Really? If Yao goes down again then we have no big that we can give the ball to and say 'do your thing.' Patterson and Hill get their points mainly from hustle plays and that's not going to get it done. Neither will relying on our perimeter guys, b/c a perimeter game will only get you so far, case in point this past season where we ended up in the lottery.
Are you serious? I respect your opinion, but do you really believe that we'll "be OK" with a second year player who barely got off the bench his first year, until being traded towards the end of the season to the Rockets, and a rookie? With Hayes and Andersen "backing them up?"
I hate to say it (especially since I love Scola), but if Yao goes down again, the Rockets might be better off getting Hill and Patterson the experience now. Scola isn't going to lead a Yao-less Rockets team to a championship. I say, match any offer within reason. If some team (like New Jersey) wants to sign Scola to a ridiculous, front-loaded, bloated long-term offer sheet, then Les and Morey will likely (and should) just let him go. THAT's when you make a deal for Al Jefferson.
We've basically treated scola like a discarded w**** over the last few weeks. Now there are tons of teams left with cap space and Scola is the best free agent left on the board. Hopefully Morey didn't miscalculate....again.
Good thing he is restricted. Les told Morey to match whatever offer he gets. But I would rather not overpay a 30 year old PF. This actually favors us.
In what way could he miscalculate? We can match any deal for Scola, but if Scola gets an unreasonable deal why match it? Morey has also stated time and time again Scola and Lowry will be back, further de-valuing their ability to sign a contract with another team. Essentially, teams will not try so hard to sign a Scola or Lowry mainly because they know the Rockets will match their offer. Plus, all this Bosh for Scola business was nonsense written by sports writers who know nothing about the salary cap. Anyone in the know, knew that a Scola for Bosh trade couldn't go down mainly because it is illegal. As a new contract Scola couldn't be traded (barring S&T). So I do not see how we treated him like crap. More or less a guy like Ariza or Battier should be pissed because they were(/are) on the trading block. Any team out there can court Scola if they like, but there is a 99.9999999% chance the guy will be wearing Rocket's red until December 15th. Bet on it.
I don't usually like to be insulting to other members of the board. I like to keep things civil. But you have to be the single stupidest poster this board has ever seen. Every single time I see one of your posts I am shocked by how absurd it is. I mean, some people are stupid enough to think they may be smarter than Morey - but you're so stupid that you actually and genuinely think that Morey is both stupid and incompetent. Seriously. I feel my IQ drop every time I read something you post. And you know what? I'm an idiot too. Because I continue to read them. Good god.
That guy has been driving me nuts for like a year. I mean, I know we're all wrong sometimes. We all say stupid things sometimes. BUT ALL THE TIME? And to be so arrogant about it.
LScola4 Juuuuuaaaaa ... RT @manuginobili: Rumor: @LScola4 a Miami? Dicen que necesitan al menos un atleta explosivo en equipo. Grande Luifa! ;-) Manu Ginobili: Rumor: Luis Scola to Miami? They say that they need at least one explosive athlete on the team. Mighty Scola!! Scola: Hahahahahahaha!!!!!
Scola is not going to lead the Rockets to contention without Yao. But he sure will come in handy when Yao rests or when Yao is out for a couple of weeks and the team wants to maintain a playoff pace. I doubt the Nets are going to make a unreasonable offer for Scola. It was said they didn't want to overbid for D. Lee because they didn't want to be carrying his contract when D. Favors is ready to play. I'd imagine the reason why they consider Scola (and Tyrus Thomas) is that they think these guys can be had for a reasonable deal. Yeah, they can front load it, but unlike a team like Memphis, the Rockets can afford to take the front loading "pain" to enjoy a cheaper back-end since their finances are much more sound. Anyway, my prediction is that Nets make a bid, but not an unreasonable one, just to see if Rockets will match. If Scola accepts, the Rockets will most likely match and the Nets will just move on to their next target. They got cap room and money, but they also got no urgency to really get a Scola-caliber guy. I think they end up maybe getting Tyrus Thomas since Charlotte is a bit more financially strapped.
I think Scola might have been willing to sign a good deal with us early if we made him feel wanted since he likes Houston and we were the ones who originally got him into the NBA. Now we basically showed him that there's no loyalty and he's gonna be looking at it as more of a business decision. We didn't make signing him a priority at all and it was clear he wasn't our first choice. It could still work out for us since a lot of the teams with space left don't need a PF, but it's a little scary having him be by far the best FA left when a lot of teams have space to burn and even scrubs are getting contracts for as much as we were hoping to pay him. I never wanted to trade him for Bosh or Amare, I was hoping we would keep him since Yao is questionable and there's no harm in having 3 great big men. With that kind of depth the other team would have to have their bench players guard them during part of the game.
The end of the season has arrived and it appears that I was wrong about Kevin Martin. At first I was quite shocked because my predictions never fail to come true. Once I came to grips with this though, I engaged in self reflection and realized that even the best statisticians are wrong sometimes due to outliers, or that perhaps I made a rounding or clerical error along the way. So in an attempt to better myself, I went back to review my calculations so that this never, ever happens again. I was quite shocked to discover that, in fact, I had not performed any calculations at all on this topic. This was highly irregular so I struggled to recall what had happened, and then I remembered that shortly before I made my prediction, the Rockets had traded my two favorite players and I was extremely upset about it. My prediction that Kevin Martin would shoot less than 40% turned out to be more of an emotional guess than the results of detailed analysis. Yet as a statistical genius I know that emotion should never be involved. Statistics should be all detail, no emotion. This was a critical error that I will never make again. However, I am a man of my word and I stand utterly defeated by HtownBBall. For a time it seemed as if Kevin Martin would not be able to finish the season, granting me victory. But then he came riding in on a stallion like Aragorn and the warrior kings of old, battling through injuries to shoot 42.9%. How cruel fate can be. So it would seem that I must retire. However, if HtownBBall and everyone else would accept my humble apologies, I would pledge to dedicate myself to my craft in the offseason, studying extensively so that something like this never, ever happens again. There is still so much ground to cover, delightful wonders such as pie charts and bar graphs, that it would be a shame to waste my talents. But ultimately if the wounds are too deep and I can't be forgiven, I would at least ask that I be allowed to retire gracefully of my own free will rather than being banned, so that at least I could still read the forum from time to time. __________________ Official Clutchfans Statistical Genius
Damn it Carl Herrera. JCDenton is never going to respond to you. Quit cluttering up every thread with that message. You're just punishing the rest of us.
Here's the thing, we couldn't sign a player until today anyways. Scola would be an idiot not to shop around. Houston would low ball him no matter what, and with Scola being on the wrong side of 25 he needs this deal to count. I don't think Scola would ever take a lower contract with this Rocket team. Scola will get fair market value, especially with the FA pool dwindling. In the long run, even Scola understands that a Bosh is a more critical piece than he is. While I have faith in this team I still think we need a balanced big to play alongside Yao. Bosh and Scola would have been a nice pair, but thats evidently not going to happen. Furthermore, the coming together of the big three put Scola in a bad position, now Scola needs Houston as much as Houston needs him. Playing in the east basically bars you from getting a ring (unless you're looking at Orlando or Boston, neither of which want Luis), and Scola's only chance to win is here in the West. Teams like Phoenix and Utah are in a rebuilding phase and a healthy Rocket team now looks like a number 2 or 3 seed instead of a number 6. This makes us a much more attractive location to be. All in all, I think Morey has played this thing right. The west has become: LA Portland Houston Denver Dallas SAS? Maybe an OKC? Or even a Memphis? But all in all Houston, Portland, LA and Dallas are the west. I do not see how Scola would not want to be in this position. If we finish in the top of the standings, beat up some easy teams, then play a hard fought series against LA (and hopefully steal it) we got ourselves into finals. For an aging player, thats money.
scola is the epitome of a professional athlete (along with yao). i do think he understands the nba is a business and he's an asset that can traded at any time. im sure he wont mind wherever he plays in the next season. but i do hope he gets the amount he deserves and DM should not lowball him (that's one of the things i dislike about DM). i hope NJ extends scola an offer that's fair. then let the rockets decide if theyre gonna match that or not. if they match it, then it means they agree that scola is worth the amount. if not, at least gets scola an offer he wouldnt get with the rockets. and everyone should move on.
