Never before has there been so many teams so far under the cap to sign Max players and so few legitimate Max Players available. New York, Miami, Chicago all have enough cap to sign 2 players. The Nets, Clippers and Wolves have enough room to get max players and there are a few other teams that could make a couple of trades to get there too. The problem is there aren't enough quality players left to fill all of those spots. If you trust the rumors, the Bulls already got Lebron and Bosh rapped up. Amare is already visiting Doctors in Miami plus Joe Johnson loves it there. New York just traded their whole future away and may end up with Rudy Gay and Carlos Boozer. Is that really better than the team they had last year? I think not and see them lottery bound for the next 5 years... (WOW are picks look sweeter by the second) That's all fine and dandy. We have some really valuable future picks. But my point is if all that transpires a lot of teams with cap space will come up empty handed and will be scrambling and may overpay for someone like Scola or David Lee. I think Scola will definitely get at least 8 million but with the situation some team might be stupid enough to pay 10 Mil plus. WOW! Okay the guy is a winner and hustler but 10 Mil+ is too much in my books even for one of my favorite Rockets. Seriously Scola has a lot of intangible but when Landry was here Scola was on the bench in the fourth quarter. Anyway just a thought to ponder in the current free agent chase. If it comes down to a figure like that I would rather sign a Boozer or maybe even David lee (Considering of course Amare and Bosh are not available).
A move for Anthony Randolph would make sense in this type of situation, seeing a none of the top free agents will come here.
something doesnt add up. rumor has it Les will only pay lux tax to amare or bosh. we aint getting them. so resigning scola to 8-10 million plus yao plus lowry is obvious tax territory. so unless battier is dumped in the season for an expiring i dont see how. i wouldnt be surprised if a gm talks morey into us giving up knick pick 2012 + battier just to remove his 8 million salary from tax this year. no team is going to take battier for expiring, battier has negative trade value, we will have to include a pick just to dump batter (think bulls hinrich this draft)..i dont see yao signing for 10 million per. i bet yao gets max for 4 years,gets injured this year and everyone cries for 4 years.
I say we just cockblock whoever NYK is going after so that we can secure a great pick atop the lotto next year.
This is what happens when you start a thread with no analysis. 1. Scola is a very good PF, but this year has a very strong group or PFs, who are also unrestricted. Bosh Amare Boozer Lee Scola <- #5 at best 2. Why are you listing teams that have no chance of offering Scola's an offer sheet. Minnesota is looking to trade Jefferson to get rid of their PF glut. Clippers have Blake freaking Griffin, whom they cleared out Zach Randolph to make way for last year. NJ is not going to waste its capspace on a non-star since they're rebuilding... not to mention they just drafted Derrick Favors. Just because a team has money to offer Scola a nice contract, doesn't mean they'll spend it like that.
I like Luis very much,but I too wouldn't overpay him. Let him walk if he gets too much. Battier's expiring by itself doesn't amount too much,but some team might want him for his defense. Jeffries plus Battier equals to 14M of expiring contracts which might appeal to teams wanting to save money.
We'll see how market play out. There is always a chance that Scola will get and accept an unreasonably large offer, but I do not see recent events making that scenario significantly more likely. There may be teams disappointed after missing out on the top guys, but I can't see a GM justify to his fans and to ownership having dumped salary, picks, and talent for the chance of overpaying 30-year-old Luis Scola. I imagine the Rockets's first choice would be to retain Scola at, frankly, preferably an unreasonably low contract because of his restricted status. If, on the other hand, they find out a high offer is coming, I'd think the team will still maintain publicly that they wish to match, just to extract some consideration from a team that wants Scola. By the way, there are certainly luxury tax implications to signing Scola (and Lowry), but my guess is that part of the math isn't as significant as the raw salary number for them. For example, if matching a Scola starting offer at $6 million next year causes them to get into tax, I'd think they still match because even though they will pay more (unless other salaries are dumped), Scola is still an asset at that relatively low-ball salary.
Rumor doesn't have it, that's something that you stated...nobody else. You claimed that you had inside info, remember? Nobody else has said that anywhere. Can you show me a link to where anyone other than you has said that? So let's think about your inside info. So you mean that if Lebron, Wade or Dirk wanted to play here we'd turn them down because we'd be over the tax threshold? Sorry, I have a problem with that one. I'm going to file that one alongside your "no free agent will sign here because of the way we treated players" and the "Morey doens't know how to manage the cap" claims and I'm guessing that this one will be equally off-base. Now in one sentence you say " wouldnt be surprised if a gm talks morey into us giving up knick pick 2012 + battier just to remove his 8 million salary from tax this year." . Ok, you just stated your opinion but then in the next sentence you say "no team is going to take battier for expiring, battier has negative trade value, we will have to include a pick just to dump batter (think bulls hinrich this draft)" and you state it as fact. Based on what? Your opinion from the prior sentence? Show me any credible source that has indicated that Battier has no trade value.
i hope ur rite cuz if not PF becomes a position of need altho we have yung budding 4's theyll get eaten alive rite now.. there are desperate GM's out there so Im sure some1 will do somethin stupid.. afterall, Verajao is makin 50 mil so its not far fetched Scola could fetch that either
if scola receives a contract so large that rox does not match, I'll be happy for scola. He deserves it. Yes I'll be extremely sad to see him go, but I would still be happy.
9 teams with capspace to give Scola a contract the thread OP is implying. Of these.... 4 will sign Bosh, Amare, Boozer, and Lee... On the off chance the Rockets get Bosh instead of one of these teams, I'm sure no one cares too much about Scola leaving. 4 has no need to get Scola due to their own roster makeup... They are Sacramento, Minnesota, OKC, and LA Clippers. The only team that may even consider offering Scola a big contract would be NJ/Washington, whichever one did not sign one of the unrestricted FA noted above. And quite frankly, the odds that either one would give Scola a fat contract is slim to none. The thing about the Rockets tax problem is that it will only last one more year. Hayes, Battier, Andersen, Jeffries, etc. So it's not really THAT big of a hit on Les' pocketbook. I'm sure Morey will find ways to save Les money in other ways to make up for it.
It'd be pretty funny if New York, after having whiffed in FA, offered Scola a max contract knowing we wouldn't match. Some small payback for screwing them in the T-Mac trade. Knowing this wouldn't happen, though, and no other team with cap room looking to use it on Luis, I imagine we'll keep him for the MLE.
Well, we would have the last laugh when we collect our #2 pick And meh, though I highly doubt a GM as skilled as Presti would overpay Scola, I don't see why the Thunder couldn't use him, as their frontcourt offensively is rather weak. Scola could fill that need, but it's a moot point as the Thunder won't offer a stupid contract.
It could well play out that Bulls get Bosh; Knicks, Amar'e. Heat, Boozer (and resign Haslim). Clips have Griffin. Wolves are trying to get out of a 4. Nets, Lee. Scola? Back to Rox. 4-5 years, 40 - 50 mil. Not shabby, for Rox or for Luis.
Here are two possibilities without doing any research. First Derrick Favors is a project. They don't expect him to start right away and have not taken themselves out of the Bosh/Amare race. If they come up short Scola is the perfect power forward to play along side Lopez. Second Sloan says there number one priority is to resign Boozer. If that happens and the rumors of Bosh to Chicago and Amare to the Heat that leaves New York in Desperation mode to resign David lee but what if he doesn't want to go there and prefers the Clippers or some other team. Now New York is even more desperate to come away with something. They have no assets to trade for a big. Hence they overpay a free agent. I am not saying that will happen. No one knows exactly what will happen not even a pea brain like you, but it is possible. So Before you start spewing diarhea out of your mouth at least think a little bit. You don't have to agree with me. I don't expect that and in fact I do admire intelligent criticism but if your just going to spew negative crap at least have the bird brains to do do a little research on the other 100 possibilities that might occur. On a side note: Some Management like to accumulate assets and figure out the rest later. Here's one teams philosophy... "At 14, we're trying to identify what's the best talent available," vice president of player personnel Gersson Rosas said. "We try to stay away from just picking for need or picking based on what the market says. We want to identify the best talent. We don't want to leave talent on the table after we pick. I think you feel the pain of need through this process, but you don't want to ever make the decision based on need. As we look back at the draft, the mistakes that have been made in this league are made primarily because we let the pain of need supersede the talent that might be available. "We know the roster changes very quickly. Wings might be a position of strength right now. With a busy offseason ahead, we might make moves, and the depth at that position might be gone. We try not to let our roster affect it at all." The Rockets see Scola as an asset... and some other NBA Team may think the way of the Rockets too. How is that for a little research.
