The only reason he doesn't want to be bought out is 1) it makes him look like a bad locker room guy 2) he would have to be willing to part with some money and by the way this year has gone he will probably never get that money back.
I never said Barkley was a worse Rocket. I don't hate former Rockets as you and i certainly don't assume or question fans loyalty based on a join date for a fan site as great as this place may be for Rockets fans. It's all really petty. Look, Chuck was a beast at the start and then got fat and lazy. I don't hate Moses Malone for leaving the Rockets after back to back MVP seasons. I don't hate Hakeem for having demanded a trade before. I don't hate Mad Max for quitting on the team at the most crucial time and never coming back to Houston for 20 years. I don't hate Barkley for basically giving up and getting fat, hell, it's who he was. He tried to gain weight so the Sixers wouldn't draft him, demanded a trade from them when he wasn't good enough to win on his own like just like T-Mac. Then said he knew the Suns would never get another chance to win after losing in 93. He quit fighting for it after losing once. Joined us expecting it to be easy. Wasn't. We lost and he quit mentally again. Retires, trashing the Rockets every year and calling us a cheap organization for the past 20 years. I don't hate that i'd rather have just kept Horry and Cassell. I don't hate Pippen for seeing he was never going to win anything with the Rockets as Hakeem just wasn't the same and Chuck didn't care anymore. I don't hate Hakeem for not accepting his lesser role and retiring in some purple Barney uniform. I don't hate Francis for being the way that he was and caring more about going to the Superbowl. I don't hate T-Mac for being mentally weak and giving up. I don't hate Harden or Dwight for caring more about their brand than actually winning something for this city and team. I don't hate our owner for not finding this team worth paying luxury tax on. I don't hate him for caring more about Chinese $$$ rather than the actual product on the court. I don't hate Les for basically throwing our identity and history away after 2 championships so that he could make more $$$ and ended up making us look like an absolute joke in pin striped pajamas with a logo shark dildo logo. I don't hate how he ignores the fans desire to return to that identity after 20 years of mediocrity. They are all former Rockets. They suited up for our team. Once a Rocket, always a Rocket.
Barkley wasn't a perfect player by any means, but i would take exception to saying he ever "gave up" while playing for the Rockets. He played hard until he was forced to retire due to injury. He got old.
Ty Lawson comments on rumors "I like the city, I like my fans. I mean, I like my teammates. It's a good fit. I want to be here," Lawson said. "I'm just happy here. My role, I'm going to keep playing hard every day. I'd rather stay here." http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/2620212-ty-lawson-comments-on-rumors-of-rockets-buyout The curious case of ty lawson has me lost for words. The guy has showed in some games stardom but mostly is just out there to fill space. Maybe it's hardrn blocking his game, maybe he's to passive or maybe he's just lost it. I really find it to beleuve you see him make good plays then just be irrelevant most of the game or tine he's out there
Pippen..summer...T-Mac surgery. Vernon Maxwell quit on the team during the playoffs. That's the worst thing any player could ever do. He then never wanted to step foot in the city of Houston til he finally did last year. But, no one cares because we won anyway and that erases everything. These guys are not our slaves who've disobeyed their master. It didn't work out but i for one am i glad we can say legendary players like Barkley, Pippen and T-Mac suited up as Houston Rockets. Maybe it's just the Former Marine in me, but to me, once a Rocket, always a Rocket. Maybe it is our fans faults for not creating the right culture with this team, because the players themselves sure do love this city. Even long after they parted ways with the Rockets.
Yeah. Just another guy who can defend every single position at an elite level and a play maker and a one man fast break and a ferocious finisher and score outside or inside. Could post up. Could slash. Could spot up. Could adjust his shot mid air. Could lead the team in every statistical category. Just another guy.
Whatever anyone thinks of Barkley doesn't change what Pippen is/was. Why did you even bring him up? Pippen was by far the worst big name player on the Rockets. He said he was going to be the leader, and the main man. He failed to live up to the smack he was talking. He blew huge plays in the playoffs. He screwed up. Then after that, he blamed his teammates who played better for the team than Pippen ever did. He then forced a trade, and went to Portland. When he went there, he claimed that he was the only guy on the Rockets who was capable of leading them despite the fact that he was playing with legend Hakeem Olajuwon. In the aspects of playing ability/leadership/personality/teammate/and personal honor, Pippen was far worse than any other Rockets star on the team in each of those categories. If you want to be mad at Barkley for trashing the Rockets on television, then fine, but don't use your dislike of Barkley to pretend that Pippen had any positive value on the Rockets at all.
What bothers me about Ty, other than his poor play, is that he seems to be emotionally dead. I want to see this guy get fired up about something. It's like he shows up and makes an appearance just to collect his paycheck. I don't think he really cares if we win or lose.
Wouldn't that figure be pro-rated to what he is owed , not the total value of his deal if he were to hit the waiver wire ? From what I understand he's owed about $3.2m .... Or is there no team with that $3.2m figure in cap space ?
That's not how waivers work. If a player is waived, his ENTIRE cap figure must be absorbed by a claiming team, even though the claiming team will only be responsible for paying the player's remaining salary. To claim Lawson off waivers, a team would need either at least $12.4 million in cap room or a trade exception of at least $12.4 million. It doesn't matter that the claiming team would only actually owe Lawson $3.2 million for the remainder of the season.
Pippen was not really elite in any way during his one season as a Rocket. He may have once been capable of all those things you describe, but his 14 points per game on .432 shooting for the Rockets was fairly pedestrian. However, that's not really the issue. If the problem were merely that he didn't live up to expectations, nobody would be talking about this. The problem was that he incessantly complained about his role on the team while playing poorly. After a crushing playoff loss in which he made critical mistakes, he then proceeded to force a trade, and then trashed the team and especially Barkley on the way out the door. This, after Barkley took a minimum contract to allow Pippen to get paid.
BimaThug, Question: if we exercise our team option for next year, then negotiate a buyout spanning the rest of this year and all of next and spread payments across both years, what would the payments look like if they equaled in sum the $3.2m that we still owe him. (btw: I'm calculating $3.6m). The exercise would be to pay him the equivalent of all his $12.4m this year, but defer most payments to next year, thus creating a pay cut for this year. I can work that math, but I wasn't sure if the buyout negotiation must abide by some % reduction/raise criteria off of current year buyout. That is, can you just say, "Hey we will give your $1 the rest of this year, and $3.2m worth of payments for next year." (Using an extreme example, of course, but you get the point.)
