Francis signing puts Lewis' asking price in perspective

It'd be nice to add Shard's outside game to the Rox, but he's gonna need to put down the pipe before he suits up for anyone next season. He should take the $$ and run like hell.

I'm happy for him that he's turned his draft day nightmare into something positive, and that he's turned into a decent pro. But he hasn't proved *anything* yet. He's had one good season.

Rashard, you should kiss every one of those damn checks before putting in the bank.

 

I agree...it does put it in perspective....Lewis should be happy getting the MCE based on what Francis got

 

Yeah it sure does put it in perspective. He's not gonna sign with us hopefully! We have a championship caliber team

 

Well, I think he deserves more than Lafrentz at 65mill. I think those incintives kinda make the players more selfish than thinking about the team.

 

I think Lewis should get pay lesser than Fancis.. At least, Francis is an all-star player... Is Lewis of the all-star??

 

On the other hand, if MoT gets 7-8 million per year, why shouldn't Lewis expect at least that.

 

Look, a system with caps always distorts the gap between great and pretty good players. The better you are, the more you get paid, until you hit the cap, at which point there's no way to reflect your extra levels of talent. You can't deduce that Lewis isn't worth what he's asking. All you can deduce is that Francis is worth more than he's getting.

Given this distortion in the system, the best salary strategy for any team is to combine two or three great players with easily replaceable role players. The great players produce more than they can be paid for, and the role players can be dumped whenever they get uppity (unless they play for the Rockets, in which case they get a six-year contract). The worst strategy is to have a team full of Lewises and Taylors and Catos, who get paid every penny they're worth, if not more, because they aren't great and yet (even in the case of Cato) aren't so easily replaceable.

 

No deduction necessary.

Lewis won't get a $90M contract because he is not worth $90M.

Shake your Marxist tambourine all you want, but it won't change this simple fact.

 

I think the Rockets should use the MCE to get a veteran backup guard like bryon russell and then we will be all set. We have more than enough talent in the front court, and a great starting back court. If we had a good backup guard along with moochwe would be major contenders in the play-offs imo.

 

I have to disagree because it is a lot harder to find a decent big man than it is to find a good small foward.

 

I agree with JOE FAN, Lewis is just not worth 90million, point blank.

Quoted by Plankton

 

Lewis should take the offer he has and thank god they offered him that


I'll say it again and again
WE DONT NEED LEWIS AT ALL

 

Will, to take your logic one step further: over time, the Lewises, Taylors, and Catos of the league are going to find that teams don't want to pay them their $7-8 million anymore, instead using that money to help pay for their superstars. That means their asking price will have to drop if they are to continue playing.

Sounds like Lewis really is overvaluing himself...

 

Not a lawyer, sorry. Also not particularly talented at the tambourine.

Lobo, I agree with you that over time, the availability of great players at cap level should drive down what teams are willing to pay for Lewises, Taylors, and Catos. But that assumes the availability of enough great players. Otherwise, with just a few great players to go around (as evidenced by that moment during every offseason when we realize that once again there are no franchise FA's to be had), the rest of the teams end up competing for just-pretty-good talent.

SA Rocket, you also make a good point about competition by position. Cato will always be paid better than Francis on a per-output basis, not just because Francis is capped but because big men are rare. Cato doesn't have to compete with Francis. He just has to compete with Greg Ostertag.

Like other guild systems, the NBA CBA is designed to reward not talent but tenure. Yao Ming won't be able to make top money till he's a decade older and possibly a step or two slower. It's the same old story: the old screw the young. America and China aren't so different after all.

 

I think the rationalle behind the CBA tenure thing is to prevent unproven rookies to demand overblown salaries.
Without the rookie salary scale, some unproven snobs would threaten to hold out until they get the money they want.

After three years of service, a player pretty much has shown what he can or cannot do. The contract he get is supposed to be of fair market value.

Players like Francis will have no problem getting the money after they pay their three year due.

The problem with "the old screw the young" is with those over-the-hill players. It has to do with the difficulty of judging when a player's value will be diminished because of age. When you sign a 7-year contract with a 30 year old player in his prime, you are taking the risk of him significantly dropping his game after 4 year.

Complicating the matter is the so-called "loyalty" crap. Old players almost always play the "I have given my life to this organization what have you given me" card.

 

Seattle is in a very tough situation. They have no star player to sign to the max, other than Payton, but they have this very good player who wants the max. They would be best settled to let him go and let Mason take over, because Lewis will only create the Cato/Taylor affect for them....

 

Marxist? Anyone else as confused as I am about how Lewis' value has anything at all to do with Marxism?