Agree 100% Considering how much Deke did last year once Yao went down, he's worth more than the vet minimum by a mile, and the Rockets shouldn't lowball him. Unfortunately, it looks like the Landry thing could drag on for awhile.
This is all from the Steve Francis signing. If we never signed Steve, we would have given Landry a standard 2 year contract for 2nd rounders, then we would have had more money to offer Deke this year. Deke also felt slighted that the Rockets used money on Francis that could have partly been used for Deke last year instead of giving him a lowball offer that Deke still feels irked about. Steve Francis' signing = more negatives then positives, wasted money
Except last year we reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaally thought we needed PG help, even going as far as trading for MJ. People forget how awful Rafer had been before last year on offense. Steve Francis was worth the risk and even Rick Adelman thought Steve would be his starter. However, he was hurt and unable to perform, to the point he ended up needing surgery. Risk taken on a position of need and it didn't pay off. You can't blame a move that made lots of sense. The only concern we had was how Steve would accept being the 3rd wheel. Many people felt Landry might even get cut as well. Remember, most here were concerned about an undersized PF that had knee issues while in college. Let's not forget, we also got Steve on the cheap for a veteran of past all-star performance. No one was complaining about it. Basically, to claim Steve's signing was more negatives than positives and wasted money is silly. You can't blame Steve for all our woes. The fact Deke wants more money is reasonable, but don't blame it on others the fact the man wants to get paid. Now, if Steve comes back from his injury and plays well this season, for sure all the negatives would outweight the positives. Don't judge 'til his current contract is over to determine whether he was a bad signing or not. That is, unless like half the board, you are just a Steve hater and would blame him no matter what he did. Approximately 2.5million per year in today's NBA really is not alot of money. It's definitely not a reason to say his signing was bad yet.
Deke has more than enough money to do wutever he wants with his life when he retires and he knows that we are more than willing to throw money at his hospital like we always have, he's acting a little proud for my taste. i would think at this point in his career he would have his eye more on that ring than getting a few extra bucks for bragging rights. i love deke, but in this case he is as veteran as they come, but as long as it doesnt cut into our mle enough to prevent a landry signing lets just make sure deke gets that ring we've been promising him the last couple years now.....oh and if theres enough left with the money afterwards..........sign bonzi........i still miss the guy.
I have to think there will be a salary dump for some flexibility before the season starts. We have our core roster so Novak, Head and Harris are very tradeable for at least future picks.
I hope that's what management is trying to do. If we could get something in return for Novak and possibly for Head/Harris it would be nice. Edit: A combination of them is more likely to yield something of use rather than a single player trade.
