We all know the basics of the stalemate with House by now. He wants to be converted to a 1 year deal and get to RFA this offseason, we want him to sign a 3 year minimum deal. Here's the wrinkle. We've now added Shumpert and are trying to add another player via buyouts. Let's say we do and we get to the end of the season and they are playing well, suddenly there's no place for him to crack our rotation. At that point the Rockets would have a powerful threat: If they do NOT convert him they can still call him up to end the season once the GLeague season is over and he'd just be on his two way deal still. Then they could tender him for next season as a two way player AGAIN, keeping him in RFA and putting a measly $50k guarantee on him. If nobody signed him and he still wouldn't sign the deal we offer we could make him play out next year on a 2 way deal again and then convert him at our leisure next year, again, to a minimum deal. He would end up making barely over the minimum over TWO YEARS instead of making the minimum EACH of the next two years. This is a very dangerous game he and his agent are playing. For his sake he better hope that there is a real offer out there next year or this was all for naught. Edit: Note for clarity, if they don't convert him and just call him up on his 2 way deal he can't play in the playoffs. That wouldn't matter in this case because the rest of the roster is playing well and he has no rotation spot. So he'd be hoping that someone would give him a non minimum or a multi-year guarantee next year after just 15 games and not having played meaningful minutes since January.
A note to keep an eye on during the buyout season is that this gives a powerful threat to House. If they sign Ellington for example, that would all but end any chance House gets converted this year as far as I can tell. The Rockets may try really hard to get House to take their deal now with the threat that if he doesn't, this is the path they go down.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's no longer his game to play. He played his hands and now we are exploring options. Doesn't it work in our favor to sign him later rather than sooner?
I think at this point the 3 years deal is already off the table. Morey is going to pick up a buyout candidate and wait till the last day of the season to convert him.
What I said when it happened... If Morey thought Ariza was replaceable, then he sure as hell would think he could replace House. Even if House gets a roster spot he's just there for depth now when he was the starter...
Only if we sign a buyout guy. The "game" left might be "Hey, you have a short window to agree to the offer we have on the table before we just sign a buyout guy for the wing depth." Otherwise they get him to agree to the deal it still let's us stay under the tax and use the machinations listed in other threads to maneuver for a few weeks and still sign one more guy later. Either way, his leverage is gone. Now it's about where he wants to lay his bets. He will need someone to give him a multi-year offer in the offseason for more than the minimum or this was a total disaster for him. Teams will likely avoid even bothering to offer him the minimum because we would match, so essentially he needs someone to give him MLE money or do the Patrick McCaw favor deal that Cleveland just did with a high salary that is non-guaranteed that he gets waived from to hit free agency. Otherwise we can string him along and stick him on another 2 way deal next year.
For his sake I hope he doesn't read clutchfans. It might push him over the edge. He's not even playing with the vipers.
Part of me thinks his agent had to have some sort of inkling that House was going to get interest on the market, but part of me also remembers the DMo saga and how agents can be actively bad at their job. Time will tell!
House is being greedy. His agent is dumb. Only reason hes playing so good because hes playing in dantoni system and playing off of harden. He had years to prove himself all sudden he comes here and start playing well. Iman can fill in that role for vet min house better signed that contract before that ship gonna sail long gone away without him on board. The rockets team dont work around him in offense so he needs to wise up and sign before its gone and his career gonna be over.
Lesson to all. If you get a chance to get a contract with an NBA team after just 20+ games that gives you a chance to really show off in a system that ideally suits you...well, if you don't you become the next DMo.
