Emeka Okafor

KT for Okafor - Pull the trigger?


  • Total voters
    134
paul is hurt right now.... oddly enough he is their highest paid player... i like paul too much to have him play here because he will end up injured for life if he did.

i wouldnt want lebron here either for the same reason. i like him too much as a player to watch him get hurt.
The point is to win a championship. How can you watch and root for a team with the hopes that someday they will win a championship if you're convinced that their highest paid player is doomed.

I don't feel like looking it up, but I'd imagine that there has never been an NBA championship won where the teams highest paid (and therefore one of their main contributing) player was either out with an injury, or received an injury which seriously crippled their career.

You continue to talk about not wasting the cap space in the hopes of bringing in a major player with that cap space. If you're convinced that whomever we do end up bringing in will get seriously injured I just can't figure out why you'd even care one way or the other as to who we brought in.
 
This post is suspiciously errant.

Obviously the traded twice in one year is silly, given that the second trade would be the one where he came to us. That would mean we would never want anybody who had been traded for by another team? And givne the team's financial motivations for doing so, is a doubly weak/nonexistent point. If NO's payroll was $40mil we wouldn;t be having this conversation.

Announcers selling a shaky fanbase on a new acquisition = yes, gee a shocker. We have NEVER seen that here in Kings land or elsewhere around the league...except with every single player ever acquired in a trade or drafted. Salesmanship and rah rahing are part and parcel of local announcers.

As to the last, or rather the first, I have long had a vague feeling that Okafor's impact did not quite equal his stats. He is not a personal favorite and if we were trading Jason and Hawes for him and saying this is the guy who gets us to the promised land by himself, I'm concerned. Picking him up for free, however, to be the third big in a strong trio and I'm not so concerned. His weaknesses can be covered, and his strengths utilized. He doesn't have to be dominant every night. And most of all, he's the rare bird in his class of players who is actually available. If one pops open, is relatively young, and costs you little in the way of talent...could be 5 years before you have another legit shot at one.
The salesmanship could have been because of the team falling apart. But Emeka's production was obvious.

And here, since the post was eaten or whatever, there are second tier guys worth going after. This team shouldn't be allergic to capspace. The team should be patient and not try to make all the quick moves to run back to mediocrity. I'd rather trade for picks than for young centers who already look old and have long contracts.
 
Worth mentioning is that from what I've heard Okafor is a great character guy.

I say make this happen. This is the perfect time to pick up talent on the cheap, when everyone else is gearing up for a huge bidding war this off-season. Much better than actually trying to take part in said bidding war.
 

Larry89

Disgruntled Kings Fan
I can only imagine how much better our defense/rebounding would be with okafor

off the bench Hawes/Green/Casspi/Brock? daaaaaammn
 
A

AriesMar27

Guest
A couple of notes.

Peja Stojakovic is actually the Hornet's highest paid player. And, its Okafor.

Also, pull the trigger, pete.
first, paul is their highest paid player at 13.5 million, peja makes 13.3 million. pauls extension just kicked in, peja was their highest paid player and peja has played how many games for the hornets while he was the highest? how many did he miss? he played 13 games his first season with the hornets as their highest paid player...

plus im referring to our highest paid player... they get hurt, thomas has never been hurt, and hes never been our highest paid player.

okafor was injured his first three seasons with the bobcats and oddly enough he was their highest paid player... once he wasnt, when wallace was resigned and they added jrich he was fine.

im just saying....
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
The salesmanship could have been because of the team falling apart. But Emeka's production was obvious.

And here, since the post was eaten or whatever, there are second tier guys worth going after. This team shouldn't be allergic to capspace. The team should be patient and not try to make all the quick moves to run back to mediocrity. I'd rather trade for picks than for young centers who already look old and have long contracts.
It wasn't eaten. It was spun off into its own thread.
 
And Emeka hasn't been injury free for two years. He was out of preseason with an injury. Timing wise, he didn't miss any games, but its still an injury.
 
first, paul is their highest paid player at 13.5 million, peja makes 13.3 million. pauls extension just kicked in, peja was their highest paid player and peja has played how many games for the hornets while he was the highest? how many did he miss? he played 13 games his first season with the hornets as their highest paid player...

plus im referring to our highest paid player... they get hurt, thomas has never been hurt, and hes never been our highest paid player.

okafor was injured his first three seasons with the bobcats and oddly enough he was their highest paid player... once he wasnt, when wallace was resigned and they added jrich he was fine.

im just saying....
This shows Peja as the highest paid
http://hoopshype.com/salaries/new_orleans.htm

feel free to continue linking some voodoo to the highest paid player. It's entertaining
 
The 2 big things that scare me about this trade is that Okafor is injury prone and – if I’m not mistaken – has 5 more years on his contract. That’s a long long time to have a guy that has a problem staying healthy. I’m not future teller but if he can stay on the court then maybe, but he scares me.

I think the question then becomes – do you/we/kings organization think we can land a great player in free agency? Do we have a decent shot at maybe Bosh or someone else? Or do we take a big risk in trying to acquire a player that has a long heavy contract (Okafor)?
This "Okafor is injury prone" talk is SO old. He hasn't missed a game in the last 2 seasons!

Okafor is less injury prone than Martin who has never played 82 game season in his life.
 

Entity

Hall of Famer
so how serious are these talks i wonder? Is New Orleans really willing to only take back KT? Or do they want something else? Is this something that could go down soon or is this talk for 2 months down the road?
 
A

AriesMar27

Guest
read it again. The voodoo is you linking salaries (whatever they are) to predicting injuries.
you call it voodoo, but all i am saying is that there has been a pattern. when hasnt it happened? this team is cursed when it comes to injuries to our highest paid players...

if we trade for okafor he will most likely get hurt and then we'll have post from other posters talking about how arco was built over and indian burial ground.
 
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I find it increasingly funny that people are scared off by the size of Okafor's contract.

I have one question for you, how is this any different to the potential FA signing in the summer? We are not going to sign anyone unless we overpay in terms of money per season and the length of the contract.

Okafor has not missed a game in the last 2 years and is getting paid what is the going rate for a defensive center in the league. If we were going to sign anyone in the summer it would still be for 5 year $50-60 million deal. No one will come to Sacramento unless we overpay.

I sense that if Okafor was actually a FA this summer, many of you that are crying foul of his contract now would welcome the idea of signing him up for a similar deal in the summer.

He is the type of player that we need and is getting what is a market value for his contract. He is a double-double with 2 blocks on nightly basis and has been his entire career. As steady as they come.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
Reminder: You can have a spirited discussion without the insults or snide comments. Thanks...

And see, AM27? This time I wasn't actually referring to you.

:)
 
A

AriesMar27

Guest
Reminder: You can have a spirited discussion without the insults or snide comments. Thanks...

And see, AM27? This time I wasn't actually referring to you.

:)
i also didnt start it. see.... i told you that i dont start these things, lol... :cool:
 
I voted "leaning towards yes," but if Kayte will comfort me, you can change that to "Absolutely!"

I'm not the world's biggest Okafor fan, and would have preferred a younger player. But he's the biggest piece missing from our puzzle, so I couldn't really turn it down.
 
A

AriesMar27

Guest
i have another idea.... how about we add a third team into the deal?

kings trade
thomas
kings receive
camby or kaman(works financially either way)

hornets trade
okafor
hornets receive
thomas

clippers trade
camby or kaman
clippers receive
okafor

either we get camby and his expiring or kaman who has 2 less years on his deal with better numbers than okafor...
 
I find it increasingly funny that people are scared off by the size of Okafor's contract.

I have one question for you, how is this any different to the potential FA signing in the summer? We are not going to sign anyone unless we overpay in terms of money per season and the length of the contract.

Okafor has not missed a game in the last 2 years and is getting paid what is the going rate for a defensive center in the league. If we were going to sign anyone in the summer it would still be for 5 year $50-60 million deal. No one will come to Sacramento unless we overpay.

I sense that if Okafor was actually a FA this summer, many of you that are crying foul of his contract now would welcome the idea of signing him up for a similar deal in the summer.

He is the type of player that we need and is getting what is a market value for his contract. He is a double-double with 2 blocks on nightly basis and has been his entire career. As steady as they come.
Yeah, I agree with you. If we let KT's contract expire we are going to throw money at a FA this summer, and if its someone that will help this team and make a difference, the contract will be similar.

My main concern with passing on this deal is that we are taking a risk by hoping we'll get a better player at a better price this summer, which I don't see happening. There aren't any FA bigs out there as good as okafor. And no, we're not getting bosh or amare. Take them out of the equation and we're left with perimeter players, which we don't need.

If we don't take this deal, or something similar, then we don't get much in return for Kt's contract. I don't want to spend the extra money we will have on another guard or small forward. If someone thinks we'll have better options in terms of bigmen on the FA market this offseason, please tell me who?
 
i have another idea.... how about we add a third team into the deal?

kings trade
thomas
kings receive
camby or kaman(works financially either way)

hornets trade
okafor
hornets receive
thomas

clippers trade
camby or kaman
clippers receive
okafor

either we get camby and his expiring or kaman who has 2 less years on his deal with better numbers than okafor...
You are worried about injuries then suggest we get Camby or Kaman? :eek: :confused:
 
The 2 million difference is one of the more enticing things for the Hornets in this trade, and the reason why most likely they will not ask for a young guy to be thrown in. The Hornets right now have 73.1 million in salaries. The luxury tax is at 71.15 million. The 2 million difference in salary will instantly save them 4 million because the 2 million doubles when in the tax. More importantly, you must be under the tax level in order to receive a share of the luxury tax money that is distributed among the teams at the end of the year. This year there looks to be over 100 million paid in luxury tax. So getting under the tax by 1 dollar would allow them to claim another 4.5 million or so, which is substantial, and would put the Hornets about 9 million up this year by trading for KT.
Where are you getting your numbers?

The tax threshold is $69.92 million. ($71.15?)

http://blog.nola.com/hornetsbeat/2009/07/nba_sets_luxury_tax_theshold_f.html

So if the Hornets do the trade that decrease salaries by 2.02 million for 09-10. (10.7975 - Emeka salary minus 8.775 KT salary).

Their total payroll goes from 73.162 to 71.14 million (73.162 minus 2.022).

They are still 1.22 million over threshold if they do the deal, per my numbers. Unless I am missing some non-guaranteed contracts? (Seans Marks, Ike Diogu) If they were to waive these two before the deadline, their minimum deals would come off the books. But as far as I can tell, they are guaranteed.

http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/hornets.jsp

I agree this deal would become a lot more attractive to the Hornets if they get under threshold to get their share of the escrow dollars, but I think they may have more work to do.
 
Yes a lot of money, but Okafor is more of a posative than a negative, if we can keep hawes I pull the trigger, hopefully they can throw martin in the deal in a 3 team trade