Houston FA hotspot?

This has been a VERY overpriced market. Some of the contracts have been ridiculous. I'm sure a lot of guys WANTED to play in Houston, but if the difference was 4 years/$20 million in Houston or 6 years/$32 million somewhere else, no question they are taking the money even if it means sucking...ahem...Derek Fisher.

 

Mo was a big time free agent at the time that signed with the Rocks. The Rockets are a free agent hotspot, and always have been. The Rockets just aren't willing to overspend.

 

Players probably are unsure about what we really got here, in LA they were sure that Shaq and Bryant would give them a great chance at winning a title, here in Houston it's still an unknown.

 

Not sure if you're taking a shot at Fisher but he is at a point where money is more important than winning. He already has three rings, so maybe we as fans were silly to think that winning would be an overwhelming factor in attracting him.

 

i agree. if the Yao/Tmac tandem shows great promise(or success) guys hungry for titles will take a serious look at the Rockets.

 

Not at all. I would ABSOLUTELY take the money, so I don't blame him. Just pointing out that what a guy wants before the market sets itself and what he gets after are often two different things.

 

Honestly I hafta wonder if players see Houston as a little less attractive now that player-friendly Rudy T has been replaced by no-nonsense JVG.

 

If by Mo you mean Mo Taylor, he was only a big time free agent in his own mind. Well, I guess David Faulk's (agent) mind also. He left the Clippers with great fanfare. In the middle of the year, they would not throw a huge contract at him so he said he would not negotiate with them at all. He went out to a free agent market that completely ignored him. In th end he "saved face" by going to a team that needed a PF so he could play and showcase himself and try to sell himself again next year. Much like Stephen Jackson did in Atlanta last year

A year later we threw big bucks at him for a long time. Mo celebrated by smoking a joint and getting a rebound.

In my opinion, MoT is just a big brat.

 

Mo chose us because we promised the big raise after one year (Kinda like Shandon Anderson). We did give both big contracts afterwards so we were not exactly getting bargains.

 

I've said for weeks now that (Opinion) we have a trade in place with a team, the spare parts from THE Trade of a century, T-Mac and The Franchise has to be one of the Best ever. Thank you CD!

Hence, the sooniest we can know offically is the end of August.

 

While he isn't technically a FA, T-Mac basically chose Houston over other teams by declaring that he'd only sign an extension with us. So it's basically a FA situation.

You can't say that we don't attract players just because we've been so capped out by crappy contracts(Moochie, Taylor, Cato, etc.) that we have no money to spend. Back when we had money, Pippen came. Barkley also choose to stay with us after the trade even at vet minimum.

 

If and when Rox are one or two key roles from championshiop contender, instead of pretender, the attraction will be immense. With Rudy -- or JVG.

The West, today, is SA followed by Minny and a pack of @8 teams. Every team in the West would be a likely play off team in the top heavy, but shallow East.

 

not just "no-nonsense JVG" but hang your players out to dry in public, call 'em up at the allstar game and lie lie lie, can't adjust my system to accomodate personnel, halftime "aint my time" ole grumpy.

 

You act like MoTaylor was Antonio Mcdyess before he was injured. MoTaylor has always been the player he is right now. Most fans in Houston knew it was a dumb contract at the time, just like they questioned Cato's at the time and just like they questioned Moochie's.

 

Oh, the irony of mentioning "Mo Taylor" "big time free agent" and "aren't willing to overspend" together.

 

The fact is that the guys who are willing to go to a team for less money to get a chance at a ring are usually older, veteran type players (big name or not) who are financially comfortable and see their window of opportunity to win a championship closing quickly. They then tend to choose a team who is either already a winner or a near-automatic contender. There's no point taking less money to lose in the 1st round of the playoffs. The point is that the young up-and-coming players that we are targeting are usually still in the "got get mine" mentality in which financial security (or more playing time to secure a better contract later) is a more pressing priority then sacrificing one's game & ego to be the final puzzle piece. All things being equal, they'll go with the winning franchise, but these days in the NBA, all contract offers are far from equal. Ask Derek Fisher & Skip to My Lou. If Houston offered the exact same contract as a GS or Toronto, I'm pretty confident that we would have won out. But we're trying to attract FAs on the cheap, and that doesn't work out so well unless you're Uncle Drayton and can sell a homer on the "Hometown Discount," which in this case will get us Damon Jones.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much the way I remembered it. I never liked the Mo Taylor signing from the beginning. That's not to say there aren't facets of Taylor's game that are strong as I think he is a better than average scorer, but with his lack of defense and rebounding he should play the role of and be paid like a role player off the bench. But in today's NBA market, players like him can always find a sucker and unfortunately for us, the Rockets were the sucker.