How do you know Rudy Gay will be a star? J.Will, Walker and Posey. The Heat just won a title with them. Fisher, Fox and Horry. The Lakers won titles with them. Smith, Cassell, Thorpe and Maxwell. Hakeem won a title with them because he sacked up. Alston, Battier and Howard are not bad role players. They just aren't studs.
Yeah we would have a 37 year old fart on hand. This Management is still the dumbest fckers ever!! Mike james should not be a 3rd option on a good team with vision. Compare Dallas and our situation. The mAvs are only looking for a piece that will get them over the hump of getting a Championship. MJ is just some more depth for them. In our case we need him to be a 3rd scoring option and to save us from an abismal upcoming season after they traded our youth and athelicism personified in the top 8th pick and Stro away for an inbetweener Battier. MJ and Batter are not impact players. We should have gotten a whole lot more than what we got from giving Gay and Stro away. If we couldn't get fair market value for them NOW then we should take the gamble of allowing them to play for half a season before dumping them for any offer and relying soley on james to salvage our off season. This freaken management is full of tunnel vision and transaparency. Every GM could read our cards of what we want and need as if we printed a blueprint of the schematics for our 2006/07 season on the net.
But do you understand how much power a trade kicker would give a guy like Mike James over the Rockets? It's a little scary if you think about it. Sometime around mid-season when the Rockets hit a few bumps in the road, he could literally say, screw this, I'm tired of this, I'm playing for the name on the back of my shirt from now on. And there is nothing the Rockets could do about it. Except bench him. But are they going to bench a guy they are paying 5 million a year. He knows they are not going to do that. he probably wouldn't do all that you know but you can't you just can't give any player but especially a player who changes his tune as often as mike james does that much power over the organization.
What I don't get is why people are defending this. The alternative was Marcus Banks, and Banks is a major downgrade from James. And to reportedly gamble that James would take a hometown discount after they stupidly dealt him to Toronto is beyond reproach. It's like the Rockets can't decide which way they want to go. Deal young players for good veteran in Battier, but then lowball the best free agent fit available that would make the team MUCH BETTER.
Of course it's import to him. It's guranteed 6 mil. It's more important to him than to Rocket. He is worth 6, 7 mil for at least two more years.
This is the same person who would be b****ing 4 years from now when we are completely cash strapped and paying an injured 36 year old $6.4 mill to sit at the end of our bench.
THANK YOU!! I totally agree. We just need a bunch of solid role players around our inside-outside combo. Hmmm, when I think of someone with those qualities, I think Shane Battier. Check.
We were looking for a 3rd option for SCORING! someone who would also help stretch the Defense even more. I understand basketball.....do you?
people are saying its okay as long as he does not go to dallas guess what, even without mike james, dallas is still good.. they didn't even really need hin in the first place.. they might probably pickup a decent post guy.. as for us, we traded gay and stro for battier because it allows us to "win now" a proven veteran but comes up a year short to signing the best proven veteran for the MLE..
There are some CLASSIC Mike James quotes in that chron article. He called Toronto Antarctica. Basically, the reasoning behind the player option and trade kicker is that he wants another contract after this one. To him, the MLE is a crap deal.
couldn't have said it any better. this offseason has been an absolute abomination so far.... "win now" my ass, we aint winning **** with this team. no-names like Banks (who?) and Ariza (who???) may help us get to the playoffs, but they're not getting us anywhere near the championship. this has been an incredibly frustrating offseason so far.
Yes on all accounts. Among, Tmac, Yao and KG, KG is arguably the best player and certainly has carried his team farther in the playoffs (WCF). James and Foye is going to be MUCH better than the Rockets backcourt (unless we move Tmac away from the position he has been most effective). Despite the Rockets undervaluing him twice in two years he gave the Rockets evey oppertunnity to match a very reasonable offer for him to return home. This ain't good folks, we have a schitzo organization that can't figure out if it wants to win now or build 5 years out.
First of all, I am disappointed. However, I can't blame Mike James for taking the best contract he could get, especially in light of how the Rockets traded him for .... Alston. Second, James had to be looking at the way Rockets management treated Stromile Swift after Swift made monetary sacrifices to be a Houston Rocket. James probably was asking himself -- like most free agents out there now and in the future -- "where's the loyalty?" I'm a Rockets fan tried and true. I wish the Rockets management were too.
