Who's to blame? Other teams see him fit in well in the Rockets system (like Von Wader did) and they think he may be good enough to fit in theirs. They saw how Carl Landry was not just an impact player on the Rockets, so the Rockets are gonna have to pay for Scola, Brooks, and may be forced to overpay an aging Battier. It sucks. I hate Cleveland. They have like 4 PGs.
The real problem with matching Lowry is the luxury tax and the fact that Scola is unsigned. The Rockets sit at 58 mil right now, it'll be 59.5 million with Pat Patterson. If they match Lowry it'll be more than 65 million, they will be within 5 million of the tax threshold. Now, if someone come along and offers Scola a 9 million dollar contract (if that team was smart they would front load the contract), that mean you will pay 9 mil + 4 mil tax = 13 mil for Scola. And of course they would then lose the kickback as they become a tax team, the kickback was 3 mil last year. If such a scenario happens, they would probably still match Scola and try very hard to move Jefferies. They would probably have to package Jefferies with say Budinger or Taylor + cash + draft picks to someone like Memphis in order to salary dump. If they can't move Jefferies they may be forced to move Shane, he would be much easier to move and young players won't have to be included in the deal. I wrote all the above assuming that no team is going to offer a crazy contract to Scola. If someone offers him a front loaded deal starting at more than 11 mil it will make it that much harder to sign Scola once we match Lowry. I think Morey needs to stop the stare down with Scola and at least get some sort of ballpark figure. Teams are waiting to see what happens with Lowry and they will pounce on Scola. One good thing about not matching Lowry is that everyone will know Scola is going to be matched.
any response, comments from our GM DM on this? It's getting late.....that drags to wait till the last day
If I'm depending on Feigen's report I'll reserve judgement until later. The guy is the last to know anything. Wow, this offseason has been disappointing. Overpaying or losing Lowry, No Bosh, No back-up center, another 6'9 guy drafted at 14 and Jordan Hill looking VERY average in summer league! I love Morey but this hasn't been what I was hoping for. Oh well lets see how much someone is going to offer Luis.
Remember guys, we traded Rafer Alston for Kyle. It would be like we gave up all that for nothing if we let him walk.
Lowry improved in 2009 from 2008 and 2010 from 2009, and he's still 24. Is there a risk he may not have a better season next year? Sure, there's always a risk - but to me, it's a risk worth taking. Not to mention that on a better Rockets' team, the spotlight on Lowry would increase, which does impact the way some teams look at these guys. The July 13 isn't a big date for me, but that's just because of our difference of opinion on the likelihood of cap flexibility next summer. When I say trade him later, I simply refer to at some point in the second or third year if the Rockets decide that a combined $14-15 mil is too much to invest in the PG position. And honestly, I don't think it is and I'd want to keep Lowry over the full length of the deal. I'm certainly not of the opinion of matching for the sake of trading him over the near-term.
Once he signed the offer sheet, its a wrap. If it was certain that he was going there and it was too rich for the rockets blood, they could sign and trade and get a byc te for about 2.7m
Mo Williams, Daniel Gibson, Sebastian Telfair, and Delonte West. I know some of their situations, but you could argue all of these guys are at least back up PGs...maybe not Telfair. If Lowry does walk, and he could end up playing backup to West on a 20 win team.
At 3 yrs/17 million with the 4 year option, this is a no-brainer. A guaranteed fourth year is a little steep, but I think we have to match unless Morey has another diamond in the rough PG in mind to make a deal for (or if Llull could get over here this year). Not matching would send the wrong signals to the team and the league (regarding Scola) after all the talk Morey did about matching both of them. If we do match, as others have said, I think that GREATLY increases the chances of AB being dealt by the deadline. At a minimum AB is probably going to command $8 mil a year, and that is a lot of money to tie up into a position that could be used to go for a superstar. Let's hope that there is either a superstar available by then, or we can make a deal that keeps us flexible and builds more trade assets until one is available.
The fact that the team has repeatedly said that they will pay the tax to keep this group together. There's always some posturing, sure, but these have been very direct declarations and I have a hard time seeing Morey make those statements if a $17 mil/three-year offer for Lowry were all it would take to make them completely invalid. Also, see post on last page - I just don't see cap flexibility next summer as a big, all-important factor in the Rockets' plans. Much like when all the talk last summer was how McGrady's contract would bring us cap flexibility this summer, the higher-percentage play will likely be making a swap at the deadline.
Agree with every point, except I would wait a full 7 days to match. I think the Nets (and which ever team that is considering Scola) will wait for Morey's decision on Lowry as a gauge on what contract to offer Scola. If Morey shows he will make teams sweat it out a full 7 days (and in the process give up opportunities at other FAs) before matching, they may just look elsewhere instead. If Morey doesn't match Lowry, teams will have called his bluff. If Morey matches Lowry immediately, then the Nets will be encouraged to give Scola an offer hoping the Rockets will decide immediately so they can move on if the Rockets do match. On a separate point. My guess is Lowry has been offered full value due to young age and playing the harder-to-fill PG position, whereas Scola will probably be offered below full value (of course still higher absolute per year than Lowry) due to age and PF position being easier to fill. Scola's attributes are more suited for contenders rather than rebuilding teams, but few 'contenders' have the cap space left AND in need of a PF. My guess is Nets may offer Scola 3yrs @ 9-10m (they don't want a longer contract as they drafted Favors), Scola will come back to the Rockets without signing the Nets termsheet, and Morey will offer something like 5yrs @ 7.5m. The absolute contract amount will be better than the Nets, but the annual amount lower. Kind of the reverse of Ray Allen's 2yr @10m/yr contract with the Celtics (could've got 4yrs @ MLE easily on the mkt), or the type of contract Richard Jefferson had in mind when he opted out of his final year player-option with the Spurs.
DD isn't talking SnT. You can trade him to any team a year after he signs, and you can trade him to a team other than the Cavs before that time is up with his consent.
No. offer sheet was signed. so the only thing we can do now is get a trade exception from this. there is no way we can do a normal sign-and-trade now that the offer sheet is official
