I'm sorry but I HATE the ridiculous statements that so many people make. Anytime ANY big name player gets moved so many on this board explode "WhY DIDn;T wE geTT themzorr?" "Morret is teh suck" If I'm the Rockets management I wouldn't trade for Al Jefferson. Perhaps I missed the season where he was a starter and his team won more than 30 games? But as far as I can tell the guy is a perennial loser who can't defend and his career highlight so far was to be traded for Garnett so that the Celtics could form a big 3. Whether or not we COULD have made a move, does it ever occur to some of you people that we might not have wanted to?????
One thing about Jefferson: He is simply atrocious defensively. And for the life of me I can't understand why.
i don't think jefferson would fit with yao anyways. he's one of the few big men who does post up a lot and does it well (and that wouldn't work well w/ yao). plus, he's atrocious defensively like many have said. so i'm indifferent that we didn't get him. i think right now our focus should be getting that another big man who can rebound/block shots ala deke in the past (or in the same mold). chandler would have been perfect, but his price was too high ($12 mil for what he does is too much). unlike others, i don't think we'll get paul or melo. melo is NOT going to choose us over new york. it's not going to happen (ny is near bmore, his hometown. plus, he loves the spotlight). the test for morey is getting a superstar (like winning a title). right now, he has picked up good role players/draft picks. but until he gets that superstar, he hasn't reached that lebron james or kobe status yet for GMs.
I think it will need to come in a salary dump from another team, most likely. And I disagree with you about Les's unwillingness to pay the tax. In fact, I think Les has ALWAYS been willing to pay the tax . . . for a significant talent upgrade. I fully understand people's skepticism about Les paying the tax. It is only logical to have some apprehension about something occurring that has never occurred before. But look at the past few years and HOW the Rockets got under the luxury tax. 2008 - Dumped Bonzi/Mike James for Bobby Jackson; dumped Kirk Snyder's salary with a second round pick. 2009 - Dumped Steve Francis's salary with a second round pick. (Used the savings towards purchasing Taylor/Llull/Budinger picks.) 2010 - Dumped T-Mac for a talent upgrade AND a treasure trove of assets. How did ANY of these moves adversely affect the Rockets? What major move was out there in any of these years that the Rockets simply didn't make for fear of paying the tax? If there is one, I'd love for someone to prove that the Rockets could even have been in the running for it. If anything, by getting under the tax each year, the Rockets have been "stockpiling the savings" towards being able to take on major salary . . . if the right opportunity presents itself. The Rockets aren't going to take on salary simply for the sake of taking on salary. Les Alexander does not need to impress us. If anything happens where the Rockets are taking on more salary, it will likely mean that the Rockets are getting a clear talent upgrade. And I definitely think Les is willing to do that.
As fans, we can only speculate on what past opportunities have been out there to significantly upgrade the team thus far (with the carried cost of jumping into Lux Tax territory). What is not up for speculation is that Les has indeed not paid $1 of Lux Tax in recent memory - this while simultaneously having enjoyed financial benefits such as 1) Yao the Cash Cow on the roster, 2) insurance having paid a good part of Yao's/Tmac's salaries, 3) and having a sweetheart deal in place in terms of significant public financing of Toyota Center. What also need not be speculated on is that Les has taken a bath on his personal investments in recent years and may even be less solvent than some current NBA players right now :grin: And while I agree that spending money foolishly or to impress fans is not the way to go, it does seem as though the most successful teams in the league have spent the most payroll wise. There are exceptions of course, like the Spurs. But the Spurs have a stellar draft and cap-management record going back a decade. So generally speaking the top teams are deep in Lux Tax spending (if I am wrong on this then pls indicate so). I hope you are right that Les will be willing to take on a salary dump in order to acquire an elite-level player (besides Paul or Granger, anyone else on your radar??). But even aside from that, I am just hoping right now that he will even re-sign Scola & Lowry. From a personal standpoint, I think those two are well worth eating the Lux Tax for. But so far, history is not on the side of us Scola/Lowry fans.
Bima, les saying he will pay the lux tax for a star player is kinda misleading. I say that because of the slim to nill chance of getting that player. As i said in a earlier post, the only special guys left who might shake free are paul and anthony,but by them being in the west already and the lure of doing what james and crew just did,nj/ny is loading up for them. I think the rox need to follow the latest pistons championship model and have 4 guys making 10-12m and a couple of mle guys and young cheap depth.
Friedman on all the people whining about Al Jefferson: http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/2010_las_vegas_summer_league_b_2010_07_08.html
Martin is already making 10M Scola might make 10M already Yao should only make 10M when we resign him Brooks might make 10M when his contract is up MLE guys: Ariza and Lowry
So your argument is that Les won't pay the tax is because he hasn't paid it before? Did we or did we not make a push for Bosh, a move that will 100% cause Les to pay the tax? Did DM say quite clearly they will match Lowry and Scola offers? Let's see... Les never having paid tax before vs. DM saying quite clearly they'll match offers and the Rox making a push for Bosh. I dunno, what do you think?
I dunno why people keep on saying this. He wasn't fully recovered from his knee last season. Its took STAT and Wade about a year before they got back to form from thier knee injures. Jazz is got a steal IMO
