CD on 610am. Mike make less $$ but still choose Min.

It's not about money, it's not about winning,
It's about getting even..


**** MJ....

 

Awww...poooor Mike James! He doesn't get absolute security about where he will spend his $24 million contract.

Wilt, Kareem, Moses, Barkley, Shaq and Tracy McGrady didn't have such assurances. Everybody gets traded. Mike James needs to remember who he is. He ain't all that. Screw him. CD shouldn't set that precedent for him.

 

In case you haven't figure it out, it's not about deserving. It's business, which is about costs and benefits.

 

What you are recommending is bad business and could be a big cost and possibly not that much benefit. I don't think the Rockets are the only ones who feel that way ... it seems the majority of the teams in the league agree with them.

 

What big cost are you talking about? Signing MJ wouldn't have much benefit? - talk to JVG or CD about that.

Many teams has signed players with trade kicker, I don't see any evidence that having given trade kicker hindered any team to successfully sign future player without kicker.

I'll break out to you again. Contract negotiations are about leverage and alternatives.

 

For those of you who still think we dropped the ball on this one let me clear the air...

He never intended to come to Houston!

He had a two goals one was to play Houston against his other suitors to get mo money. Successful.

And two was to get his revenge. Successful

Listen to everything he said. From beginning to end. I love houston... It's not about the money... I don't hold anything against them. JVG came to my doorstep I've never had a coach do that... that's big. Tmac that's my boy... CD that's my guy. It's not about the money. They need shooters I can be that for them...
I love the Rockets...

After the decision... I didn't do anything to be traded. I just wanted to comeback for the fans. I don't need to play for houston I can live here 4 months. Don't tell me you love me, you traded me. Wow where did that come from!

I know exactly where it came from. He played his heart out for us and he loved it here and JVG dumped him like a can of worms. He was a man scorned on a mission. His kindness was a front, a means to an end. Do I blame him for that? No, not at all, we traded him for no real reason. Houston broke his heart. He cried in front of his daughters. Did JVG shed a tear that night I doubt it. It's a business but MJ's pain was the cost of our poor business decision.

Blame CD if you want but MJ had an agenda coming in. AN agenda that had been festering for some time. And he accomplished it. Now he has to live with his bittersweet revenge and we have to pick up the pieces and keep searching.

 

You're completely right. Mike James is going to get his, believe me. He'll be fighting for shots with two younger and more athletic players in the backcourt and Minnesota will finish behind the Rockets again. Then Garnett will get traded and welcome to being a benchwarmer on a lottery team starting over, Mike.

 

What a way to speculate.

If you've paid attention to MJ. He's quite consistent. Even before the FA process, he talked about how he wanted a short contract, preferrablly 3 years, becaue he believe his play is still growing. He now gets that. Then he were talking about wants to find a home, find the respect in stead of moving around the league. Now he gets that too in his new contract.

 

I said possibly not much benefit. They went after him, because he was the only thing out there. I am not saying he wouldn't have been the best fit that was available, but Mike James did have some downsides to his game. There is no guarantee that he was going to perform like he did last year. They wouldn't be thinking about Mike if they got Roy.

Many teams? Which teams?

Also, revisit what you just said about leverage. What leverage would we have in the future? The one thing we haven't done .. we gave in to a MLE player.

 

Wow, exactly.
Mike James has all the leverage here because "he was the only thing out there" and "best fit".

Now does that apply to all future FA?

You just need to do a google search, or search thorugh the sticker thread.

We could have many: larger better FA pool, the flexibility in forming the lineup, a better chance for the title. etc etc. It's different concerns/negotiations for different players. In fact, teams sometimes gets leverage against players such that they can later persuade them to waive the kicker. That happens.

 

Trading MJ last year is understandable, although I am not sure if it was a good decision. But sending the guy took less money to join us right back to where he came from, it is inexcusable, and believe me Rockets as a team will have to pay for that later.

 

I think the "backstabbing" part is not about James, but about Swift.

Swift didn't want to play an Memphis anymore, and he asked fo 8 to 10 million before he'd sign with them. West refused that, and Swift decided to play for the Rockets for the MLE (even though he received offers for more than MLE) with the promise that he'd get significant playing time.

Well what did we do? We trade him BACK to the team he didn't want in the first place, and for a MAJOR DISCOUNT. How's that for backstabbing?

Not only did West grab a potential star in Gay, he also got back Swift for only the MLE. All that for a glue guy... yeah, I'm sure Memphis will fall apart now that Battier is gone.

 

Second that. I feel so bad for Swift...if James feels like a cheap hooker I don't know what Swift feels now... I know it is business but still I feel it is not right. Don't give me all the his attitude crap----can't be ALL his fault. I hate the hairless guy.

 

These are very clear and on target.

He took less money to go to Minny. Why? Because they gave him more stability, more of a commitment not to trade him. Given James journeyman history, including us sending him to no mans land where his potential to get resigned with Bird Rights were killed, one can't blame him one bit. We balked on that committment another team was willing to make and had our answer 15 minutes later, OUR FAULT.

Some of you want one-way loyalty, like you would ever accept that in your professional situation. Again, it wasn't about money, James took less, but team committment to him. The trade kicker (just a couple extra mil if invoked, you could still trade him) was no brainer given the relatively little amount of money (25 mil) of the contract given the level of player we would get.

 

I posted that this afternoon that James had this planned all along. He started by begging the Rockets to take him back and he gave us this bulls..t story about coming home and then WAMMMMMMM !!!!!! HAHA !!! SiKe....I aint playin fo no Rokits....He was never coming to Houston...

 

I'm sick and tired of hearing that MJ wanted security and commitment..bottom line he is a GREEDY B....rd....

 

I couldn't agree more. It's sad but it seems like that might be the single biggest reason why Mike James decided not to sign here...remember the Swift trade happened a week or so before negotiations began, that's not an entirely different situation from how the Rockets turned around and traded Mike James at a whiff...MJ probably saw a trend he didn't like.

The Rockets deserve what they got, I honestly couldn't script a worse off-season (so far, that is) than the one we had so far. I couldn't get more depressed hearing CD talk on radio about how we need help at the backcourt and proceeded to talk about two NBA wannabes in V-Span and JLIII...I think I almost puked after that.

Man do I wish Yao and McGrady had the balls to turn up the heat on management to bring in effective role players on this team...they're way too nice and way too willing to band with their coach/owner/front office personnel to defend moves made by them. I love our two guys, but I honestly wish they were more 'fiery' and a bit less eager to please...

 

Who was giving Swift offers more than the mle last off season? Quit spreading the myth.

He was chosing between mle type money. The players: NY, Seattle (under the cap but unwilling to pay more than mle type money), NJ, and Houston. He didn't come here for less money because no one was offering more than the Rockets were.

 

He took freaken less take home money to go to Minny. Can't you freaken grasp that.

 

We may all need one of these: