Woj on Sportscenter "Rockets are recruiting Jimmy Butler hard and might have a deal with him"

It’s funny, you don’t realize how tall Danny Ainge is until he’s next to normal size people.

Is that a Blue Jays jersey he’s wearing? He was drafted by both the Celtics and Blue Jays, IIRC.

 

I would have been worried about Capela in a hypothetical Milwaukee or Toronto matchup as well, but your point is valid. He’s become underrated here.

 

They have to be confident a guy like McGee, Dedmon or Cauley Stein are out there at the right price. I'm not convinced they are.

Definitely disagree that Dorsey or Black looked legit in any way. We were all cringing when those guys were on the court.

 

Cue the fireworks... for the grand finale lol
Morey praying he pulls it off ...

 

That's dumb. I can construct one now.

Kings were rumored to have interest in Capela. Was considering throwing a contract at him. They have no legitimate center on roster and have tons of cap space even with keeping Barne's cap hold on the books

Pacers have their core set. All the guys that have cap holds are guys not in their plans. They will likely renounce all of their holds except for possibly Bagdonavic. Even if they keep his hold on they have near 27 million in space. They can offer Rubio a 13 million dollar deal and still trade for Gordon into space.

If 76ers absolutely do not want any salary back (which is a possibility since they may want to retain the money to go after a big name this cycle) than you can go with

Rox out: Capela/Gordon
Rox in: Butler

Kings out: Who cares some minor assets
Kings in: Capela

Pacers out: Who cares some minor assets
Pacers in: Gordon

76ers out: Butler
76ers in: Cap space/whatever assets other teams gave up

 

exactly. the only thing we have to worry about is convincing JB to want to come here. if he commits, the sixers/rockets will work out the rest.

 

This may sound dumb but why can't you do this. Gordon/Nene and a 1st for Jimmy and then flip capela to another team and get back something (idk). Does it have to be a 3 team deal or can they do 2 separate deals ? I'm no cap expert btw. Also Philly has no leverage if Jimmy wants to be a rocket they can't just lose him for nothing.

 

Agree..this is the same Clint Capela who literally sent Karl Anthony Towns out of the playoffs in tears and then followed it up by outplaying Rudy Gobert on both sides of the floor.

It just so happens Draymond Green- one of the best defenders of his generation- on a dynastic team - is able to blunt him on offense that is schemed entirely at switching on to Capela and taking him away. OK. But Capela is still pretty good!

 

Yes, it would be possible. But the bigger concern is being able to stay below the apron level following the Butler S&T. I don't think they will have room to keep either Gordon or Capela. Both would likely have to go in order to add Butler and stay below a hard cap.

 

I agree with your first point. And yeah my point wasn’t that those guys were good, more that we can win games with sub par guys at center because Harden makes it really easy for them

 

Yup.

With Warriors out of the equation next season, Capela's stock just went up.

Not every team has a Draymond Green on defense.

Capela is pretty damn good against the rest of the league.

 

I'll trade Clint Capela and Eric Gordon for Jimmy Butler.

 

Especially if we are really changing the defensive scheme next year.

 

If Capella and Gordon go and we are under the apron would we still be able to use mle and sign minimum contracts with out going over the apron?

 

I was just doing this calc. Came up with a similar number...about $21.2 million in space.

38.5 CP3
38.2 Harden
32.7 Butler
8.1 PJ
0.1 (Troy Williams dead cap)

$117.8 between those 4, with the hard cap at $139. My guess is we stay at 14 spots (basically the minimum required) for most of the season, with 2 of those being 2-way contracts (which don't count towards our salary, but I believe do count as roster spots, @BimaThug?). So basically, $21.2 million to fill out 8 spots.

I could see us keeping Clark and Hartenstein, which would reduce our available cap space to $18.4 with 6 spots left to fill.

Since they would already be hard-capped, the taxpayer vs. non-taxpayer MLE issue is irrelevant. In theory, they could use the non-taxpayer MLE on a free agent or free-agents. For example, lets say they use a portion to re-sign House and then the remainder on a free agent. Lets say all of that is $8.4 million.

That leaves $10 million to fill 4 more spots.

I'm not saying its feasible....but it does seem possible.

 

Let's look back to Morey's comments after the draft:

1. We were leaving looking to trade into the first round with both picks and a player. Which player? Had to be Capela as we need EG for Philly.

2. They have been "confident" the entire time.

3. Now Woj reiterates the same thing we've already known.

4. Interview earlier this year with Butler excitedly and without being prompted calls Houston a good team

Why trade a player for a 1st rounder if you were "keeping the starting 5"? Or weren't making a big splash?

This is what I think:

1. Butler has told Harden he would love to come here if they can work it out.

2. Morey tried to make things easier with the draft night trade

3. It's not illegal for teams to discuss trades before the FA period starts. So Morey has probably spoken with Philly already, as well as other teams to be the 3rd team and has a plan of action in place already. Hence why so confident.

4. Now it's just a formality of having a face to face between the team and Butler.

#Fireworks
#NewMath

 

Yeah I question how much of a change it is going to be. The roster is molded around team defense and switching. My guess is we see more of a hybrid defense. Clint Capela has value and is a really good player but I’m not letting him stand in the way of getting Jimmy Butler. I actually think if the Rockets are schrewd they could be better defensively with Butler added and Capela and Gordon gone.

 

This is silly, we’re basically giving away free players, teams looking to add talent would jump all over obtaining capela or Gordon for basically free. 76ers would be losing jimmy regardless so I’m sure they’d take anything they could get

 

Opt in and take 19M for one year, get 4 year max next year. No risk at all.

 

The issue I have with this potential move isn't the loss of either particular paper, it's the flexibility to add depth.

Assuming StanfordKP's calculations are correct (I haven't double checked them yet personally but I trust him) you could add 1 MLE guy and then nothing but minimum's + Gary Clark and PJ Tucker and Hart. Like literally, nothing but minimums.

You'd end up about $200k below the apron. You'd have zero flexibility. Couldn't even dump a minimum guy and sign another one.