There's a huge problem with your logic. Haslem is way better than Hayes now and was way better after 2 NBA seasons. Haslem is easily more difficult to replace. Further, Hayes is a one trick pony whose one trick was the one Van Gundy wanted to emphasize.
I like Chuck a lot. but to say he's worth more than 3 mil a year is overstreching. He'd be a backup 4 at best in most NBA teams, even in teams like Washington wizzards. As bad as Haywood and Etan are, they'd start before Chuck. Every team needs some firepower from the front court, it's either 4 or 5. We have Yao so we can afford to have a 1-trick pony PF in the offensive end, most teams can not. I dont see any teams offer more than 2.5 mil per year to Chuck. If he gets any offers at all from other teams.
I'm prepared to pay Chuck Hayes a max level contract. His play is invaluable to this team and we would be lottery bound without him. We must keep the three headed monster of Yao, Tmac, and Chuck together!
Of course Halsem is better. But Simeon (sp) was a more highly regarded prospect than Landry (and Haslem too, who was undrafted like Hayes). That is why I said "sorta like". But Hayes is the only PF on the roster proven to deserve NBA pt. He was part of our best 5 man units. He isn't just 1 trick. He is an excellent rebounder (O and D) and a good defender. I'd rather not Hayes starts, but there is little question he will be a part of the rotation. As of right now he is the best starter for this team we can probably get w/o a trade.
I think we have Hayes bird rights or early bird rights, so it won't really tap into the MLE that we going to spend on our future starting PF.. Offering an experienced and effective player the minimum wage isn't a good strategy IMO, then again, each ppl have their own philosophy on spending their bucks.. It just like going out for dinner, someone will tip 10% to a very friendly waiter/waitress, someone will tip 20% and someone won't tip at all..
I can't imagine any team offering anything over the LLE which is $1,830,000. Given maximum raises by his own team which could pay him more money with bigger raises, over 3 years that's about $6.2 million. I would call that a pretty huge contract for a 6-6 backup PF with no offense or jump shot. Realistically, he's probably just hoping he doesn't get the minimum.
a one trick pony??? great defense, great rebounding and great hustle are more than one trick. plus I would love to see hayes work with adelman more. if you never noticed hayes showed some very good passing ability even under JVG.
You my friend, need to watch more of last seasons Rockets games. It certainly wasn't his free throw shooting that had JVG keeping him on the floor at the end of games. Head in for offense, Chuck in for defense. That was how it went. Seriously, I wonder sometimes if people are even watching the same games as I am. I figure that the max Chuck can get on a contract would be about 4 mil a year. Maybe a 3 year contract. I am guessing, based on what little knowledge I have of NBA contracts I am certain that our man Bill Duffy is working for him.
I dont' think Chuck is worth more than 1 mill per year. If teams want to pay him 2 mill, then by all means, let them.
It's not about the MLE. The Rockets are limited by the luxury tax threshold. Including Brooks & Landry, Rockets team salary is about 64M. The LT threshold is estimated to be aboyt 68M about. That's about 4M to spend on Hayes, Deke + free agent/s using MLE(around 5.6M). As for your second point. The advantage of restricted free agents is that there are no blind bids. Rockets offer the qualifying amount, ie min offer, then other teams offer a better contract which is accepted by that player and put into the league for paperwork. Since he is unrestricted the Rockets are then given the option by the league to match that offer. What you're suggesting is they treat him like an unrestricted free agent which does not make sense.
Chuck does provide solid defense. I watched every game last season and see him limit Duncan, Boozer, and Brand. In the low post he is more useful than Yao (defensively of course). I went to a Clippers game, where the Rockets nearly lost a major lead since Hayes got into foul trouble, and Yao had to guard Brand. I believe that if Hayes guarded Boozer, Yao guarded Karilenko (keeping him close to the basket), and Battier guarded Okur we might have fared better defensively against Utah. I know there is a hight mismatch in all of these situations, but Okur plays like he is 6-6. A three million dollar contract should be fair, and he probably will not do too much better elsewhere.
What some of you are forgetting about Chuck Hayes is he is the perfect compliment to Yao. Chuck is the antithesis of Yao on the block on defense. His only weakness in that area was his foul trouble, which he learned to aviod a little better as the season progresses. JVG would always use Chuck in defense and rebound situations because no one scraps for the ball like he does. I would like to see if he develops some offense under Adelman, I would say he should be earning 3-4 mil. per.
I guess the $64 Mil you are talking about is our current roster including Aaron Brooks' contact. Yes, we are very close to the LT limite right now, but I do believe they will trade away our excess guards/players to avoid the Luxury tax.. On the other hand, I do agree giving Hayes more money means they have to work harder to get under Luxury Tax, but that's not neccessary means we have less money to sign a starting PF if one is available... About the second part, it not about restricted or unrestricted, it's more about if you want to keep a quality employee happy or not. Just like like when you want to give a raise to employee, it's up to you how much you want to give within a reasonable range, regardless if there is another company willing to pay him more or not..
chuck hayes should definitely be getting at least 2 mil a season, if not 3 mil... he more than earned it last season. And why would we let someone like chuck go who can play really good defense when that is something we will still need even without jvg here. Its not like we are going to be paying him 8 mil a season for what he does, so i dont think 3 mil would be that bad at all
Good compliment? Yeah. Perfect complement? Far from. Chuck is a solid, off-the-bench player and I hope to God they sign him but then I also hope to God that they get a legit "third option" PF. We definetly can with the trade pieces we have now.
Chuck deserves 2-3 million a year. I certainly wouldn't go over 4 mil. Honestly anything over 3 mil a year smacks of the mistakes made with Moochie Norris, Kelvin Cato, ect. Chuck is incredible for an undrafted player playing for his current minimum money deal. But idealy he is a bench player on a team that expects to make it past the first round of the play offs.
