Not a knock on Cyberx by any means, but he could post "Sources: James Harden will not be traded this Summer".... and immediately half of the posts following would be like "OMG... TRADE HAPPENING.... HOPE WE GET LAWSON, or whoever." Not everything is a wink, wink... trade is happening tomorrow report folks. Could be that KPap is about to head on vacation, and had to fax in the paperwork before he left. That being said, yes, he's probably the most likely Rocket to get traded this offseason given the nature of his contract being fully non-guaranteed so you have that.
yes... pretty much the last prominent free agent left on the board that was worth anything more than a vet min contract was Marion... and people on here TRASHED Morey for signing Pap over him. Honestly I preferred to sign Marion of course, but certainly not with the full MLE, and certainly not with a guaranteed 2nd year. I would have to think that GM's saw how ragged the Mavs ran him into the ground his last 3 years in Dallas defending PG's on a nightly basis and had concerns. Obviously seeing the way he played in Cleveland this year (or didn't play), it just goes to show you that although some make mistakes, most of them do their homework. Similarly, its going to be very interesting to see what happens with Tyson Chandler this off-season. Will a team like Milwaukee give him a close-to-max type of deal? Will most the rest of the NBA be leery because of the mileage he's had the past few years? I think Paps was a great signing because he was either going to have his talent transfer to the NBA, and be a very solid rotation player, or he wasn't and then his contract would lend itself to being a great trade asset. It was either one or the other. People here trashed Morey for "over-paying" an un-proven Euro player by NBA standards, but had no idea what he had done with his contract that negated the dollar amount, and actually created a very nice asset either way for the team.
If Morey thinks like that he's some kind of weird genius. I thought there were better ways to spend 10M to tell you the truth.
A trade must be in the works very soon for the option to be picked from now. I hope wherever he ends up he is given a chance. Or if hes waived another team takes a flyer on him.
Oh no, now they know all our secrets! Ive always enjoyed reading both of your posts, thanks for the info. We all saw this coming, we saw the Ersan trade announced yesterday, hopefully Morey does what he does and improves the team again this off season, getting an early start.
What, are you kidding? As soon as Morey gave Papa that contract it screamed "trade asset". $4.8 million per year, two years, team option on the second year? For Morey such a contract is catnip---no; not catnip. Crack.
They didn't spend 10M. They spent 4.79M. The folks that see that contract at face value, and see Papanikolaou as a 10Million dollar 2/year player are totally mis-understanding contract value. I don't think Morey thought he was a genius. He knew that it was give and take. He knew they could not bring him over without paying him enough to satisfy his contract needs that would equal his contract in Europe + his portion of the buyout, but he knew he couldn't take on long term risky contracts. What Morey did was tell Paps "I will significantly over-pay you in year one if I can have this contract situation in year 2 in order to have the flexibility I need to trade you or waive you if you don't work out". It was a win-win for both parties. A Shawn Marion or Ray Allen would never have agreed to that. Also... how would you have spent the 4.7 million in cap space? Look at who was left, and tell me who would have made a greater impact than what Paps did before getting injured?
Rockets' salaries available for LMA sign and trade: KP $4,797,664 Prigioni $1,734,572 T Jones $2,489,527 DMo $2,288,205 Dorsey $1,015,421 Johnson $ 845,059 Total $13,170,448 Plus $5,000,000 salary difference allowable for trade over $10,000,000, that means LMA could get a first year salary of $18,170,448 on a four year deal.
http://www.sportando.com/en/usa/nba...option-on-kostas-papanikolaou-s-contract.html Confirmation from sportando.
Please tell us how, because frankly KPap's contract is one of the trade-friendliest in the league. A non-guaranteed $4.8m team option in the second year? There was literally nobody else even available at that time (outside of old Shawn Marion), so this was the best option on several levels.
He doesn't give up any flexibility. In fact, he probably gains flexibility because now Kpap can be traded.
Aminu hadn't been signed at the time when negotiations were continuing between K-Pap and the Rockets. The Mavs signed him for 1.1 M for 1 year. It was an anti-Chandler Parsons move, which was beneficial for them. Don't think I dislike K-Pap, but Aminu is better than him.
