i think that the only necessities for this team is a healthy t-mac and yao. the only way to go above and beyond into the playoffs is to sign some FAs to carry the burden of the team. with little options team-wise and FA market-wise, mike james seems to be the only good option available at the moment. i still don't like the idea of signing him for an entire 5 years though. i'm hoping that minnesota and dallas also see that 5 years for mike james would be unwise.
We are in a win now modeand james is in his prime . for the next 3 to 5 years is gonna be our window of opportunity. james will still be productive till his contract runsout. i see no problems with him signing a 5 year MLE deal. infact, i believe it's a steal. daylight robbery i tell you. look at the other free agents getting outlandish contracts.
If we don't get Mike James then CD must stop the trade for Gay and send Battier back. The reason that we have to have James is that the Win Now is built around him as part of the WIN NOW Rockets Team. The only other senario would be to trade Tracy Mc Grady and rebuild for a championship around Gay and Yao Ming in about two years, or we will just be a low playoff seed for several years.
The Rockets absolutely have to sign Mike James, if nothing more than to save face with the fans after the Battier trade. If James falls through the Rockets' fingertips, I would think the 30% of the fan base who were okay with the Battier trade would join the other 70% who were outraged. But hey, at least the fans would be united then, right?
Hmmm... I wonder if any of the 3 teams will be desperate enough to do that. If that happens, then great for him! Mike James has earned all 30 of these millions and will continue to work hard to try and earn it at least. On the other hand, Mike may not be a bad deal even for 5 years. He's a low mileage late-blooming guy. Maybe he'll be one of the Sam Cassells who are great even into their late 30s.
To win you have to have role players..good role players. Just look at last year's playoff teams that made it pretty deep: Miami: Antoine Walker Jason Williams Alonzo Mourning James Posey Udonis Haslem to a lesser extent, Gary Payton Dallas: Jerry Stackhouse Keith Van Horn Erick Dampier Devin Harris Phoenix: Boris Diaw Raja Bell Eddie House Tim Thomas Kurt Thomas Leandro Barbosa And what do we have right now in terms of role players? With the exception of Alston and Battier, we have NOTHING. Novak? He hasn't proven anything on the NBA court yet. JL3? As much Earl Boykins-esque/ Rudy-esque love he gets, can we really depend on him to be a back up point guard? Hayes, although VERY VERY efficient, he hasn't proven to be a player that can stay in games. This is where Mike James comes in. Do we want to give him 5 years? No not at all. But is there another FA out there that has been wanting to come to Houston that scores as well and plays as well and has as much fire/balls as he does? NOPE Is he an anointed savior? Absolutely not. But he's a legit scorer and, with the way our two stars misses games during the season, it doesn't hurt to have someone that has the capability of scoring a lot when needed.
i voted yes. there are three reasons for this: 1 - what other choice do we have? options are limited and the good free agents are dwindling quickly. 2 - i love his fire, his energy. that type of play is contageous. and we desperately need that, whether it's as a starter or off the bench. 3 - scoring. the guy can light it up and get red hot. there are moments where this team is desperate for a bucket and i think he can help provide that for us. (so could a few others, but not in our price range.) mike james is a perfect fit for this team. and he wants to be here.
I think CD should tell Mike James that the MLE will be offered to Bonzi Wells if he delays another day.
We are in WIN NOW mode . .. are we not? A championship or two in the next 3~5 yrs I would be ok with holding up the next 2 yrs after wards Rocket River
Go back a Year I think if you replace Mike James with Jason Williams and replace ROCKETS with the HEAT I think most folx would not disagree AT THAT TIME However . . . jason showed up and there were games he was needed jason was not needed to Carry the team He was needed though MJames isn't needed to carry the team but HE IS NEEDED Rocket River
this year's draft class was considered very weak. even some of the top 5 (Bargnani, Thomas, Aldridge) weren't considered NBA ready or immediate impact players; starters or even rotational players. yet they're guaranteed 3-4 year contracts starting at up $4.5 million a year. in Rudy Gay's case it's about $2.2. million. regarding the MLE, that is just what the average NBA player makes. average out of over 400 players. yeah, i know the average salary is actually quite a bit higher than the median salary (which i don't know what it is), but i keep on hearing that no way is such and such a player worth the full MLE. maybe you get what you pay for. or maybe what you're paying isn't as much as you think it is. this is what you ask. how much do you think Mike James is worth right now? this year? if you could pay for just one year? 20 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds and 1 steal is about what he can give you right now. $7 million, $7.5 million? that's Cuttino (he previously had the equivalent of a 6 year MLE contract, and almost all Clutchfans thought he was an underpaid bargain), Cassell or Desmond Mason money but still less than Andre Miller, Shandon Anderson, Jason Williams, or Bonzi Wells money. if you're willing to pay MJ that much for 3 years then the fourth year of an MLE is effectively free. i guess the $7 million question would be: is Mike James better (more worthy) than an average player?
I voted yes, though the real answer is no. We don't ABSOLUTELY have to have anyone. We don't need Yao Ming or Tracy to be successful if you are talking in absolutes, but I vote yes. Mike James makes our depth charts full. Yes we need another PF and PG, but we can get whoever if James comes in. James can play 1/2, Tracy 2/3, Head 1/2(1, if someone else brings up the ball), Hayes 4/5, Battier 2/3/4 and Novak might be able to play 3/4.... that's enough versatility to create an 8 or 9 man rotation. That's all we need. We don't need to be unbelievably deep at each position, we need to fill the minutes. James solves our depth problem overnight. Yes. We absolutely have to have him. Or Bonzi Wells (plan B).
I think a great 8-man rotation would be. Rafer Battier Tracy McGrady Howard Yao Bench Mike James Chuck Hayes Bob Sura.
Just look at his numbers. He had 39 points on the pistons 36 against the sonics 38 on philly 30 ON US 36 ON THE SPURS 37 on the Bucks 31 and 30 both times on the cavs 37 on the knicks 31 on the celtics 34 on Indy 36 on NOK 32 on char 32 on miami Not to mention he had he had 22 gmes where he scored over 20. if you can somhow snag a guy of his calibare for the MLE, you be crazy not to.
If James wants a 5 yr max-mle deal, I doubt any of the other teams after him (dallas and minnesota) would offer him that. I guessing that we land him with a 3 or 4 yr contract, mid-level or sign&trade. I don't really think Mike James is absolutely needed, but it would be nice to have him here again.
i agree with this. i like the battier trade on the condition that we're picking up that impact scorer and playmaker in mike james. if we don't sign him and there's not a legit back-up plan then it's going to be really tough thinking about the future of this team. i'm really hoping mike comes home.
This seems to be the consensus on this board right now. Wait, did everyone think the same about about Rox signing another free agent last year? There must be a reason Chris Bosh does not want him on his team.
I think so. Yes, we HAVE to have Mike James. And if we have to give the FULL 5 years of the MLE to do it, then we have to. The course is set, win now. The Battier/Gay trade set things in motion for the Win Now mode where we load up the team for a push while McGrady is still in his prime years. To continue with this, we have to add NBA "quality starting" players to this team. We did this with Shane Battier. We can continue to do this with Mike James. FINALLY we can have guys on our team that we can actually say, "hey, they could be starters on other teams!" Alston/Bogans/Howad? What other teams could they be starters on? That's the point! Battier and James are quality. No one is saying James will be the savior. Just that he is a quality piece to the puzzle. The skillset that James has, is exactly what the Rockets need. I dont think thier is another affordable FA out there that is a better match for the Rockets than Mike James. I think in the past we have been leery on giving full MLE deals to older players, but someone like Mike James that is durable, and actually looks like he is coming into his "prime" even if he is 31, to me it makes me feel more comfortable about offering a longer deal. It is one thing to offer a guy much slower like Derek Fisher a full MLE deal, and another to offer Mike James a 5 year deal where he is still lightning quick and seems to be getting better as the years go by. Like VanGundier said, this guy is a late bloomer.
