Free insider Linky Chad Ford says... ...and it goes on with Ford bashing the Magic, which is justified IMO. He also adds that T-mac doesn't deserve max contract anymore. This...may be true. Back to the Rockets ref. Am I blinded by my fandom? I think we have/had a couple of crappy contracts on the books, but are we really one of the worst salary cap managing teams on the league? -We're not paying luxury tax -Our outlook by 2009/2010 looks ok? (http://www.hoopshype.com/salaries/houston.htm) -Is he referring to us having two max contracts on the book? Is our situation that bad? -Is he referring to old crap like Juwan's contract? I just don't know WTH he is talking about. It's obvious that the Knicks are out of control and that the Mavs way overspend, but would anyone else on the board consider the Rox as one of the worst salary managing teams in the NBA?
Well, I think it was pretty safe to say that from 1997 to 2004, our front office didn't so well of a job.
Agreed. Mo T, Cato, Moochie, the list goes on and on. As of recent, starting in maybe 2005 or 2006, I feel the front office has been doing well. And as far as having 2 max contracts on the books, how else would you expect to have two guys like T-mac and Yao as the core? And on somewhat of an aside, I still think T-mac is well worth the max.
I think we might still be paying Matt Maloney. However paying Tmac was the only option to break out of the morass of mediocrity we had fallen into in the Franchise/Cato/Maurice Taylor years. (though we will all thank them for playing badly enough to get us a ping pong ball in the 2002 draft) Tmac $16,901,500> Franchise $4,383,581 /Cato $6,696,000 / Cuttino Mobley $4,903,750 And remember Taylor was making $7,150,000.
We know that that's a little dated. They had their problems in the late 90's and early 00's, but they've been getting much better the past few years.
Despite having TMac and Yao, we've been COMPLETELY backed into a corner. In order to get TMac, we had to trade three starters. Every year we've had glaring holes in our lineup. CD did a good job of getting incremental value from the garbage he signed since, however. But this might be the first season since the TMac trade where we don't have a glaring hole in the lineup. Oh, one other major thing screwed us over the past 10 years. Eddie Griffin.
Would you rather have TMAC or RL for max dollars? My bet is 9 out of 10 in favor for TMAC, although he does mentally break down during the playoffs I'm LTTP, but did anyone see him mentally collapsing during game 6 or 7?
Gotta disagree with this statement, when thinking of teams with salary cap issues, the Rockets don't even come to mind.
the ONLY people to deserve max contracts are these players: kobe, lebron, wade, tmac, yao, KG, duncan, melo, possibly iverson, dirk, nash. no one else.
Please note that two of those "starters" have barely been in an NBA rotation since. The Rockets also gained Juwan Howard in the deal, who was a starter. Superstar SG + mediocre starting PF >>> Backup Center + 2 Mediocre starting guards
i dont think steve franchise was a "mediocre" starting guard. he was an all-star or borderline all-star.
I'm pretty sure the Ford was referring to the Rudy/CD era (or the Taylor/Cato/Maloney/Moochie Era) back when the front office was handing out dumb contracts to undeserving players. (And let's not forget they wasted 3 picks on Eddie Griffin and threw away a pick in the Amaechi/Rice deal-- so that they had 0 first rounders for 2 straight seasons.) The effect of that era lasted well into JVG's years and handcuffed the team financially. If Ford wants to argue TMac's trade and salary, I'll have to disagree. Few players carried as much of the responsiblity of a team's offense as TMac did. He was a leading scorer and the primary playmaker on a team sorely lacking guys who can create for themselves-- especially with Yao injured. Cat and Steve are useful, but they were not TMac. The Rockets subsequent guard void was related to Sura/Barry/Wesley, etc getting old and injured.
Yeah. That's weird. We have over-spent on players like Kelvin Cato, Maurice Taylor, Matt Maloney and Moochie Norris in the past, but we're not in such bad shape now. As you said, we aren't in the luxury tax. Every year we're able to add players with the MLE. I don't see the problem. And saying T-Mac isn't worth a max contract anymore, besides being very debatable, is also kind of silly for the fact that even if you think he's not worth it now, he was what? 26 years old and coming off back to back scoring titles when we gave it to him? I'm pretty sure he was worth it then, even if he isn't now. And personally, I still think he's worth a max contract.
"But if you can't manage the cap in a way that gives a team a chance to add the right players to your star or stars, talent will take you only so far." It's hard to know exactly what he is referring to in regards to the Rockets. If he meant the general trend over the last ten years that took away much of the opportunties of the last couple years then it makes sense. But the Rockets have been managing the cap much better over the last couple years. On the other hand what about the situation at point guard. Prior to the Billy trade we had six point guards tying up roughly 19 mil in cap space without a single player that would be consider a top 20 player at that position. Or we signed Swift for 5-6 mil a year. And he didn't work out. So we traded him and Gay for Battier. Many consider this to have ended up to our benefit. But in the end is Battier worth 6-7 mil a year through 2011. In comparison a similar player Deveon George signed with Dallas for 2-3 mil a year. But in comparison to other teams no way would I consider the current management or situation to be the amoung the 4 or 5 worst. The worst has to include New York, Philly, Dallas, Lakers, Minnesota, and Pacers. I think Denver and New Jersey would be next in line. I'd include Portland but I pretty much agree with most of the moves they have done the past two years.
