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Last Day Players can sign contracts coming up quickly

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by basketballholic, Apr 12, 2013.

  1. basketballholic

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    I'm wondering if we still have another roster move (or two) in us.

    1. We still have around $2.9 million of cap space.
    2. We could use another backup 7-footer to clog up the lane and use 6 fouls for the playoffs.
    3. It's in our best interest to be over the cap with non-guaranteed contracts going into the off season.


    I think Ohlbrecht is the top candidate to lose his roster spot. He hasn't played but for a few minutes and he's got the smallest contract. Not likely to contribute to the playoff push any. And we could use a vet big man. I'm wondering if possibly Morey moves out Ohlbrecht and signs a vet big man to a two-yr deal with the 2nd yr non-guaranteed, somebody like Jarron Collins, possibly Darko(eek), Tony Battie, Erick Dampier, maybe even Chris Hunter(probably not) or some Euro big with years of experience.

    Or.............is there a player overseas that Morey could hand that $2.9 million contract to that could use that plus the $500,000 to cover his buyout and get him over here in the NBA?? Would that be enough to get Llull to jump...or some other free agent player overseas? Than we could use the Room MLE (prorated) to sign one of those bigs I mentioned for the full $2.5 million with the second yr non-guaranteed.

    The next move I could possibly see is a modification to Francisco Garcia's contract that would allow us to control him as a non-guaranteed salary throughout the off season. We could remove the team option (with his agreement) and guarantee him a small salary ($100,000) for giving us the ability to carry him as a non-guaranteed salary into the off season.

    If we simultaneously cut James Anderson and re-signed Tyler Honeycutt to the Room MLE, than we could possibly offset the small $100,000 we owe him in 2014. That is, if this was not already negotiated away as part of waiving him to begin with.


    The point of doing all this would be:

    1. Get a vet backup center for the playoff run.
    2. Get us around $2.5 million over the cap going into 2013/14. This allows us the opportunity to have a full MLE available for next season as long as the salary cap does not go up over $60.5 million and we make trades to stay above the cap until we sign a free agent. I imagine Morey has a very good idea if we can do that or not.
    3. Give us a little over $22 million in non-guaranteed salaries plus rookie salaries(TRob and TJones) that are easily tradeable to either make trades with or to simply cut and create plenty of cap room for a big signing.



    Some may argue we need James Anderson for the playoffs. I don't see that. Not with our backcourt minutes primarily ate up with Harden/Lin/Beverley and with SF depth at Chandler/Delfino/Garcia. A backup 7-footer is much more needful than James Anderson. And if the opportunity is there to bring on board another Euro asset by using the remaining cap to help him buyout his Euro deal....then it makes a lot of sense.

    I'll be mildly surprised if Morey stands pat the next few days.
     
  2. Grumbler

    Grumbler Member

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    how about Yi Jianlian? :) he just helped his team to win the CBA title and averaged roughtly 25 points and 12 rebounds per game in the season. he is a "veteran" backup center about 7 feet. he will be cheap. and he can be Jeremy Lin's mandarin buddy. and he can help generate more excitment from China. :)
     
  3. nbalopez23

    nbalopez23 Member

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    Its actually not a bad idea, but for chemistry issues I doubt we sign any of those listed plus they are probably not in basketball shape
     
  4. mike_lu

    mike_lu Member

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    My guess is Morey stands pat. Ohlbrecht had a 10 day contract from Boston but was willing to wait on the Rockets. So I think Morey will repay his faith.

    While Morey is sometimes viewed as a ruthless asset trader, I think that is quite far from the truth. He gave T-Will a chance after the trade deadline to catch on with another team, Machado and Honeycutt a second chance in DLeague. Reunited the Morris brothers, and 2Pat with Cousins.

    It's a people business at the end of the day, and Morey is a pretty decent person.
     
    1 person likes this.
  5. ch0c0b0fr34k

    ch0c0b0fr34k Member

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    Waiving Lin on Christmas Day says hi.
     
  6. just a word

    just a word Member

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    Because it was the last possible day to keep him. They were trying to make a trade work out until the very last minute.
     
  7. Champ06

    Champ06 Member

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    I don't think Jeremy Lin speak mandarin............
     
  8. mike_lu

    mike_lu Member

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    Pre-season. Flynn's contract could not be flipped. 4th PG on team. Already 15 man roster.

    Different situation
     
  9. basketballholic

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    My curiosity here mostly stems from Morey's recent trip. I checked with several sources, asking if he had made contact with Llull's agent, watched Llull and nothing. Asked the same thing about Bourousis and Krstic. Same thing. No responses from anybody. No confirmations. And no No's either. That makes me wonder if Morey was scouting a possible free agent over there and perhaps trying to get a deal done.
     
  10. rolyat93

    rolyat93 Contributing Member

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    That would be a freaking horrible move.
     
  11. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

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    I definitely think that the Rox should sign a player who does not know the offense and will demand playing time, right before the playoffs. What could go wrong?
     
  12. CantBeRight

    CantBeRight Member

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    Daquan Cook says hi.
     
  13. Rip Van Rocket

    Rip Van Rocket Contributing Member

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    I would be shocked if we made any moves at this point. Brooks and Ohlbrecht were added for depth for our playoff run, and don't see anything else happening.
     
  14. TriCkz

    TriCkz Member

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    You do know he is not a center.
     
  15. mike_lu

    mike_lu Member

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    Morey never wanted Cook. Just a throw in to make Harden trade possible.

    Ohlbrecht totally different case. Got him to come over here from Germany, played in at RGV, showed enough talent to have been offered at least a 10 day contract from Boston, and convinced the guy not to take it and wait for something from the Rockets, and signed him to 3 year contract with next two years non-guaranteed.

    Totally different case, in my humble opinion.
     
  16. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    Not saying I expect the Rockets to make a move like this, but I don't know if it would involve Ohlbrecht. Would more likely be Brooks even though that would leave the Rockets with only 2 PGs heading into playoffs.

    Morey in my opinion wants the flexibility to have three stars. To have three stars, a team will need guys on cheap contracts that can produce. Ohlbrecht, Anderson, Smith, Parsons, Beverley, Motiejunas, and Jones are the under 2 million dollar salaries needed to provide the room under the luxury tax to allow three stars. Rockets also have a high 2nd round pick that may join these guys.

    Basically, any contract over a million or two needs to be movable. Asik, Lin, and Robinson's contract are very movable. I like PF's that can rebound, but I am thinking more and more that Robinson gets traded in offseason for draft pick(s).

    While I think unguaranteed contracts are important, I think Morey wants the roster depth set and ready to go when the second and/or third stars arrive.
     
  17. meh

    meh Contributing Member

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    The Rockets aren't the only team with capspace, and certainly not with the most capspace. If there were truly a really great player out there to sign, we'd have already heard a bunch of rumors already. But there just isn't anyone available. It's why Morey gave Brooks $2.5mil this year to be our 3rd PG, because he felt next year's team option was worth overpaying him this year to be insurance.
     
  18. basketballholic

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    Yeah, I understand where you're coming from. However, if we sign a big 7-footer like Jarron Collins, he's not there for offense. He's there to defend the paint and give us 6 fouls. And also he would be there to take up salary cap to help put us over the cap so that Morey has that option to play the transaction game over the cap this off season.

    Of course, Morey has shown an unwillingness to dish out the full MLE because most of those contracts turn into bad deals. However, if we do acquire either Dwight or Pau this summer (or Love) and then we also do a S&T for a guy like Millsap and we still have our core players (Harden/Lin/Parsons/Asik/Beverley), then adding a guy like Tony Allen, a lock-down perimeter defender, may be just the piece we need to put us over the top.

    The cutting edge of salary cap flexibility for us for next season is to be over the cap going into the moratorium and hopefully over the cap enough that with the adjusted higher cap, we are still slightly over. Being over the cap with a ton of money in non-guaranteed salary that can be simply cut to make room for an outright signing or traded in Sign-and-Trade transactions is the ultimate salary cap flexibility.

    We know we're not going to win a championship this year. Whatever happens good during the playoffs is gravy. We've already had a successful season. So, signing a couple new guys to be the 14 and 15th men is not really a big deal.
     
  19. basketballholic

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    .........................and................

    he is making up for the salary Brooks gave away when Brook agreed to a buyout that cost him a couple million dollars in guaranteed $$$$$.
     
  20. basketballholic

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    I would be shocked if we waived Brooks. He is 3rd PG insurance and he's on a nice contract that we can trade or waive at any point this off season.

    As for Ohlbrecht, he's already getting his money. And he's not going to be any part of a playoff rotation. I can see the possibility of waiving him and adding another established vet big that could come in and play some defense and give us 6 fouls.

    As for James Anderson, I've already stated my case there. I think we like him and we want to bring him back on a minimum deal next year. So, if that's the case, he's not really tradeable in the off season because if he is traded as contract filler and cut, then we can't re-sign him. Morey may be willing to take the risk that nobody else signs him until way into the summer. It's a risk I would take to get over the cap with the option to play over the cap this summer.
     

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