All About the Money or All About the Wins So what is Les Alexander more concerned about. What is his goal for our beloved Rockets…Making money or winning games? Most of us have come to this bbs and criticized Donald Sterling at one time or another for caring about the money and not about the wins. Is Les Alexander getting a free ride from so many of you just because he is the Rockets owner or do you really think his moves this summer have been driven by putting a higher number in the wins column? Could Les have used Rice in a trade for an SAR or Rasheed Wallace or Glen Robinson or Antoine Walker or Antawn Jamison or someone else? I believe that Les would have nixed any of those trades because it would not have benefited his bottom line. Even though Rasheed or SAR would be a substantial upgrade on this team it would have kept us over what is perceived to be the luxury tax threshold. Unfortunately the Rice for Amaechi trade looks to be completely salary driven in my eyes and not about adding numbers to the win column. Trading the first round pick looks to be salary driven as well. People have pointed out that they would rather have veterans instead of unproved rookies with guaranteed contracts but you never know what is going to be available with in the middle of the draft. Also draft picks can be used to acquire veterans if there is no one on the boards that you are comfortable with. We can talk about all the money we are saving by trading the 1st round pick along with Chicago’s conditional first round pick for a Sacramento second round pick all we want but there is a huge drop off in talent when you go from number 15 to number 60 in the draft! The savings mean absolutely nothing if we are not getting quality players. I have been very critical of Les over the last 24 hours because I believe he has been given an awful lot this summer in the form of a new arena and a huge multi million-dollar check for the naming rights to the Toyota Center. This will undoubtedly be his biggest earning year and I don’t think this is the right time for him to be cheap. I hope for those that might be offended by my stern criticism of Les over the last 24 hours you will cut me just a little slack since I have been a die hard Rockets fan since the days of Moses Malone, Rudy T and Calvin Murphy. All I want is for my team to be the best in the NBA and I don’t want to see opportunities to make the Rockets better lost because someone wants to line his pockets with more money. There is one simple fact and that is you have to pay if you want to play the game, if you cant pay or don’t want to pay then get out of the game. Of course we now have a 6.5 million-dollar trade exception so Les can still prove me wrong, which of course I hope he does. If he pulls a rabbit out of his hat and proves that all of this is a part of some greater plan to bring in some real talent that will make the Rockets better then I will take it all back and promise not to ever criticize Les again…or at least for a while. Thanks largely in part to the arguments of NIKEstrad, GATER, JuanValdez and a few others I am backing off of my stance from hang the b*stard to wait and see. So Les please, please, please…you have the ammunition to add some substantial talent to the team please don’t waste it.
A little of both I'm thinking. I've been an advent Les supporter but this trade seemed fishy to me. While it did seem to better us this season (allowing us to sign Jackson), it could've been done anyways had Les been willing to go over the tax. He's definitely no Sterling and is willing to dish out the dough, but you can see his absolute resolve to not go into the luxury at all. I guess the new NBA economics is screwed enough that if you stay 1 mil under the tax, you are almost guarantee to make 10 - 20 mil for the year, while if you go 1 mil above the tax, you are very likely to lose 10 - 20 mil. It's hard even if you are rich to just give up a 20+ million dollar swing.
People are forgetting too that Les has millions of his own money tied up in the new arena. He didn't get his playpen for free. I am not sure how much it is, but I believe that JEFF knows. Maybe he can chime in. Anyway, I recall Jeff saying something about it taking several years until Les starts seeing a return on his investment in the arena.
Nevermind Jeff. Found your post. http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&postid=684251#post684251
It's pretty obvious it's about the money. I don't understand when people say the trade "allowed us" to sign Jim Jackson. We could've signed Jim Jackson regardless. Jim Jackson's signing was contingent on the trade only because Les didn't want to face the luxury tax in any way shape or form. For the mentally challenged it was a s-e-l-f i-m-p-o-s-e-d barrier by Les which once again points to money. Unless another trade occurs, we will regret giving up draft choices to dump salary. Think about this. Every championship team has good role players. Why did the SPurs beat the Lakers last year? Was it because Duncan dominated both Shaq and Kobe Bryant? No. Stephen Jackson, Emanuel Ginobili, Tony Parker, Malick Rose, and David Robinson were better than the Lakers scrubs from hell. The Lakers really missed Rick Fox and their crappy depth finally caught up with them. How did the Spurs build that team? Ginobili and Tony Parker were late first and early second round picks. David Robinson was a solid former all star who used his experience to help the team. Stephen Jackson was a castoff. This is not unsimiliar to the Rockets with their young players of Horry and Cassell with a superstar Hakeem, an experienced Clyde Drexler, and Mario Ellie. If we assume Yao and Steve will be All Star caliber players within the next 3 years, we're still not going to advance in the playoffs unless we add some quality role players. Quality does not mean a 36 year old Eric Piatkowski, a 35 year old Jim Jackson, a 32 year old Kelvin Cato, a 33 year old Moochie Norris or a 32 year old Adrian Griffin. Seriously. What players on this roster do you see contributing significant minutes in 3 years In 3 years, we'll have 2 all stars, a decent shooting guard and a bunch of crappy over the hill worthless pieces of crap while we trade away our 1st round picks. That is what happens when you're primary goal is to save money. Chemsitry matters.
