Vassilis Spanoulis agrees to 3-year deal with Rockets

Sorry, but you're confusing it with the Lower Level Exception of about $1.7 million. That's every other year, and since we used it on Derek Anderson last year, we couldn't use it this offseason.

The Mid Level Exception can be used every year as long as you don't have too much cap space in which case it wouldn't matter.

 

hope he does well, wish we could have seen him in action during the summer league

 

Not just FA but quality players that saw an opportunity to win in Houston. I know including S.Pippen will be looked upon harshly but he was seen as a great addition at the time. We can't forget the trade that brought us Drexler and Barkley, but they both wanted to come to Houston to win a ring and it worked out for Drexler. Even guys like Kevin Willis, Glen Rice, and Jim Jackson who were once go to guys for their respective teams were decent signings.

The Rockets have been in a dry spell lately. The last big signing of course was T-Mac and it's been a few years now since that trade went down. I know Swift was seen as a good acquisition, but we know how that turned out.

 

Manu 1st season he played 21 MPG, he has never, not in his 4 NBA seasons, broken 30MPG.

Jasikevicius, considered the most NBA ready and mature guard direct from Europe--like Manu and international star and the best guard by a mile in Europe at his time, played 21 MPG last year on a team with their #1 PG down most the year.

If VSpan plays 30 MPG either our other guards must suck terribly or he is the biggest surprise direct from Europe, like ever. If he can give us 15-20 productive MPG next year that is a bonus and above expectations. I just hope we don't get 10-15 minutes of suckiness.

Beno sucks, he couldn't beat out a broken down old worthless version of NVE for playing time. If VS is like Beno we have a crappy contract.

If the contract is 5mil or a tad over that would be something like 1.5mil 1.6mil 1.7m + 300K (buy out) right? Hopefulyl we have a team 3rd year option but we will see.

The MLE is 5.2 mil. This would leave say about 3.5-3.8 mil left--dending on expact contract details of VS. That is a decent chunk, and we could also explore the team losing their player to S&T using the 4.3 TE rather than the MLE--particularly usefull for restricted FAs (Fred Jones, Arizra, etc).

So I am fine with the overall strategy, though again I hope we have a year 3 team option, that would only be fair given the amount we are paying for an unproven 2nd round draft pick.

I don't think any team will offer JL3 more than the minimum. But if teams offer a 2nd year guaranteed he should jump. Given him a player option further could sweeten it. 2 years 1.4 mil (min for 1 year player) with a player option on year 2 would be a great deal for him.

I think the TE is up to 4.3 and I think we have more like 3.5 to 3.8 left of the MLE. We may have our cheaper Korver in Novak, I think we would look for a different kind of player, another athlete/guard or brute 4/5.

 

Agreed...Although, he has to be better than Rafer and Head...

 

So is the amount deducted from our MLE the 1st year salary, or an average of all 3 years of the contract?

 

This is a GREAT signing. He will be an excellent fit, and will rock with TMACa nd Yao. This guy knows hoops......just watch. IMO we have done a great job this off season, again, props to CD. Mike James, kiss my a$$......

 

Hopefully he is a Tony Parker.

 

Were we really targetting these players?

Maybe we didn't want to overpay them like the Suns did with Banks. Or didn't even really want Flip as he isn't that good (wow a few games with ray Allen gone sure made his name for life).

This year was a terrible free agent crop. I'm glad that we were responsible and haven't signed any free agents to poor contracts.

Mike James was a mistake. We shouldn't have denied the trade kicker, but I'm not really sure he was going to sign with us anyways. I think he was still bitter about the trade and was just using us to drive his value up.

 

3 years for 5 millions in total, this is actually the highest price ever offered to a 2nd round pick. I hope he worths it...dun put V pan on the 3rd pg position..he needs to gain more minutes to develop.....but sigh...develop young man is never in the dictionary of JVG...thaz too bad...

 

are you serious?

 

Man those Euro crowds freaking rock, the American sports fan could really take a page from their book. It has got to be a blast to in a stadium like that, the only thing we have that even comes remotely close over here are the Cameron Crazies. That being said I like the signing, I just hope Vassilis isn't someone who needs to feed off the energy of the crown

 

It's been two years since McGrady. You can't be serioiusly asking a team to have a Superstar or All Star demanding to be on the team every other year. In fact, since McGrady moved, has there been a real superstar demanding to move to another specific team and got moved there? No superstasr is demanding to be moved to the Lakers, the Mavs, or the Pistons, either...

Moreover, the team doesn't have the money (or the wilingness) to pay another big contract anyway. (In fact, a part of the reason why those Pippen/Barkley teams never won it was because they had so much money committed to the (aging)stars they didnt' have a good enough cast around them. )

They got a useful Sura in 04. They got the guy they wanted in Stro last year. Others they were interested in (Walker, Simmons) got way more money than the MLE. This year, they lost out on Mike James over the trade kicker, and really were not hot over any other free agent.

I just think fans are overreacting to Rockets not signing a couple of mid level free agents who. There are 29 other teams out there, you can't sign everyone. The important thing is they got some guys-- Battier, Snyder, etc who are ready to step in and contribute.

 

Finally some news!!! The team will look very different this year with Battier and V-Span. He will give us some nice options but does he even play defense!!!

 

The outlook is better right now than immediately after the draft, but we still have some huge holes. Even if the improbable happends and Sura comes back, we still have to hope T-mac and Yao come back are 100%. I would pu the depth chart like this:

Rafer/ V-Span/ JL3/ Sura
Snyder/ T-mac/ Sura/ Head
T-mac/ Battier/ Novak/Bowen
Battier/ Howard/ Hayes/ Bowen
Yao/ Deke/ Howard

This leaves us with one roster spot and a little room with the MLE and the TE. Or we can sign Lonnie Baxter for the minimum or maybe resign Richie Frahm.

 

Well said!!

 

It is hard for me to decide how i feel abou this signing. I am exited but I can't tell if it is really just because we haven't done much else.

You never know how an overseas player's game will translate to the NBA. I watch the film on him and to be honest i didn't see anything spectacular about him. The V-Span/Tony Parker comparisons are outrageous. This dude does not have Tony P speed. Although i do like his willingness to penarate. He wasn't too expensive but it did dip into our MLE.

I think a big problems that we all are missing is what to do about the PF position. Howard won't get it done and Novak is strickly a skinny shooter. We do play in a division where we have to play Duncan, KG, Pau, Brand, and Dirk not to mention others.

I think it could be a good move but we still have not upped our squad to compete with the rosters of Dallas, S.A., and Pheonix. Maybe there is a strategy here, but i think we are getting too exited over this aquisition just for a lack of movement by the Rockets the rest of the Off Season.

 

Does this mean no JL3 or JL3?

 

I found his stats for this year and his assist/turnover ration is not good for a point guard. He has more assists than turnovers in less than half his game. Don't know how that will translate to NBA, but I would think he'd encounter more pressure on the ball here than playing in Europe.

Hope the Rockets pursue Lucas. He's a true PG, not another undersized SG.

 

I can see why we shouldn't be too excited and happy, but I guess I'm optimistic that we still have Tmac and Yao. Tmac is still a top player and I believe in him, and Yao did really well and I expect him to be a dominant player this year as well at the 5 position. And I guess that I'm just excited because something happened.