Remember when we traded away Quitten to Portland? Among the 700 players we got in return was Stacey Augmon, who, if I recall correctly, refused to report. Since he was not someone we were interested in signing anyway, and only had him in the deal to make the numbers work, we simply released him. And then he immediately re-signed with Portland. (if my memory is off on this, I apologize) So, since it appears that New Orleans really wanted Boki in this deal, more than JJ anyway, what if they simply release him? I know they have 'suspended' him, but if he makes it pretty clear that he won't report, and since he is off their books at the end of the year anyway, it seems at least possible that he may just get his outright release. So, if that happens, do we sign him back then? I would think so. It doesn't seem like he has burned his bridges HERE, just the bridge leading to New Orleans.. Could this happen?
I thought about this as well but, as mad as it seems he is, I don't think he would want to come back. Plus, there are team with a better shot at a championship that would probably want him as well and would be more appealing.
Well, it seems that he so mad BECAUSE he wants to stay here.. And, it may even be possible that this could all be some 'behind-the-scenes' stuff that was planned in advance.. although that is nothing but pure speculation on my part..
hrm...that is an interesting thought, I don't think they will release him, since he WAS the principal player in the trade though. I don't think they'd bail him out like that. I'd love to have jj back, but when I think about it...I wanna say if they released him, why would he even want to go to the rockets when he could sign for cheap with san antonio, especially after being traded to the hornets like that.
Augmon did not refuse to report. We did release him at some point, though, and he went back to Portland.
But he was never on the team at any point, right? I sure thought there was some kind of deal with him refusing to come here..
We waived him 10 days after the trade. I remember that he showed up, though, and I believe he did play in at least one pre-season game for the Rockets.
Yeah ... Augmon showed up to camp, but there was wide speculation right after the deal that he was going to be cut to go back to the Blazers, which is what happened. I remember atleast one Rockets employee right after the deal saying they were excited to get Augmon ... so I never understood it. Here's the proof... this is at Rockets training camp in 1999. I think I caught him by surprise with this picture.
So Jeff, have there been any whispers of that kind revolving around JJ possibly coming back if/when the Hornets cut him loose? Or is he so royally mad at the Rockets now that he wouldn't come back, even if it became a possibility?
Would rockets management even take him back??? If its true that there might have been some things going on behind the scenes that made us trade JJ.
