The extent of your willingness to spend doesn't necessarily improve your chance of a championship and neither does being frugal. As is true of most things in the world, there's a middle ground somewhere. Cuban's had so many dud contracts and players on his team - many of whom he's still paying for. So many "stud" players have passed through or are on the Mavs roster and they have yet to win anything. Antawn was a #1/#2 option player.... he's gone... they won no ring. Jason Terry was a 19 ppg scorer on his Hawks team... they've won no ring. Jerry Stackhouse was a very good player although injury-plagued... they've won no ring. Antoine Walker was one of the premier scorers in the league... no ring. Dirk is a top 5-7 player in the league... no ring. Steve Nash left the Mavs and became an MVP player... they won nothing with him, Finley, and Nowitzki. Throw in Tim Hardaway, Nick van Exel, Raef Lafrentz, Marquis Daniels, Keith van Horn, an up-and-coming Josh Howard... They have or have had all these players and paid them all sorts of money to bring them here. Some were studs, some were big free agent acquisitions, some were good-to-very good players and what do they have to show for it? Nada. Sure they've made the playoffs, but so do a lot of other teams. The Spurs and Pistons have done more with fewer stud players and contracts passing through their towns. I'd rather use the money wisely. I don't think Les will have a problem spending the money if it can be justified that the acquisition appreciably increases the probability of us getting that much better. If it's just a case of "hey look - a 25 ppg! If we get 5 of those, we can average 125 ppg just from the starters!", then no, I don't want to be the next Mavs. lol.
There are sooo many flaws in the idea that more money spent == better team. First you can't just go out and buy players, especially during the season. There are rules in place. People that want Les to "spend more you cheap b*stard" should then quantify where and how they want him to spend this money so we can all ridicule them for their stupidity. And Second. DoD said it pretty well but I'll try to rephrase: Championship NBA basketball teams do not come from managements that treat their teams like a fantasy league team. Teams have game plans and offensive/defensive styles to fit players in and player X with amazing stats Y may not fit into anything the team is doing. Look at the sucess we are seeing this season with mostly just the addition of Battier. We certainly haven't had any better luck with injuries, but we have a better team because Battier was a smart pickup. Battier didn't have the statistics that would put him on your fantasy team but somebody in management saw a player that could help us and not break us. More Money <> better team.
This is all you need to know. Les Alexander's Rockets 2 championships > Mark Cuban's Mavericks 0 championships He spends more can still can't get a championship. Why do we want to be like a team that can't win a championship? The Spurs, Rockets and Pistons formula for success works.
Ok guys, um we lost NO BIG DEAL. If we have Yao and/or our role players didn't lay an egg, we wouldve easily won that game. Don't worry about payroll that means NOTHING. Who could we add with more money now? We have no assets to trade and get more players. Going over the Cap w/out trading is very costly. Cuban just spends money to keep his young players. (BTW Knicks have a $150 million + payroll). We have spent our money well: 2 max contracts on VERY GOOD players and some smaller contracts. Live with it. K THX.
He does that is no lie. The money he makes from selling Yao/Tmac jerseys in China sky rocketed him to billionaire status. (I think before Yao he was merely a multimillionaire (around 500-700 mill) ).
This is what drives me batty. For the life of me, it just kills me that Mark Cuban can give out such bad contracts and still manage to field a top notch team. IMHO, the difference is that under GM Donnie Nelson, Dallas has been very smart in it's player evaluations: Josh Howard was picked 29th; Antwoine Jamerson was traded to the Wizards for the no.5 pick which became Devon Harris; Jerry Stackhouse was picked up to be the 6th man; Jason Terry was acquired in a trade. The guy knows how to put a team together. The one thing lacking (and needed) was a change in the basketball culture in Dallas - a change that was finally brought about by Avery Johnson. Contrast this with the Rockets under Carroll Dawson who have basically blown off the draft; spent a number of years in the NBA lotto; are still recovering from a disasterous 2001 draft where they flat blew 3 1st round picks for a guy (Eddie Griffin) who's no longer here and up until this year, have tried for years to get by with cheap, older players let go by other teams. They appear to (FINALLY) be on the right path with their new GM coming in. Only time will tell however. It's not what you spend but how you spend it that determines success or failure - just ask the NY Knicks.
Not much for the finances of the game, but, in a way the Rockets are in a similar situation as the Timberwolves. To have KG they can't afford to have much else. To have TMac and Yao, the role players can't be too expensive by NBA standards. Money or no money, Dallas has so much more talent, it is not even close. Bottomline, even when healthy, we still don't match up with the NBA's elite, talentwise. Kind of like UH and South Carolina in the Liberty bowl. SC was bigger, stronger, faster at most positions. UH gave them a good game on heart, desire, and skill, but, in the end, just not quite there talentwise. The Rockets have needed more weapons, still need more weapons, and, apparently, will continue to need more weapons. And they could use a bit of luck, which they seem to have very little of...Bonzi, Synder, Yao, TMac, Sura, etc. I still believe that with a healthy TMac, Yao, Bonzi, and Synder playing together since training camp, the Rockets would have had a very good change to win last night.
uh...nope. Its a business first and foremost. Winning happens to be a good way to make more profit, but it will always be business first. Sad but true.
They had a good chance to win last night without those guys, we had a 10 point lead at one point if you remember. Not to mention the Rockets beat them by 30+ points earlier in the year. What does that tell you about a healthy Rockets team? If Bonzi ever becomes a contributor and Yao + Tmac are healthy, the talent disparity between the Mavs/ Rockets or the Spurs/Rockets is very small. The Suns are just an anomoly that will be hard to deal with in any scenario. But, other than those 3, talent wise we are as good as anyone else in the league. I don't think talent is the problem.
He's a jackass titty baby owner. His star player had to tell him to shut his mouth because he was hurting the team. He's far from being one of the best owners.
I must admit, I was guessing that the poster was attributing jersey sales as source of income mentioned, but I had to ask. Now for the facts. Merchandise sales are shared among the NBA owners. Les Alexander gets the revenue from all jerseys sold inside Toyota Center, but the revenue from all other Rocket jersey sales are shared equally among all the teams in the league. The sale of a Yao or a TMac jersey doesn't generate any more revenue for Les Alexander than does the sale of a Milwaukee Bucks jersey. Also, every NBA owner profits equally from all Rockets jerseys sold in China. Alexander's wealth increased due to real estate investments and also because of the increase in value of the Rockets franchise. Yao certainly helped to add value to the franchise, but Rocket jersey sales don't greatly effect Alexander's total wealth.
Much of Alexander's worth is (was?) tied up in First Marblehead Corp : http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote?Symbol=US:FMD According to Forbes, he used to own at least 14.2 million shares at one point. The stock price has been going crazy over the past year (nearly tripled). It's around $54/share now. You do the math and then do the math regarding the Rockets' value and you'll see where much of his wealth comes from.
Ok, just checked : http://moneycentral.msn.com/ownership?Holding=5%+Ownership&Symbol=US:FMD Les apparently owns over 21 million shares of FMD valued at almost $650 million.
wow man... you really don't have any business sense at all. business comes first, then championship. if this team shows promise in the playoffs (which they have yet to do) les will gladly open the wallet. until then, it is about selling tickets and putting together a team that will consistently compete. they have done that with their team so far. if jvg can just get close to the WCF, les will do it. he knows what kind of loyalty a championship trophy will bring to his product. even championships have a business value associated with them.
My point is that health issue and the talent issue are one in the same. The Rocket's ongoing health problems, three years running now (Sura) create a talent deficit. Lack of talent is the problem when your most talented players are injured. The elite teams have many more talented bench players than the Rockets. Thus, the talent gap. But even with a healthy TMac (which may never happen), Yao, and Bonzi, the Rocket's guards still don't match up with the elite teams. With all due respect, I beg to differ, talent is the issue.
true... for the first time in a long time, our contract situation is OK. our best players are paid the max. that in and of itself is HUGE. plugging in pieces around tmac and yao is easier to do when you already have your meat and potaoes figured out. ... nobody else's contract is hard to move. nobody else's contract has anyone grossly overpaid. even howard's contract is good considering his tenure in the league and previous achievements. (don't flame me for that!) contract wise, we're in as good a shape as we could be without starting over from scratch.
