Rocky Mountain News July 3 :Houston offers brent barry 4 year 24 million deal

Posey didn't deserve that money base on his play for the Rockets. He did earn it on the Grizzles however.

This might be a year longer than I would have liked, but when you're trying to field the best team, lets not save a mill or 2 hear or there to get a lesser quality player. Barry would serve us well.

 

Yes but let's be fair.

Posey's biggest weakness was shooting while it's Barry's biggest strength.

Posey is a much better defensive player.

I think he has a good point. We've always decded to go for "veteran" leadership when filling our role players.

We have JJ - a great pickup last year but is 33.
We have Piatkowski - a bust who is also 33.
We now have Juwan Howard who is also 30.
We may be getting Barry, 32 or Fisher 30.

Let's assume that we make the playoffs, etc...
It'll still take 2 or 3 years before we make a serious run.

It's a bad idea to retool 1/2 your starters right when your superstars are peaking. It's hard enough to fill in 1 or 2 spots, let alone 3 or 4.

This is why it's really important to get younger role players to develop chemistry.

I don't want to start the whole Posey debate again but he wouldve been a great complement to this team right now.

Although still solid, Jim Jackson's best years are probably behind him.

To offer your starting PG a 4 year deal at age 32 is too much.

We need to find some long-term solutions.

 

That is a big contract. You can try and spin it any way you want. He is way past the wrong side of 30. James Posey is just now entering his prime and was signed to be a defensive stopper. The fact that he can score is a bonus. Trust me at 4/24 you guys won't have any competition to sign him.

 

I like Barry, but not for that long. He will be 36 years old in the last year of that contract.......and we will be paying him 8 million a season. Like I said I like BB, but that doesn't make since when we still will have to max out Yao and Tmac, and in the next 4 years find replacements for Howard, Jackson, and yes Barry because of their age. This is the kind of thing I was hoping the Rockets were going to avoid.

 

The good thing about the last season of that deal is he'll be a tradable commodity for teams looking for cap room.

 

Guys, let's not be so worried about his age. He's a pure shooter. As long as he doesn't have a major injury, the guy can play forever. Anybody remember that guy named Steve Kerr?

 

Care to name a few?

Look, I know Barry's asking for a lot of money at his age, but he's the best fit and the best player. Who are our other options?

Fisher is also in his thirties. He'll be asking for three to four years

Eric Snow is in his thirties. He already has four or five more years.

Troy Hudson isn't a good fit, a poor man's, a broke man's, Steve Francis.

Damon Jones is a very good backup.

The Jazz will match any offer for Carlos Arroyo that we can afford.

We won't be able to offer anything Crawford will even consider.

Next years FAs? Earl Watson hasn't proven he can be a starter. Bobby Jackson will be 32. Jason Terry is a selfish gunner who will ask for more than we can afford. Van Exel will be turning 33. McInnis will be 31. Damon Stoudamire 32.

Unless you're banking on Jamaal Tinsley salivating at the prospect of joining the Rockets after next season, there just aren't any long term solutions.

 

That's a fair point. Certainly something in his favor.

The only thing that scares me about Barry is how well will he DO in JVG's offense? If we pay him 4/24 then he better be a serious contributor. Look at the "pure shooter" we got last year in Pike. He had a terrible year! And before he came to Houston he was a SOLID 3pt shooter. What happened to his shot here? Moreover, he was benched and played very little. Could this same scenario bare out with Barry here? Pike is only making peanuts now so it isnt a big deal, Barry will be making big bucks. We have to be sure that Barry's game will be utilized here under JVG's system or else it wouldnt be a good idea to bring him on at that cost.

 

You make some good points there. Perhaps that's what the Rockets staff have done. They have surveyed the field of potential FA PGs for this year and next year and feel as though Barry is the best of the bunch for what they want to do.

 

Kerr wasn't making that kind of money or wasn't asked to play 35 mins a game either. Look you guys make some good points in the fact that Barry is probably our best attainable goal here, but if it doesn't work out then we are screwed because we won't be able to unload him for anything until year 4.

 

James Posey wouldve been a long-term solution at SF.

Another alternative is in 2 years, we can go after Michael Redd and move McGrady to the 3.

As far as the PG's, we should at least make an attempt for Arroyo. If Arroyo was 100% guaranteed to stay in Utah, 4 or 5 teams would not be making him offers.

We don't know what his relationship is with Sloan. Remember, the Jazz also have Raul Lopez. We should offer Arroyo a similiar contract we offer Barry. If Utah matches it, fine.

Another option would be to trade for Lopez who some say has a bigger upside than Arroyo and is only 23.

If the Jazz is entertaining Kenyon Martin and his huge contract, they may not be willing to spend $3-4 million on a backup PG.

Also, next year, Marko Jaric is a FA. He's a quality player who has a lot of potential and is stuck in the Clippers quagmire.

He's not quite the pure shooter as Barry but is young enough to develop better defensive skills.

 

Am I the only one who realizes that this guy is about as much of a point guard as Jim Jackson? He has a career average of LESS than 4 assists per game. Granted so does Fisher, but Fisher is more of a mold of a true point guard. I don't know that Fish is the answer either...but a 32 yr old Barry with little or no playoff experience is not the guy I want as my PG.

As crazy as this sounds, we would probably be better off with a guy like Charlie Ward than Brent Barry

 

I'm breaking out the champagne.

You guys need to celebrate. This is great news! We got him!

Barry is going to spread the defense and make the Yao/Tmac thing work. Bank on it.

Now, I'd like Arroyo too. Or Lopez - who does have more upside. I'd love to deal with Utah. Sign and trade Mo T + Boki + Wilks for Harpring and Arroyo .

I'd also love moving Mo T + what ever extras we can dump for Seattle's overpaid centers - both James and Potepenko. It's all about getting two year contracts, and Yao needs a backup.

Or, hey Chicago - we'll give you Mo T, Pike, Boki, Wilks, AG for AD.
Fill out your roster!

Whatever - we really need to dump contracts. All these guys need to go :

Mo T
Spoon
Pike
AG
Wilks
Lue

and maybe

Gaines
Boki

We can replace those guys with better fits on minumum contracts for areas of need.

 

The only way to get Arroyo is to overpay him. If we make a "fair value" contract offer, the Jazz will match it, even if they plan to trade him away later.

As a point of referrence, when the Grizz signed Posey, they overpaid for him. They offered more than any other team would pay, and more than Posey expected. It was a risk, and it paid off in that case.

We overpaid for Cato. A big contract for a big man with potential. If he had developed a little faster or could get that little turnaround jumper to drop, that would have been a great contract. You can decide if that contract risk paid off.

A big part of being a GM is deciding where to place your bets. Us armchair quarterbacks know who the good players are. The hard part is what are they worth. Sort of like picking the winning team is not that hard, burt covering the spread is.

I am not at all against Arroyo or Berry. But neither is availabe to us at a "fair price". What do you do?

 

Oh yeah, don't cry about the fourth year. Brent Barry will still be hoisting up threes when he's 40 - just like Dale Ellis.

Those guys can play a long time. It's the atheletes that burn out quick, not the shooters.

 

Posey & Barry are two completely different players. One is a defensive specialist and the other an offensive specialist. Anyway I thought Memphis offered Posey 6/36 but I guess my memory has failed me. But from 2000-2002 the guy shot 30%, 28.3%, 31% from the 3pt line. Not the kind of player you want on the wing complementing Yao Ming. Posey really stepped up his game last year but the Rockets are not hurting in anyway from not singing him.

 

listen to yourself... that's 8 mil a year... lol... sheesh then why don't we pop in an extra two and we'd have steve nash.

eh guys... you guys were yearning all over him, praying for brent barry day and night. and now you're afraid we're paying too much? he's NOT gonna sign for any less. credit the rockets for being agressive.

 

Redd would be dynamite in this offense!!!

 

Youre making some huge leaps here.

1. How do you know the Jazz will match. Just because they're under the salary cap, it doesn't mean they'll do it. They have a backup PG whom theyre very high on. It all depends on how the Jazz feel about Arroyo and Lopez.

And so what if they match and trade him. I'd be willing to give up a future #1 for a young PG with a lot of potential. We gave up a #1 just to get rid of Glen Rice's salary. It would be nice to get a good player in return.

If Arroyo was such a lock, there wouldnt be as much interest by other teams.

2. Posey made the same $ as Piatkowski and JJ. If someone offered me Posey for Piatkowski and JJ, I'd do it in a second. Even assuming they have equivalent talent level, Posey is a lot younger and will still be productive by the time his contract ends.

And please don't tell me all this is 20/20 hindsight. Many of us argued when the deal was made that we should have made an offer to keep Posey. Considering he had a house here and loved Houston, he might've accepted slightly less to stay. The fact we offered him the same $ as Piatkowski was an insult.

3. I mentioned a few alternatives. If we can;t get the "right" deal, we shouldnt commit to a 4 year deal for $24 million.

4. The last possibility is tracking Spanoulis. If his potential pans out, he could be our starting PG in a couple of years.

 

It'll help out on our inside out game alot, with Barry and JJ on the perimeter and McGrady running all over and Yao in the middle attracting the double, we have to rely on 3pt shooters