Two weird misconceptions about Bosh and NBA player acquisition

i thought morey's job was to build a winner without having to find a batman. that's sort of where moneyball came from. i've always thought the rockets (under morey) were working towards a balanced team of potential all stars, like the recent pistons championship team.

you're argument about building a team around max contracts (a la the tmac/yao era) is a good point. however, back then the team was trying to find a supporting cast through bargain basement free agent signings. morey's strategy is to put a supporting cast together through the draft. younger, cheaper, longer contracts than the previous strategy. i believe this is the way to be successful around cumbersome max contracts.

lastly, i agree with your concerns about the new CBA and the cap implications of signing a max contract this year. you really do have to think about that type of commitment. however, so should the teams signing guys like lebron, wade, amare, johnson, boozer, etc... there is no one like lebron, but even he can't win by himself if he is 40% of the cap space allowed. in the end i think it's better to have the great talent than to pass on it. almost every other team in the league is going to have a max contract going into the new CBA. we won't be any worse off than anyone else, plus we'll have bosh.

 

Are we talking Kelvin Cato's, or Green Hornet Cato's?

 

Just to clarify, I consider Chris Bosh a #1 option on a championship team. He just needs the right pieces around him, namely on the defensive side.

 

No, you still need a healthy superstar in his prime, but unless you draft him, your best chance is to trade for him. That's where Morey Ball comes in. Morey buys low and sells high until he has the pieces necessary to trade for a franchise player. It's all about acquiring assets, and Morey shines at collecting assets.

 

are you even a fan of any of the Houston franchises? you routinely talk out of your ass and slam houston teams in just about every post.

 

I'm more concerned with what acquiring Bosh will actually cost from an asset standpoint than I am with what he'll make in terms of salary. Theoretically, even if adding Bosh's max contract hamstrings us in terms of roster flexibility, I still like Morey's ability to find cheap yet adequate, low-cost replacement players in the meantime. That said and knowing his ability to find diamonds in the rough, that process takes time so if acquiring Bosh costs us more than 1-2 key rotation players (Brooks, Scola, Battier or whoever) THAT is whenever I start having second thoughts since our level of play in the immediate future comes into question.

But overall, I agree with the spirit of this thread. Say what you want about Bosh but he's probably a top 10 player and would be our best player by a mile. It's no secret that a player of that caliber is going to cost you the max. It's a costly proposition but it's also a bold move and one that easily has the potential to put your team over the top -- championships are won in such ways.

I'm assuming NBA owners and GM's probably have at least SOME clue as to how the new CBA is going to shape-up and how to best position yourself to deal with whatever changes are implemented. If Les is cool with the idea and Morey finds the right deal that won't sacrifice our current level of play -- by all means, you gotta go for it.

 

Ridiculous.

The Rockets with Yao are better than the Bulls with Bosh. Thats maybe a 48 win team.

 

The larger point is that there just aren't many Batmans in the NBA.

 

Exactly!

 

If Morey doesn't land Bosh, it wouldn't surprise me if he backed off and waited until the trade deadline. Who knows, perhaps he can reel in a mid season bonanza two years in a row, but that means we'll come perilously close to missing the playoffs. Again.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head there. Had tmac and Yao played more consistently we would not think of them as tying up our salary.

 

The one who used to kick robins ass :grin:

 

I think Morey's plan B is to aquire either Al Jefferson or Amare.

 

Regarding your "misconceptions"

A: The signing of Player is not bad by itself, however if you're the team with player A then if you have the exact same roster you're gonna get pwned by teams with player B and player C. This is the exact same reason why NBA championships over the last 20 years are won by only a handful of teams: other teams pay lesser players the same amount of money as teams with the best players in the world. Can you win? Of course, but the rest of your roster has to be killer. That's why although I'm in favor of getting Bosh, it has to be at a low price: no sense trading for him if we lose our best players in the process.

B: Overpaying a player is dangerous, and never a good idea no matter what the circumstances, specifically because of the cap that NBA has. You're bolded part is the main reason why overpaying is a bad idea, you can't spend money freely when you're over the cap! I don't get your logic, you're saying that because you can make money in the postseason its ok to pay Rashard the max? The cap doesn't take your financial situation into consideration! If you stuff your roster with overpaid players then you're gonna lose the ability to sign good players in the future.

Also Rashard is a bad example, the Magic's success is due to having an "underpaid" max player in DH. If DH got injured where would the Magic be? Do you think Rashard Lewis, their max guy is going to be able to carry the load? Hell no!

 

I think if you overpay someone because you expect them to live up to potential, that's usually a bad thing. That's probably why a lot of players on MLE contracts are overpaid. Guys like Swift, Diop, Gortat, etc. People throw the MLE at them thinking they are going to become solid players and they don't.

However, Bosh is already a legit star, and he's just entering his prime. I'd gladly give out a max contract for his production on the court right now, and I'm not expecting him to "get better".

Which brings us back to why overpaying a star isn't a bad thing. What overpaying does is basically make the guy untradable and prevent you from signing people under the cap. If Bosh ever comes to Houston, it's likely he won't be traded away as long as he's under contract. And we'll be over the cap either way so the second factor won't matter.

 

Again the issue is not "is bosh worthy of a max contract?". Its "what do we have to give up to get him?". Personally I think Bosh is worth a max contract because if you have the right mix of guys with him he can produce Gasol numbers.

However if you're talking about general terms, I have no idea why overpaying a star isn't a bad thing when you make the guy untradeable and it prevents you from signing people under the cap. Overpaying people is a bad idea. There's simply no upside to it. I mean the concept is simple you have a 15 man roster and you have a set amount of cap to sign these guys. Why overpay for a lesser player?

 

You make this trade simply for the fact that a superstar caliber player could be available to you for pennies on the dollar, in terms of assets.

Heck, you could keep him for six months and flip him at the deadline for a significant "profit", so to speak.

If he wants to come here, there is literally zero reason to not bring him here.

 

everything depends on the economy and market of teams. certain players get lucky (rashard lewis) and end up getting a lot of money when teams have money to spend. other players may have the same value but get a lot less because they may be a FA when the . bottom line: if teams have money, they will find a way to spend it on SOMEONE!

that being said, bosh will get a max contract this year because:
1) he's young
2) the number of teams that can sign a player to the max contract outnumber the max contract players. Let's say cleveland and miami resign lebron and wade. of course a team like NY or NJ is gonna try to sign bosh because they have all that money and there aren't that many remaining players they can sign with their money

this is all just my opinion btw (obviously)

 

Well said. You have very few opportunities to acquire players of Bosh's caliber so you don't pass up the chance.