I just wanted to see what you all thought of Marko Jaric of the Clippers. He's got great size at 6'7", is #5 in the league in assists per turnover, and top #4 in the league in steals per turnover. His shooting percentage is basically 40% but he still manages to hit a solid 3-point percentage at a solid clip of 37%. He's an unrestricted free-agent at the end of this season and with the Clippers high on Shaun Livingston, and never a franchise to hold back on throwing rookies into the mix, Jaric will likely test the market. Personally, I think he would be a great fit here as he emerges as a high-quality NBA starter, which would let us move Sura to the bench for a pretty solid and scrappy PG rotation. Picking up a guy like Jaric who is coming into his own as of late, we might be able to get him on the cheap which would leave us more room to shuffle power forwards, either in this coming offseason or down the road. He's big, young, athletic, plays defense, and keeps the turnovers to a minimum. Outside of his shooting % (which I think would go up with Yao and T-Mac drawing the defense), what's not to like? Your thoughts please...
Yeah he would be a great pickup. He looks like a fearless player with great determination who wants to win. I would trade him with Mo taylor+scrubs anyday
We can probably use our MLE on him this offseason, but that would mean a decreased role for Bob Sura and Charlie Ward, the two guys we signed to long-term contracts to play the point. If we can move one of those two then sign Jaric, our point guard position could be fairly strong. Jaric also has the size to play the two, but can he defend points as well as Sura can? Remember, he is a fairly slow 6-7 guy playing the point. This is where SupraJames can help us. He is a Clipper fan and probably knows about their players better than we can. Drop us a line!
I wouldn't mind seeing him in a rockets uni.............but I think our first priority should be at the PF spot
Well, getting Marko Jaric would be a plus for us, but I think we would need to get some trades going to ship maybe Ward and Taylor out for a stronger power forward and then try and acquire Marko Jaric. Or else we would be packed with point guards, and still leaving a gaping hole at powerforward. Personally, I think he would help us. He has a nice three point shot as opposed to Sura, he knows when to pass, and he gives us some size at point guard. However, from what I've heard, he isn't a great true point guard and might not be the playmaker that we need. Right now, we really need either a strong powerforward or a playmaking point guard. Sura and Howard right now are just filling in the holes and are doing a decent job, but for us to be contenders, we're still going to need someone better.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trip:</div><div class="quote_post">Jaric also has the size to play the two, but can he defend points as well as Sura can? Remember, he is a fairly slow 6-7 guy playing the point.</div> I certainly don't see many Clipper games, but I understand he's actually quick and explosive, and a tough defender. Also, he's only making 2.1 million with the Clippers, so we may not even have to use our entire MLE to bring him in. On top of that, Mutombo (4.5 mil), Barry (1.5 mil) and Bowen (0.8 mil) all come off the books after this season. That's 7 million freed up, although I'd like to keep Barry for another year or maybe two. So, considering keeping Barry, we're looking at about 11 million (freed cap + MLE) to throw at a PG and PF next year. I think Jaric could be had possibly for 4 mil, and that leaves 7 mil for a PF which sounds about right to me.
From my understanding of the salary cap situation of the NBA, freed up cap space doesn't necessarily translate more freedom to sign free agents. For example, if a team is $20 million over the cap and they free up $10 million, they are still over the cap, which means that they still cannot take that $10 millions freed up and sign someone else. All they can do is use the MLE. However, if they freed up $25 million, they would have $5 million extra to spend.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trip:</div><div class="quote_post">From my understanding of the salary cap situation of the NBA, freed up cap space doesn't necessarily translate more freedom to sign free agents. For example, if a team is $20 million over the cap and they free up $10 million, they are still over the cap, which means that they still cannot take that $10 millions freed up and sign someone else. All they can do is use the MLE. However, if they freed up $25 million, they would have $5 million extra to spend.</div> Yeah the NBA salary cap is unique because it allows you to go over the cap when re-signing players. In other sports if you can't afford to re-sign a player in other sports it's tough luck. I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to do that in the NFL or NHL. I know thta the Denver Broncos had to forfeit a draft pick this year for going over the salary cap in a previous year. Anyway, i think this is correct, not 100% sure though
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting 32 PHX/HOU 1:</div><div class="quote_post">Yeah the NBA salary cap is unique because it allows you to go over the cap when re-signing players. In other sports if you can't afford to re-sign a player in other sports it's tough luck. I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to do that in the NFL or NHL. I know thta the Denver Broncos had to forfeit a draft pick this year for going over the salary cap in a previous year. Anyway, i think this is correct, not 100% sure though</div> Really? That should explain how the Knicks always get the phat free agents then. In that case, I wonder why didn't we sign a defensive power forward last summer? On a sidenote, James Thomas's ten-day contract with the Blazers has come to an end. Should we make a move?
This might sound a little immature, but are the contracts in NBA Live 2005 real? I would like to know the contracts of EVERY player in our roster and I think that checking it out in the video game might be the best way assuming the politics of the game are the same as in the real nba.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trip:</div><div class="quote_post">Really? That should explain how the Knicks always get the phat free agents then. In that case, I wonder why didn't we sign a defensive power forward last summer? On a sidenote, James Thomas's ten-day contract with the Blazers has come to an end. Should we make a move?</div> We were not able to sign a defensive PF like McDyess and Stromile Swift last summer because our primary concern was acquiring point guards thru our MLE. Besides Swift and McDyess are way too expensive even our MLE might not satisfy them. We have 3 PFs already whom we expect to play better with a dynamic core of TMac and Yao. Sadly they didn't. As far as I know an NBA team can exceed the salary cap if they "resign" a player from "their own roster" not from the free agent pool consisting of players from other teams or if they sign a player from the Draft. The Knicks are over the salary cap and has the highest payroll in the league because they resign the likes of Kurt Thomas, Houston and Tim Thomas to an unworthy multimillion dollar contract. Of course the other amount added when they get players in the trade with a long term contract instead of getting players with expiring contracts that could help minimize their excess the following season. The Rockets might exceed again the salary cap because they have to sign Yao to a multimillion dollar contract this offseason. Other teams are able to sign quality free agents because they are well below the salary cap like Phoenix and Utah. Lastly aside from the $4.5 million MLE that we can spend on free agents this offseason we will have an additional $1.5 million exception which is usually given every other year. We didn't have that last summer so it means we can have it this coming offseason. We also have the $5M trade exception that we can use to make up for the amount if we trade a low value contract player for a high value contract player.
You brought up phoenix, and maybe this shud be on the suns board, sorry bout that but I'm surprised that they would be under the salary cap after signing Nash last year, and even if they are under, they are going to have to resign Amare to a HUGE deal by the looks of how he is playing this season. I agree that Houston will have some salary problems next year at least due to the resigning of Yao. With Motumbo's contract expired, that helps, but we have a big problem with Mo Taylor. His contract is huge and i think there might be 2 or 3 more years left in it. Not to mention that he's gona be on out IL the whole time and no one will trade for him unless they want to gamble.
I think that NBA Live 2005 uses real, if not close to real, contracts, so you can probably find out through that. Blueracer, thanks for the explanation, it answered all of my questions. In that case, it doesn't seem like we'll be under the cap anytime soon, with T-Mac, Yao's pending extension, Howard and Taylor taking up almost all of our cap space. I guess we'll have to be mediocre for a while now, as it is unlikely that any team would want Mo Taylor or Howard.
From the site I'm looking at (which will remain nameless in this thread), it looks as though Yao has the following contract: 2004/2005: $4,436,880 2005/2006: $5,594,905 2006/2007: $7,273,377 (Qualifying Offer) Did something happen recently with Yao's contract that I'm not aware of? Because it seems like we don't have to touch Yao and Tracy's contracts for a while, yet you all are talking about giving Yao an extension at the end of this year. Maybe I'm misinformed?
Teams can sign players to a long-term extension at the end of their third season. For Yao, it will be this coming summer. Say he signs a 7-year extension, that extension will kick in once his rookie contract runs out, which would lock him in Houston for the next ten years. Steve Francis, Shawn Marion and Baron Davis all signed extensions after their third seasons, and Richard Jefferson is the latest example. I think the max extension for Yao would be 7-year and around $85 milllion.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting dakeem1:</div><div class="quote_post">You brought up phoenix, and maybe this shud be on the suns board, sorry bout that but I'm surprised that they would be under the salary cap after signing Nash last year, and even if they are under, they are going to have to resign Amare to a HUGE deal by the looks of how he is playing this season. I agree that Houston will have some salary problems next year at least due to the resigning of Yao. With Motumbo's contract expired, that helps, but we have a big problem with Mo Taylor. His contract is huge and i think there might be 2 or 3 more years left in it. Not to mention that he's gona be on out IL the whole time and no one will trade for him unless they want to gamble.</div> Sorry for not being clear on the Phoenix salary cap issue Dakeem1. What I mean is, Phoenix and Utah were able to sign Steve Nash, QRich, Okur and Boozer respectively last summer because they are well under the salary cap. For the next season I agree with you that they'll gonna exceed this time because of Amare signing a big contract as well as Joe Johnson who's serving his final year this season. You're very much welcome Trip. I just hope the Rockets would use the $4.5M MLE and the additional $1.5M exception with a total of $6M to spend wisely on a quality PF with good post up, rebounding and defensive skills this summer. If there's any amount left then signing a point guard would come to mind. Another thing is if we can get a steal(pure talent) in the coming Draft though I predict we will be drafting in the late teens or early twenties it will be a big boost for the team. Lastly Dakeem1 you can check the salary and contracts of each NBA player on USA Today website. On the sports section go to the NBA and then click the salary Database and it will display the players names alphabetically. Clicking on the player will display their salary and years remaining on their contract. I don't if they have one ready for the 2004-05 season but they have the 2003-04 season ready to be accessed.
