Here is the problem that you and a lot of other folks around here just don't seem to comprehend. Speaking strictly capwise and ignoring LTax implications, if an NBA team already has $50+m committted for 2006-07 then an expiring contract in the range of Baker, Spoon or Wesley has very, very little value to them. Why? Because if the cap is $46m and they have $50+m committed for 2006-07 (as about 25 of 30 teams do), losing a contract value in the $5m range does not make them players in the FA market. They can stay over the cap and use a $5m MLE without having to renounce any of their own FA's. Now, if you want to argue that Baker + Spoon + Wesley is a lot of cap space to decrease, you'd be correct. But by having only 14 roster spots available (Sura being the 15th), keeping Spoon and Baker around effectively eliminated any possibilty of picking up Hayes or Bogans. Plus, we didn't "buyout" Spoon. We are still paying him full price...but we do not have to pay the LTax on his contract. Lastly (referring to the Artest trade), I don't have the Pacers' cap amount in front of me but I believe Spoons' $6m would not have dropped them below $50m for 2006-07.
that has to be the most expensive backcourt lol i wish stevie well i hope he can rebound this season, and he is on fantasy team so i could use the help lol
....yes Tmac or Yao must have been hurt AND Rockets are losing. Juwan and losing go hand in hand. Darko is young and good looking. That's a bonus. Also, who is gonna fear someone with a name like Juwan?? Now Darko, on the other hand......
I agree with you 100%. Last years 'expiring coup' was Baron Davis. A year later and Golden State appears stuck with a highly paid trouble maker for a long time. Consequently they are no longer a young team with a futuure. Besides that, if we kept Spoon and Baker, they would have taken up roster space. Considering our injuries those two would have had to play the minutes that Lonnie Baxter (now Brogans) and Chuck Hays got instead. We never would have signed those two who were a bright spot in a pretty depressing time for Rockets fans.
Didn't know Starbury was that tall and ripped. Genetic freak. Steve Francis reminds me of a shot fighter, just doesnt' have it anymore. I used to overrate him because of his rebounding, but in hindsight, that was all about filling up the stat line and probably hurt the team. He also seems like the type to want the ball at the end of a blowout game so that he can be fouled and bump up his ppg average. In the past, he didn't want to get into a shootout with Starbury because he would lose. Stephon used to light him up.
Magic wipe floor with Knicks in Francis tradeBy John Hollinger ESPN Insider Archive The Orlando Magic have mass-produced managerial blunders during the past few seasons, so let's give some props to the tag-team GM combo of Otis Smith and Dave Twardzik for their two deals this month. In a matter of weeks, the duo -- led by Smith, who handles most of the team's trade matters -- has completely rebuilt what had become a depressingly mediocre team into a club that should become one of the league's best teams by the end of the decade. The latest move, unloading Steve Francis for Penny Hardaway and Trevor Ariza, was the Magic's best yet. Even if he had stopped moping, Francis wouldn't be worth half the money he's owed over the next few seasons. Not only is he turnover-prone and infamous for his willingess to spend 20 or more of the shot clock's 24 seconds relentlessly pounding the air out of the ball like it was a spherical piñata, he also played the same position as one of the Magic's best and least expensive players, Jameer Nelson. Now Francis is Isiah Thomas' problem (kind of like Jalen Rose, Stephon Marbury, Maurice Taylor, Jerome James, Eddy Curry, Malik Rose and Quentin Richardson … but I digress). Francis is owed close to $50 million over the final three years of his deal, numbers that apparently don't bother the Knicks, since their payroll now dwarfs the national debt. With Hardaway's contract expiring after this year and Ariza expected to re-sign cheaply as a restricted free agent, the Magic would be $15 million to $20 million under the salary cap (depending on that year's cap number) when Grant Hill's contract expires after next season. The Magic's timing is impeccable when one considers the names potentially available in 2007 -- forget about LeBron James and the other stars from the class of '03, since they'll sign extensions, but there's also Paul Pierce, Vince Carter, Dirk Nowitzki, Gerald Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Mike Bibby, Rashard Lewis, Antawn Jamison and Jamaal Magloire. That's the same summer that the Magic will likely extend the deals of Dwight Howard and Nelson, and 2007 also probably represents Orlando's last opportunity to play the market for the next several years. Because of that, just dumping Francis' contract makes the deal a home run. What really puts it over the top, however, are two other things. First, Orlando didn't need to take any contracts back -- earlier reports had the Magic accepting Taylor or Jamal Crawford. Second, how about this? Regardless of contracts, which player would you rather have three years from now -- Francis or Ariza? Sure, Ariza isn't much to look at right now, but he's also 20 years old, an outstanding athlete and is suffocating under his coach's iron grip. Before learning how to "play the right way" he had been one of the league's top rookies in 2004-05, even though he had just one year of college ball under his belt. Contrast that with Francis, whose best days are pretty clearly behind him and will have to make a major adjustment to become a complementary player. I'm not saying I'd plunk down 10 grand on an even-money bet that Ariza would be better in three years, but it's a closer call than you'd think. Considering the massive dollop of cap relief the Knicks gave the Magic, it's hard to believe the Knicks actually gave the Magic a player who might be comparable in quality. And get this? Even with all the problems Orlando has had, the Magic are four games ahead of the Knicks in the standings. Fortunately for Orlando fans, their management's willingness to be honest about their position in the world allowed them to pull off two great deals just before the trade deadline. With a front line of Howard and Darko Milicic, Nelson anchoring the backcourt, future talents like Ariza and Fran Vazquez, a lottery choice this spring and their pick of the free agent litter (remember, Florida has no income tax), the Magic are set for the future. And the Knicks? They just seem set to spend more money. http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&id=2340079
wow, that was a ton of made up, speculative crap to put all in one post. bravo. as for the rebounding, yeah it just filled up the stat sheets. you remember how much the rockets struggled at rebounding last year before sura (a comparable rebounder to steve) got healthy? well, they were really bad. then suddenly sura came in and started chasing down long rebounds and getting the occasional physical rebound in traffic and things turned around. those are exactly what francis brought us. saying they only filled up the stat sheet implies he basically expertly cherry-picked easy rebounds. there's a reason he was thought of as the best rebounding gurad in the league for a while. it wasn't b/c they didn't make a difference.
well now that steve is a knick, it makes it one step closer to be brought to houston, as we all know, JVG only picks up former knicks.
Sounds spookily like the Pistons, doesn't it, at least a little? Wasn't their present team constructed from a bunch of players that were initially seen as throwaway players, who gradually developed into the current powerhouse? In no way am I saying these Knicks as a team come anywhere close to the current Pistons squad. But when the current Pistons were first assembled, did anyone expect them to amount to anything? This is a wondering out loud post, no analysis contained herein. Please insert analysis below this line: -----------------------
I'm not saying I agree with the Steve Francis trade (I mean I like the kid, but a lot of times he plays like an All Star Starter), but should we really put stock into the same ESPN columnists that went to such great lengths to justify the soon-to-be infamous Darko draft pick (he and Sam Bowie are gonna be trivia answers for sure) or explain just how manure (I'm sorry...I meant mature...I don't know what came over me) Kwame Brown is? I'm just saying...
Dude, I was just about to post that! LB looks pissed off, and Francis is like "I just got dealt for an expiring contract."
