Looking at Cuttino's contract, why should Francis get the max?

Just wanted to mention a couple of things about these two people seem to be ignoring.

First, Mobley was a second round pick, while Francis was the second pick in the draft. So Francis started with a much longer contract and much greater value. By the time Mobley's contract was signed, he had proven himself to be a solid player with the potential to be a superstar. Francis is widely thought of already as being on the verge of allstar caliber while he has the potential to be one of the games elite.

Second, Mobley is 3 years older than Francis, played 4 years of major college ball and is in his 4th year in the pros. Francis played 1 year of major college ball and is in his third year in the pros.

Thirdly, last year, in what was a slight improvement for Francis and a breakout year for Mobley, Francis had more points, rebounds and assists. The year before, the disparity was even greater. In fact, the only thing the two are comparable on is points last year.

These are the reasons why there is a disparity in the contracts. now, once we are into the next contracts and both are established veterans with many years of service, I think you will see the contracts come much closer together with Steve making the max and Mobley just under or at the max as well.

Mobes just had bad timing and gave up some dollars for long term security, a fair trade for all involved.

And just in case anyone is doubting it, I love both players, but I do like the fact that Mobley is the go to guy right now. Francis will continue to grow into that, but I think that long-term, having both of them so dangerous at the end of the game will cause defenses fits.

 

I don't see the logic behind basing Steve's contract on Cuttino's, if we grant that Cat is underpaid. Base your comparison on Cat's market value (at or close to the max, I'd guess). Just because one guy's underpaid doesn't mean that everyone should be underpaid. Anyway, I think that even at the max, Steve's contract will be a bargain. Look at what stars (and wannabes) made before the max salary concept - Shaq, Garnett, Juwon Howard, Stoudamire, Kemp, etc.

Also, its funny how the comparison is between Cuttino's current contract and Steve's future one (starting not this season, not next season, but the season after that). At that point, Francis will have been underpaid for 4 seasons.

 

Do you seriously believe that a player is only as good as his contract? Is Cato a $6 million center for us? Is Mobley worth $5 a year scoring 20 ppg? Sometimes is works out that a player gets under or over paid. It happens, but you can't use that information to truly judge a players worth.

 

Group,

They will redo Cat's and Steve contracts at the same time using the $5.0 mil we receive from Walt's contract and an increase in the salary cap. I value Steve more than I do Cat due to Steve's leadership ability and Cat's hyperness. You cannot argue leadership on the team and distribution of the basketball makes you a leader by default.

 

A point guard is a leader because he is a point guard does not make sense to me and I don't qualify that statement. A point guard distributes the ball and has responsibilty in play-making and movement, but how is that substantially more responsible than an off-guard who shoots the ball and has the responsibility of beating his man, offensively and defensively while maintaining the team concept?

I would argue that Cat is a leader because of his work habits, substantial improvement in each of his seasons and pure energy and desire shown in his work. Plain and simple.

 

Why don't you answer other people's points instead of coming up with new, unrealistic scenarios?

1) Francis led the Rockets in scoring, rebounds, assists, steals. Mobley did not. That alone already seems to indicate Francis deserves more money.

2)You can compare Francis' salary to Mobley's or you can compare it to Cato's. Based on that you could either say Francis should get 126 million (3 times Cato's contract) or just the same as Mobley (based on your apparent assumption that they are almost equally good). So what's your point? We all know that compared to similar players, one could regard Mobley as underpaid and that Cato is definitely overpaid? Any news from you here? No.

3)You still haven't addressed the point that you stated something as a fact (Dirk will never lead his team to a championship) without providing any valid arguments to support this statement.

 

not to throw a log on the fire or anything here, but oh well what the hell

det, i should point out that in saying steve led the team in scoring and mobley did not is true, but not accurate. mobley was on the bench all but (i belive) 46 games. thats damn near half the season of riding the pine. as a starter mobley averaged better than 22ppg. he led the team in minutes. had better free throw shooting, and i think 3 point shooting. his rebounds also went up to the near 6pg level. now im sure if we benched steve, cuttino could lead teh team is a few more catagories but it is kind of unfair to compare a steve that started the whole season to a mobley that started half.

on this issue. sure steve is probably gonna get offered teh max. sure he probably deserves it, or will grow into deserving it. mobley was offered something like 6+ mill pre year from toronto. he is easily worth that to us, but we got a good player, and he was loyal to winning. curttinos contract, and his sacrafice is why we can afford MO, and rice on this team. you should thank him.

i think steve should take 8 or so if it would help us land a marc jackson next season.

and i think mobley is deffinately a 8+/ year player, probably a max if you look at andersons deal with NY

any hoo

 

Damnit, I wrote a long and friendly response to this one, but then a page came up that told me my message contained too many smilies and I should go back. When I went back, all my hyper-intellectual comments were gone!!!!

(really, that is a STUPID bug, not kidding about that! I'm using Netscape 4.75...should I copy this message to the feedback section as well??)

Anyway, all I have to say is...

You and irony?

Peace