If the trade has anything to do with Bostjan Nachbar, the Rockets should take no part in it!!!!! As I observed in the Lakers series, he's a future star!!!
It sounds like Doc has been hanging out with Troy Baros. J/K Doc. Seriously, I could imagine him saying this, but it was likely out of frustration IF he said it at all. I'm in 110% agreement with aelliott's post. There is no way the Rockets make Francis aware of their intentions, plus there is absolutely no way they would know for sure that they were moving him. It's just too early for anyone(other than Francis) to make a bold statement like that Also, the scenario with Toronto doesn't really do the Rockets a whole lot of good. Too many tweeners on one squad. Dealing with Charlotte sounds alot easier than it really is. Not only do they have less cap room this upcoming season than all other teams in the league, but they want final year contracts and cap space, not high dollar, long term contacts. One thing that could benefit both squads(if someone could clarify the rules) is Charlotte taking a mid-higher dollar player that another team leaves unprotected, then trading that player to the Rockets for the exception/plus player(s). Now, who might fit the bill?
I can vouch for that too. A friend of mine dates one of the Rockets former assistant coaches(now a Rockets scout) who expressed the exact same opinion of JVG.
We've established that Charlotte wouldn't do it. Francis and a bad contract would take up 20M in salary, and Charlotte only has a 30M cap. They wouldn't do that, no way.
Great question to discuss!!!!! But, why would we have to deal with the Bobcats. We can offer up the exception to the respective team. If the team leaves that player unprotected, theywould probably pull the trigger on a deal with us. If we do something along those lines, it will be part of a bigger deal with the Bobcats.
No way? That isn't completely out of the picture. There isn't a better player out there that is available. (McGrady can decide where he wants to go) Mo is expensive, but Steve and Mo to the Bobcats isn't too far fetched. Both of them are on the right side of thirty, both are probably best suited for the East, and they would probably make the Bobcats playoff contenders from the outset.
Just to clear one thing up - he said that to my friend because they were parting ways. Steve was heading back to Houston and he was heading to another location. He said goodbye after he learned that my friend was not going to be on the flight. When he realized that, that's when he he talked to him about his situation. It was off the cuff and was preliminary obviously but he was not frustrated and he does believe that he'll be gone. Where he heard about those 2 scenarios, I have no idea. I will say this, the GM's are probably not the ones who are talking to the players that are to be traded. I would imagine that the talk is from the other players on other teams that may know Steve. For Example - "Vince, we're going to be doing some upgrading this summer and wanted to throw a few names by ya. What if we could bring in Boozer or Wallace? Also, we're definitely getting us a point G. What do you know about Francis down in Houston? What about playing with him? We may be able to work something out with the Rockets!" I doubt CD is telling Steve :YOU'RE GOING TO TORONTO OR CHARLOTTE!!!! SEE YA NEXT FALL!!!" We do need to use some common sense here.
Because otherwise, he'll walk at the end of his contract, but before that, will say it to the media, at which point, they'll have to trade him for peanuts. Basically, they don't want to get screwed like we did with Pippen, so they might as well listen to him - every team in the league has at least one good player anyway. Even the Hawks have Jason Terry - which is better than nothing.
He gets to opt out of his contract at the end of next season. If the Bobcats trade for him and Tracy doesn't want to go there, he will simply resign with someone else at the end of next year leaving the Bobcats with zilch, nada, heechie....
There are no players in Charlotte though. Vince and Mobley are pretty close, maybe Mobley told Francis after Vince told Mobley?
It's not exactly the same thing...look at Wallace...but I see what you're saying. Believe me, I'm in Toronto. The image of T-Mac leaving for nothing is not completely unfamiliar to me.
Technically, McGrady doesn't get to pick where he goes, but he does have leverage to force Orlando to trade him to a destination of his liking. McGrady can opt out of his deal after next season. Orlando's GM said that if he didn't agree to an extention, then they'd try to trade him. So, the logic goes that nobody is going to trade for McGrady unless he agrees to sign an extension with them. So, effectively any deal requires McGrady's approval. Without his ok, Orlando will get almost nothing in return for him. The other option is for Orlando to let him play out his contract and leave, but Orlando won't take the chance of getting nothing for him (as they did with Shaq).
Actually Doc, I would think that it is not the players speculating, but the agents. I truly think about half of the deals in the NBA are agent driven, and this may be such a case. DD
I happen to know, for a fact, that the kind of conversation you are pointing out has in fact, happened with Vince himself several times in the past. I am unsure if it's happening now, as I don't know McClosky's portfolio or relationship with Carter, but I do know that it happend with Grunwald. That said, if you want to know where Steve could be getting his info, and I can't believe more people don;t know this, the largest source of trade leaks/rumours/info BY FAR in pro sports are agents. By a mile.
By he I mean Steve. How would he know the players involved? No way JVG will do that deal! Steve going to Canada? C'mon!
OK...for the Nth time: At the time of the Grizzles debacle, Steve said repeatedly that he'd love to play for the Raps, and actually called a Raptor ( Carter, I think) an encouraged them to trade for him ( it was McGrady + pick, I think). He has said repeatedly that he loves Toronto, and had nothing against Canada, he didn't have faith in the Grizzlies management, and didn't want to play the 2 because of Bibby.
