Is it Possible to land LeBron in 2018 & keep Gordon, Ariza & others cap wise?

The chances of LeBron coming to Houston are very, very slim. Stop worrying about it. Enjoy this upcoming season when we will have two top 10 players and legit depth.


....if for some reason he did decide on Houston, we would figure out some way, any way, to make it work

 

Lebron's not coming to Houston lmao

 

If LeBron said he'd come to Houston, Morey would be dumping anyone not named Chris Paul or James Harden. Trust me, he'd make it work.

But it ain't happening brah, it had a tiny bit of hope with the Melo aspirations.

 

Can somebody with cap knowledge answer the original question? Factor in LeBron's money and then tell us who we would be able to keep around him? Sure, the odds are against it. But if I were LeBron, looking at one last shot to beat the Warriors, a backcourt of Paul and Harden would be awfully tempting.

 

If he loses to gsw in the NBA finals again, where does he go? Stay in Cleveland maybe?

 

If he loses to gsw in the the finals & it doesn't seem like like Cleveland has any ways to improve & LBJ wants a viable championship possibility & the rockets preform well this year & Chris Paul can do some convincing...

That's a lot of ifs and &s. But it's certainly possible.

 

The 2018-19 salary cap is projected to be 108 million.

As it stands the Rockets will head into 2018-2019 with approximately 77 million in salary to 6 players.
They have significant cap holds for CP3 (39 million) Ariza (12.8 million) Capella (5.8 million) for a total of $59 million.

Assuming the Rockets let go Isaiah Taylor (club option) and renounce Tarik Black, Luc a moute and the rest of their other free agents aside from Cp3 Ariza & Capella, their total will be77+59 = 136 million. That's still 28 million OVER the salary cap. http://www.spotrac.com/nba/houston-rockets/cap/2018/

Renouncing Ariza and trading Anderson for nothing in returns brings the Rockets to 104 million. Leaving them just 4 million in cap space. This of course doesn't even account for 2018 draft picks, incomplete roster spots or camp invites like george de puala.

So how can the Rockets possibly afford Lebron? Only by renouncing CP3 and trading Anderson for nothing OR renouncing/trading everyone except for Capella and CP3 resign for over 10 million less than his max.

Renouncing and trading away everyone except Harden, Cp3, Capella (30 + 39 + 5.8 = 74.7) leaves the Rockets with less than 30 million in cap space when you take into account incomplete roster charges.
If Cp3 resigns for a salary starting at 27 or 28 million thereby eliminating his 39 million dollar cap hold to 28 the Rockets could have close to 40 million in cap space. Of course they'd also only have 4 players signed and be over the cap.

Renouncing CP3 frees up 39 million in cap space, leaving the Rockets with 77 million in contracts PLUS Ariza's and Capella cap hold of 18.6, totaling 95.6 million. Trading Anderson (plus atleast a 1st rounder) for nothing in return will reduce that to 75.1 million, leaving the Rockets with about 30 million in cap space (inc roster spot charges & draft picks).

30 million is still far from Lebron's max, so the rockets would still probably need to either renounce Ariza or trade PJ Tucker to free up 12.8 million or 7.96 million.

Leaving the Rockets with:

Lebron - 39 million
Harden - 30 million
Gordon - 13.5 million
Tucker - 7.9 million
Nene - 3.6 million
Onuaku - 1.5 million

Cap holds
Capella - 5.8 million (can sign for up to max after Lebron signs using bird rights)

Roster charges 6 (?) spots - 3.5 million

Leaving the Rockets at 104.8 million or so after signing Lebron and before resigning Capella.

 

Cap is projected be 101 million.

We'd have to dump Anderson and Tucker, renounce Ariza (resign him with MLE), and have Paul take a huge one year pay cut deal, as well as LeBron take a large pay cut over the duration of his deal.

 

if the cap is 101 million, then its even more improbable, if not nearly impossible to sign Lebron, with or without CP3.

 

Thanks for running the math. If I'm reading you correctly (and even more so if the cap will actually be $101M), the answer to the question, "Can we have a team with James Harden, Chris Paul, and LeBron James on it" is, mathematically, no. At least, not unless Paul takes a fantastic pay cut.

 

First of all it is impossible to keep the entire team, the biggest stumbling block to another star coming to Houston is obv Ryan Anderson's 20M 3 year deal, thats like an anchor we will never be able to get rid off till his last year.

Harden's worth around 45M, Cp3 will resign for 30M, Anderson makes 20M, Gordon makes 15M, you already exceed 100M just with those 4 players so its a pipe drean to think to get Lebron. In fact rather than getting Lebron its a bigger risk we lose Cp3 to Cleveland.whats preventing Cp3 from signing there? Even Melo will be a FA so he can also sign there and complete the banana boat. Cavs jist need to dump Klove for assets and they can easily do that.

 

Pretty much.

I was reading the spotrac projected cap wrong, thinking 2019 referred to 18-19. So the cap is projected to be 101.

In that case, its still mathematically possible in both scenario, just not likely lol.

If cp3 signs for 25 million and the Rockets only kept Harden & Capella + the minimum roster charges, its possible to have 36 million for Lebron.

If the Rockets renounce CP3, and trade away Ariza & Anderson, they could have enough to give lebron the max.

 

Yeah, assuming we would be able to dump Anderson, unless CP agrees to sign for cheap for one year, a sign & trade should be easier and better for all the parts involved, that would probably cost us Gordon or Tucker + fillers aside for Anderson...but well, if we would get Lebron...

 

probably joins the warriors

 

This is so simple.
How did we get CP3 here again? Opt and trade. CP3 would be in LBJs ear the whole offseason and get him to agree to opt in to accept a trade to only Houston (remember he has a no trade clause).
We send out Ryno, PJ tucker and the 2019 2021 first round draft picks and the salaries match.

We can still resign everybody else and even get one or two of Redick, Melo or Wade with an exception if we are willing to pay the luxury tax.

I'm not saying it's likely, but I didn't think getting CP3 was likely, much less trading for him like we did.

 

Don't forget they own BKN's pick, which may very well be the #1 pick in the draft.

So, even if Lebron the GM doesn't think he can get rookie dominance out of a one-and-done freshman, we saw what that Pick could have delivered/did deliver this year (Paul George, Butler, Irving) even as a future pick, just think what it can deliver as a current #1 in trade/SnT.

Sure there will be a lot of ppl who say, "CLE would be stupid to trade that pick," Lebron can get them to cash it in, by insisting upon immediate help ... and that's assuming guys like Porter or Ayton don't explode in their freshmen years promising immediate contender production, making it an easy pick for Lebron.

 

you're assuming houston would even want lerbon. in case you haven't noticed, we are very picky with regard to our stars.

 

Cp3 is not in the same tier as LeBron. Morey would get rid of cp3 for lbj.

 

I am no expert in NBA trade rules but from what a friend told me is when you resign a player you can go over cap without trade tax. If this is true it would explain why CP3 chose a sign and trade. So to manage this they would sign everyone they needed to sign then resign CP3 at the end. Not sure how accurate this is but there you go.