Getting Vince Carter is depending on one person.... LES Alexander!! Pay the TAX LES...trust us.. you will get paid well enough in return.. why?? because the Rockets will be on national TV espn... abc.. more than enough to get your wallet to fill up with all greensss
Great post. That essentially touches on every single criticism out there of VC. He's clearly still a superstar and the idea of taking a #1 option guy like that and making him our 2nd-3rd option that could thrive off of double teams is too tantalizing.
This is a fantastic post. I had a lot of questions about VC b/c I don't watch him play much, but your post just answered them. Well done! I don't think it would happen, but I'd love to see Carter on the Rockets.
We are already in salary cap hell and you guys want to trade away all our expirings for 5 more years of not having anything more than the mle. Carter has one of the worst contracts in the nba. He is obviously loosing a step or 2 and has quit on his last 2 teams. He is also fairly injury prone and getting long in the tooth. Morey will never be stupid enough or desperate enough to take on Carter for 5 years. It would absolutely take us out of the 2010 free agent market, which is outstanding. Look for us to package our expirings and a draft pick or 2 at the trade deadline for an upgrade at swing with a reasonable contract that expires in 2010.
Waiting for 2010 is both a while to wait and likely even more risky, or at least as risky as trading for a Vince Carter type player. Yes, there could be a lot of good free agents in 2010. Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade, Joe Johnson, Ray Allen, Rip, Lebron, Melo, T-Mac, Durant, Josh Howard, Dirk, Amare, Bosh, etc. But as with every year, that list will get widdled down by players who re-up with their own teams. Next, look through every team's current projected salary for that year. 60%+ of the teams in the league currently could also be significantly under the cap for 2010. So now you're potentially left with a smaller FA group with a bunch of teams bidding on them. Not to say that you still couldn't land a bonafide superstar type player. You could. Of course, you'd no longer have T-Mac at that time. But even considering you are still saying let's hold out until 2010. But you also wanted to acquire Vince. And let's further assume to get Vince, you have to at least give up Battier. Now, the contracts you have on your books for the 2010 season would be Yao ($17.7 million) and Vince ($17.3 million) = $35 million. You have a team option on Aaron Brooks (if you still have him), and T-Mac is a free agent. If the Yao, T-Mac, Vince trio didn't work, you don't have to re-sign T-Mac and can still participate in that summer's free agent feast. What if you liked T-Mac better? Re-sign him then. The good thing about Vince is that the next season would be his last guaranteed season, after that it's a team option - which could/should make him an attractive trade piece. So you could re-sign T-Mac and trade Vince for one of the FA's listed above in a sign and trade. Don't like either. Fine, don't re-sign T-Mac and still try and trade Vince. Point being, using a free agent class that is 2 years away as a reason to not trade for someone right now doesn't make a lot of sense. You may not like Vince Carter for other, legitimate reasons, but I don't see salary future constraint as one of those reasons. For people complaining about Les' potential unwillingness to go over the luxury tax, again, you got to give to get. There is some wiggle room - what 25% plus $100k - but for the most part, if the Rockets we're going over the luxury tax with Vince, they likely were going to anyway.
We should go get Wince, b/c then CDR will get more run and I will win my bet with moestavern19. That is very important. j/k
I just wanted to point out that Carter's contract doesn't run for 4 more years. Not unless the team wants him to stay. The 4th year is a team option. It would be an absolutely crazy move, and incredibly unlikely to happen, in any event, but I thought the contract facts should be pointed out. Carry on.
my 1st reaction was like "is that T-Mac for Billups + Prince trade rumor still alive?" if we can acquire VC for expiring contracts (BJax + Francis) + Battier I'd trade T-Mac+Brooks for Billups+Prince, in a heart bit. imaging: Yao Ming, Dorsey, Mutombo Scola, Landry, Hayes Prince, Greene, Novak Carter, Head, Billups, Allston, Brooks wow, Yao + Scola + Prince + Carter + Billups
That actually seems like a good line-up and we don't lose much, if not gain, defense in the process. Just seems kind of silly retooling everything. I wish it could happen though. Only thing is injuries once again between Yao and Carter (might even need a heart transplant again) and maybe even Billups. Prince is a soldier boy though.
Would you be so kind to back this comment up with some sort of theory or evidence of Vince Carter being lazy? Last i knew, to be an All Star, consistent scorer, and deserving of a max contract on the NBA level against the best players in the world, i'm just really curious of how one plays lazy during any single game. It's not like he's skipping practices either.
I must admit my original response was a bit knee jerk but the admittedly few games I have seen Vince play the last several years I have not seen him as the missing link for our team. When Tracy's contract expires in 2010 we will need lots of room to find a replacement. Yao should be in his prime (if he ever will be giving injury history) and it will be time to re-load. Being saddled with VC's enormous contract would be a hindrance. We do need another scorer off the bench. I don't think VC would be willing to play a bench role. I doubt T-MAC and VC on the court is good chemistry-wise. There would not be enough balls (in more ways than one) to go around.
Vince isn't a ball hog and perhaps you missed T.Mcgrady's lengthy post pointing out how most of Vince's criticisms are easily debunked with simple research?
If we acquired Vince Carter without giving up Yao, McGrady, Battier, Scola, or Landry, I think we have become the prohibitive favorites to knock Boston out for the Championship next year. 111 + VC and the rest makes us the best team in the West, unquestionably. Even if the Lakers acquired Artest, I'd still say we would be better.
If that goes down, I will be dancing outside ofthe Toyota Center.. but we still need some bench help... how about make a trade for Jannero Pargo??? hes definitely a better PG than Alston
Didn't say he was a ball hog, but Tracy, Yao, and VC require the ball a lot. If they don't get it they are not as effective. I disagree with those that think what we need is a 3rd scorer. Our starting lineup is plenty good enough, when healthy, to go all the way. What we lack is a backup swingman, backup pg, and backup c to spell our stars. VC does not fill that bill. IMO inserting him in the starting lineup with T-MAC and Yao would hurt our defense without significantly improving our offense (because any points he gets are just points that T-MAC, Yao, or Battier could also score.) We would be much better off spending > 13M on significantly better bench players than we have now. I also think committing to 4 years for a declining all-star will make improving the team in 2 years that much harder.
He's less injury prone at this point of his career than Yao and T-Mac have been lately. So wouldn't it be wise to have an extra star that can take over games if one's injured? We can also still get in on the 2010 market if we decide we don't want T-Mac anymore. However, hopefully by then we should be polishing 2 new NBA titles if we sign Carter. And with team options, we don't have to keep the guy for 5 years either. So don't worry about Lex's money too much. So again, what exactly is wrong with signing VC to our team and increasing our athleticism, talent and getting that 3rd scorer who's happens to be an All Star that covers up our weaknesses and turns them into strengths? I'm a tad confused how he doesn't make us better and a title contender next year.
Are you gonna answer the original question or would you prefer to give me a series of basketball IQ questions to gauge my level of knowledge?