I live in Dallas. That team was only marginally better than Houston last year. Dallas let Berrea and Chandler walk. Roddy Beaubois has not improved like the team had hoped. Their best players are: Dirk Terry Marion Delante West Kidd Carter All of those players are in their mid to late 30s except West. They have no youth on that team that has any realistic chance of anything more than a sub par role player. Houston is full of youth with good to high upside: Motiejunas - High Upside Lamb - High Upside White - High upside Parsons - very young elite defender with good upside Llull - good upside That is the youth of the team that gives the Rockets hope. There are no garuntees but Houston has a lot potential and a lot of reasons for hope going to the future. The Mavericks have absolutely nothing in the cupboard for the future at this point. I understand that it means nothing until those players actually perform on the floor but there is a reason that Orlando will consider trading D12 to Houston but not to the Mavs. It's not because Cuban would not trade his entire roster for D12, it's because Orlando does not want that very old and ancient roster. BTW, I have mentioned nothing about Lowry, Asik or anyone else who might or might not be on the team in November, but the point is that no one is interested in building a team for the future with what the Mavs have. There are some nice young pieces on the Rockets roster.
They are in trouble because they have absolutely zero young talent with any reasonable upside. Once Dirk is gone that team is going to have a hard time attracting free agents until they get another superstar and every player in the league knows that Cuban basically turned his back on a group of players that just won him a championship. If you think DM treats his players like assets then you haven't seen anything until you see what Cuban will do with players that can't get him into the playoffs.
I think that's also something propagated by agents. When you flagrantly spend, players (and sometimes more importantly their agents/advisors) are drawn to you. Dallas and LA has proven time and time again that they throw money at the problem and for people who like money, that's an attractive place to be. With repeat offender rules being more strict in the new CBA I think you see less and less of that. There will still be more attractive destinations, but I don't think a team can outspend forever as a competitive advantage anymore.
I wish I liked our roster, and our flexibility better than the Mavs, but I don't. In 3 years, we'll be paying Scola $11M and Asik $14M....or we'll be getting terrible contracts back in a return trade. The 'expiring contracts have value angle' didn't work with either McGrady or Yao, and don't appear to be working with KMart now. Let that sink in a minute. We'll have nearly half our cap spent (over $25MM) on a center with no offense, and a 4 with no defense. ARGH! BTW - I do hate the Mavs...just not as much I hate the Heat, Jazz & Lakers.
Could not be more happy that all these deals screw over the Cuban and the Mavs. Cuban thinks he is a genius, hes not.
Um....no. First of all, Asik's cap hit to us in year 3 is 8 million not 14 million. Second, Scola will be amnestied FAR before that point assuming we don't trade him prior. Let that sink in a minute.
Mavs fans are delirious if they think their team is a great destination for a star right now. Their team is old and crumbling quickly. The Mavs will be a lottery team in the next 1 or 2 years. Deron Williams doesn't want to go to Dallas because he has no shot at a title there. Ever since Dirk got his ring he has been unmotivated and he is also slowing down with age. Without Chandler their defense in the paint has been average at best. Sorry Mav fans your championship window has passed. Dallas finished 2 games ahead of a mediocre Houston team this past season.
Thats really not an issue because in 3 years when Asik's contract baloons up to 14 mil the charge against our cap will only by 8 million because of the Arenas rule. Plus Scola is not likely to even be on the team when the season starts but even if he is his contract is ungarunteed in its last year. Further more so many of our players are on their first contract the Rockets are in a very nice situation. First Contract: White - 1.4 mil Morris - 1.9 mil Patterson - 2.1 mil lamb - 1.7 mil Parsons - .9 mil Jones - 1.2 mil Motiejunas - 1.2 mil Possible Big Contracts: Lin 8 mil a season? Asik 8 mil a season? Lee 7 mil a season? Mid Level Contracts: Lowry - 6 mil Camby - 4 mil That is only about 44 million a season in 3 years. None of the contracts are unreasonable and the cap is very very managable.
