Sporting News: Free-agent market is reduced to leftovers

*ouch thats pretty discouraging..

especially when Lue is a second tier PG (servicable backup) and we are looking at 3rd tier PG's as starters. haha

oh well I felt we would be better off with Lue/Gaines than some of these FA PG scrubs. I dont think we will find what we need in free agency and hope we can pull off a good trade or just stay pat and have Lue/Tmac/JJ share ball handling responsibilities.

J

 

So let's hope for a miracle, some sort of trade (JHoward?) for signed and traded Jamal Crawford or some such player.

 

The author, Sean Deveney, needs some type of summer dilemma to write about in order to justify gettin paid by The Sporting News. Since there's really not much to come up with, he decides to manufacture this urgent and postseason-threatening PG quandary down in Htown. In order to make the storyline work though, he typecasts the characters (Barry, Snow, Lue, Jones, James) into leveled tiers that would be widely recognized and accepted by any self-respecting bball expert. Yes, old man Barry who couldn't guard his own granma and keep her from getting to the cup and Snow who can't throw a stone in the ocean if it's from 23'9" are no doubt better PG options for us than lowly 3rd tier screwups Jones n James

 

The ones that were signed were pretty much leftovers, too.

 

Exactly. I mean, is Snow and his poor shooting and bloated contract really that much better of a solution than Damon Jones? I liked the idea of Brent Barry and Derek Fisher, but do I really want the Rockets paying them $15 million when they are 37??? Uh, hell no.

 

They can think all they want, but we are going to be just fine. Damon Jones or Mike James will solidify our point guard slot with Lue. I mean during the Lakers championships they never had an all-star caliber point guard. Neither did the Bulls. What they both had were players that made great role players. I think what the Rockets organization has realized is the cliche: "Rome wasn't built in one day." So if the point position works this year thats great, but next year they might decide to pick someone up to make them even better.

 

Everybody seemed to be all over Derek Fisher. I mean Fisher was great for the Lakers, but he will never be great like a lot of these teams who were chasing after him thought. I remember even Luc Longley getting a fairly large contract once he left the Bulls. Its as if owners look at players that were on a championship team and think "Hmmm...maybe these players were part of something that they could bring to our team. Do they know something that we don't?" Then they throw contracts at them that are a ton more than they are actually worth. I think Fisher is worth about $4 million. I think $6 million is quite a bit when Mobley is making right around that much.

 

Agreed, the problem with the article is that only TALENT is being evaluated. Is Barry better than Jones? yes, But is Barry better if he has a 4 year deal at 25M versus Jones a 3yr deal at 11.5? Maybe not. Economics are involved but the writer doesnt work that into the equation.

 

To be honest, I would've loved to have Barry but I had my concerns.

I think Mike James would be excellent, and I think Damon Jones would be just fine as well.

Lue CAN play 25 good minutes, and that leaves 23 minutes. Mike James can play 23 very good minutes. I think these guys can do a really great job for us, and if we get lucky, Gaines may surprise us. But even if he doesn't a combination of Lue and either Jones or James would be perfectly fine.

The important thing is to have one of these guys before training camp to make sure they absorb everything and get molded into the PG we need.

Don't forget, Lue was accused of draining the shot clock last season, which is a quality we're trying to lose. Damon Jones is probably much too used to playing a very fast paced game, so we need to get that out of his system. That's why I prefer James - he comes with a championship ring playing on a team that plays with the effort and pace that we want to use. All he has to learn is to dump it in to a very good post player.

 

The only thing I agree with the author about is that Lue and Gaines are not the answer.

Other than that, I really don't care that we "missed out" on overpaying a couple of guys in their late thirties and trading for a guy that really isn't any better than the third tier guys still available.