Salary Issues Ahead

You don't need a Heat or Lakers team that are full of stars to win. You may be surprised what a team full of what you consider "role players" are able to do.

 

So you are saying that the Nets or some other team is going to offer Scola more money for the Rockets to match because Lowry got paid? "Man, I thought $10 mil a year for Scola was excessive, but **** it, Houston paid Lowry $6 mil a year, so why the hell not? $50 mil for 5 years for Scola cuz I read on clutchfans that the market has been set."

And the same thing will happen to teams looking at Brooks as a RFA next year?

And then some team is going to decide to pay Battier more than $7 million a year next year because in July 2010, the Rockets paid Lowry?

 

I figured it out!

It was Kyle Lowry holding everyone hostage in the NBA off-season, not King James. What were we all thinking?

 

Lets clear something up a little. First Yao, Martin, Brooks, and Scola arent typical role players. These guys could be secondary allstars for a Championship teams best player. For sure in Yao, Brooks, and Martins case. These three are not role players and anyone who lists any of these three as role players for now on I wont listen to in any discussion. Thats devaluing our players when they are clearly primary players on most teams.

 

Rest assured that people much smarter and more qualified than anyone on here are working on problems such as this as we speak.

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When Lowry plays, we are a much better team.

When Brian Cook plays, we are not.

Lowry here, Cook getting overpaid by the Clippers.

Comprende?

 

Your point only strengthens the importance of resigning Lowry.

Eventually some idiot with cap space is going to give Brooks a Rudy Gay contract. Brooks compared to Gay might actually deserve it. So what do you do then. If I am Morey I let them have him knowing I have Llull in my back pocket and Lowry locked up. But I also do it in a sign and trade deal only asking for a young rookie a couple of firsts plus a really large trade exception. If we don't sign Lowry now we will pay for Brooks later. Pick your poison.

Of course that is just one scenario but I am sure it is one that Morey considered when looking at the big picture. Letting Lowry walk for nothing makes Brooks absolutely not expendable and much harder to include in any possible future trade down the road for a Granger type player.

You never want to overpay but it's probably worse to lose assets for nothing. The key word is asset. IMO Lowry is still an asset at that price and he makes your future salary issues more manageable than if you don't get him and you have to pay 4 mil a year for someone not nearly as good and stuck on the end of your bunch while you draft another point.

 

How do you know our best five players can't dominate, they haven't even had a chance to play together yet.

 

That's what happened when you're in a market with teams having a lot of money to offer. Kyle deserved this kind of money though. He is in fact a key piece of this team. Losing him is like losing any hope of a championship just as losing Scola will be the same.

I think Scola deserved around 7-8 millions.

 

50 win team? Are you serious? We were a 53 win team LAST YEAR.

Rewind to last year's playoff series against the Lakers. Yao was out for 5 games. Had a 22mil worthless POS in McLady on the bench. Nobody was taller than Scola, so we had to use a 6'6 center.

Fast forward one year later. Replace 22mil corpse with Kevin Martin (he used to avg 25 ppg, you know). Yao will be back. AB is much improved. Replaced an old Artest with a young Ariza, who does the same things but better. Lowry is improved. Got Chase Budinger. Got Jordan Hill, who gives us some size, along with Patrick Patterson. Now we might also get Brad Miller, who could (hopefully) be the backup center we've been looking for.

Add all of these improvements to a 53 win team, how in the world do you get a 50 win team? Either your logic is as broken as McLady or you haven't been watching Rockets basketball.

 

Well it's obviously not on those teams level.

We're a 3-5 seed more than likely in the West if healthy (mind you, every team has a ceiling IF HEALTHY, even the Lakers, Heat, C's, Magic, etc).

Rockets approach 50 wins last year if some people are healthy. Remember Lowry's NASTY ankle sprain? 4-8 without him.. With him? Hell, I'd like to think we push the 50 win plateau if certain guys aren't out. (Lowry, Ariza, etc).

It's only July. Am I one of those guys who use that (only) all the time? No. But look at it for what it is. The Rockets still have plans. I seem to recall the 2008 off-season being lazy, and "bad" to some, then July 29th came around.

 

Lol, I meant 2 years ago. My bad.

 

What happens when you set a bar for yourself on Brooks and some team signs him above said bar after you lost Lowry because you didn't match? Keep in mind that this could very well happen.

Some team with cap space just saying "f it" and giving AB Rudy Gay money.

 

So Kyle Lowry is worth LESS than Chris Duhon or Luke Ridnour to you??? Because they got 4 million dollar deals. And Lowry is hardly a 2nd tier backup PG, he may be the best BACKUP pg in the league.

 

Strange statements. Brooks will demand double Lowry's contract? I doubt it.

And would you explain "2nd tier" bench players? I bet Daryl Morey believe Kyle Lowry is one of the best 6th men in the league, just a hunch...

 

They can think all they want. Thinking by a player doesn't set the market value of the player. Actual offers from teams do.

I am sure Ricky Davis thinks he's worth a lot more than he has actually made in his NBA career-- and leebigez probably thinks the same.

Given that Lowry is just one guy out of 400 NBA players, whether he gets paid $6 mil a year by the Cavs or by the Rockets is likely to have a minimal impact on the actual market value of Brooks, Scola, or frankly any other NBA player. It might have an impact on their "thinking," and even that is doubtful. If the Rocket's don't match, can't Brooks just "think" "Hey, Cavs are paying my former backup $6 mil, so I am worth at least $12 mil?" Can't players "think" they are worth a lot of money based on Lowry's $6 million just the same if it comes from Cleveland? Can't players "think" they are worth a lot of money based on Tyrus Thomas' contract, John Salmons' contract, Amir "a mere" Johnson's contract already?

 

Lowry doesn't set the market for Scola. The Cav's set the market for Lowry and some other team will set the market value for Scola. And if you read my Rudy Gay example above it will explain why you need Lowry so you don't get your hand forced in signing a ridiculously stupid offer to Gay. That above all showed me how stupid the memphis staff is.

 

6mil for Lowry is too much, but 12 mil for AB?

I'll take two Lowry over one AB in a split second.

 

That has nothing to do with Lowry, it has to do with what other PFs have received this offseason

Amir Johnson and Drew Gooden are getting close to 7 mil a year

Darko is getting 5 million a year

Scola is exponentially better than them, that is why he will get 10 million