I second that, especially when Mark Cuban has his Larry Bird rights. You think he's going to let the same thing that happened with Steve Nash happen again? I doubt it. Jason Terry will not be leaving the Mavericks. Nobody over the cap can offer him more money than the Mavs and nobody under it is going to throw a max contract at Jason Terry.
I just can't see as to how the Spurs convinced Manu to take a paycut and stay...I guess it was one of those few times where a player showed some loyalty to a winning franchise.
Well! I agree with you. The way the business has evolved is not making money directly owning the Franchise- the money is made on the real estate side or other deals that come your way because you are known. For others it is an ego boost ( read Mark Cuban) or you have the case of NY where the losses of the club is a pittance compared to what Cable vision makes- in fact it is a nice write off. The basket ball business is really small- how many corporate deals get as much attention as a sports team anyway ( especially basketball)- a 120 Million revenue acquistion is not really covered in the National business media. If 10,000 Fans can put down a 25 Grand investment you could own a team ( if you were to finance with debt ( which is smart!) it would be a lot less! Coming to the question of Payroll- the rockets had an operating profit of 25 million last year, adding a max contract if it gets us deeper into the playoffs and perhaps win a championship will itself take care of the added cost. Our attendance will itself pay for a lot of that ( we are one of the worst in NBA in terms of attendance ) The Skill of the player and longevity are more important than what salary they get- it is OK to overpay for skills- because in the end these guys can be traded.
I don't see why the rockets wouldn't do this. If I am not mistaken I think we are the third on the list of teams that generate money this season. We are right behind the Knicks and the Lakers. I am sure if we bring in one more big name it wouldn't be hard to generate the money back.
First of all, the term "max contract" is getting misused way too much. Shaq, believe it or not, is NOT making max money. He could've made over $30 mil a season had Miami gave him a "max" extension last year. Even on the Rockets, there's a big difference between T-Mac's max money and the max Yao will receive starting next year. As for supporting 3 players at max or whatever, it all depends on how much you're overpaying players. The Rockets, for example, is paying the Wesley/J-Ho/Swift trio a combined $15 mil. If those 3 magically disappear off the books and replaced by Elton Brand's "max" contract, the Rockets would be supporting 3 max contracts next year without any cap problems. The trouble only comes when you have players making big money and not contributing their worth. And there seems to be way too many of those contracts in the NBA these days. That's why teams have trouble supporting 3 major stars without luxury tax problems.
A paycut? His current contract is 6 years 52 mil and he signed it in summer '04. His first 2 years in the league (02-03, 03-04) he was paid 1.3 and 1.5 mil respectively.
Not a paycut, but certainly below market. Manu surely could have gotten Larry Hughes type money on the open market. Instead he signed for an amount that is virtually the same as Adonal Foyle.
The Rockets had their chance to acquire a big salary guy but they weren't able to parlay the 10M (moochie/wesley) in expiring contracts for someone that was worth it. As it stands now, we dont have any more expiring contracts and the only other "high dollar" guy we have on the roster (other than Tmac/Yao of course) is Juwan Howard. And the "length" of his deal makes him undesirable.
Theoretically we could 3 max guys...but it is VERY risky. m_cable keeps saying if we win a championship, then its worth it. Problem is there is a LONG list of teams crumbling w/ too many superstars. There is no guarentee of being a contender w/ 3 max guys. So you take a gamble and pick up a 3rd guy, history says 3 stars on one team doesn't guarentee ANYTHING. Now you are strapped w/ 3 huge contracts and the team could be crap for the next 4+ years. Now Les Alexander has HUGE saleries to cover w/ nothing to show for it. Is that a good risk/reward endeavor? Doubtful. Yes, you CAN get 3 max guys. But it is HIGHLY risky to do so. If you are gonna do it, it better be a no-brainer. If Orlando would have traded us Juwan Howard + Wesley for Francis, that is getting really close to a no-brainer. But you don't just pull off such a trade just for kicks. It has to be a no-brainer. How often do no-brainer trades happen? Rarely. So I'm pretty much done with this topic.
Les alexander is not losing money. First of all Steve Francis on the Rockets was a dumb deal even if we got a no-brainer trade. We already were/are supporting huge salaries ( or atleast were till we shipped Moochie out and Weatherspoon were waived)- Sure if he can get a solid player to pay for MLE why not! We would be atleast looking for 2 Solid players next season and perhaps have a decent pick. Heck I would trade Juwan for first round picks if someone would take him! I am not sure what is riskly about adding a Player north of 6 Million if he brings talent and performance to the table. Even if we made it into 2 extra rounds of Playoffs- it will more than cover the cost. Right now we are just a border line Playoff team talent wise. It would be nice to bring Rashard Home.
If JT decides to leave Dallas, what team that needs a PG will have the cap room to give him that kind of money? I don't see him going back to Atlanta. Anyway, the tricky part is ACQUIRING the quality third max player, not necessarily paying him. We don't really have the pieces to get a deal like that done.
I'm late to this thread, but Manu makes $7.4MM this year and Parker makes $8.4MM. Neither is close to any definition of a max deal. Manu is signed until 2010 and Parker until 2011. Both of their contracts have escalating salaries. I don't think the Rockets need another "max" player to get over the hump. What they need are role players that fit around Tracy and Yao. Their #1 need IMO is a 3rd scoring option (likely a SG) to shred teams when they clamp down on the two stars. With Rafer and Tracy on the court, this player doesn't need to be adept at creating his own shot. Just someone who does extremely well when not guarded closely, whether a great spot up shooter or someone very athletic who can relentlessly attack and finish when there is a seam in the defense. (Stro-lovers, don't even go there). Trading for a max player who has disappointed another team is very risky. The Rockets braintrust needs to scour the available players this summer, make the right trade or be smarter with the MLE. We don't need another max contract player on this team.
He is just the type of talent we need! Plug him in at SG and on the defensive side, just have him or Tracy match up according to what works best for us. His injuries are worrisome. His salary is a bargain.
[/QUOTE] actually Finley is still on the books for a couple years for Dallas giving them indeed three max players as well as two more large contracts (Dampier and Stackhouse). Jefferson is not a max player, but he's darn close and actually has a larger contract than Van Horn. someone mentioned that Shaq wasn't making max money, but he is making the maximum that any other team that doesn't have his Bird rights can pay him. the same thing with KG. so they didn't really accept pay cuts. they could have walked and they would have actually made less on other teams.
Who cares if other teams have Max contracts? And I don't see how getting a 3rd "max" player necessarily helps us. For every example of a good team that works w/ 3 max players, there are 3 teams that are disasters BECAUSE of their big contracts...including Dallas. Dallas is just lucky they have a rich nut-case owner and have FINALLY made some good moves recently...by dumping their big contracts. However, the Dampier contract is another big mistake. Dallas ain't getting their money's worth w/ him. Dallas is a contender DESPITE their max contracts! Van Horn is a bench player that they traded to dump a bad contract. Should we pick a max player to have him not be a starter? Then they have Finley on the books and he isn't even on the team. So how does this help your argument that having 3 max players will help us? The Suns don't have 3 max players ...yet. Amare's contract hasn't kicked in yet. Obviously he gets a big contract because they drafted him and he is a stud. The Suns didn't go look for a max guy ...he turned into one. That's called lucky ...not necessarily the strategic move we'd need at this point. Denver isn't championship quality. + the KMart contract isn't worth it. NY is the POSTER CHILD of why you SHOULDN'T get too many big contracts. Phily isn't championship quality. The Spurs don't have anything close to 3 max contracts and they are the only team still fully assembled that has won a championship recently. They are the POSTER CHILD of why you DON'T need too many big contracts.
