12th Commandment: Thou shalt not speketh of Stockton or Malone in a favourable manner, ever. They suck, always have and always will. You are forgiven, don't let it happen again. Thank you.
If we trade Lowry is better be for a bonafide superstar. His production + contract is just too good for anything less.
If Morey continues his policy of not giving contract extensions, I can easily see how we will lose him for nothing. That is too bad, I like Dragic as much as Lowry. Both of them are fiery! Pay the man, Morey.
One thing to note is that Dragic's CAP HOLD is only $4mil until he resigns or leaves. This is important because if the Rockets sign or trade for a highly-paid player, reach the salary, they can resign Dragic to a big deal over $4mil and not get punished by the cap. This only helps us if we actually use all of the salary cap in the offseason. Otherwise, we have to absorb Dragic's full salary when it comes to cap purposes.
I think both Dragic and Lee will command around the 8 million range, however a lot of teams are trying to cut salary so that might be in our favor.
I don't see this as a tough situation at all. You pay him around the MLE which around 2 - 3 million more than he makes now (not that big of a difference) you pay Lee around the MLE, though he has a $3.2 Million Qualifying Offer next year. Not sure how that qualifying offer works. Bottom line is next year the contracts look like this: Martin - 12.9 Million Scola - 9.4 Million Dalembert - 6.7 Million (Team Option) Lowry - 5.75 Million Patterson - 2.0 Millon (Team Option) Morris - 1.9 Million Parson - 1.5 Million ? (Approximate) Not sure what his salary is. Budinger - .9 Million (Team Option) Right around 41 Million on the books if we pick up all of the options. So the roster without adding anyone is filled out as follows: P.G. - Lowry__________| ? S.G. - Martin__________| ? S.F. - Parsons_________| Budinger________| Morris P.F. - Scola___________| Patterson ...C. - Dalembert_______| ? The roster is pretty much intact from this year minus Lee and Dragic who are very important pieces to the puzzle! Who else are you going to pay to take the backup PG spot and SG spot that are of the same quality? I say its a no brainer, you pay them both and when possible, you move Martin for a Legit 2 way player and if you can move Scola for the same you do it. Just like we did this year. I don't see Morey letting either Lee or Dragic go. Right now letting Dragic walk would be Lin version 2.0. He won't make that mistake again. Period. Expect a Martin & Scola trade scenario round 2 over the summer, a big push for a high draft pick to get the best player available (a push for a big but if a stud 2 is available Morey will take him). I am 90% sure that we will sign Camby again for around $2 - 4 Million and he will be happy to sign it to stay in Houston and retire. By start of next year roster will probably look like: P.G. - Lowry____________| Dragic S.G. - Lee______________| 2012 Draft Pick S.F. - Parsons___________| Budinger__________| Morris P.F. - Scola _____________| Patterson ..C. - Dalembert__________| Camby___________| 2012 Draft Pick
I don't see any free agents worth using up our cap space... now if we can trade for a guy like Pau Gasol and eat his contract using our cap space, that would be good.
I read that and think - who cares? All I care about is that the Rockets keep the players that help them win, I don't care if Les Alexander has to inject ink into his pecker and uses it to sign our better players - just ****ing sign them. Cap hold, schmap hold - who gives a flying crap if the Rox are in Lux tax land? It is not my money, just keep the good players and jettison the flotsum. And if it costs Les, money - I am sure he can make it up when he sells the team. DD
A team is going to offer more than we are willing to play and I doubt he would want to stay here and play behind Lowry if he can start somewhere else. If he does want to stay here and his price is reasonable pay the man, if not let him go and try to bring in Llull. I dont think he will come next offseason, not sure about his contract situation with Real Madrid, but I think he will definitely be wearing Rockets red the season after.
I think there's a chance that Morey overpay a RFA hoping it doesn't get matched. Not sure if anyone's worth it. But you're right that no true UFA is worth a ton of cap room, except DWill who doesn't seem plausible at this point.
I definitely like Dragic more than Brooks, but it remains to be seen whether Dragic is starter quality in the NBA. He can put up numbers just like any other point guard when you give him minutes, and he finishes better than either Brooks or Lowry do. After that though I'll take Lowry still. Lowry's got more heart, more toughness, better defense, and their shooting is comparable. Salaries will likely be similar after this year, but both will want to start. Personally, after I've seen the ridiculous amount of depth and quality in NBA point guards the past five or so years, I'm ready to let Dragic go if someone reaches over the MLE for him which I believe will happen. We've got Llull waiting in the wings to replace him at back-up; I don't think anyone expects Llull to be better than him next year, but over the coming years he's got potential to and he will remain under our control. You'd love to keep everybody, but as the Texans are finding out now, you've gotta pay people according to their role on the team and not how long they've been in the league. A back-up PG is a back-up PG and not deserving of more than the MLE.
if Sergio Llull will be in Rockets uniform next season, then we will probably let one of them go.. if not, i can see the rockets will try to keep dragic. He is really efficient back-up pg
I agree. Look at J.J. Barea as the benchmark. Dragic will probably get more money than Barea; he is younger, bigger, and a better player, especially on the defensive end. But Barea's contract is a good starting point. I would say multiply it by 1.5x and you have Dragic's likely payday--$27M over 4 years. That is also similar to what Kyle Lowry is being paid.
Further elaborating. The teams put in bold have an imminent need at pg. Others are set or stacked at the position. New Jersey – Deron Williams [?] Testing free agency. D.Will might bolt for his home team who knows in the event the Brooklyn Nets will be in need of a pg. Do they want to embark on the future with Dragic as their starting pg maybe for the next year or two. Could see a $7M contract with a team option for a second around $9M to entice Dragic. Best option, big media market, starting, nice payday Phoenix – Steve Nash - Free agent - Nash is gone. Dragic has been here before & could be a great successor especially if Gentry is the coach still. Would he want to go back to a team that dealt him. HELL YEAH IF THE $ is RiGHT. Second option for starting & big money (if managements POV is tainted) Portland – Raymond Felton/Jamal Crawford - Felton a FA. Crawford is more of a 2 & sixth man type. Have $48M committed. Batum is a RFA though & is more of priority than a pg. Still would have MLE though. Fourth best option in regards to starting Utah – Devin Harris/Earl Watson - Unsatisfactory. Two lotto picks. NO pg worth the picks though in their range. Unless Rivers comes out which I don't see happening after last nights debacle. Atlanta – Jeff Teague/Kirk Hinrich. - Teague is decent, is he the answer though? Hinrich is a FA. $60M is committed to six players next year. Draft is their best solution. Orlando – Jameer Nelson - Could use a better pg but with $85M committed highly unlikely Toronto – Jerryd Bayless/Calderon - Combined these two are going to make $15M. Could use Dragic but can't afford him & are deep at position. New Orleans – Jarret Jack/Greivis Vasquez -Could use Dragic. These two are set to make $6M combined & with NO only having $35 committed outside of Gordon this could be a destination. NBA hasn't sold this team yet so its in the air on their future obligations. Where does that leave us with resigning Dragic? I say slightly ahead of Portland. We could offer MLE. Depends what we do in the draft, Martin, & Scola. Could possibly swing a deal to the following for a big. Far fetched but this is the land of far fetchedness (yes I just made that word up) Portland - LA (Martin, Scola, picks) Utah - Favors, Jefferson, one is disposable (Martin, pick) Toronto -Bargnani (Martin & pick)
