Big, fat, slow, old, unmotivated, bitter, egotistical, manipulative, a quitter I'm all of those too, I'll play for 2 millon. Seriously if he showed up last year out of shape, what do you think the chances of him showing up ready to play in the NBA a year later are?
You've made a point that 95% of the posters in this thread have totally ignored. The FA pool is not that deep and they are not ALL unrestricted. When teams start to re-sign their own FA's...Pietrus goes back to GS...DEN matches anything offered for Blake...Magliorre wants to go back to Canada or teams bid him up because he's an experienced big...or the Raps won't let Mo Pete go for pocket change...and the pool starts to thin out, Bonzi is going to start looking mighty good to some around here. Suddenly...almost magically...a significant portion of the haters will start to notice that it was one season under VG. http://www.realgm.com/src_freeagents/2007/ EDIT: Opting out and re-signing for all of some of the MLE is perfectly CBA legal.
Gater, While I agree with your point, I don't believe the team will reward Bonzi for the year he had. Do I put a lot of the blame on JVG? Do you have to ask? But, it takes two to tango and I just can't believe that Morey would give a player who showed up to camp out of shape and was basically a malcontent all year - a raise........no matter what the root cause of his angst. DD
Agreed, we have a contract in place with him with the player option. Since we didn't get or he didn't give squat to us last year then he should consider it all paid for this year - 4.5 mil to play one year for the Rockets - that is MLE money. If he'll take the option then I would be happy with that.
Well desperate times may indeed call for desperate measures but things surely cannot be so desperate that the Rockets need to have another go-round with Donuts err Bouncy err Bonzi. So let me get this straight: Folks are happy that the head coach who held the team together when one of its two superstars went down for 32 games and still ended up winning 52 games gets shown the door while they would welcome back a fat sorry-ass like Wells who didn't want to play here in the first place, who wouldn't get in shape and who quit on the team. What the hell is this - the bizarro Rockets?
If we could get him for the full MLE it would be tempting, but since he's neither the athletic power forward or the new starting (or at least backup) point guard we REALLY need...I'm not sure its worth the risk. I don't think Bonzi is the difference - he'd be a great piece (if he played like he's capable of playing), but he shouldn't be our primary target in the off-season...especially after last year. He has already fooled me once...
If he wanted to stay for the 2m player option, sure. It seems that isn't the case though, and we would have to be mental to offer Bonzi a raise after last year. I mean it's not like Bonzi is an all star. There is a reason no one else picked him up and other teams have let him move on, namely the type of behavior he exhibited last season. People want to act like this is the first time he has ever been a malcontent or something. But of course it is all JVG's fault that he skipped training camp, was out of shape, and quit the team by text messaging our trainer and not showing up
If he picks up his option I'm fine with him being back. If he opts out though and we resign him for the MLE, that would be pathetic. He's had injury problems for multiple years now, has an attitude issue, is aging, and he quit on us last year.
Isn't it Bonzi's decision on whether he wants to come back or not?? Last time I checked his contract said "player option", not "team option". Or am I wrong??
Bonzi averaged 13.6 ppg and 7.7 rpg with Adelman in Sacramento. He also had one of his best years in shooting percentage. He will be 31 in September.
Yes but Bonzi believes he is worth more than the mid level and at this stage won't accept less. So those people who want him back for his option money will be almost certainly disappointed. It's a pretty good bet he is going to opt out for at least a midlevel money. He will probably get it but not necessarily from the Rockets. We already have Tmac Battier Snyder Head, Vspan for the SF/SG spots. So unless there is a trade I personally would rather see that money spent on a solid PF. But if one is not available then let's look at Bonzi a little closer.
interesting......i'm not sure I belive him yet...he has to prove it on the court...i still remember his comments about only playing 1/4 since that is what the rockets are paying him...
no way rockets should dip into their MLE for him. if he wants to return under his current contract...fine.
We used our mid-level exception last season so we're not gonna have one this offseason. If I'm not mistaken we're only gonna get the LLE, so its either the player option or nothing. It would take a lot for the guy to win my support again, in my mind, there is little doubt that we would have beat Utah if he would of manned-up and played. When Harpring was going nuts on us all I could think is Bonzi could have helped nuetralize him.
I was thinking something more like post play, but maybe we could have hypnotized him into thinking Harpring was a giant piece of fried chicken.
