My reasoning, which I tossed in another post somewhere, is that the Rockets seem to remain a superficial contender with Yao & Tracy, and thus maintain some extra pop on their very high franchise value, while at the same time not assuming too much future salary or gambling on rookies and creating uncertainty that would lower the price. I think Les unloads these guys within a year. Really, the timing is perfect - Yao and Tracy are locked up, and Yao's future return on investment won't ever be higher as he's on the cusp of his prime. JVG's got only a year left. CD is on the outs but you have a commodity in Morey that you can take or leave. Still a new-ish stadium with a sweet deal there. It just makes financial sense.
Probably. I remember the rumor in last season that Les was secretly asking around the value of Rockets. If that's the case, I hope it happens sooner rather than later so that we can move on and actually concentrate on building a legit contender.
Well there was a poster last week with inside connections, and he said all those rumors were made up by past employees who Les fired or something like that. Les still has a killing to make.
I want to see what happens this upcoming season. If the Rockets miss the playoffs or are first round fodder (like I think they will probably be), then I think Gumby has to be shown the door. Hopefully, CD will definitely be gone, too. I think it is too early to make an assessment on Morey, but I am skeptical about using baseball theories in basketball. If Gumby and CD are still here for the 2007-2008 season after the Rockets missed the playoffs or failed to get out of the first round, then Alexander needs to sell as it is obvious he doesn't know what it takes to get the Rockets back to being a championship team.
That's some wild speculation. Perhaps wishful thinking? Personally, the only way I'd even want to see Les Alexander sell the Rockets is if he sold them to some Cuban like billionaire who is willing to go WAY over the cap.
That's the thing though, like most sports franchise owners the killing he makes is in asset value rather than operating profit. I just don't see the value of the rox getting much higher since so much of it hinges on Yao and since that value (when factoring in his future returns) isn't going to get much higher.
Les loves basketball and loves his team. You guys really need to quit perpetuating these false rumors about him selling it.
I didn't say anything based on rumors, let alone false rumors. I'm just making an educated guess because it seems like the Rockets offseason has been based more on positioning the team to make it more marketable to potnential buyers than to winning...now or later, and based on what I think about the value of the team. But thanks for posting Mr. Alexander's assistant....
I think most roster moves could be interpreted either way. I certainly don't think the Battier move would go one way or the other, and while the James move would seem to support your theory it could also be explained by Morey's input.
I don't know if he will sell it. With Yao he has a gold mine and the return has been fantastic. However, I hope he does sell it to someone who isn't always allegedly trying to "win now", but is more importantly interested in taking care of the "bottom line now"..
Battier saves the Rox some cash (probably a few mil) if my math is correct if you match it up against Gay & Swift's contracts. James comes out high enough on the moneyball charts for Morey - if he didn't they wouldn't have been trying to sign him in the first place. If it was a question of the Rox offering less $$$ than the other teams than maybe that would be an issue - but as it has been reported, they was not. I see nothing but Les on that one.
Well, take a look at George Postolos. He leaves the Rockets organization, so that he can start a consulting practice where he lines up interested buyers that want to secure an NBA franchise. I wonder where he would have inside connections for his first big deal.
I can tell you that Les LOVES this franchise. It is his pride and joy. Everyone I know who knows him or who works for him says there is ZERO chance he sells it anytime soon. He is just NOW starting to reap the benefits of the arena as well, so chances are extremely remote he bails out. If he were going to do it, he would've sold to Postolos and his crew, but Les won't even take on partners, so I can't see him selling off the Rockets. It wouldn't make any sense and would go completely contrary to everything he's done personally.
It does make sense from a financial perspective. Les is getting up there and has to sell at some point. The Rockets are valued at 500m right now (by way of comparison, Les paid 90 something million for them in the early 90's). I really think that value has peaked and is based largely on Yao-related speculation (it certainly isn't based on winning). As Yao gets older and his novelty wears off, it's not going to be as much of a "kicker".
Yao isn't a novelty. He's one of the best players in basketball. His appeal isn't limited to the fact he's something we haven't seen before in terms of size & skill. It's grounded in the fact he is the first successful NBA player to ever come from the most populated country in the world. Even, hypothetically, if another chinese player joined the NBA and became even more successful (which would be pretty hard to imagine) that wouldn't mean there wouldn't still be over a billion people in China who love Yao Ming. His value comes from him being overwhelmingly popular in places that were previously, by and large, out of reach from the NBA. That isn't going to wear off. In fact, if Yao Ming continues to improve every year (and there is nothing to indicate that he won't) then he will only become more popular. Incidentally, he's immensely popular here too. I really think you're reaching pretty far on your speculation that Les Alexander will sell the Rockets soon, but that statement was the furthest you've reached.
