No real news, but 790AM reported that Mutumbo was in Houston on business and that he made it clear to his agent that he wanted to play another year for the Rockets. Good news considering that recent rumor about Dallas being after him. Re-sign Mutumbo!!!
Fantastic news. With Deke on the roster, we will still have the best center rotation in the league (by far) and will be solid in the middle. DEKE!!!
Honestly, how many people here thought they would legitimately consider re-signing Mutumbo as a priority this offseason when the Rox first traded Pike and Griffin to the Bulls? For that matter, how many people thought it was an utterly one-sided deal at the point? Mutumbo took 10 minutes off the bench and one season to steal all of our hearts. Get this man back. Now.
Couldn't have said it better myself. I always wanted to see Yao and Mutombo both on the floor blocking shots, kicking ass and taking names, yet their speed was clearly an issue. woulda been a sight to see.
i heard this on the drive home as well...great news yet it does not surprise me because this organization helped him so much with his hospital building effort and he would be less of a person if he does not give them first choice and priority when discussing a free agent contract.
No it's not! Unless you think Shaq is that much better than Yao because Mourning didn't work out there at all, this offseason he complained about not getting enough playing time in last season's playoffs. Not cool at all, they should of just kept playing Michael Doleac, he's cool. Mutombo was always cool about it even though he sometimes outplayed Yao he still never complained about minutes he didn't get instead focusing on playing well on the minutes he did get. Awesome guy, hopefully he's resigned for at least one more year.
Mutombo's making it real clear to his agent that it's 'Houston only' b/c he knows he's finally gonna get that ring this coming season
I think Deke was really touched that the Rockets donated so much towards helping him build the hospital in Africa. I have a feeling he's not going to be looking to break the bank. I suspect any reasonable, fair offer will be enough to get him back.
If I'm not mistaken, the Nets are still paying Mutombo some pretty large cash. The Rockets' deal with Deke last year was for basically peanuts and I assume he'll sign for a similar deal this summer.
MPG FGM-A FG% FTM-A FT% TOT APG BPG TO PPG 34.1 658-1,095 .601 353-765 .461 10.40 2.7 2.34 2.78 22.9 Shaq 12.9 32-62 .516 31-55 .564 3.70 .2 1.74 .63 5.0 Zo 47.0 690-1157 .596 384-820 .468 14.1 2.9 4.08 3.41 27.9 Total 30.6 538-975 .552 389-497 .783 8.4 .8 2.00 2.45 18.3 Yao 15.2 108-217 .498 106-143 .741 5.30 .1 1.26 1.70 4.0 Deke 45.8 646-1192 .541 495-640 .773 13.7 .9 3.26 4.15 22.3 Total Point taken. However, the numbers are very close and I would be willing to bet money (or a sig) that Yao/Deke have a statistically better '05-'06 than Shaq/Zo. The stats got a bit garbled....lets see if I can fix them. Cool. The big disparity between our 5 rotation and Miami's is that we can be comfortable with our bigs at the free throw line at the end of the game where Miami, well, can't.
I think we pretty much have two routes to not affect our MLE or LLE: 1) 1 year deal for the vet min OR 2) 2+ year deal with Early Bird Rights. If he takes #1, great. But more likely is #2. 2 year deal at 3.5 mil per year (give or take 1 mil) seems fair. I think we can do a player option on the 2nd year, but not do a team option as it would be treated as a 1 year contract which is not an Early Bird qualifying contract.
