Agents can ask. What a player gets is based on what the demand is. The current reported offer is 3 years, full MLE. I want the guy, but he does not hold all the cards here. His interests happen to align with the Rockets. The question is whether we overpay, and if so, how much. And I'm talking about what we might pay James and what we might give Toronto. Toronto is better off with a SNT, even if it's just for the TE. They're not exactly in a position to demand Luther Head. The only leverage Toronto holds is that the Rockets would prefer to use the TE, not the MLE. So the use of the TE is a win/win for both teams. Does Toronto get greedy and demand Luther? Does Mike James tell the Rockets that unless you give me 4 years of MLE, I'm signing with Dallas? or Minny? When he really wants to be here? If he gets 4 or 5 years of TE with max raise money, it's more than Dallas' reported offer. This is where a team's GM comes into play. A bad GM will wind up giving James 5 years, full MLE. A bad, but not as bad GM will wind up giving James 5 years TE, and giving Toronto the TE and Head. A good GM would give James 4 years TE and Toronto the TE, and keep Head. Thus, I don't have a lot of confidence that we are keeping Head if we get to use the TE. Hooroo, as to your final point, how do you structure a deal with Toronto that starts at 6M? Don't say we trade Juwan Howard in a SNT. That's not a real answer.
possibly a a trade that involves more than two teams? with harrington and wilcox looking to be s&t-ed maybe rockets can get on in like antione walker did last free agency?
It doesn't seem too complicated, but that's probably because I don't actually understand it. Seems that a sign-and-trade would mean trading the rights to V-Span for Mike James at 4 or 5 years. That trumps Dallas. V-Span gives Toronto a needed PG (T.J.'s not gonna cut it). Not to mention he's European, so he won't throw a fit about playing outside the U.S. Then we go after whomever with the MLE. I don't know about giving up Luther in a S&T like that. Sure, he's an undersized 2, but there might be better trades out there utilizing him and whatever other players we send packing.
I'm thinkin head is gone, he'd fit in well with Toronto and he was in some rumors on draft day. I wouldn't be suprised if he was traded since he has the most value outside our big 3.
First, be cautious of the contract values you quoted from another thread. The person that did them incorrectly compounded the raises. They also used an MLE of $5M and it's likely higher. Secondly, I disagree and think TOR is in very good postition to demand Luther Head. Think of it in these terms. We can have Mike James for the MLE and keep Luther Head. Or, we can SnT Mike James for our TE, lose Luther because they have cap space and add 1 or 2 players with the MLE. Unless you think Luther Head has more value than a full MLE player, this is a no brainer. TOR knows this.
Exactly! From my standpoint, if I could get Fred Jones for the MLE (at the cost of losing Luther), I would do it.
Of course his agent wants a S&T. The teams interested in signing him can only offer him the MLE. With what Nene, Claxton, and Cassell got, you would think Mike James would command something similar. The real question is who (if anyone) would the Raptors want in return and which players are available for MJ. I don't see the Raps wanting any big, unecessary contracts (so forget dealing Juwan).
I guess I'll go ahead and throw it out there again: Bowen, Deke and Head for a re-signed Mike James. Bowen and Deke are expiring and Head is a good young prospect. This would allow the Rockets to offer James a contract starting at 5.4 mill with 10.5% raises.
In offeing the TE, we can only offer Mike a contract starting at 4.2mill. With my proposed trade it can be 5.4mill.
Stealing from another poster's thoughts, how about a resigned David Wesley for veteran's minimum ($2M) + $2M cash to cover his salary + our smaller TE for Mike James + a very distant second rounder of Toronto's choice. This would give Mike James his payday, and we could keep Luther for trade purposes.
Can't we just S&T for the 4.2 mil TE? He can sign for 5.4 mil in Toronto and we trade for the TE. That falls under the 25% +100,000 rule. Plus James can then receive 10.5% raises instead of 8.5%. If he signs for the full MLE, which will probably be about 5.5-5.8 million or so, he would be losing money (in the long run), and Toronto gains nothing.
I want Mike James back pretty bad, but we'd be left with no backup SG, SF, and C. And we don't have a starting calibur PF (if you think Juwans Howard is)...then we don't have a legit backup PF. But we would have our MLE and 2 TE's to work with.
At the risk of sounding ignorant, how *likely* is it that Mike James signs with us if we DON'T offer equal or greater money than Dallas or Minny? I've been following it all, and I know MJ wants to be here. But I don't think he's really given away his hand to say that being in Houston is more important than money. It's easy for us (non-millionaires) and say, "Oh, $3/$4 million difference over 4 years, that's not a big deal, at least not with what they make". But seriously, that's still a lot of money. I guess I really want to know how badly he wants to be here. The only thing I think we offer over, say, Dallas, is a starting role, and living in Houston. I do NOT think we offer the "Championship contender" option to James next year like Dallas does. So, is the majority's assumption that James WILL be in Houston this year justified at this point???
