ag contract is to small so no point in leaving him open. I think we should leave cato, mo, and spoon unprotected.
To find out just what Steve Francis' value is on the market, we should leave him unprotected. I doubt the Bobcats would take him with his salary and that would be very telling once and for all as to whether or not the Rockets could get something decent in return for Francis in a trade.
Uh, brilliant. To find out Steve's value on the market, place him on the market which only allows one team to take a shot at him? So much for the traditional "placing calls around the league". A.) The Bobcats take him, and you just lost one of the most marketable players in the league, and for all his flaws, one of the top players in the league, for a giant trade exception. Whoopdeefreakingdoo. B.) The Bobcats don't take him, and you've got a pissed off max player on your hands who doesn't fit the team anyway. See: Pippen, Scottie. That's a sure fire way to change a Rasheed Wallace return into a Kelvin Cato/Walt Williams return.
Or we can keep him and allow him to continue to decrease the value of the franchise. I must admit, it is a pretty tough situation for the Rockets. I think they're going to have to accept that they made a mistake signing him to a big, long term contract and accept that they are not going to get anything good in return for him because his rep around the league seems pretty dismal. But that's just me.
As a fan, you might want to keep MoT and Cato. As a GM, you leave both MoT and Cato on the unprotected list and hope Charlotte is stupid enough to pick them. Both MoT and Cato cost 8-9 mil a year, even though they can contribute, the 8-9 million a year can get you a far better player than either MoT and Cato. If as a GM, you don't put MoT and Cato on the unprotected, you are dumb.
aelliott - It has been my conclusion for a long time now that since the Bobcats can take up to 29 players, it would be possible for them to take a high dollar contract like Cato (if left unprotected) and then see what deals they can put together to bring in 2 or 3 players equalling Cato's contract before they complete their roster of 14. It appears that Stern is going to allow for the possibility of 15 "voided" or unused contracts. Have you at all factored in this type of scenario?
I am with you to sign Swift or Camby. Rashard Lewis and Erick Dampier will be FA this year, better PF for us. The Rockets have been paying so much money for PF which is still our Achilles' heel. The Rockets gotta retool 4th spot. Since Cato can backup both C and PF, I prefer him to Taylor. But if no GM wants to take Taylor's contract, Send Cato anyway. We need a true PF. I'd protect our stars and low salaried guys but FA. Protected list: 1. Yao 2. Francis 3. Mobley 4. Jackson 5. Boki 6. Griffin 7. Pike 8. Cato(not sure)
