth of his disenchantment in an interview with the French sports newspaper L'Equipe. "It would not displease me to get out of here," the Frenchman said. "The guys on my team have not understood that basketball is a team sport." Pietrus, who plays less than nine minutes per game, said he defends "like a dog," only to see teammates "chewing the kebabs" he has prepared for them. "I am at my wit's end on defense and they are shooting for baskets as if nothing had happened, as if it is not important to get back in the game," he added. "It annoys me. I've got to get out of this place."
What'd I say. My point was that if the team can compete for a title, and make a little profit, then who cares how much the payroll is. The sports business doesn't work the same way as a real business. If these owners wanted to make money, they wouldn't have bought a sports team. There are a lot of easier ways of making money than being an NBA owner. With a few exceptions these owners want to win, and if they can make money while they do it, then that's a major bonus.
Terry is being paid 7.5M this year and he's seen as a much better player now than when he signed the contract. His annual salary isn't going down, it's going up. He won't be signed for less than 10M a year. Talk of Terry and MLE in the same sentence is absolute nonsense.
It's not all about how many max contract players on one team. It's about the payroll of the whole team. To be a championship contender, either you have to spend at least 60 millions on players or you have superior scouts and good luck to pick up some good players via draft. Sometimes you have to do both.