They have until Oct 31st to pick up his option for 05/06. It's for $2.3M. It is way expensive for a scrub like Nachbar and there's hardly anything he can do meantime to prove that he's worth it. Nevertheless, I would vote Yes. It's true that Rockets screw up big-time, any person with even rudimentary knowledge of bball would have picked K. Rush or Tay Prince (and no, this is not hindsight, if you go back two years you'll see I was saying the same thing before the '02 draft) but now they have to pay (pay money that is) for their mistake. They can't go under the cap next season to pick up a quality player. It's better to cough up $2.3M for an overpaid Nachbar, than to lose him without any return. Plus they don't want to make Yao unhappy before his extension season.
do you realize where you're posting? this forum is full of boki lovers and im sure they'll be rippin you a new one for calling him a scrub...anyways i agree with you, hes aight and most likely wont get any burn again this yr with all the new acquistions, but we do need to pick it up.
For the small amount of money, I think you do it. If Nachbar blows up this season (unlikely, but it could happen), you don't have to worry about re-signing him in the offseason. If he doesn't, well, you have one more year of a smallish contract to deal with or you can work him into a trade. Since he was a relatively high draft pick and the team is thin at the three, better to secure him than to risk losing a POTENTIALLY productive player.
He is slowly showing improvement, especially defensively. At $3M who would you get instead? I say stay the course and then make a change after the season if he still isn't ready to take over for JJ...
I guess you have to keep him. 2.3 million isn't going to break the bank either way, and if he can actually be a contributor this season then it's a good business decision. If not then, he'll be an expriring contract next year along with Spoon so maybe we can get somebody for them.
I said "yes" but I really mean "probably yes". If he shows up at camp and just looks terrible, if we cut him loose I thihk we did the right thing. If he is injured, or shows up and is anything on the positive side of hopeless, its worth cough up the extra 1.8 mil or so (the difference between his salary and a young minimum player to replace him) to have a final looksee year.
you never know what JVG can do - maybe he can get Boki to play better D and end up being a nice role player off the bench ... of course JVG said (in referencing Boki) that the Rockets had the only Eurpoean player that couldn't shoot
Agree. Boki showed improvement in his game last season and he can only get better. All he needs is some PT and confidence, if JVG can get him to use his athletic ability on defense, I think everything else will fall into place. If not, its not like we are signing him to a multi-year deal.
My wife likes Boki and thinks he is cute. Maybe the Rockets should at least have one cutie on the team so as to please female fans.
and the Boki hating continues... i think as a business move you have to pick up the option. i know he showed flashes of LIFE against that lakers in the playoffs and we can judge him off that, but at the same time the guy has played about 4 min per game in 2 years.. JVG has to give him a chance this season... FREE BOKI
If we don't pick up the option, do we still hold Bird rights or do we relinquish those as well? If we keep them, then don't pick up the option. Make him earn his contract. If we lose Bird rights, I'll have to rethink it.
We'd have his bird rights, but I believe there's a cavet in the CBA that restricts the amount we can offer if we don't pick up his option. And he'd be an unrestricted FA, so he could up and leave regardless. Edit: Okay I found relevant passage in the Coon CBA Faq .
