I think Dallas will offer him the MLE or more. Its going to come down to where he feels he is a better fit. Just my thinkin'.
So Gortat can be our next Stromile Swift? Ah, I remember the excitement over his signing. I still have the thread of his signing bookmarked.
He is basically a stronger and more athletic version of Joel Pryzbilla and a smaller Brendon Haywood. A good, solid servicable center who is capable of being a starter in this league. He could be just as good, if not better than Kendrick Perkins as a starter. The centers that are better than him: Yao (our team but injured) Dwight (was his backup last year.) Tim Duncan Shaq Ilgauskus Bynum, Gasol, Okur, Chandler (when healthy), Nene, Kaman, Z. Randolph, Camby (when healthy), Okafor, Horford, McDyess, Sheed Now these centers make up 11 teams. Gortat is still either equal or better than centers on 19 teams in my opinion. Although there are 17 centers that are clearly better than him in my opinon, out of those 17, there are 7 centers listed that are on the same team. I think Gortat is either better than or equal to: K. Perkins, Brad Miller, Noah, Dampier, Marc Gasol, Darko, Dalembert, Nesterovic, Jeff Foster, Chris Wilcox, Brendon Haywood, Biedrins, and Pryzbilla. He is also better than any center Miami, Phoenix, OKC, Minnesota, NYC, NJ, Milwakee, and Sacremento has. He is still better than alteast 21 centers in the NBA. He's right in the middle of the pack as far as centers go, which isn't bad. You know what you will get from him every night, so I wouldn't mind paying him the MLE, especially without Yao here right now.
Color me surprised at the hard line stance. Solid C's don't grow on trees. Saving a few bucks doesn't make sense given the dire situation, unless your real goal is rebuilding while trying to fool the fan base with "at least we tried". The gmail effort was a waste of time. One has to believe at least one team will spend the MLE. Barring a miracle trade, welcome to a year of no inside presence defensively and no shotblocking.
I forgot to include Al Jefferson as a center better than Gortat...my mistake. I didn't mention Stoudamire, since he played power forward all of last year, rarely playing at the center position.
Why another Gortat thread? This is being discussed here: http://www2.clutchfans.net/ad_300.html ...18 pages worth, and it includes the "Morey - MLE offer" speculation, along with what's been said by his agent.
Who cares about the #13 jersey really? Are there really people out there not realizing the writing was on the wall for Wafer when he was sent to the locker room?
with Jermaine Jackson and maybe even budinger, there's no need for wafer. Budinger may not be as quick as Von, but von had trouble when the defense was set and most of his flash came when the D was scrambling, budinger should be able ot do that as well, and shoot...however, the key is Taylor, i expect him to match, if not surpass, Von's production...and he'll be more versatile on offense than von.
How will Dallas offer him the MLE or more? They can't offer more than the MLE unless its a sign and trade, which Orlando wouldn't want to do.
Just speculation but the Rockets probably offered a million dollars less than the MLE so they could use that money to sign Taylor to a long term deal. And Morey probably in a roundabout way made it very clear that he would get a shoe deal worth 2 mil a year for 4 years. This makes up more than the difference of the loss of money he gets by taking less than the MLE and actually makes us the high bidder on the market. Since the onlt team on the market that might offer more Detroit, won't.
