McGrady To Houston Thread (Update: Francis will visit Orlando)

I don't understand why nobody here can accept the fact that both SF & T-Mac don't want to play in Orlando for the same reason - the Magic are a last place team. This is a legitimate position for both players to take and I, for one, don't begrudge them in the least for feeling this way.

Of course he has no leverage but that is not the point here. He can try to muck things up a bit and quite possibly force his way out of Orlando via a 2nd trade (which is what I believe this is all about). Orlando does not have to take this deal - you may want it to be that way and there are a lot of folks here who have convinced themselves that the Houston deal is the ONLY deal they can make but that is just not the case. This is not a good deal FOR ORLANDO and there are better offers out there.

 

1. One is an impending free agent...he gets to choose his team he will sign a long-term deal with. The other already has a long-term deal he's bound to. Period. The end.

2. There are no better offers out there if McGrady says he isn't signing a long-term contract with anyone but the Rockets. Think the Suns will trade Stoudamire without some assurance that McGrady is going to sign a deal past the 2004/5 season? Of course not.

 

This is what pisses me off. I love Steve and am one of the last people who wanted to see him go, but what he's doing really sucks. He has to face the fact that he just isn't going to be a Rocket this next season. I'm mad now because if this deal doesn't go through, there's no way in hell we're going to get a deal that's anywhere close to as fair. As stated before, the new Magic team could do really well. He should realize they won't really be rebuilding for long at all with a SF/Cat/Cato/#1 pick core. This trade better go through, now.

 

where are all these people at? everyone is getting pissed with Francis because he has the ability to screw this trade up. everyone around here is holding their breath because orlando could back out at any moment and it could very well be because of what Francis has had to say the past couple days. we are all aware that there are other deals out there to be made for McGrady....I do not think that this is a bad trade for Orlando though, although we are getting the better end of the deal.

 

MadMax don't take this the wrong way but did you read what I just posted? Did you understand that BOTH players don't want to play for the Magic because it's a last place team? That's all I'm saying. T-Mac's contract status is not an issue here. Neither is Francis' contract status. If traded to Orlando he will have to play there. Now if that happens, the Magic will have a big PR mess on their hands because 1) they made a bad deal and 2) they made a bad deal for a guy who doesn't want to play there - in essence they traded a player who did not want to play there for a player who does not want to play there. That's what's known in the business as a messy situation. Period.

As for your 2nd point, I am not sure that T-Mac has said this - it's been speculated and assumed to be so here but to date, I have seen nothing official that says that T-Mac has in fact done as you allege. I'll believe him signing an extension when I see it. Here in Dallas for example, folks were saying the exact same thing about T-Mac and the Mavs up until this news about the Rockets trade hit.

 

I don't think Steve, Cat, and Cato plus a number 1 really make the Magic go from being the worst team in the league to real threats in the playoffs. We had those players and our number 1 was Yao Ming and we didn't make the playoffs.

I don't think any of the number possibilities will be as valuable as Yao was. Orlando would need a lot more than just that to make them a serious playoff team.

 

Dude, this freaking thread is 36 pages long! Did you not read the posts saying over and over and over that T-Mac is in control becuase he WANTS ot play in Houston and that the Magic have NO choice but accede to his requests? That's the basic premise behind all of the gleeping over T-Mac that been going on for days now.

This is not a BAD trade for Orlando, it's just not the BEST trade they can make. But since the Rockets appear to come out on top in this deal, nobody here really wants to look at this from the Magic's POV which I suppose is understandable. After all this IS a Rockets forum.

 

1. So contract status doesn't matter?? Tell that to Curt Flood. Contract status is everything here. These are business transactions. Players aren't playing out of the goodness of their heart...and teams aren't paying money for fun. There are certain things that are appropriate for free agents that are irrelevant to those who are under long-term contracts.

2. there have been a couple of articles posted in this forum this morning indicating that McGrady has said the Rockets are the only team he would sign a long-term contract with.

 

Hillboy,

I can't believe you can say that McGrady's contract status is not an issue. It is the center issue here.

No team is going to want McGrady if he won't sign a long term deal. That is the privelege McGrady has as a potential FA.

Like many have said, McGrady could have walked for nothing, just like Shaq did. He is allowing the team to get value in return instead.

He is doing anything BUT screwing them. The only way he is remotely screwing them is by saying that he won't resign. He is letting them know NOW so they can plan their draft accordingly.

 

Everbody knows most NBA players are egomaniacs. They've been pandered to since junior high. Most played on winning teams their whole lives, usually on the merits of their own skills. That's what gets them to the NBA. It's no surprise then that none of them can bear to evsision themselves playing for a loser but the reality is that half of them will have to.

Steve should be saying, OK Orlando, I'm coming and me, cat and Cato are going to turn this franchise around. That would be the classy professional choice and frankly since he has proven his self-centric demeanor on the court I'm a little surprised he chose the whiney route, but NBA brass shouldn't be. They should have been working on contingency plans behind the scenes before the public had more than rumor. Now other teams realize the desperation to make this happen and will take advantage of it.
(maybe this is just evidence of why the Orlando franchise, even with a new GM is considered a loser...hmmm)

They pressed T-Mac bfore they had to and let it be made public, they committed to the deal before they had talked to the main players involved. Orlando is just a comedy of bad management.
The problem is that we commited to the deal too publicly and risk getting dragged down with them. If the deal does not go through we cannot keep Steve. He will get booed more in his own gym than he did in Vancouver.

Uncle Les...make it happen, no matter what it costs

(or we're screwd too)

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/23/s...&partner=GOOGLE

In the end, several league executives believe the trade with Houston, which would also send Tyronn Lue, Juwan Howard, Reece Gaines and possibly Andrew DeClerq to the Rockets, will eventually be made because McGrady is saying Houston is the only team he will stay with long term.

 

You are absolutely right.
Whether Houston gets TMax or not is now immaterial. Steve will be dealt to another team if need be. What he did causes us to lose some leverage and we might not get back a very good player but the Rockets will have to do it.

 

whoever has an espn insider account, could you please let us poorer folks in on what the weisbrod article says. thanks

 

damn it...i can't get any work done!!!!! i need to bill hours you freaks!!!!

 

Can't you bill these hours as "research"?

Quick, think about some cases as you type.

 

good idea!!!!

 

I can relate. Here I sit at work doing some work, checking the board, doing some work, checking the board. Endless cycle. Refresh button is your friend.

This has been a LOOOOONNNNGGGG week!

 

agreed

 

my boss isn't in the lab today, so I am still sitting at home hitting refresh from the comfort of my own chair.

 

I agree with everything except the part about us commiting to the deal too publicly. The Rox have been mum on this until what was supposed to be the zero hour when the expansion draft ended. At that point, Tmac became the headline on the Rockets website. That is the only public acknowledgement of this deal I have seen from anyone officially related to the Rockets.

The Magic, on the other hand, have been different. At this point, I am not concerned with or mad at Francis. He has always been petulant, both on and off the court, from the moment he was drafted. I am disgusted with the Magic for their poor handling of every aspect of this deal. They do not seem to be negotiating in good faith and Francis' moodiness is just a convenient way to shop for a better deal. Afterall, they've been the ones saying publicly "give us a better deal or we send him to Houston" since the weekend. Now that it is time to put up or shut up, they are still soliciting bids.