Rockets get Jackie Butler.

YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

I was bummed about not getting Tiago Splitter but this dude is the real deal. Scola is the best PF in Euroleague right now and Spanoulis (while extremely talented) was pulling a Jianlian and whining about wanting to get out.

Man, I've been critical of our GM but this is flat out incredible. We were talking about buying out his contract and instead we end up with Luis Scola. Butler is a nice addition, but getting Scola is what's key IMO. The Rockets already said they're signing him this year.

And best off, every SA fan hates this trade. Makes me feel very good.
 
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This is a steal for the Rockets. I heard an interview with Spanoulis earlier this year and I wasn't sure if he was joking or not-- it was all kinds of funny. As for Scola, why didn't the Spurs bring him over, was it his buyout? I remember reading he was complaining that if the Spurs weren't going to buy him out, they should trade his rights. It was kind of odd hearing someone talk so negatively about the Spurs.

Spanoulis for Butler would've been a steal by it self, but they also get the rights to another big man. Does this mean that Spanoulis is free to play in Greece? I thought he couldn't sign with any FIBA teams because the NBA held his rights.
 
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SacTownKid said:
I think Scola ends up like Bodiroga for us. He'll never come to the US.
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Nope he's coming. Our GM got permission to talk to Scola before the trade and Scola informally agreed to come over and sign a contract. He's even willing to help pay the buyout.

And somehow the Kings were involved in this... Check this out

http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2007/07/hitting_the_jackpot_rockets_la.html

The Rockets might have gotten lucky for more than the obvious reasons.

The Spurs were working on a three-way deal with the Kings and Cavaliers that could have included Scola. When they fell through, they moved to the Rockets deal, dropping the Jackie Butler salary.

They could still get in on that, having moved further from the luxury tax. Or the Cavaliers and Kings could make it work without the Spurs, presumably involving Mike Bibby. But the Rockets got in and out before Scola's deadline with Tau Ceramica. And in a way, it did not cost them anyone that was going to contribute next season.
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Well damn...

Damn...

Thats all I can contribute to not getting something done potentially involving either Scola or Butler.
 
I wondered if Geoff might have an interest in Butler or not. Have advocated trying to pick him up in the past.

Still a little confused why Scola WOULD come over for the Rockets, but would NOT for the Spurs (you know, 4 time titleists with as strong a history in signing/developing international players as anybody in the league)?

Hard to understand the Spurs interest here. Do they believe in Spannoulis that much?? Even if they do, what's he going to get, 12 min a game behind Parker?
 
Bricklayer said:
Still a little confused why Scola WOULD come over for the Rockets, but would NOT for the Spurs (you know, 4 time titleists with as strong a history in signing/developing international players as anybody in the league)?
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Maybe he wants a team where he could be a starter PF? Just a blind guess, without delving deep into the situation. With Spurs it's kind of hopeless for obvious reasons.
 
Bricklayer said:
I wondered if Geoff might have an interest in Butler or not. Have advocated trying to pick him up in the past.

Still a little confused why Scola WOULD come over for the Rockets, but would NOT for the Spurs (you know, 4 time titleists with as strong a history in signing/developing international players as anybody in the league)?

Hard to understand the Spurs interest here. Do they believe in Spannoulis that much?? Even if they do, what's he going to get, 12 min a game behind Parker?
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It's a very complicated situation with Scola. His value becomes 0 in a couple of days. Tau basically offered him a major contract extension that he needs to accept by the 15th so either he gets an NBA offer or he's back in Europe for the remainder of his career.

Scola has basically fought with the Spurs over and over about wanting to come over but they scoffed at his buyout at the time and instead chose to bring over Oberto. Now they have Oberto, Tiago Splitter for next year, Horry, Elson, etc.. so Scola isn't exactly going to get the playing time he deserves. Plus Tau's offering him a lot of money so an NBA team has to give roughly 3-3.5 million dollars to top it. Spurs do that and they're paying 7 million because of luxury tax issues. So basically 7 million for a guy who won't get off the bench.

Meanwhile Houston has no power foward and is willing to give him starter's minutes. Plus, we'll pay him and not go over the luxury tax line. (assuming we pick up the buyout clauses for bob sura's and john lucas's contracts). It's just a better situation for him, playing time wise and San Antonio wants to avoid the luxury tax line (hence the dumping of Butler's contract)

Spanoulis was basically a trade exception since he's already said he wants to be relased so he can go back to Greece. He'll get his buyout of 0 dollars and then go. Plus we gave them some extra cash for their troubles.

It was an act of desperation on the part of the Spurs because once Oberto resigns with Tau, he's officially worthless. That's why the Kings deal was so key for them. They wanted to get in on the Cleveland-Sacto trade and when that collapsed, they had to settle for 10 cents on the dollar.
 
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=2935125

By Mark Stein

When you combine payroll savings, Vassilis Spanoulis' virtually certain return to Europe and Houston's cash contributions, San Antonio saved an estimated $7 million by trading the draft rights to Argentine power forward Luis Scola and little-used Jackie Butler to Houston on Thursday.
The Spurs were hoping to send Scola out of their conference -- as part of a three-way trade with the Kings and Cavs that would have landed Scola and Bibby in Cleveland before collapsing Thursday -- but decided that the financial benefits were too significant to keep Scola away from the neighboring Rockets.
 
Scola just told Tau that he wants out. He's already negotiating the buyout and his new contract with the Rockets.

I think we might have actually owned the Spurs in a trade for once. No catches, RC Buford just got desperate to dump salary and we took advantage of that.
 
supamari0 said:
Scola just told Tau that he wants out. He's already negotiating the buyout and his new contract with the Rockets.

I think we might have actually owned the Spurs in a trade for once. No catches, RC Buford just got desperate to dump salary and we took advantage of that.
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Rockets just became my second favorite team. Yao, Tmac, Scola AND Rick Adelman...

I think this trade is good for both teams, I am just not sure that Spurs really wanted to give Rick another smart, good big guy when he already has Yao. Will be interesting...
 
Damn. This scuttled the proposed Bibby deal (which may or may not turn out to be a good thing) and gave the Rockets an answer at PF not named Kenny or Shareef.
 
supamari0 said:
Scola just told Tau that he wants out. He's already negotiating the buyout and his new contract with the Rockets.

I think we might have actually owned the Spurs in a trade for once. No catches, RC Buford just got desperate to dump salary and we took advantage of that.
Click to expand...

So, the Rockets are going to pay him 3 million a year and he is going to send 2.5 million of that to his old team so he can be bought out of his contract :eek: . More power to him if that's what he's going to do but I'll believe it when I see it. Apparantely the buyout is 3 million and the Rockets can only pay 500K so they would probably have to increase their offer.
 
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