What is your Realistic Target for a taxpayer MLE free agent this offseason.

Did you do the math on using the non tax version of the MLE with a full roster ? Do they stay below the projected apron ?

 

I don't want to give up EG, but he and Clint are our only trade assets. If Morey can acquire a better quality player for them, then Rivers could be signed to the MLE, with a lot of luck.

 

I did roughly, I'm no Bima. if you take our returning contracts, add the non tax payer MLE, the LLE, and the empty roster spot charges for remaining spots (fill them with minimum salary players) we stay under the apron. I think that is the way to go this offseason. adding someone with the larger MLE will actually move the needle. MDA, assuming he coaches 1 more year, only plays 7-8 guys anyway. if we have 5 returning, adding a 6th would make a big difference.

 

I don't get why so many people think using the Non-Taxpayer MLE (let alone the Bi-Annual Exception) is easily achievable.

If the Rockets just bring back their guys under full or partially guaranteed contracts (their starting five, Nene [PO], Hartenstein and Clark) and assign vet minimum slots to Spots 9-12, that only leaves less than $9.7 million below the apron to spend the Non-Taxpayer MLE ($9.2M) and the BAE ($3.6M) on Spots 13 and 14!

For luxury tax/apron purposes, all vet minimum guys (other than Hartenstein, since he was a second round pick) will count as over $1.6 million. Also, while it's somewhat insignificant, they've got about $123k of dead money on the books next season for Troy Williams.

Yes, it is at least possible to go that direction, but you would not be able to take on additional salary - AT ALL - if you want to fully utilize the Non-Taxpayer MLE. Hell, there's likely not enough room to even try to use the BAE.

Seems like it would be far more feasible to just use the Taxpayer MLE and be able to make trades and sign as many vet minimum guys as they want/need throughout the season (including in the buyout market later in the year), rather than to hard cap themselves and be unable to do very much else for the entire 2019-20 season.

 

You'll get no argument from me on principal …. The idea of getting a better player for more money is common sense.

I just questioned the math.

 

I was corrected by @BimaThug in the post before yours. Thanks for the clarification Bima! so, while it is possible to use the larger MLE it seems as though it would give us no room to add anyone in the buyout market later in the year. it would also make trades very difficult because we could only make trades that bring is less money than we send out.

still, I guess it depends on how good of a player we could get for the larger MLE compared to the smaller MLE. for example if we can somehow get a steal like DAJ for the larger, I wouldn't turn that down even if it hard caps us. however if its between say JaMychal Green for the larger or Markieff Morris for the smaller, I'd go with Markieff and keep the flexibility. in the end I'd rather have a good player signed over the summer than hope to add one via trade or buyout half way through the season.

 

*make trades to get under the luxury-tax so you can still use the luxury tax mid-level exception anyways.*

Hey, the Rockets could potentially sign a very good player who is a huge difference maker, BUT nope never mind. We'll get hard-capped! It'd be better to be safe and allocate a bunch of small contracts to trade for a bigger contract mid-season! Instead of just signing the difference-maker in July.... that difference will for sure be available in February! All it will cost is the 2020 1st, and a bunch of scrubs no one wants!

FYI:

JJ Redick was willing to sign for the Full MLE
Andre Iguodala was willing to sign for the Full MLE
Lou Williams signed for a little under the Full MLE
PJ Tucker signed for the Full MLE
Julius Randle signed for the Full MLE
JaMychal Green signed for a little under the Full MLE

I dunno. I guess being flexible in February is better than actually signing a good addition in July.

 

Looney . Trade capela

 

I just saw they were not going to QO him. Crazy. He can help you in so many ways.

 

Do you have a link for this? He had a difficult season, got two annying injuries and got benched in favor of Harris but would be kinda shocked if they don't even extend him a qo.

Never mind, just saw it was in the J.R post i liked lol.

Rondae needs to develop his outside shot, with that he would be a pretty damn good player, athletic, can play and guard 3/4 postions, can pass a bit, rebound, steal and block shots...a more skilled Jeramy Grant basically, would definitely keep an eye on this guy. He's still kinda young (24), and the kind of guy i'd like to see the Rockets get.

 

The ONLY feasible way I see it is if they trade CP3. Thats it. If Capela or Gordon are going out, its to bring back more salary, not less. Moving CP3 would likely open up enough space to use both the full non-taxpayer MLE and BAE, though I still doubt that is a serious option.

 

Ariza Ariza Ariza!
Possible? Will he go to the lakers, would make them extremely dangerous if they get another star like kemba/jimmy!

 

Love his Defense but no 3 ball at all.

 

Mike Muscala would be perfect addition using the MLE. Mike made $5 mil last year, so our $5.7 mil MLE would seem pretty realistic. Could possibly even get him cheaper.

6'11", 240 lb, Power Forward/Center.
Career 36.5% three point shooter.
Career 84% free throw shooter.
Each of the last 3 seasons, Muscala has held opponents to around 46% shooting. He's a good defender.

Last year, Muscala played in the same lineup together with Joel Embiid for 488 minutes over 42 games. Their lineup averaged...

Offensive Rating: 107.2
Defensive Rating: 97.0
Net Rating: +10.2
Going by net rating, that ranked as their 3rd best duo on the team that played atleast 400 minutes together. Muscala would fit in real nice playing next to Capela on the front line. We could move Tucker to SF, and put EG back as the 6th man.

By the way, just in case we do land Jimmy Butler....

Muscala and Jimmy Butler played very well together as a duo last year.

32 games, 438 minutes
Offensive Rating: 108.3
Defensive Rating: 101.5
Net Rating: +6.9

We want someone with length, that can shoot threes and defend. Well, here's the perfect bargain.

 

I wish Oubre would sign for the MLE. That would be a gift

 

That’s why that PHX deal had some value if accurate because they were dumping Warren, Johnson, Jackson, and the 6th pick. Now they still need to move Johnson. Morey could have worked all day with that deal but PHX proved to me last night they are completely hopeless regardless of being smart not to trade with us.

We will have the TPMLE and the best targets are JMGreen or Aminu but I don’t see them coming here. I don’t think Rivers stays for what we have and Faried will likely not accept the vet min. It will be resigning House and trying to pick up the pieces from whatever is leftover.

 

He could have. Morey and Mchale looked at Kawhi on draft night and said " No thanks".