Well, I am still willing to keep him if the cost is from 6 to 8M although I do not know his market value right now. He and Lowry can play together since he can play shooting guard position well, we need overpay him a bit to keep him here.
Suns too if Nash is going to leave or getting a short contact, then Sun needs a starting point guard.
I think "reasonable" depends heavily on whether or not the Rockets can effectively use their capspace in the offseason. After all, the cap-hold allow the Rockets to sign other players before giving him his money.
I agree that the goran must play the next seven seasons as a rocket. Teams(with capspace) that will try to sabotage mission of resigning the goran... Indiana ehh they have the pg position locked up. Dallas: Cuban has his googly eyes on that pg that leads his team to victory all the time, Dwill. Boston..they have Rondo. New Jersey, I doubt the goran would be interested in Jay z. Slovenians comrades listen to Ice cube. That leaves Portland and Phoenix as the biggest threats to steal him away. I wouldn't worry about portland and if they dare interfere by making offers, we should make high bids on Lamarcus and Batum just so they have to pay up and run out out of cap space. I'm scared of Phoenix getting him back.
I agree with most of this, as for drafting well, I think that is a bit in the air with Morris. And I agree about his interpersonal skills needing work - IMO. Did anyone else notice that he mentioned LOWRY was out but had to be reminded that Kmart is out too? Interesting. DD
I largely agree with this. To me, the issue isn't what contract Dragic gets offered or how well he plays, but rather whether the Rockets front office's perception of Dragic's value matches what is out there on the market. I think it's a misconception to think that the Rockets doesn't offer substantial contracts to keep their players. Luis Scola, for example, was signed to a 5-year, $47 million contract (with 4 years and at least $36 million guaranteed). If the management thinks Dragic can keep this his current level of play, I would not be surprised if they agree to pay him a similar amount. The big question mark, though, is sustainability. Dragic is having a nice run in his 4th season. But if he reverts back to the level of performance he had over the first 3.5 years of his career, a team will likely regret signing him to a big contract. This sort of thing have happened before with guys with an even longer record of performance: Jameer Nelson and Kirk Hinrich are two such examples. Darren Collison, too, averaged 18 pts and 9 asts as a starter for 37 games in his rookie year but hasn't looked nearly as good since. Dragic needs to keep up his production for the rest of the season, and hopefully make some noise in the playoffs in order to make teams feel safer about signing him to a big offer sheet. If he does so, I imagine the Rockets front office would be as willing as any other team to make him a substantial offer.
I'm willing to bet Morey is still sore about the Lin fiasco whatever he may say publicly. I don't think he will let another PG walk and turn around the fortunes of a team. He will pay the man and trade Lowry.
Oh, that posts wasn't explained fully. Basically the thing about Dragic in terms of capspace is this. Before he signs with us or someone else, he counts ~$4mil against the cap. At this rate, he'll very likely get much more than that. But as long as he and the Rockets agree to a deal, he will only count 4mil until we resign him. This allows the Rockets to use the rest of the capspace for someone else. Once the Rockets are close to the salary cap with trades and FA signings, they can then resign Dragic and go way over it even if they sign him for, hypothetically, $8mil/yr. This would put them $4mil over the cap, but really it doesn't matter whether you are $1 over or $4 million over. Unless you approach the much higher luxury tax line. But if the Rockets don't use their capspace this offseason, the full weight of Dragic's new contract will come into play in 2013. So if the Rockets want to save money for the next offseason, then giving Dragic a big contract would prevent that.
The difference is Dragic has shown he can produce in the playoffs and anytime he has been given significant minutes. People still haven't forgotten what he did to the Spurs a few years back.
We should let go of Gragic if the price is high. Lowry/Goran/Lin were acquired by Morey on cheap, and he should be able to do it again. Players like Dragic who are inconsistent in long period(4 years) and break out right before free agency(1-2 months) usually get bad/big/long contract. Not a long time ago we were glad to have Martin/Scola on reasonable/good contracts, and after a stretch of bad games they are hard to get rid of. It feels like yesterday when most people here don't want to trade Lowry for westbrook/Dwill... We should only pay high for a consistent star level talent.
We will never get a consistent star level player without paying for those that are on the cusp of breaking out, what you suggests dooms the team to mediocrity forever. Got to take some risks to get better. Goran is a good calculated risk, IMO. DD
Why do you guys think the effective use of Goran is playing him at the sg position? Apart from his recent hot streak he's not a very good shooter and he's too undersized to effectively defend the position. His strenght is being a potential, not potent mind you, offensive threat from anywhere on the floor, especially cutting to the basket. The latter enables him to collapse the opposing defence and kick it out to the open men - that's the bred and butter of his game. But he needs to have the ball for that. You greatly diminish his effectiveness by playing him off the ball. He's prone to losing his confidence and becoming a less efficient, reluctant shooter. The only way for him to justify being on the floor is his pesky defence, but he's too short to be a really good defender at the 2 position. McHale has only been using Klow and Goran in the backcourt together, because he hasn't got a better alternative when Lee is out. I just don't see this working out very well long term.
About 5 New Jersey (assuming Deron Williams walks) New Orleans Portland Phoenix (if Steve Nash goes somewhere else) Dallas (if they don't get Deron Williams)
Actually when he plays with Lowry, he normally has the ball and Lowry spots up in the corner. However, Dragic picks up the opposing 2. You are who you can guard in the NBA.
50/50 chance they re-sign him. I dunno. Jarrett Jack has played well and is under contract next year. Also, not sure I see New Orleans being big in the free agent hunt if they're still NBA-owned. Probably one of the biggest threats. I figure Steve Nash goes to one of these teams (if Dallas doesn't get D-Will).
yes his price will be much higher than we originally thought, but what difference does that make? Agreed that we won't over-pay him; we don't over pay anyone. If you are saying someone will, then that sucks for them, but at least we have a Lowry to fall back on. And what if he's not grossly over-paid? I'm sure we'll make a competitive offer. There's nothing that would probhibit us from resigning him, especially if we free up Dalemebert's $7 mil option.