Also, the Rockets front office is still leery of giving out the big contract to just any player who happened to have a good stretch of games: see Cato, Kelvin; Taylor, Maurice; Norris, Moochie; Maloney, Matt.
If you want people to take you and the thread you started seriously, you can't make a statement like that
Classic! Some of these guys have never ran a business and from their comments, likely, never will.....
No way...Yao Ming??? That guy is too good I don't think we could get him. Not for another 6 weeks at least. If we want to beat teams like the Kings, Bulls, Nuggets, etc. we're ok. If we want to run with/beat teams like the Mavs, Suns, Spurs, then we have to get Yao back and make a trade/signing and get a *couple* bench/starters who can create their own shot or help take the slack off the stars. It doesn't matter, even if we beat these good teams in the regular season, come playoff time we'll get crushed if we have to rely on Luther Head, John Lucas III, Dikembe, Shane, etc. to create offense. I'm not even asking for a great player, just someone decent who won't get exposed on D and who can create their own shot. Just to give a little slack to the stars.
Les Alexander should not be the owner of a sports franchise if he's in it to make a profit. ! why not? dude, you dont go into owning a major sports franchise with the mindset of making a profit. You go into owning a team to win a championship. Thats what its all about 1st and foremost. At least thats how i see it, and im sure many rockets fans feel the same way. If you want to own a team just to spruce up your portfolio, then your in the wrong business.
The highest payroll team has not won a championship. Look at the last 12 years, Rockets(Hakeem), Spurs, Pistons, Lakers and the Heat. The teams that win have average to somewhat above-average payrolls but are never the highest. The highest and 2nd highest payroll teams typically are stuck with bad contracts from bad trades, unable to make good moves because their players are overpriced.
Explain why 90% of the league owners run it the way Les does (except, not quite as well for the most part) ? If you think you can find an owner who's willing to buy the franchise and will shell out whatever amount of money it takes, going 10's of millions into the luxury tax...find him. Because if he cares as much about winning as you claim, he'll be willing to pay Les as much as Les wants for the team.
Their payroll is close to $95-million, but most of that are occupied by players that no longer play for Dallas as you can see here: Take away the salaries boxed in red and their actual total is around $63-million; hovering right around Houston's.
Highest payroll teams for 2005-2006 1) NY(overpaying for their own players) 2) Phi(Chris Weber and AI) 3) Dallas(Bunch of players that no longer play for them) 4) Lakers(no finals for you) 5) Trailblazers(lotto fun they got LaMarcus Aldridge) Who won it? Miami Figure that out NY and PHI should be kicking the Spurs, Lakers and Pistons butt every year, but they aren't. Dallas has only made it to the finals once, since Cuban has spent all that money. Spurs have made it regularly with only the 9th-15th highest payroll.
True. If, as others here have suggested, Les were to chip in $30 million per year on luxury tax payments, he would not be a wealthy man for very long. Besides, who are these magical unattainable free agents that we are missing out on by staying under the luxury tax? If I recall, we got the top names on the free agent market the last two summers anyway. Like others have mentioned already, Dallas got where they are principally by savvy trades and draft picks.
Ok, im man enough to admit when im wrong. But man, it would be nice to have 3 or 4 guys to come off your bench who can start in the league. I guess we need to do better at drafting and developing.
LOL at Evan Eschmeyer, Tariq Abdul-Wahad, and Shawn Bradley getting paid. And people complain about the bad contracts the Rockets have given out?
