Atlanta enters the Mike James sweepstakes (UPDATE: Hawks sign Claxton)

Exactly. I've posted this 4 times already. A 5 year MLE deal is nearly equal to a 4 year deal starting at $7m. Neither the Hawks nor Mavs nor anyone else is going to pay James $9.2M for the 5th year of that $7M start. Give him a year 5 player option or a year 4 player option then year 5 team. Build in playoff performance incentives. This the time to be proactive and creative.

The Rockets will never put it into the media, but the fans have every right to expect a "Win now" business attitude. That is what was implied by the Battier trade and that's what fans should expect.

 

Lets say the MLE is 6m this year. How much more would the Hawks offer have to be to match the Rocks/Mavs after tax?

 

if he doesn't join us and as long as he doesn't sign with the mavs, I will be fine with it.

 

GATER, absolutely! And I think if the Rockets offer what you are suggesting starting with 4 years then Mike will come here. The Mavs stopped at 3 years. Their cards are on the table. The Hawks....we dont know about them, they have the cash, but do they want to do the "years." And they are far away from a championship. The Rockets can give James a decent salary, a starting spot on the team and he will be a KEY cog on our run for a championship.

 

Cuttino's getting over 9m over 5yrs from the Clippers. James agent is Bill Duffy.

http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/6721616637326928/

 

Atlanta's a nice, clean city, but their team is atrocious. If I were James, it would take a 3 year, $21 million contract to get me there.

 

Latest I've seen:

Clips re-Sign Cassell
July 3
Los Angeles Daily News: "Sam Cassell agreed to play the final two years of his career with the Clippers late Saturday night and effectively ended the Clippers' free-agent negotiating within 24hours, an NBA source confirmed Sunday."

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Mavs bid for coveted guard James
July 3
Dallas Morning News (scroll down) (registration required): " Meanwhile, plenty of competition has cropped up in the Mavericks' pursuit of James, arguably the top free-agent guard left on the market. The Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets, among others, are pursuing the 6-2 guard, who averaged 20.3 points for Toronto this season."

 

With the Rockets James is a starter - he would be coming off the bench for the Mavs. I think this is obviously a huge plus for the Rockets, MJ wants to start and play heavy minutes.

 

I think that might become a key point in the negotiations. Mike James might demand a starting spot if he were to sign with the Rockets.

 

Actually that is not what they are saying in Dallas.

They want to move Terry to the 2 guard full time. They don't think Harris is quite ready to start at the point guard spot full time and they want James to start at the PG spot. Essentially the way the Mavs play it does not matter who starts anyway. All of their rotation guys get tons of minutes depending on the match ups.

The Mavs have also mentioned going after Speedy Claxton.

 

The Hawks missed out on Cassell with a 2yr/6.5M deal so my guess is their ceiling for James would be a 3-4 year 6.5M deal. Anything beyond that for MJ would border on an overinflated contract, we probably can get MJ for a full 5 year MLE deal but I don't think CD is going to go for it.

 

Cassell is 36, James is 31.

Time to look at other options for point guard. Marcus Banks, Earl Watson...

 

wait wait...are you saying we should forget about james and try to sign lesser quality players?

 

"Bad news"? Did anyone really think the Hawks weren't going to raise the stakes on Mike James? Everything is playing out as expected. If you were thinking MJ was just going to fall into the Rockets' laps, here's a wakeup call.

 

If Mike James joins the Rockets, which I believe he will, he will be the 6th man, especially becuase JVG is the coach and I think it's better. I think it's better to start a "traditional" point guard rather than a scorer when you have Tmac/Yao/&& Battier now. When you want to play quick teams liek Dallas, you put in James at the 2, push tmac to the 3, and battier at the 4, we'll be dynamic and unstoppable. We'll be way to quick for teams, getting MIke James is a bigger step to getting closer to a championship.

 

i can't see james not getting at least 8m/yr elsewhere.

 

I'd give James a deadline and start talking to Speedy Claxton. I've got a feeling he's trying to pull a "Beltran".

 

Here's a question, if the Rox could persuade Toronto to trade James for the 4.2M TE, couldn't that just cover him for this year which is when his original contract would run out, then we would have Bird rights on him and be able to offer him whatever was needed to keep him??? Doesn't he also have until July 12th to renounce his player option on his contract??? Just trying to find a way to get him here.

 

No that is not feasable under the Cba. IT clearly states that a player signed and traded must sign a minimum of a 3 year deal because that player must be their for all 3 years to get Bird rights! So no that does not work in the slightest!

 

8 millions a year for MJ? I'm glad you aren't the Rockets GM.