I don't know why the Rockets wouldn't take him back. If he comes back as half the player he was, he's still the best scorer on this team. Him coming back would make life easier for everyone, especially if he's healthy. And the only way they're going to get anything is by letting him play and showcasing what you have. If you let him rot on the bench all season, you're going to pay him his $23.2mil to do nothing, which is stupid. This smells like a Marbury-esque situation all over again.
if he comes back as half the player he was last season, he'd be the least valuable player in the league. i just can't see tmac helping the rockets this season. he had microfracture surgery what 9 or 10 months ago? i mean, why is he supposed to be at full strength right now? and knee surgery doesn't exactly fix the back problems that he's had. his value in a trade right now is simply his huge expiring contract and nothing more. a team looking to get rid of longterm salary will be interested. but i can't see any reason the rockets should be interested in playing him. there isn't a scenario in which i can imagine him being more deserving of minutes than battier or ariza and there's absolutely no way he'd be happy(or even helpful) seeing budinger's minutes. so why should they play him?
You overrate his trade value. It's really not big at all, and it's because of his contract. Unless a team sends back a star of their own, there's no way they're going to be able to make salaries match without sending back at least 2 or 3 players. And generally speaking, when people bring in someone on a trade, they want to know what he's capable of. No one knows what TMac is capable of at this point, and that's going to be a red flag when bringing him in.
how am i overrating his trade value? i said that tmac the player has absolutely no trade value and that teams are only interested in trading for his contract.
Yea, and no team is going to want to trade for that contract, much like no one wanted to trade for Marbury's last year. They're going to have to buy him out if they want to get rid of him. His contract is basically untradeable because the receiving team would have to give up either a superstar in return (not gonna happen), or 3, 4, maybe even 5 mediocre players, simply to match that $24mil salary. If you want to trade him, you're going to have to play him so he can prove those GMs out there that he can still play and make a difference. If not...Daryl Morey and co. might as well start talking about buyouts now, because his contract is, as I mentioned, almost untradeable because of how big it is.
I like to think T-Mac is stuck with the Rockets. Sure Morey could trade him to Cleveland for Zeke, but Houston doesn't want to see him succeed anywhere else...similar to Orlando, and Toronto. How much playing time the Rockets give him is up to the organization. His performance determines how much PT he receives.
Ironically TMac's first game this season could be the All-Star game. He's the second leading vote getter at the guard position. BTW I was in Houston for a layover flight and saw a fire sale on TMac jerseys. $7.99 each
