If he *really* wanted to? WTH does that mean? You mean if he gives MORE than he thinks is fair? Or selling out what he feels is best for the organization? Or screwing up his long term plans for the team? You think it's a coincidence everyone except Harden is on 3 year contracts? Sorry, I think Morey did the responsible thing. He has a plan, the team has goals, and he wasn't going to compromise those goals for a single player. That's what responsible Managers do.
Idk about his valuation of Goran or his long-term plans but it's look like Goran's living up to his contract. Meanwhile, Jeremy's an obvious downgrade, at this point. So, idk if Morey's plan is sensible.
It is if you want the flexibility to trade him. Morey has said in radio interviews that the dealbreaker was the 4th year Player Option. The main issue is that it makes a contract MUCH harder to trade as the recieving team can't easily forecast their roster. You wouldn't think it makes it that much harder, but if you're a recieving team and let's say Morey offers you Goran next year as part of a package to get another player then you don't know if Goran will be on your books for 2 years or 3 years. You don't know When he'll be an expiring. You don't know how much you're going to have to pay to keep him if he turns out great. And if he gets injured or regresses he can extend for another year and you're stuck overpaying him for longer than you wanted. Player Options just add a level of uncertainty that teams don't like in a trade package. They only tend to turn out well if the player doesn't get signficantly better OR significantly worse. So why not offer Goran 4 years? Well, aside from the risk he won't be that good, we have to remember that Morey is on a time window to rebuild. If you sign Goran to 3 years you can run him this year and if he's good you have him for 2 more. If he's awful or injury prone, then next year you can STILL trade him as an expiring -- something you can't do if he's on a 4 year contract (or player option as noted above). It's awfully hard to rebuild a team if you have unfavorable contracts hanging around for 4 more years. Let's remember, we don't KNOW who will become realistically available over the next 3 years. Maybe nobody that would be an upgrade to Lin, or maybe an All Star point guard, or maybe a legitimate All-Star calibre player for another position and we'll need Lin as part of that package. So yes, NOT giving Dragic the option makes sense... IF you want the flexibility to use him as part of a trade package to build true Contending Team.
Grrr, link is only a general link. You're looking for the 11/14 post-game press conference starting at the 5:00 mark (post Hornets game).
Rockets fans with Dragic: He is going to keep us in mediocrity forever!! Oh noes!! Rockets fans with younger, more raw PG to replace Dragic: why didn't we keep Dragic? He would make us better now so we can be slightly above .500 instead of slightly below that in 2013!!
I never was part of the crowd who thought that. Dragic is only 2 years older. Getting Harden has drastically accelerated the rebuilding.
Yet, only 2 years ago, Dragic was shooting 42% and 28% from behind the 3 point line. Stinking it up so badly in Phoenix they dumped him plus 1st round pick for Aaron freaking Brooks. Shocking, it seems that between the ages of 24 and 26, a player can improve his game.
And turning the ball over and over again in the crunch time? I wouldn't say Harden is a joke but someone else.
The fact is ... Harden and the other Lin's teammates got the green lights from OP. But Lin? No way. I hope I'm wrong if OP can start a thread like "Asik is a joke" when he can not even finish a easy dunk in the crunch time.
tl;dr Goran might turn bad during the course of the contract. 4 years is supposedly too long. Other guys might turn up who're worth the money. You can skip the long-winded explanation - especially if you have to magnify the negatives. There's always risk. Goran was a decent risk, imo. And as if it's impossible to dump a bad contract. Look at Ariza. And what about the video that says that the coaches weren't setting up Lin and just ordering him to shoot around? All I heard was that he can't go left as well.
It's not just Dragic though, It's Lowry as well, I think Dragic is better offensively and Lowry is better defensively. Yeah I wasn't one of those people but Dragic+a bunch of rookies+Kevin Martin wasn't gonna win anything, that's obvious, so if anyone said that I'm sure it was prior to the big acquisitions. Imagine what Dragic would be able to do with Asik, Harden, and the core of role players the Rockets have now(which I would say is better than the Suns). Dragic is averaging 16.7ppg/7.2apg 48% FG when his best players are Gortat(very solid big man but not as solid as Asik), and Beasley. I would reckon he would be doing even better with the Rockets roster. You can blame coaching all you want but Dragic had no problems with the Rockets and neither did Lowry when they were playing. Like I said if Lin were the best option basketball wise, I would have NO PROBLEM with the signing as it was the best possible PG available, but this looks to be purely from a marketing standpoint and not basketball which is disappointing. Dragic and Lowry(avging 18.3ppg/5.8rpg/6.3apg 54% fg!) were both available and they decided to go with the hype, the more marketable player than the better player. That is what is bothering me the most, not Lin himself since anyone should choose to sign a contract if they get it, so my beef is with Morey despite his good decisions on getting Harden and Asik. Like I said Lester Hudson(he's black) has done more basketball wise than Lin, had point explosion games last season, and isn't even in the NBA anymore. Works both ways. Lin so far is 10.9ppg/6.7apg/4.7rpg (I'll give him credit on the rebounds when there's a beast like Asik on the team), you would think these are solid enough numbers, however his fg % is 35.5%. You would think this is largely in part to mostly taking 3s but it's not the only factor, his fg% is starting to look like it was from his GS days when it was 38.9% playing mostly in garbage time. He is just not efficient, he turns the ball over, plays out of control, not consistent(will make a 3 then airball 2), not a good shooter. He is basically the Asian Luke Ridnour, where he will have flashes of good plays, good passes, then make a bunch of bad plays. Maybe even that is an insult to Ridnour though, because if you look at his stats: http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/1985/luke-ridnour he has been more consistent and efficient than Lin has ever been in his career. Lin just played off a free flow offense(how many players have looked great under D'antoni and turned out to be just average? Soon as Woodson came by, Lin was pretty much the same player he is here), all the adrenaline and confidence in the world and benefited it. His 15 minutes are over. He's a backup PG at best and the Rockets made a mistake. That's it. I have no problem hoping Lin gets better and going through with it if people can acknowledge that while getting Asik and Harden were great moves, getting Lin was a horrible move. Harden is the real PG of this team anyway so we may as well put Lin into a 6th man role, maybe he'll do better when he can play the offense off of him. I don't know, but whatever it is right now isn't working. At least Tebow won a playoff game against the Steelers in one of the most clutch plays I've ever seen, he's more legit than Lin in my eyes.
Lin is a Asian. Being American-Asian plays a HUGE part of his fame. But Lin is also a victim of his fame too. I'm not saying OP(Dei) is a racist. But indeed Lin is the marked man always.
Asik might end up being the best rebounder in the NBA by the time the season is over, I think statistically right now he is in the top 3? I'm not sure. But Asik has proved he's a great player through his play and stats, Lin has neither. Lin is a backup PG or 6th-7thman at best. And really I question his toughness after last year that 85% comment came, then he came to defend it after people called him out for it. Guy just reeks of a future tmac(cept he wont ever be on tmac's level).
Wow, just finished watching the Heat beat Suns at Phoenix. Dragic was playing 2 guard with Telfair at PG. They got stomped in the last minutes. You Dragic homers are way overrating this guy. Phoenix has even a worse record than the Rockets.
