Thing is if cap figures increase and you give lots of money to one player, you will have to accordingly give more money to other players to fill the bench too. No team is going to give dragic 20mil if they're seriously interested in winning a title. He isn't worth it and not a player to build around.
The players that make the all star team every year are who I consider to be max players, but in today's NBA you have guys like Parsons and Hayward getting max deals. He might not be worth the max but teams like New York or LA will probably offer it.
This board is awesome. He's a top 5 player at his position. How is he NOT a max player? Especially when you realize 18mm will be a bargain in three years for a 2nd/3rd star.
^^^^hes not that though. he's overrated seems like only rocket fans are crazy about him. in no order PGS i would pay more for, based on many factors 1. westbrook 2. lowry 3. irving 4. wall 5. curry 6. bleadsoe 7. lillard 8. cp3 9. conley 10. rose next their -dragic -rondo -parker -lawson -teague -i.thomas
In isolation, Dragic is not worth the max. There are statistically better PG's which I cannot argue against. In context to what the Rockets needs now and what is available in the market, to have a puncher's chance of a title run this year, "Yes he is." If he proves to be the difference this year, a max deal is a possibility. Why not? A championship changes perceptions.
if the rockets acquire dragic, is the assumption that its for a 3 month rental? this guy is going to ask for at least 12-18mill. How do the rockets have the ability to resign him for a longer contract? thanks
Sign him to a "current" max deal that is backloaded, with the new salary cap increasing significantly it shouldn't be a problem.
A players worth is very fluid. Parsons on his own isn't worth what he got from Dallas, but had we landed Bosh it seems as if it wouldn't have bothered Morey to match. Same thing applies to Dragic. If it looks like locking Dragic in for whatever price is our best move I'm sure it will be the most likely move we make.
Whether you think Dragic is worth the max or not should not depend on a monetary amount, but whether you believe the Rockets should try their hardest to win a championship this year and next. Dragic's max will have nearly zero effect on the Rockets cap situation for 2 seasons including this one. The first season his max will matter is 2016. If he's around, the Rockets will likely have to ask Dwight to take a paycut (or trade his expiring if he opts in) to pursue Durant. Otherwise, there's very little difference between Dragic making $12 mil or $15mil or even $20mil. Now, if one were to ask if perhaps we should go after a next-tier PG like Reggie Jackson or Brandon Knight who'd command less on the market? Or perhaps Lawson who's locked in for 3 years at good price? Sure, that would be fine. But in a vacuum, if the decision is to contend heavily for 2 years, may or may not pay the price in 2016 if we aim for Durant, or just be wishywashy in terms of sort of contending, I will gladly aim to win now and pay later.
My experience says that for a PG that depends on his legs, he's too old to give a long term max deal, you will regret it later when Dwight needs replacing. But the people above have made some compelling arguments that is not the case. For Les, the net value of the team is determined by winning, not the cost of salaries. Frankly Les may be more concerned with winning now than the future financials, he's old too and you don't get many shots at a Harden and Dwight team in a lifetime. And, I think we aren't going anywhere unless we match up better in the West at PG. I think Les will do it.
Can he help the Rockets? Absolutely. Is he worth the max? Hell no. This guy is so grossly overrated by Rockets fans it's sickening. We say we need a true point guard, but Dragic's NOT a true pg. He's a scoring pg. Why would we throw the max at another shooting guard? I know Dragic can play PG, but he doesn't have natural PG instinct like CP3, Lawson or John Wall. He's a one dimensional player
Remember, Morey was willing to sign a 30 year old Chris Bosh to a four year max deal AND match Parsons' bloated deal. Dragic along with the additions of Josh Smith and the emergence of Dmo gives this team a better (and cheaper) lineup than what we would have had with Bosh and Parsons (and the lack of roster flexibility that comes with signing those two). IMO, the Harden/Howard combo has, realistically, two years (if we are lucky) before Howard is a shell of himself. The window is NOW, this season and next. I'd rather go for it and fail than sit back and talk about what could have been if we had just made a bold move.
Tom Ziller? 3 predictions for this summer's NBA free agency bonanza 1. There will be few early extensions. Perhaps just one Spoiler Players drafted in the first round in 2012 are eligible for early extensions as of July 2015 that would preempt their restricted free agency year and go into effect for the 2016-17 season. Some top candidates based on recent history would be Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal and Andre Drummond. A player like Davis should get a max deal. The language will almost certainly lay out that Davis will earn the maximum allowable amount under the collective bargaining agreement. The Pelicans are wise enough not to try to get cute with Ant Man's deal. When you have a player like that, you give him basically everything you can. The issue is going to be trickier with those other three quality young players. In a normal year, Lillard would almost certainly receive a max early extension offer and Drummond would come close. Beal would at least be negotiating a massive deal, though you could understand patience from a team given his position and the team's financial state. (Klay Thompson is more accomplished and still had to sweat out a deal.) Just consider what a potential max deal would look like for Lillard, though. Under labor rules, the maximum salary for a player with fewer than six years of service is 25 percent of the cap. Lillard's deal would go into effect until 2016-17. If the cap reaches a stunning $90 million -- as smart folks have suggested it might -- that would mean a starting salary of $22.5 million, and a four-year deal worth roughly $100 million. That's a massive investment. Lillard's wonderful, and worth it in the long run. But it has to make Portland pause. That goes doubly so for the Pistons and Wizards with respect to Drummond and Beal. A max early extension seems out of the question for the latter, and Detroit would be rolling the dice to invest so heavily in Drummond, who is still relatively raw. There is opportunity. The Pistons and Wizards can promise higher salaries than players of Beal and Drummond's status would otherwise draw -- 20 percent of a sure-to-be boosted cap? -- and know that it might end up a discount. If you're Beal, can you refuse a deal that could potentially pay you $18 million a year? Given the situation, there's little reason for players to accept smaller deals knowing they'll hit free agency with a massive salary cap very soon. If teams won't swallow huge risks early, deals just aren't going to get done. 2. Teams could get crazy in 2015 free agency Spoiler Consider this analogy. You bake apple pies for a living. You need rights to apple orchards. You know that any apple orchards you license in 2016 are going to be much more expensive than orchards you license in 2015 due to market forces. You can use apple orchards licensed in 2015 up through 2019, and the price you agree on in 2015 won't change. So it makes lots of sense to buy those orchard contract in 2015 instead of waiting until 2016! But the orchard sellers know all about the coming price inflation, too. They have to sell their orchards' rights in 2015; they can't very well sit out an apple pie season. They have options. They can sell the rights to the orchards for just one year and cash in on the 2016 price boom, or they can convince you to overpay on a four-year deal for the orchard, knowing that you'll still save money over buying orchard rights in 2016. It's a seller's market, and the anxiety over the rising market could cause the buyers to get aggressive. That's how I think the 2015 free agent market will shake out for players like Rajon Rondo, Greg Monroe and DeAndre Jordan. Signing them to even max deals in 2015 might look like a bargain come 2016. At the very least, some teams will feel that way. And as all free agents know, you only need one team to fall in love. 3. Free agents with options will consider delaying their paydays Spoiler Kevin Love has been fully expected to exercise his player option and become a free agent in 2015. If he signs a max deal, it would amount to roughly $94 million over five years. But if he opts into his $16.7 million for next season, in 2016 he could potentially sign a five-year max worth $155 million with the Cavaliers (or whichever team holds his Bird rights). If he wanted to sign with a different team, the deal would be worth potentially $115 million over four years. That's a huge reason for Love to delay free agency a year and could be the motivation behind his comments earlier this season. The same applies to a guy like Jimmy Butler, who can sign a max deal as a restricted free agent in 2015 or bet on himself, sign the qualifying offer and rake in a truly huge deal as an unrestricted free agent in the greatest cash boom in NBA history. Can Butler delay his payday one year to set up the next four generations of his family? It's a bargain worth considering. Players including Draymond Green, Goran Dragic, Monta Ellis, Jeff Green, Tristan Thompson, Arron Afflalo, Patrick Beverley, Roy Hibbert, Brandon Knight, Thaddeus Young, Jared Dudley and Reggie Jackson are in position to delay pending 2015 free agency one year by picking up a player option, declining an early termination option or signing a qualifying offer. That's going to be an awfully tempting option for a lot of these players, especially those who have already reaping NBA millions. It's a tougher sell to the younger guys still waiting on their first massive NBA payday, like Draymond, Beverley and Jackson. But a little patience could go a long way.
I agree he's not worth the max, but the true point guard I disagree with. We need a point guard that can create offense. It doesn't always have to be for others. I think Dragic is capable of creating for others, but creating for himself is just as valuable because currently we have no one outside of James who can do that.