I do not quite care what Mike James wants. Mark my words if we set MLE as our marker for Free Agent signings we will not make significant progress. Stro was a steal for the MLE- atleast that was what they said last year, and he is PF not a Shooting Guard. We will be going for Bonzi Wells- if he is beyond our means, then Matt Harpring will be the choice. I simply dont see Mike James as being a Plus to this team chemistry wise. Let us just wait and see what actually happens- at this point both of us are expressing our respective views- and I respectfully disagree.
Their GM feels the same way about James. Actually there whole team and their fans do as well. It got real bad at the end of the year with James. Fans were pissed because he took shots down the stretch and would not past to two promising young players in Bosh and Villanueva. They would have monster games and James would be having a bad one and he would still try and shoot most of their shots at the end. Now I think he would be great as a sixth man, but he needs the ball to be effective and I don't think he is effective enough down the stretch. More times than not he will hurt you more than help you.
Chris Bosh missed the last 11 games of the year. In those 11 games, James averaged 27.5 ppg on 51% FG% and 7 assists for good measure. In those same 11 games, Villanueva put up 15.5 ppg on 40% FG% and 9 rebounds. James scored more on a higher FG% and a downright deadly 3P% clip than Villanueva throughout the season - and those splits just got worse in this finishing stretch. Check out Villanueva's splits as a starter vs. coming off the bench - 48% as a bench player, 44% as a starter. James also averaged over 42 minutes a night in those final 11 games. If management didn't like what he was doing, he shouldn't have been playing that much. You seem to think he could score more points for us (12) than Juwan Howard did this year.
NIKE: You would give a 30 year old Mike James the full MLE until age 36? I'm not sure that would be a very good idea.
Mike James wants a 3-year deal He thinks he can parlay 2 three-year deals. I think I'd be ok with giving him a 3 year full MLE with a player option on year 3 and then being able to re-evaluate. That'd be a 3 year, 17.5 million dollar deal. I could live with that.
Oh, I wasn't aware of that. I'm totally onboard for James then. I was totally in favor of the trade for Alston and still think it was the right move in hindsight, but I loved James while he was here.
In return for the short deal, he wants a high salary. In this case the MLE may very well not be enough in his eyes. I'd say he's looking for something in the $7-8 million range.
James was on Slam Radio today... http://www.slamonline.com/links/SLAMradio_MikeJames.mp3 Audio gets a little crappy at times; however, this is definitely a must-listen. A little preview from Mike... He's going to win 2 championships in the next 3 years. He's one of the best point guards in the NBA. He wants to be a starter. He's boxing this summer to be a better player. A translation from jameztown... He is Mike James' biggest fan. He's going to be mightily disappointed once the contract offers start coming. He could very well be insane.
As far as the original thread-starting quote, I don't need nor do I care for Chris Bosh's opinion - it's irrelevant. I've seen Mike James already on this Rockets team and know how he fits in. I don't know where this crap about James being selfish first started. Are you guys basing all of this on T-Mac's alleged "wave-off" of James? James was incredible for us that year and we would not have won games 2 and 6 without him. The anti-James crowd is so quick to point to some alleged ill advised shots in Game 5, but conveniently leave out his game saving steal in game 2, or the fact that when he entered in game 6, we were down 10 and looked completely dead. IIRC, he got 2 straight steals and some quick hoops to get us back into the game. I still stand by the Alston trade but that has nothing to do with James as a player. I think Alston can be a good point guard for this team and he showed this when McGrady was healthy. If he is only asking for 3 years, he would be my first target with the MLE. I would start him in the backcourt alongside Alston. I don't think it should be a problem starting them together in the new NBA. You can then draft an athletic swingman to bring off the bench.
Wait! So Bosh wants a pass-first PG, and we need a scoring/shooting guard to help us on offense and feed off/punish teams for doubling Yao and T-Mac...Good Bye Rafer, Welcome Back Mike James
I think one of the biggest benefits to having James is that he can give Tmac rest. With another guard who can really score and create his own shot, Tmac might actually be able to sit down for a little while during a game. We might also be able to win a game when Tmac's back flares up.
So what James has been on multiple teams? Look what journeymen Cassel and Jon Barry did for us. Chris Bosh taking shots at one of his teammates who likely won't be a raptor anymore is an easy way to shift blame of his team's failure. The Raptors fans need a scapegoat, and it's not their darling Bosh or new baby in Villanueva. The bottomline is, neither Bosh nor Vanilla Icecream come close to the level of respect T-Mac and Yao commands from Mike James. MJ is a serious baller and he knows greatness when he sees one. Why should Mike James defer to a prennial loser in Bosh and a promising but still developing Vanilla Icecream?
If this team could acquire Mike James for the MLE (or whatever the Rockets can afford to offer), then they would be stupid to turn him down. This team doesn't need a "pass first" PG so much as it needs GOOD PLAYERS. Right now, the Rockets have a severe lack of talent. T-Mac and Yao are superstars, but everyone else sucks. The only other player who had an above average (over 15) PER this season was Hayes, but JVG stupidly kept him on the bench and gave most of the PF minutes to his boy Juwan. I'm not even completely sure that Hayes will even be kept on the roster, which is unfortunate. We now from the 2004-2005 season how good this team can be with both stars on the court. Sure, Yao wasn't as good as he was this season, but at the time T-Mac was also a lot better (we can't guarantee that his back problems won't flare up again). During that season, the Rockets had a lot more talent than they did now. Sura was still around, and played better than Alston. Wesley sucked but not as much. Going by PER, the team actually had two other above-average players in Mike James and Mutombo. James was not as good last season as he was this year (but still good), but the team made the mistake of trading him away. Mutombo has aged horribly in the past year. But getting back to my point, even this team, which was healthy and more talented, was eliminated in the first round. If this team keeps the current roster, it might not get further. These days, the elite teams don't just have two All-Stars. They have three, or an entire starting lineup (plus a couple of reserves) who are above average players. The Pistons can afford to start five good players, and get quality contributions from McDyess and Delk off the bench. The Suns have Nash, Marion, Diaw, and if he's healthy and back in shape next season, Amare. The Spurs have a trio of All-Stars in Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili, with a number of other players (Barry, Mohammed, Udrih) providing quiet, but decent contributions. The Mavs have a big three of Nowitzki, Terry, and Howard, and some good reserves in Marquis Daniels and Devin Harris. All of these teams could beat the current Rockets, even if they're healthy. Mike James would be a big addition to this team. And no, we do NOT have enough offense because of our two stars. This team was only average offensively (going by points per possession) in 2004-2005, with both stars and a more talented lineup. Even IF James takes away shots from T-Mac and Yao, that's not particularly a bad thing. James can flat out score. His TS% is very good at 58.3, which is not that much behind Yao's, and higher the T-Mac's. James is also not responsible for ruining chemistry or whatever they say about Toronto's offense, because believe it or not, Toronto is a TOP FIVE offensive team going by points per possession. The team sucked because they were #29 in defense, giving up even more than they scored. According to 82games.com, almost every member of the Raptors is allowing above-average Opponent's PER, so I don't think this can be entirely blamed on James. I suspect that Toronto fans are just using James as a scapegoat (the way a star player is always blamed when his team sucks). James's big mouth makes him an even easier target for criticism. Evidence exists that you don't even need a passing PG if you have multiple players who can create their own shots. What pass-first PG does Dallas have? Or San Antonio? Instead, they have a crapload of good scorers, even at the PG position. I was looking over and calculating stats today, and I saw that Mike James had a PER and TS% almost as good as Parkers. You might be thinking "Even if Tony's not a passer, he's a team player, not a ballhog like James!" However, I calculated the number of possessions the Spurs and Raptors had while Parker and James were on the floor, respectively. I found that James personally shot off 22.29% of his team's possessions while he was on the floor, while Parker shot off 22.28%. Big difference. Also James's Usage Rate (a measure of how many possessions a player uses up by shooting, making the assist, drawing the foul, or turning the ball over) was actually lower than Parker's. So really, there's not much of a difference between James and Parker, and Parker actually had the ball in his hands more. Would you say no to Parker or Jason Terry?
REmember CD stated that the Rox would not[NOT] have traded James if Bob Sura had been able to play. They had to tade him inorder to get a decent Point Guard [Alston].
MJ will be an excellent choice on a reasonable price and he can accept his role as the 6th man. We need the firepower as 3rd player can score we always lack lst season.
