Who are you guys hoping for? I'm guessing we are only going to have the taxpayers MLE which is around 5 mill right? I'll start off with Wayne Ellington, Joe Harris. Both are great shooters with good size.
Redick, Tyreke and Avery Bradley are all great (albeit likely too expensive) players to target. Especially, if Gordon is moved. Brook Lopez is someone we should keep an eye on too. He would be very productive in a system like ours.
I'm with you. We're going to get someone high profile that wants a chance at a chip. Someone who deserves more than what we can offer, but they take it anyway. I could see Milos (by rep of Beverley's sell of the franchise) or Amir Johnson. I'd love to get a shot at Danny Green or Tony Parker who just say F- it and leave the Spurs. Something's amiss over there. Two years in a row, two disgruntled big names. Spurs got issues, but we have no issues with Danny friggin Green!!!! Something tells me Nerlens Noel likes us as well, but I bet he wants something more than the vet min.
assuming we keep our top 6 players we need a 7th man who can play F, defend, and create offense for himself. tyreke evans will barton thad young KCP rudy gay illyasova (if we move ryno to get under the LT) kyle o'quin (if we need to replace capela) no, i dont think they will be too expensive. the only way they get paid more is to stay with their current teams. many of them may choose that. if they go elsewhere, no one with any cap space is spending it on them, and we are first in line for MLE candidates. i don't think we strike out on this list, but if we do, i don't think we use the MLE. it will be better to have it (or at least a large portion of it) during buyout season. and morey likes to use a small portion of it to sign second rounders to long term contracts, rather than signing them to the rookie scale. notable omissions: jj redick - doesn't create for himself (relies on off ball screens which the warriors will just switch and take him out of the series) and he isn't a versatile defender. also he can't play in the front court. avery bradley - can't play in the front court, can't create for himself. as popular as they are on the bbs, i just think its better to save the MLE if we strike out on our top choices.
AB may not be able to create for himself to level of an elite player but he's a more than capable scorer. Also a lot of those guys can't create for themselves either. he's an elite defender when he takes the court. Rockets dont it have anyone like him as far as a complete ball hawk. He becomes a more important replacement in the event E.G. Is no longer here but I still would love to have him in the rockets system
Reddick and Evans are not MLE options. One coming off a 17mil contract, the other opted out of around 8? Our MLE is close to 5. Don’t get your hopes up
What if Luc wants part or all of the MLE? Let him walk? Spoiler BT: The Rockets only have Non-Bird rights to him, meaning that the most they can offer Luc (without using cap room or another salary cap exception) is 120% of the veteran’s minimum salary for next season. The estimated veteran’s minimum salary next season for a player with ten or more seasons of experience is about $2.37 million, so 120% of that would be about $2.85 million. But given his performance this past season (ill-timed shoulder injury aside), Luc might command well in excess of that in free agency. The Rockets might need to throw most or all of the Taxpayer MLE at Luc in order to keep him.
It speaks volumes about people and their ability to understand why/how JJ Redick was able to make 20+ million last year.
i agree with your assessment of him, but i did say that i was filtering my list based on the idea that we bring back our top 6. i don't think signing him would make sense if we keep gordon since we need depth in the front court. we've got CP/JH/EG taking all the guard minutes, but we need a 3rd forward behind ariza and tucker. using the MLE to upgrade green/moute would be the way to go IMO. however, if we trade ego i would like bradley a lot and would add a few other guards as MLE targets. but as i said, assuming we bring back our top 6, the MLE should be for a front court player.
The Rockets are close but so far away! I think we beat or matched the Warriors at the guard positions but was highly over matched at the forward positions. Outside of Tucker, we got little to no production from Ariza, Luc and Anderson...THAT WILL NOT GET IT DONE! I think we need to let Ariza walk and use Gordon or a future #1 in trade to unload Anderson. I would target Jerami Grant and Jabari Parker. Both are younger and will cost less. I think you can get Jabari Parker in a sign and trade, he's a RFA, he wants out and he no longer fit with Milwaukee. Jerami Grant plays good defense, he has improved his 3 point shot and he can guard several positions, similar to Ariza. If we had to trade Gordon, I would then target Will Barton with the MLE. Basically, Sign Jerami Grant with the Veteran Min - $2.5M Trade #2 and/or rights to Lull for Jabari Parker sign him to 2yr/ $16M - $18M Sign Will Barton to MLE 4yr/$5M per yr Resign Gerald Green 2yr/$4M
He got a massive overpay on a 1 year deal specifically so that he would sign a 1 year deal. He was prepared to sign the MLE with Houston until we didn't give the full offer. Philly has interest in re-signing him, but not for $23 million and they may need to renounce his rights to create cap room to get a player they want. The Redick market will be interesting to watch and I could absolutely see him signing an MLE level deal.
Rockets have the 5M tax payer MLE. Not a lot of teams have cap space some some guys could get squeezed. Have to hope the Rockets locker room culture and the fact the team is competing for a championship makes the team more attractive to FAs out there. Perhaps some FAs that might be regular MLE guys that are willing to take the lesser taxpayer MLE to play for the Rockets. Evans and Ellington were good suggestions. Especially if the team is thinking for moving Eric Gordon at some point.
