It seems like Houston is where players go to die on the downside of their career. Other than Mutombo, our aging vet signings have gone poorly. I'm not saying we're the worst organization in the NBA, but if you look at the teams who have won titles in the last 25 years, Houston and Detroit are probably at the bottom of any FA's list. Since Houston isn't as renowned of a city as the others, the Rockets organization needs to stand out above the others.
Seeing as we haven't had significant cap space since the Pippen signing, who are all of these elite FA's that we pursued and missed out on?
You forgot to mention that according to Charles Barkley Less Alexander owes him over $3 Million .. I agree with some of what you posted but not all.
Houston is obviously not the most classy or most generous organization in the NBA (which is saying a lot) Right now the trend for Houston has been to take undervalued players... and value them a SLIGHT bit more. In other words take guys like Landry or Scola who weren't even really wanted elsewhere and get them pretty cheap for a few years. For those players, having a shot is better than not having a shot so even lowball tactics is acceptable. If you're talking about high priced free agents the ballgame is different and in those cases yes you are probably right. Houston is not a particularly attractive destination. Houston is an average if large market and the team is an average however promising team. The arena is an average but modern arena and the owner is an average owner. If you go to NY or the Clippers you might get paid more and get treated more generously and have a better lifestyle But the hidden message here is that Morey and Les think those types of players are actually NOT WORTH the money... if they're cheap or frugal it's because they dont think Arenas or Amare or whoever is worth $18 million a year. they'd rather work harder and find a bunch of undervalued players rather than take a big swing on a bet big by overpaying a free agent. that's the type of team we have. either support it or get off the pot. actually Morey and Les' approach could well work... we'll see next year by the trading deadline how well that strategy actually pays off in the NBA
Remind me again who are the big name free agents that the Spurs have signed? Mavs? Lakers? Suns? Celtics? Cavs? Who are all of these classy teams that have big name free agents flocking to them? Orlando made McGrady public enemy #1 and then they ran Steve Francis out of town too. Yet Rashard Lewis didn't seem to have any problem signing there once they offered him a max deal. Funny how it didn't seem to be an issue to Rashard.
I went back and re-read the original post and got a good laugh. Not a whole lot of basis if fact here. We "abused" Carl Landry, huh? Ok, let's take a closer look. Since Landry was a 2nd round pick we could have signed him to a 3 year deal for less than a total of $2M over the life of the contract. Instead, we signed him for 1 year at $427K. We then resigned him for $3m/year. So, if we had signed Landry to a 3 year deal then he would have made less than $2M total after 3 years. Instead he ended up making $6.5M after 3 years. Most players would love to be abused like that. Budinger signed a 4yr deal that pays him right at $3M over those 4 years. After 4 seasons Budinger will make less than $3m and Landry will make almost $10M. Yeah, I can see where that would scare off free agents. Some more revisionist history. Bonzi wanted to play for a contender and the Rockets ruined his career? Bonzi was traded to the Hornets, right? He played for the Hornets after he left the Rocket, right? In '08 the Rockets finished 55-27 which was 3rd in the Southwest division. The Hornets won the Southwest division in '08 with at 56-26 record. So, a) the Rockets didn't end Bonzi's career, he played for the Hornets after he left here. b) he went to a better team so he had an even better chance to play for a contender. Are we to believe that the Hornets not bringing Bonzi back the following year or anyone else picking him up is somehow the Rocket's fault? Do you think that possibly the fact that Francis couldn't practice two days in a row without his knee balooning up had anything to do with the fact that he's no longer in the league? McGrady would have made the team better? The Rockets sat him simply out of spite? McGrady could have made us one trade away from being a contender? Once we got to see McGrady play the remainder of the season those things sound pretty silly now don't they? McGrady wasn't going to contribute anything this year and the Rockets knew it. This was validated by McGrady's performance once he got to NY. The Rockets were only sitting McGrady to collect insurance money? Let's see, your original post was from February 2010. Once McGrady played in a game (Dec. 2009) then insurance stopped paying. So at the time of your post the Rockets hadn't been collecting insurance on McGrady for two months. Nice picture of Hakeem. Do you have any of Shaq in a Heat, Suns or Cavs jersey? How about a shot of Michael Jordan in a Wizards jersey? Pat Ewing in Orlando or Seattle? You really should post those and then big name free agents won't want to go to LA , NY or Chicago either. Do you realize that the Raptors ended up paying Olajuwon $17M over the next 3 seasons and he played a total of 61 games over those 3 seasons? Are you saying that you'd prefer that it would have been the Rockets tying up that kind of money?
What is this thread about? How we "ruined" Mike James? I think his performance ruined him. Bonzi Wells was had an attitude, and you don't like that we didn't make him our mvp? Come on!!! This is a business. Chuck Hayes has been very good to the Rockets. Do you want to keep him as our starting center rather than go out and get someone taller/better, out of loyalty? I'm all for taking care of our players, but this thread is pretty dumb.
