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Did everyone see the RJ article that he was interested in returning to the Nets but they didnt want to pay him 50 mil for 5 seasons, instead they signed outlaw for 35 mil for 5 seasons? I thought our new owner was supposed to have deep pockets and want to sign the best players available. You cant tell me the Nets are better off with Outlaw than they are with RJ. Granted Jefferson was only a really good player because of Kidd and hasnt been anywhere up to that level since those days, but I cant grasp how the team didnt want to pay him when all the buzz about Prokhorov was that he was filthy rich and was willing to shell out money to improve the team. I mean really what did they use the extra 3 mil per year for?

Giving Jefferson that contract would have been a huge mistake. Did you see him play last season?? sure he's playing great now, but no one could have expected that with the horrendous season he had last year. Besides, even with the way he's playing this year he isn't worth 10 mil per season... and I'm a big Richard Jefferson fan.

Future cap space doesn't care about how deep someone's pockets are. Paying RJ 10 million a year would be a horrendous decision for this team.

Well, I look at this situation as two separate things.
First, would you want a 30yr old RJ back for 5yr/50 mil? No. Why pay him 10 mil per til he's 35? I liked him when he was here but we are trying to go young and rebuild so I see why they didn't do it.

Second, would you want a 25yr old Outlaw for 5yr/35 mil? The answer should have still been no especially from what we've seen this season. But you can't look at them together and say only 15 mil more and we would've have had RJ instead. They're two separate instances, both which the Nets should have said no to. Unfortunately they only denied one of them.

Revolutionistt wrote:Did everyone see the RJ article that he was interested in returning to the Nets but they didnt want to pay him 50 mil for 5 seasons, instead they signed outlaw for 35 mil for 5 seasons? I thought our new owner was supposed to have deep pockets and want to sign the best players available. You cant tell me the Nets are better off with Outlaw than they are with RJ. Granted Jefferson was only a really good player because of Kidd and hasnt been anywhere up to that level since those days, but I cant grasp how the team didnt want to pay him when all the buzz about Prokhorov was that he was filthy rich and was willing to shell out money to improve the team. I mean really what did they use the extra 3 mil per year for?

Well, there's thing called cap space that's useful for many reasons. An extra 3 mil year is quite a lot and we don't need to use it for an older, declining RJ.

Personally, I wouldn't mind giving Outlaw's contract to RJ. But definitely not the one he's asking for...

Who cares if RJ is 30. He was a fan favorite and I bet if he came back the crowds would be more excited which = more energy for the team. Plus he is better then outlaw and probably always will be regardless of age.

I think I would trade Outlaw for Diop right now and he's out for the season with a torn ACL.

If you think we should have signed Travis Outlaw instead of Richard Jefferson, you're mentally unstable.

Travis Outlaw is one of the crappiest basketball players I've ever seen.

JErving wrote:If you think we should have signed Travis Outlaw instead of Richard Jefferson, you're mentally unstable.

Don't think anyone's saying that...shouldn't have signed either.

Let's just say it like this, Travis Outlaw facepalmed when they offered him that contract.

Ok you all bring up some good points, but he was willing to play for NJ. They didnt even try to negotiate with him they just said no and moved in a different direction, and that direction was Outlaw. So Im not only questioning the willingness to spend Im also questioning the basketball IQ. Because honestly even before this season was Outlaw really that good? I mean I never thought he was this bad but was anyone out there really thinking to themselves Oh yeah Outlaw that guy is really good he can help a team out.

TrOut was not on my top-10 list of SFs, and he's proving why he wasn't. In retrospect, we really could have done without ANY of our offseason moves. Wouldn't we have been a better team if:

-- we kept Yi Jianlian and Courtney Lee (didn't acquire Troy Murphy and Quinton Ross)
-- didn't sign Anthony Morrow, Travis Outlaw, Jordan Farmar and Johan Petro

Sure, Morrow and Farmar have had their moments for us, but couldn't Lee do basically what Morrow does? We could have acquired a cheap short-term contract like Telfair for nothing but capspace, and might have been just as well off.

We could have acquired one or more '11 expirings for alot less than Troy Murphy cost us (remember OKC getting TWO 1st's for absorbing Kurt Thomas and his $8mil expiring? Yeah, why did we have to GIVE UP youth and not get any picks to take on a bigger salary?!?! Thx, Billyboy), to get just above the salary minimum. Then, we'd have been ion a much better position to trade for the kind of salary DEN is asking us to absorb for Melo.

I'm not saying I 100% endorse the Melodrama, but IF that's the direction we wanted to go in, we should have planned for it all offseason. The moves our FO has made seem so short-sighted and riddled with counterproductive shuffling (Lee out, Morrow in; Yi out, Murphy in) that I can't help but think that we lack a clear and decisive leader at the top.

Sure, Morrow and Farmar have had their moments for us, but couldn't Lee do basically what Morrow does? We could have acquired a cheap short-term contract like Telfair for nothing but capspace, and might have been just as well off.

No, he can't.

I'd do the Morrow signing again without any regrets. He's the perfect role player.

ecuhus1981 wrote:TrOut was not on my top-10 list of SFs, and he's proving why he wasn't. In retrospect, we really could have done without ANY of our offseason moves. Wouldn't we have been a better team if:

-- we kept Yi Jianlian and Courtney Lee (didn't acquire Troy Murphy and Quinton Ross)
-- didn't sign Anthony Morrow, Travis Outlaw, Jordan Farmar and Johan Petro

Sure, Morrow and Farmar have had their moments for us, but couldn't Lee do basically what Morrow does? We could have acquired a cheap short-term contract like Telfair for nothing but capspace, and might have been just as well off.

We could have acquired one or more '11 expirings for alot less than Troy Murphy cost us (remember OKC getting TWO 1st's for absorbing Kurt Thomas and his $8mil expiring? Yeah, why did we have to GIVE UP youth and not get any picks to take on a bigger salary?!?! Thx, Billyboy), to get just above the salary minimum. Then, we'd have been ion a much better position to trade for the kind of salary DEN is asking us to absorb for Melo.

I'm not saying I 100% endorse the Melodrama, but IF that's the direction we wanted to go in, we should have planned for it all offseason. The moves our FO has made seem so short-sighted and riddled with counterproductive shuffling (Lee out, Morrow in; Yi out, Murphy in) that I can't help but think that we lack a clear and decisive leader at the top.

Agree with everything here except the Morrow signing. After seeming him play for us in a slow paced system, I don't love him as much as I did on GSW, but he was a solid signing none the less and I would do it again.

jeff1624 wrote:

Sure, Morrow and Farmar have had their moments for us, but couldn't Lee do basically what Morrow does? We could have acquired a cheap short-term contract like Telfair for nothing but capspace, and might have been just as well off.

No, he can't.

I'd do the Morrow signing again without any regrets. He's the perfect role player.

Yea you can't hate the Morrow signing.C.Lee wouldn't even hit the rim sometimes and he'd be wide open.

Yo Jeff get that gamethread up!!!

stevieboy wrote:

jeff1624 wrote:

Sure, Morrow and Farmar have had their moments for us, but couldn't Lee do basically what Morrow does? We could have acquired a cheap short-term contract like Telfair for nothing but capspace, and might have been just as well off.

No, he can't.

I'd do the Morrow signing again without any regrets. He's the perfect role player.

Yea you can't hate the Morrow signing.C.Lee wouldn't even hit the rim sometimes and he'd be wide open.

Yo Jeff get that gamethread up!!!

Not to mention his career highlight is missing the game winning layup vs the Lakers in the NBA finals. And no Im not a Courtney Lee hater. Just thought Id point it out.

Signing Travis Outlaw at 5 year $35 million instead of Richard Jefferson at 5 years $50 million was the correct move.

With that being said... Signing neither of them would have been the best move.

Also it seems like some people are STILL living in fantasy land when it comes to cap space and salary dumps.