I'm getting the feeling any deal that moves Hakeem will be a MONSTER deal. It sounds as if Hakeem/Fegan wants a high dollar contract, so in any sign and trade will have lots of salaries moving around. My best guess is that Fegan is commanding 10 mill for Dream AND a resigned Shanderson and Moochie. And the hold up is the fact that the Rockets don't want to give up Mo, and Mo doesn't want MCE, and Mo comes at a higher priority than Shanderson and/or Moochie. Something big will go down, the question is, when? ------------------ "I always thought Hakeem was the better offensive player and DRob the better defender." Spurever Shaq would probably agree.
I am even a harder-liner. I would not have offered him 2 yrs, just more money. My negotiation stance requires me to also be a hardliner to Shandon and tell him that he's not getting the Early Bird maximum. I am still curious whether the sum of Dream and Shandon's contracts has anything to do with Fegan's calculations. I still negotiate with Fegan that I can go up in price on Dream, but that takes away from Shandon and likely involves releasing him--based on math. But I will not give you 2 yrs guaranteed, you can forget that. I would eventually fall back to 2yrs at $4.1m. But I would have made that my last offer, not my 2nd one.
I think Newbiehad nailed it. And Will... my thoughts exactly. I've noticed that we don't hear much from our other free agents (except Bull, and that was prompted). They're sitting patiently waiting to begin negotiations with the Rockets and not shopping around? I doubt that. I think the Rockets have made offers to them, they're satisfied, and everyone is just waiting for Hakeem to make his decisions to announce everything. If he leaves, sign everyone else and go shopping with what's left. If he signs, everyone else does too. If we can move salaries and increase his share, all the better. ------------------
Wouldn't it be news if Shandon and Taylor fired Fegan..... ------------------ "How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak. Because someday you will have been all of these." [This message has been edited by RichRocket (edited July 29, 2001).]
What is it now? More than 10 days have passed since FA's could be signed. The lack of activity kind of leaves us twisting in the wind. I trust CD, he is very good at this. I don't think he would allow "High Noon with Hakeem" to drag out if it seriously imperiled signing Mo, Mooch, Bull. My guess is that the framework of agreements with those three are already in place, and they have verbally agreed to allow Rockets mgt. a window of time to sign Hakeem. The question is "when does that window close?"
