The Charlotte Bobcats are trying to pull an Anderson Varejao again by extending an offer sheet to the Houston Rockets' F-C Carl Landry. The Bobcats are less than $4 million under the salary cap and are in financial position to offer him a contract. The Rockets, who are over $1 million over the luxary tax, have already offered a contract, which GM Daryl Morey calls a "fair offer." The Rockets have every right to match the Bobcats' offer, but it might be a matter of how much luxary tax they want to pay, depending on how much the offer is, which is unkonwn right now.
Landry, the first pick in the 2nd round of the 2007 NBA Draft, averaged 8.1 PPG on 61.6% shooting and 4.9 RPG in 41 games off the bench in his rookie season. He averaged 5.7 PPG, 4.7 RPG and 1.2 SPG in the first round of the playoffs against the Utah Jazz. Landry's best game was against the Minnesota Timberwolves on January 11th where he posted 15 points and 11 rebounds in 20 minutes after not playing since December 10th. He was also a big contributor to their 22 game winning streak.
It makes perfect sense that the Bobcats would go after Landry. Last year, they went small with Emeka Okafor at center, Gerald Wallace at power forward. Jason Richardson at small forward, Raymond Felton at shooting guard and Jeff McInnis at point guard. After Jeff McInnis was waived and Gerald Wallace suffered a serious concussion, one which I personally saw live and it wasn't pretty, to Wallace's request he moved back to small forward and Nazr Mohammed was named the starting center.
Bobcats' GM Rod Higgins believes that Landry can play both big man positions at 6'9 at 250 pounds, so the Bobcats can keep Okafor at center or put Landry there. If Landry can perform well off the bench in limited minutes, a starting role could jumpstart his potential. He's never played more than 31 minutes in a game, and that came in Game 4 in the playoffs, where he scored 13 points, 2 steals and 6 rebounds, all offensive rebounds.
The Rockets need to keep Landry because they need to think about the future of the franchise, not just the present. They have enough firepower to finally get out of the 1st round after they traded for Ron Artest, and that's if Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady are both healthy come playoffs. After this year, Artest will be a free agent, T-Mac will be another year older and a year away from being a free agent. Yao Ming also have an early termination option in 2010.
Luis Scola, their starting power forward, is already 28 years old and is a sophomore and Shane Battier is 30. Chuck Hayes, an undersized PF at 6'6, hasn't played well on the team. They also traded next year's 1st round pick to the Kings. Put simple, the Rockets are built for the here and now, not so much towards the future. Landry is their future and they can't afford to let him go, luxary tax or not. They need him for this year and beyond.
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