Look, Let's keep some things in mind: 1. The year after next, we will have the money to sign an impact free agent. 2. We have our future at the center (Cato), we have our future at the point (Francis), we have our future at the SG (Anderson) 3. Drafting a Great player is better than trading for him or signing him 4. This years draft is 6 players deep at best 5. Our two holes remain the 3&4 spot With this in mind, let me say that Mobley+Williams+our pick should be enough to get us into the top 3. Since there is increasing doubt that Morris will come out this year, the Rockets seem to have set their sights on Mihm and Martin. I suspect this is because they are special players, and its easier to sign a free agent SF than a free agent big man. (Do I hear Finely anyone?) If we can land one of these big men in the draft, then we will have our future at the PF. When the Dream retire we have the money to get our SF. Cato Martin or Mihm Impact free agent (Finley? etc.) Anderson Francis Believe it or not, this team would be very cap friendly, whereas if we traded Mobley we would take on another talent which would demand a high price the year he becomes a free agent.(Since Mobley only has one more year on his contract) The our franchise draftee would be cheap, Cato .. Francis .. Anderson are all under contract, and the Dream money goes to our free agent SF. I love Mobley, but this makes sense. Hughes and Iverson, McGrady and Carter are all good friends but Carter and Iverson know that they are franchise players and that the good of the franchise is the most important. I belive Francis is mature enough to realize the same thing. What do you guys think?
Nah, wouldn't do that for a draft pick. It is the one in the hand vs. 2 in the bush. We know that Cat can play. My suggestion would be to move Shandon to the 3 for starting and rotate the other players around them. Our biggest problem is getting a legit 4. Brian Grant's contract is up and he would be the bomb! Finley is locked in to Dallas for quite some time. I don't think that there is too much they could do to lure him here. His is too good of friends with Mark Cuban (Maveric's new owner). If there is any way that we can offer Mobley a 1 year deal, then we can offer him the Larry Bird exception which doesn't count against the cap if it is over. Go and get Grant.
I see your point, but I have to dissagree. I just don't want a 6'6" SF. Shandon is perfect at the 2, guarding other 2's. The reality is that Francis(6'3"), Mobley(6'4"), and Anderson(6'6")is too small of a line up. Also, when Mobley and Anderson are in together, Anderson seems to get taken out of the offense. Mobley only looks for Fancis or Cato. I am all for getting Grant. If we had that opportunity, I'd give up Mobley. Or we could draft a SF (Chris Porter) and sign Grant as a free agent. To clear another thing up, Finely becomes a free agent after next season, the same time Dream retires and Francis is enough to draw almost anyone to Houston. Weather its to get Martin or Morris, trading Mobley to move up makes sense for our future cap wise and personell wise. Remeber, drafting great players is better than trading for or signing them. Francis Anderson (Morris) Grant Cato That's a nice possibility.
If there is any way that we can offer Mobley a 1 year deal, then we can offer him the Larry Bird exception which doesn't count against the cap if it is over. We can indeed give Mobley a one year deal and then use Bird rights to resign him. The problem is that Bird rights doesn't prevent the money from counting against the cap. It simply allows you to exceed the cap to sign the player. But, after you sign the player you are still capped out.
That is true aelliot, but if we sign Mobley to a one year deal worth about $2Mil, and THEN make our big free agent hunt in 2001: a) Hakeem will have just retired, freeing up $15Mil + b) Mobley, being our free agent,as yet unsigned, will have 150% to 200% of his PREVIOUS salary (Total, say $4Mil) counting towards the salary cap) Using that scenario, my calcs show that we will have a total salary of around $26 mil - probably around $15 mil under the cap, and enough to be in the market for a big free agent. We can then sign the big free agent going over the cap, and then use bird rights to sign Mobley, if he still deserves it. That is very workable and very likely. The problem is if that in 2001, there are no worthwhile free agents, or we miss out on the one we want, then we have to sign Mobley, and use cap space on him, wasting the bird rights.
A couple of things: 1) As I posted earlier on another thread, we have the RIGHT OF FIRST REFUSAL on Cuttino Mobley. That means that we can match ANY offer another team makes for him. This way, we can lock him up long term without having to overpay for him to prevent him from testing free agency. Remember, the same thing happened this past offseason with Tyrone Nesby. The Spurs offered him 9 mil over 3 years. The Clippers were allowed to match that offer and signed him to the same deal. So if, say, Miami offers Cuttino 4 yrs / $20 mil and that's the best offer for him, the Rockets can sign Mobley to that 4 yr / $20 mil contract without regard for the salary cap. 2) The Rockets WILL NOT be significantly under the salary cap after next season. Even though Hakeem's contract will create salary cap space to sign a quality free agent, we won't have enough room to sign a star to the maximum or even close to that. Remember, Cato starts a contract that will pay him $7 mil per next season. Mobley will be under a new contract after the Rockets match the highest bidder for him this offseason. We will still be paying Don MacLean money to NOT play for us. The Rockets will likely pick up the option on Drew's contract for a fourth year. Carlos and Walt will be free agents, and if we want to keep either of them, they will count 150-200% against the cap until they are signed. All this, not to mention the players that will also be under contract. This will not allow the Rockets to get any superstars, so be happy with Francis as THE franchise player for years to come.
The one problem with this is: Rudy is not trading Mobley. Forget it guys. It is not happening. Pick another scenario. I'm ready to really role out some serious BBS smack to the next person who honestly tells me they think Mobley will move this year. I've got the remainder of my season tickets to wager. What do you got? cheers
There's not that many impressive free agents available in 2001 because the rookies from 1998 signed 4 year deals instead of 3. Here are the best players available that summer: Jamal Mashburn Ike Austin Jimmy Jackson Christian Laettner Dikembe Mutombo Danny Manning Michael Finley (player option) Cedric Ceballos Nick Anderson Chris Webber Only Webber and Finley are worth $15M a year and Webber will likely re-sign in Sacto. Finley would be a nice addition. Hopefully Dallas will continue to be bad and he'll want to leave. He can run the floor with Shandon and Stevie.
Just a few thoughts on what we should be looking for. We all painfully know that throwing great players together does not necessarily make a championship team. If we look at past champions, they all have one or two fantastic players around which revolve great role players. So the question we need to ask is whether Francis can do it alone, like Olajuwan (94) and Jordan. Olajuwan had great support as did Jordan (we have seen that Pippen is no more than a great role player). Or does Francis need a Karl Malone type? (excuse the Jazz comparison ) Are Shandon, Cuttino, Cato, KT a great supporting cast in the making? I think this needs to be answered first. Adding Grant or Finley or even McGrady (assuming we can) may screw up that one so important yet illusive necessity, chemistry. I think we should sit right now and see how the rest of the year goes. Let's see which guys are ready to play around Francis, and which guys need to go elsewhere. Then we can think about using Hakeem's contract money and /or trading certain players. (From what I hear, Finley is a real team player and Grant and McGrady are not. So Finley would be great, but how possible is this really?) Just my take, sorry if I repeated stuff that is commonly stated here on the bbs.
I started this post because of Rocket34's dialouge with John Thompsson the other night. In their conversation, Thompson strongly stated that the Rockets were looking to make a deal to move up in the draft. He said we were very interested in Martina and Mihm, he also said that Mobley and Williams were the players we are considering giving up. Now, assuming that John Thompson knows a little more inside stuff than most of the BBS members, I'd say there's got to be some validity to what he is saying. Bottom line, Shandon is our future at the SG, and for good reason, the guy is one of the best defenders in the league, maybe the best 2 guard, and can explode offensively when he wants to. Mobley, on the other hand, is good enough to start, just not on Houston. We have to face the fact that in the future, it will come down to Anderson or Mobley, and we have clearly chosen Shandon. With all that in mind, I believe it would be smart to trade Mobley to move up in the draft and get a franchise player at the 3 or 4 spot. I also believe that Thompson is not full of ****.
I don't think it is a problem to keep 3 starting quality guards around, especially if one of them can play significant minutes at the 3 (which Shandon can). We can keep Mobley, but then we should move Drew for what we can. I would be much less inclined to trade Mobley for a pick unless it at worst was in the top 4 or 5, but I still don't know if I would do that. I might be OK in trading Mobley for a young athletic and offensive minded 3 or 4, like McGrady or Jamision. Not much else should be considered though (regarding Mobes). [This message has been edited by sir scarvajal (edited February 03, 2000).]
Here are some things to realize for our cap-conscious denizens in ClutchCity. Cato will get almost 6 mil the next couple a years in a 6 year 42 mil contract that I personally believe was a good idea. Dreams gets like 15 mil or more next year but that will be gone after next year. Chuck's 9 mil is over after this year. Wiz, Bull, MacLean, Augmon, Massenburg, Shaw, and possibly Los are all off the cap in at most two years. We could trade Drew or let him go as a free agent after next year or of course we could get a 1 year extension. I still wanna know if there is a deal between Maloney and the Rockets to pay him and clear him from our cap sooner rather than later. If so this means we are likely to have about 14 mil or more cap space in Summer 2001 which could be really nice. I personaly think we sould keep Mobes even if that requires matching a teams offer though I don't think that will start at more than like 4 mil myself. We could maybe trade Bryce or Kenny also. The Detroit pick could be great if the Pistons don't make the playoffs this and year keep their pick for this years draft but then lose Hill to Orlando or somewhere. I once suggested we could trade for Hill but got ripped by just about every respondant, but I still think Rogers(a native of Detroit and a player I'd like to see play next to Cato for a long while), Williams, Mobes, and their own future pick might be enough to get Hill outa Detroit if they were worried enough about getting nothing for him. Does Hill make that perfect other superstar to mesh with Francis though. I also like Finley if he'd want to come here. I think the most important thing we should realize is that trading Pippen not only brought us significant young talent but it brought us a future and great flexibility. The situation with Shandon is that he could make himself a free agent after next year or wait one more year for the big score, which would seem to fit in with his patient nature and help this team get our guy whoever that will turn out to be. ------------------ ***Elie... we don't need no stinkin Elie Mobley's takin over ROCKETS IN 2000 BABY*** [This message has been edited by MattsayzIstillbelieve!!! (edited February 04, 2000).]
I have to disagree with you Bima, After NEXT year, even considering Cato's extension and $4mil for Mobley, we will be still be considerably under the cap with 9 players under contract, including:- 2000 Rookie 2001 Rookie Mobley Bullard Anderson Drew Rogers Williams Francis Thomas Cato Obviously we will need more than 11 roster spots, but If you are going after a big FA, you fill those up with minimum salary or exceptions after you sign him anyway. Also, we are sure to sign other players between now and the end of NEXT season, but if the Rockets are targetting the FA market of 2001, then there is nothing to stop them from only signing players to 1 year deals. Also, a few points:- a) Rogers and Williams are under contract through the 2001/2002 season anyway( 2 more after this one) b) IF we REALLY want to sign a big free agent, any of OUR free agents could be renounced and none of their money will count against the cap. b) I though McCleans contract expired after this season. If the Salary Cap is $43 Mil after next season, we should have enough to pay the max for someone.
davo, thanks for clarifying some of the info on when contracts are up (are you sure both Walt's and Carlos' contracts run through 2002?) The salary cap will not be anywhere NEAR $43 mil after next season. They're just now considering raising it to $37 mil. I could be wrong if that's what it says in the new CBA. Anyway, Cato will be making $7 mil, Mobley will be making at least $5-6 mil per based on his performance in this, his contract year. I also believe that Anderson can opt out of his contract after the second year, and the Rockets will be paying him a BOATLOAD of cash for signing under market value. Add in all the other contracts, and the Rockets are under the cap, but not by $14 mil. That's how much it would take to lure ANY superstar free agent away from his current team, which could pay him much more than that to begin with. Call me a pessimist, but I don't think there are any free agent superstars in the Rockets' future other than Francis (after further development). Believe me, I would LOVE to get a star, but people don't always get what they want. [This message has been edited by BimaThug (edited February 03, 2000).]
When John Thompson mentioned trading Mobley for a draft pick, the first thought that came to mind was, "trade Mobley for a pick, and keep our pick, so that we have TWO lottery picks." But, Aruba, you ask Mobley+ourpick => Top-3 pick, and I would not do that. Our pick, in all probability, will probably end up somewhere around 8th. If Mobley was in this draft with his current skill level, I believe he would be drafted around 8th-10th. So that means we'd be trading two lower lottery picks for a high one, and to me, that is not worth it.
Hey, If Mobley is willing to take a role off the bench with slightly below starter's minutes, then I say don't do anything. Keep the team the way it is and keep our draft pick. Thacabbage, Do you think Chris Porter or Demarr Johnson will be available around the 8th pick? I honestly believe all the good big men will be gone by then.
If the Rox pick eighth, then I thin kthat they wil have a shot at Porter. He is an excellent player whose stock has fallen. If Rudy could light a fire under this kids ass he could be great.
Maybe I'm a little out of the loop, but has anyone considered the possibility of the Rocks drafting Harold Arceneaux out of Weber State. I realize that he is only 6'6", but I also remember watching him light the scoreboard up in post-season play last march. Such a player would no doubt be a defensive liability, however, the Rocks seem to be heading in a more offensive minded direction anyway and Arceneauxs' skills would compliment Steve, Cat and Anderson nicely. The best thing about the guy is that nobody is talking about him. The Rocks could draft him without a high pick and it shouldn't cause cap problems. I don't know much about Morris, Porter or Martin other than what I've read. I'm in Hawaii at this time and work this funky rotating shift which prevents me from watching any hoops. My knowledge of college hoops is therefore restricted to Hawaii Pacific University Basketball (whose coach, by the way, has got to be Jerry Tarkanian's twin brother). Still, in spite of my ignorance, I feel that these guys are all way overrated. Every year guys come out of college with huge expectations and don't produce. Then guys who played well at small schools unnoticed come into the league and set the world on fire. I think the best thing for the Rocks to do is to look for the diamond in the rough and try to keep the guys they have that are doing well. So I don't want to here any more of this lottery talk. The rocks are improving and will make the playoffs. We don't need any stinking Kenyon Martin. When healthy, these guys look alright. I like our talent everywhere but small forward. Of course, center is going to be a problem after 2001, but I don't want to think about that. Admitedly, I'm the same guy who thought Randy Livingston would be a key contributor, so I could be wrong. Maybe I'm being stupid. Maybe I havn't been getting enough sleep, Maybe it's all these ants that got into my web tv keyboard thingy... ARGHHHHH! I don't know how all these damn ants got into my dorm room, but I'm pretty sure that obnoxious Utah Jazz fan that lives down the hall is behind it. ------------------ 94 Finals, Game 7, Starks for 3... CLANG!!!
