Chronic: Maybe Rockets' Landry should say so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen

Playing less games can lead to better chances of increased longevity while making a lot of money even with slightly more expenses. I appreciate your input.

 

There are some good reasons that were mentioned as to why Landry should play overseas mainly for $$$ and possibly prolonged career...However no one seemed to mention why he would would want to stay with Houston in the first place.

Landry knows that he has a great opportunity to win a championship next year and possibly for several years...

He learned the system in his first year and flourished while healthy. He was a a major contributor with the rockets making NBA history with the 22 games winning streak!!! and with Yao had a better chance of having the longest streak !!!

How many NBA players can say that nevertheless a Rookie!

I believe he can be an all star caliber player and would have displayed more of his ability considering the limited minutes he played, Coach Adelman only putting him in the rotation after a 1/3 into the season, and him being injured.

I think that he was one of the most exciting to players to watch in the NBA and the fact that he is just starting his career is amazing.
The playoff game with his tooth knocked out says it all

I think most NBA players from the U.S. dream of making it to the NBA when they are young and that passion grows for many years and dedicate themselves to it rather than thinking as a kid...it would be my dream to play overseas....and get paid well

I recall the game at Indiana as being one of his best perfomances and him being a main reason we won the game vs Pacers.

"There's no place like home,'' said Landry, who played his final two years of college basketball at Purdue. "I'm happy to be back in Indiana.''

I think he got hurt at the end of that game and thus a major reason he didn't play well in Milwaukee the following game, where he orginally grew up and played in high school.

Regardless, I believe Landry has found his home in Houston...and least I hope so

 

Heres a question,

Suppose some scrubby east team offers Landry 2.5 mil @ 3 years and this is the highest offer he recieves.

Do the Rockets simply match and scoop him up for absolutely bare minimum or do they, despite this extensive "negotiations", throw Landry a bone, like maybe 3-3.5 million a year since he was already kinda screwed in the first contract?

Thoughts?

 

Chronic:


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What has Landry been up to lately to demonstrate that his knee is sound ? He had the MRI/ etc., but is he training hard on it right now -- lots of questions out there.

 

I think you'd want to give him a little more just to make him feel loved after the tense negotiations.

 

There's no way he should make more than Scola (3.5 mil too much). Especially for a person who wasn't the same after the knee injury.

 

I'm not taking up for one side or the other, but let me say say about the "other examinations" on Landry's knee. Coming out of college, Some doctors said he had a degenerative knee. It was said he would only play about 3 or 4 years. Well, he wound being a very durabe player for 10 years. Those exams can say alot, some can say nothing. If the Rox beleive they he wont be able to play 82 games, move on. He could get a exam by Dr. Andrews, which is what i think he has done, get a clean bill on his knee and they still might want more. I agree its a gamble, but like i said and DD brought up in another thread, spend up to his value point with the mle or just go fill that spot with someone. If they make that supposed trade Outlaw and Diogu for Shane, they use for landry is gone. If they trade for josh boone, the need for landry is gone. If they can get wilcox for jackson, landry is gone. They can do things to put themselves into position to move on if they come to the conclusion they dont trust his knee. They could just move on.

 

There are no guarantees that even a guy with a healthy knee will hold up.

I sincerly believe the Rockets know all they need to make an offer, but are playing hard ball with Landry.....it may drag out for a long time.

DD

 

They match, or they let him walk. They don't say, "here's some extra money to make you feel better."

 

I dont see the harm in paying him extra if it doesnt impede us from getting other talent or put us over the limit.

Wouldn't want him to harbor ill will towards the organization.

 

I see a microfracture surgery in Landry's future.

 

As someone who recently went through knee arthroscopy and microfracture surgery, I can tell you that the Rox are absolutely doing the right thing by holding to their guns on this. A scope will show defects that an MRI won't. In my case the MRI only showed a torn lateral meniscus, but the scope ended up revealing osteoarthritis in the articular cartilage, leading to the microfracture surgery.

The scope itself is really no big deal. Landry should be back on his feet in a few days if everything is OK.

 

We are well over the salary cap and very near the LT tour trading assets are limited which is an impediment towards acquiring more talent.If Landry gets the entire MLE,it could result in a total of a 10M plus contract since we would almost undoubtedly cross the LT threshold. Trying to add more talent in such a situation would be harder.

Your concern about him having ill feelings is legitimate but he isn't worth that extra 1 M even if we remain under the LT with his injury history either.He does have some upside but he needs to prove that he is worth a contract around half of the MLE IMO.

 

I think Landry with 8.9 PPG and 4.9 RPG (and a very PER) is definitely worth half the MLE. Somehow I get a feeling that a lot ppl think that ain't enough and would require him to be a 20/10 (third scorer) to command a half MLE contract.

 

a very high PER I mean

 

This guy has zero leverage. No GM is stupid enough (not even the dumb ones) to risk signing a player with a bad knee. He can sign for close to the minimum or get his knee scoped. I don't see a third option. Am I totally off base on this?

 

Not at all.If some team gets desperate for his services they might offer around let's say 3M for 3 years(overpaying and hoping that the Rockets won't match it)
but I have my doubts if that is going to happen.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't contracts outside of the NBA generally non-guaranteed? If Carl does decide to jump to the old continent, then blows out his knee, or even just has a hard time adjusting right away, his team can just cut him or stop paying him whenever they like; as opposed to in the NBA, where when he goes in to get his microfracture surgery next year, he'll still be collecting a check no matter how well/poorly his rehab goes.

Concerning the "cut your losses on your RFA and pursue someone else" strategy, the last time we did that, we lost 2-time NBA Champion James Posey and ended up with Jim Jackson and Eric Piatkowski.

I really don't see all these available Free Agents who would be worth cutting Landry for at this point; J.R. Smith is not going to be let go unless he's massively overpaid (Full MLE-overpaid), Dorell Wright is interesting, but again, would need to be overpaid to get him free, Lou Williams is a part of Philly's core, and I would expect Walter Herrmann to return to Europe where he's appreciated (though he'd be good here). Delonte West will either go to Europe, or the Cavs with try to match.

Finally, I definitely can understand Landry's hesitation to get the knee scoped; think back to 2005 when Amare was due for a contract extension, signed the big bucks, then eight days afterwards, under a routine arthroscopic surgery, discovered he might have career-ending/career-changing surgery. Do you really believe that the Suns would have given him the same money if he had his knee scoped prior to signing on the dotted line?

I agree with the Rockets position on this; they got burned really hard on Bob Sura's contract and are pretty close to the tax line. However, for everyone that's screaming for him to simply take the , imagine if at your job, you had to take some arbitrary intelligence test (that you couldn't possibly study for or prepare for) before you could start working. If you passed, according to a panel of judges that the COMPANY selected, you would instantly be promoted to management, and have a commensurate salary. If you failed, you'd be immediately deemed "too big a risk", and instead get a salary equivalent to an entry level position, with no chance of a raise. To top it off, the company would let every other firm who you might work for for the rest of your life know about it, so you'd always be stuck at that same level. What if you had interned for this company for four months, and had gotten positive recommendations from everyone working there, and proven you were "intelligent" enough to deserve management level salary.

Would you still take the test, knowing that even if you believe you're "intelligent" enough, your company could interpret the results whichever way they wanted, to make sure they got the best deal possible?

 

It's very rare to lose your intelligence, so the comparison is not valid.

 

I used the SAR analogy where coming out of college, the doctors said he wouldn't last 3 yrs and he lasted 10 before he had any kind of knee issues. If they feel he will have problems playing 82 games because of structural integrity in his knee, just move on. I also think that he played well, but what if he gets extended minutes or teams now know not to leave him off penetration like the Jazz did, now what?

I do see a lot of people over pay mle for players, but I also see Hedo,ricky davis, corey maggette are guys that signed mle a few yrs back so there is value. I see a guy like JR Smith who will get mle money and will be underpaid in a few years if he keeps developing.

I read where about the posey deal. Posey had 3 yrs of production on a horrible denver squad and actually played ok in houston. I thought they should have kept Posey then, but the didn't. Posey and Landry are 2 different animals.