i can't believe there are so many posters that think that Scola is worth only MLE money. remember when we thought Stro was a bargain for the full MLE for 5 years? remember when Tim Thomas, Kenny Thomas and Kurt Thomas all got ugly money for rather mediocre play? i really don't know what was up with all the overpaid Thomases. comparing Scola with Gooden? maybe on paper they're similar, but he couldn't even fit in on a team with no inside presense like Sacramento and was bought out and ended up in San Antonio where he can't get ahead of the aforementioned 36 year old Kurt Thomas on the bench. still, Gooden's a free agent this year and he'll almost certainly get over 8 million from some team. Scola is a top ten PF. really, there's only Duncan (who's really a center that refuses to play as one), KG, Dirk, Boozer, Bosh, Amare, and Al Jefferson that are clearly better PFs. all of them are franchise players that have max or are getting max salaries. Brand's injured and Jermaine O'Neal's just a shell of himself. Kenyon Martin was overrated before his injuries, but was still able to get a max contract. Okafor still doesn't have a polished offensive game. Beasley's not ready, and neither are the young Portland and Chicago PFs. Rasheed Wallace turns 35 this year. actually, Al Jefferson and Amare are injured too, but i expect both to make a full recovery. not so sure about Brand and O'Neal. David West is pretty good, but is just an average defender and rebounder; both important qualities you would want out of your highly paid PF. you then go into the second tier of relatively healthy and young PFs like Gasol, Zach Randolph, West, Troy Murphy and Al Harrington. all of them have noticeable flaws in their games, but still make around 10 million or more. i'd still rather have Scola than any of these guys except maybe Gasol, but not at 15 million. you then have the best of the tweeners, who are almost all deficient at defending true PFs in the post. Marion, Jamison, Odom, Josh Smith, Diaw and Rashard Lewis (the most overpaid player in the NBA; yes even more than Juwan Howard and his 105 million dollar contract). all of those guys get near max or max salaries except Diaw who gets almost 10 million next year. i guess you could throw in Kirilenko with that group along with his 15 million salary. the best comparison to Scola i could think of was David Lee, and there's no way that New York doesn't match him this year for at least 10 million. now Landry might be able to be resigned for the MLE, but who knows how much his game improves the next two years.
^^you are entitled to your opinion, but some of your assessments were off imo. gasol is only 2nd tier? and jamison is no better than scola? how about boozer or aldridge? dirk? kg? i was thinking a full mle for 5 years for scola when the time comes to resign him. but mle may be a bit low. it depends on the market in 2010.
i already put Boozer, Dirk and KG in the first tier. Aldridge isn't there yet. guy's 6' 11'' and barely gets over 7 rebounds a game and just around one block, while playing over 35 mpg. he's not very efficient either. Gasol isn't in the same class as Duncan, KG or Dirk. he'll never be in the conservation for MVP of the league. guy sulked himself out of Memphis because they couldn't build a team around him. he's not a franchise player. i already said i would take him over Scola, but not for 15 million (Gasol's salary). i also didn't say that Jamison was necessarily no better than Scola. i said that he was one of the best of the tweeners. not a true PF, and therefore not directly comparable. Jamison gives up post defense and rebounding although only slightly. likes to shoot the three not unlike someone wearing 96 on the Rockets. my main point wasn't to compare Scola's game to the likes of Gasol or Jamison. it was to give a realistic view of the salaries talented PFs command in this league. max or near max. any PF or center outside of a rookie scale contract that plays over 32 mpg for his team will get offered around 10 million or more average salary. or put another way, most GMs would rather pay a big minute starting PF 10 million, than pay two very good 25 mpg backups the MLE. Scola's a bona fide starter in the league, not a backup. he would start on at least half of the teams in the NBA.
You're delusional. Scola is an average starting PF. Average starters don't make 10mm unless they have bad contracts.
i think it is difficult to sign scola by MLE. in 2010, many team have large salary cap and i thank some teams will like to give at least 7-8m for scola. if yao ming option out in 2010. we will only have following player. battier: 7.7m landry: 3m hayes: 2.3m lowry: 2.9m brooks: 2m dorsey: 946k we can sign back yao, scola and artest and still have some cap room to sign another free agent. if we only sign one of scola or artest, we will have 20m for another super star.
Lee, with all due respect, your answer is nonsensical. They are similar in age and their career stats show Scola to be a much better offensive player, averaged more assists, more steals, was a leader on teams that won championships. Luis is not "a terrible defender." If you really think so, then you have some glasses on yourself. Get a rag and wipe those suckers off. They play the same position. Gooden's rebounding numbers are a little better, although not this season. I'll give you that. Ask Rick Adelman which player he'd rather have, or Van Gundy. Heck, ask Rudy T. I think the answer from all three would be Scola, in my opinion.
Deckard, scola won a championship? Didn't know that. I thought he was a 2nd year player on a team that hasn't been out the 1st rd since 97. I don't have to pull up stats and by your reasoning, the spurs didn't want scola, but they took gooden. Curious to say the least. I think he's a good player, but he's almost 30 and its not like he has the ability to get much better. Last season when yao went out and he started playing, he was 12-8. Guess what he's doing now? 13-8. The great thing about scola is his production relative to his contract. He is a pretty good throw in if the rox want to add a better player say like bosh. Not saying they will get bosh or amare, but that's what's great about him.
Scola had one those crazy euro deals with a 10 million buyout. When he was finally a free agent the Spurs couldn't sign him as they were already over LT.
The spurs couldve signed him and moved jackie butler 2.5m deal. The spurs do a great job of being ahead if they think it really helps their team. They moved contracts a year in advance because they knew someone would offer manu 9m or so. Instead of losing the guy like gsw did with arenas, they matched the deal. If they wanted to or thought scola was the missing piece, they wouldve given him a test drive and brought him over. They weren't sure, didn't want to flirt with lt and traded him to the rox along with butlers contract. Basically costing the rox 5.5m when you think of it.
The spurs were at the LT threshold. So by keeping Scola which also meant keeping butler. That would have been 6 million into the LT. So Scola would have cost them 12 million+revenue sharing last year. That is quite a bit for an unproven NBA talent.
Let's see how much other PFs are making on 08-09. Josh Smith 10m Diaw 9m Okafor 9.5m Anderson Varejao 5.8m Ben Wallace 14.5m Kmart 14m Wallace 13.6m Murphy 10m Camby 10m Randolph 14.6m Gasol 15m, Odom 14m Darko Milicic 7m Haslem 6.6m Villanueva 3.5m Bobby Simmons 10m David West 9.8m Al Harrington 9.2m Rashard Lewis 16m Bosh 14m Boozer 11.5m Jamison 10m A contract of 8-10m a year makes sense.
Lol at Darko. What a waste. Pistons could've drafted Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, or Chris Bosh that year.
Lee, I don't understand what you're saying in the part I bolded. What does that mean? I certainly see the sarcasm, but it doesn't say anything about how Scola has increased his production as he's become more of a focus of the offense. You say he's almost 30 "and its not like he has the ability to get much better." Well, he has gotten better as the season has progressed. Heck, he's got better during the season last year, as well as this one. I don't know how much value you place on his career in Europe or his play on the Argentine national team, but here's some info for you: As a member of the Argentina National Team Scola has won numerous medals. With his national team he won the gold medal at the 2001 FIBA Americas Championship, the silver medal at the 2002 FIBA World Championship, the gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Basketball Tournament,the silver medal at the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship, and the bronze medal at the 2008 Olympic Basketball Tournament. Although Scola did not manage to win the Euroleague championship with TAU, he did win with TAU every major Spanish League title, winning a Spanish ACB League championship in 2002, 3 Spanish Cups in 2002, 2004, 2006, and 3 Spanish Super Cups in 2005, 2006, 2007. When he left TAU he was the Euroleague's all-time leading scorer. He was later surpassed in career points scored in the Euroleague by Marcus Brown. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Scola Interesting that Scola was so valued by TAU that he had a huge buyout clause, which was a big reason the Spurs didn't bring him over. Meanwhile, Gooden is another NBA gypsy, going from one team to another. Ask Adelman or Popovich who they would rather have, Gooden or Scola, and I'd bet you a steak dinner at the eatery of your choice that both would name Luis. Yet you seem to casually dismiss him as a valuable chip to trade for someone else. A good throw in. I just don't get it. And the stats? I thought you weren't that big on stats to measure a player's value. Must be thinking of someone else. As Scola's gotten the chance to be a more integral option in the Rockets offense, he's produced. In February, he posted 13.7 points, 10.5 rebounds and an 89.1 percent from the charity stripe. So far, in March, he's putting up nearly 14 points and 10.6 boards. We can't have an All Star at every position, as you know. After being in the wilderness at the 4 spot for years, the Rocks finally have a very solid starter they can depend on. No, he doesn't jump out of the gym and he's no shot blocker, but he's damn good and he's not terrible on defense. He's sure as hell a better player than Gooden. If you don't think so, then we can just agree to disagree.
we could never tell with scola, as he is a restricted FA at 2010. Who knows what the economy will be. But for 1 thing, lets just say that scola is in the top20PFs, he be what 30-31 then? With quite a number of elite players and 2nd tier FAs around, i cant see anyone offering him 10m a year. To sign artest, one thing for sure is that unless rox win the ring this year, any contract the same size or smaller then what he is having now, ron will be unhappy about it. For wafer, a lot will be dependent on Tmac. If Tmac is recovering well, then Morey can play hard sell. If not, then we might be seeing MLE contracts for him.
you are banging your head against the wall Deck Leebigez cares nothing but for that fabled and most important trait of all...."athleticism" just check and see the players he doesn't like or intentionally underrates....ones that he sees as un-athletic or slow. Basically, if they aren't high fliers, leebigez thinks they are crap. and more on-topic.....alot of you guys are totally overlooking the economic situation of the NBA right now.....old salaries aren't in play anymore....teams are looking to cut costs wherever they can.....adjust your expectations for salary downwards.
Maybe Stromile Swift will reach his potential by then, and we can sign him for beans. With Stro on the low block cleaning up Yao's garbage we'll be unstoppable! Athleticism ABOVE ALL!
Oh, I guess I printed a list of guys I like or don't like right? Deckard printed a list of salaries of pf. Anyone that has watched the game and got those deals will know most of the deals were based on production and upside reletive to their age. I haven't ever said I don't like scola, I just said that he's a limited player in general terms. He's a very good rebounder, fierce competitor, and decent offensive player. He's a terrible defender who plays smaller than his size suggest and he's a avg athlete. His ceiling is where he's at now and the moment he starts to show age, its over. That's a 6m a yr player. Its not all about athleticism, but this is basketball and that should factor in. That's why the rockets have problems vs long, athletic teams. That's why they have trouble finishing around the rim. That's why landry's fg% is so high on off rebounds and scola's isn't . Why do posters think athletic ability is a curse or mean you're dumb? They never use savvy or heady when refering to a guy that is a great athlete, only when talking about a non athletic guy. I think landry playing the same minutes would produce the same if not better results. Milsap who is on utah bench would command more money on the open market. Deckard, international ball means nothing to me. It has nothing to do with how good a player will be over here. Scola was the best big man in europe and al horford was a 20 yrd the same year. If you were picking one right now, who would you take? There are as many euro flops as there are college one. The only difference is overseas, all they do is hoop. They don't have college work, they get paid, and most come over older.The international championship means nothing.
