I don't know that Cassell can command the MLE at age 36. I'd love to see Cassell coming off the bench for the Rockets for the last few years of his career, just like he did the first few years of it! He'd be fantastic in that role. I can't imagine he wouldn't be a sixth man of the year candidate for those years, and with that kind of depth, I can't imagine we wouldn't be contending for the title.
Cassell at 36 is better than 99% of the PGs who are in their 20s. Cassell has not lost his clutch abilities that was the staple of the championship teams. Neither has Horry. Horry can stink for the whole season and then in the finals he'll turn into Michael Jordan.
As cool as it would be to get Horry back, he isn't really a JVG kind of guy for exactly that reason. I think JVG would end up cutting out Horry's liver and feeding it to the team on crackers if he had to endure Horry's regular season mediocricy. Or maybe JVG would use Horry's spleen as a hair stimulant to regrow the lost hairs that Horry caused.
Well I'm not saying that Sam will get a longterm MLE offer. But I do think that the Clips would be straight up fools if they didn't offer at least 2 years $12-14 mill to Sam for everything he gives to that team.
funny thing about that. Clipps havent exactly been known for their smart moves over the years. This season has been the first time in forever that they actually paid some money for some good veterans to help out. Question is...if they fail to advance far, would Sterling want to reup...expecially for a 36 yr old point who has had injury issues?
I guess that's the big question. Is this the Sterling of old, or are they going to actually build and keep a good basketball team.
Well, if the Clips only offer Cassel 2 yr 12 mil, that isn't much more than the MLE. Cassel might choose to go the the Rox anyway. With the Rox, he'd be home, he wouldn't have to log big minutes at 38 years old and he'd have a chance to be a big part of a championship run. Is that worth the difference between ~10 mil here or get 12 mil in pergatory?
You know what R2K, I completely agree with you. I though yall were nuts for saying you'd have Rafer ahead of Sam. Then I checked out his stats since the return of Yao and TMAC. Man oh man has he been dishing the ball to where it's needed! I'm really liking Rafer.
True, but JVG doesn't care about the money aspect. He only cares about effort and winning. Even a win with lack of effort isn't good enough for JVG.
Cassell would be great coming off the bench for us next year (and I think he'd be willing to do it, too). Problem, of course, is the money. He'll want more than we're willing to give. Other than that, I'd definitely be up for it. Competitiveness, passion, desire -- things Van Gundy loves and things Cassell has in spades.
We can have Sam, but it will all depend on him after this season if he's willing to sacrifice 1) starting, since Rafer will have that locked by the end of the season and 2) money, since we won't be willing to pay as much for a backup PG as other teams would be for a starting PG. This would give us incredible depth, a solid veteran bench if we re-sign David Wesley in the off-season, and barring injuries would probably help us get over the top and counter the likes of San Antonio, Dallas, Detroit, and Miami.
For cheap I'll take Sam I am back. Heck bring Robert Horry back too. Get Rudy T to coach for us again, Mario Elie as assistant coach, Hakeem as Yao's coach, and Clyde to coach Mcgrady. Heck maybe Barkley could teach a few things to Swift.
I don't think the Rox will go after Horry. They had a chance to sign him this season and didn't pursue it. Hopefully we can get Sam as our backup PG next year though. That would be perfect.
Horry's locked up for two more seasons. We can't get him. He'd be nice, but I like our new youth movement. Slowly getting younger, remember? But I'd take Sam back in a heartbeat. Starting or off the bench, he's just awesome.
I think Sammy is great but should be coming off the bench to save his strength. Hey I would even take Robert Horny back just for the heck of it. J
First off, we might not even be willing to offer the full MLE to Sam. I love him as much as the next guy (as long as the next guy isn't tinman), but we've got a lot of holes to fill, so spending practically all of our money for an aging, injury-prone guy like Sam would be a big gamble. And secondly, who's to say that the Clippers are in purgatory. They've got a good team, and they're starting to spend some money, and it seems like Sam likes it there. If they offer more money, I would be surprised if he came here instead.
That's very true. I'm not saying we SHOULD offer him the full MLE...just that IF we did, I could see him chosing us over the Clips. Whether we DO offer the full MLE is another question. Actually, I don't think we have that many holes ...if: 1. Bogans turns out to be a good defender that can reliabely hit open J's. 2a. Swift starts playing better. 2b. We trade Swift for something good. 3. Some combination of Head, Wesley, JB or maybe Sura are reliable @ 2 guard? If Sam came, he and Rafer could play a 2-pg lineup too sometimes. Lots of options. 4. Isn't Spanoulis (sp?) due to come and he sounds decent. I'm not too worried about these holes as I'm sure CD will work them out by the start of next season. CD seems to keep pulling rabits out of his hat. Well it depends how the Clips finish the season. If they finish with a huge flame-out in the 1st round, Sam won't be too impressed. If that happens (and it seems likely to me) I'm sure he'll see Houston as having a better chance to go deep than the Clips and Sam would rather live out his days playing less minutes in his hometown on a better team. Just speculating.
